Thad Bosley

Have we hit the ceiling in terms of team salary yet? Do we not have enough money left to sign one of the remaining free agent DH types who would easily fill the void we have right now in that part of our batting order? Because obviously Guerrero, Delgado, Johnson, or Thome would be a far better choice to be the DH in our line-up than this absurd Jones/Kotsay/"Vizquel"(!) committee nonsense that is being bandied about right now. It seems like we've hit a payroll limit the way management is acting and talking right now.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 16, 2009 -> 10:55 AM) ...and has been vocal in the past about not wanting to play here. Peavy didn't want to play here, either, at a point in time, but he changed his mind, so I don't put a whole lot of stock in what Carlos may or may not have said several years ago on this subject. I think it makes a lot of sense to go after him if he can be had at a reasonable price and skip trading away the likes of Flowers, Hudson, Danks, etc. Delgado is only one year removed from having a monster year with the Mets, and so if he is healthy, he might look pretty good sandwiched in between Quentin and Konerko in our line-up.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Dec 11, 2009 -> 08:44 PM) If the Yankees get Matsui back, I think I’d give some legitimate thought to immediately offering Linebrink for Bradley and cash. I realize the guy's attitude needs a HUGE adjustment, but my god, he fits about every need we have on this team, and the guy can hit. He’s a son of a b****, but that’s not a foreign concept in Chicago. Maybe, he’ll find an environment worth playing for here, maybe not, regardless, I’m game to try. The Cubs are going to panic soon. The Burell talks have fallen through, interest for him is dying out, we can capitalize in a major way here. If you are suggesting trading for this mess of a player to take up residence in our DH spot, may I kindly counter with one Jim Thome? Bradley doesn't necessarily "hit", per se, from a run producing perspective. He does get on base at an impressive rate, I'll give you that. But he's not a guy who is going to hit a lot of home runs and/or drive in a lot of runs. Meanwhile, Big Jim will give you the same on-base % as Bradley AND he'll also provide the kind of power guy needed in the middle of the line-up. I'm not advocating going out and signing Thome, but I would take him any day over Bradley.

Why is Ozzie making such a big deal out of this rotating DH business? A guy like Matsui is not known for his defense. He's known for his offense, so why would it be so critical to see him lumbering around out in left field? The only way this arrangement could make any sense at all would be if Podsednik ends up in left field, in which case you wouldn't be losing anything defensively. But if you had a guy like Crisp, or better yet, a Crawford or an Upton running around out there, why in the world would you think about rotating a DH-type into that mix? Offense should be the priority at the DH spot, and a guy like Matsui swings the bat more than well enough to adequately fill that role. After that, though, I just don't see why it would be important for him to occasionally put on the glove.

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 06:25 PM) How do you know that? I would think stabilization and the fact that he isn't playing for a team with no hope to win might rejuvenate him. Or not. We won't know anything until the season plays out. Well, I cannot see into the future, of course, so I don't know exactly what he's going to do next season. And you are absolutely right - we won't know anything until it's all said and done. However, I think it's perfectly acceptable to suggest his performance next year will more than likely resemble that what it has been in four out of the five years he's been around, including the last three in a row. It would seem this 2006 season from three years ago is the exception rather than the rule. And even if he does return to this over-ballyhooed production of his from the 2006 season, we're still not talking about any great shakes here. Yeah, he hit .290 that year, but he registered fewer than 20 homeruns and 70 RBIs. This is what we're hoping to get out of a corner infielder with no speed and a less-than-glowing reputation with the glove? Oh brother!

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 05:10 PM) I like the deal, because if he hits like 2006 form, its a good deal. Don't like 3 years though...might have preferred 2. And if he hits like he did in 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2009, which is far more likely, then we are stuck with a below-average third baseman. Ugh. Alright, I've beat this topic like it owed me money. I'll leave it alone for now. I'm going to try and channel the optimism from some of the others here and just hope for the best with this guy. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Teahen hit all of 12 homers and drove in a paltry 50 runs in 524 at-bats last year. That is below average no matter how you look at it. And for me, I am not going to blame that on the home ballpark, the lack of talent on his team, or the fact that he played multiple positions. I'm going to just flat out say he's just not that good of a ballplayer - and now he's our starting third baseman. He's had more than just a cup of coffee in this league now, so I'm not all that sure that this is one of those diamond-in-the-rough situations. Do I hope I'm wrong and that he does magically become a far more productive player? Of course I do. What else can I do at this point. We're stuck with him. All I'm saying is that if I had to bet, I'd say we'll probably see more of the same Mark Teahen that has been featured thus far to date in his career. That's the part that worries me.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 03:28 PM) take a look at mark derosas career.. Their careers are not comparable at all. DeRosa was a utility player for the first few years of his career. It wasn't until he had a chance to play regularly back in '06 that he started to show what he's capable of doing. Teahen has been a regular for four or five years now, and just one look at his stats and all you see is less than average production everywhere you look. I would be ok with having Teahen around in a utility player capacity, given he can at least get by at a lot of different positions. But the thought of watching him get 500+ at bats and turning in the kind of production he has thus far in his career makes me sick - and we have three years of it now coming our way! Oy! I mean, believe me - I hope I'm wrong about this and that he breaks out and is a productive player for us. But he's done nothing to date to even remotely convince me that is going to happen.

QUOTE (striker62704 @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 01:40 PM) I like this deal. I think Teahen is good for 20hr and 80rbi, which is worth $5mil/year to me. Why do you think he's good for 20 home runs and 80 RBIs? What has he done to inspire such optimism? He's had three straight seasons of 500+ at-bats, and the most he's been able to muster is 15 home runs and 60 RBIs. He hasn't even driven in 70 runs in a season yet. Maybe playing in the Cell will help improve his numbers a little bit, but that's certainly not a lock. No, I was not happy when we got this guy in the first place, and I'm even less happy now that he's apparently going to be sticking around for the next three years. There is no part of his game that I would classify as "good". He doesn't hit for power. He doesn't have any speed. He doesn't get on base at a particularly good percentage of the time. He's apparently not so slick with the glove, and he strikes out a lot. What is there to like about him? It would be one thing if he were just a kid, only a year or two into his career, in which case you could expect him to steadily improve, but he's not. He's been around for a full five years now. I am not confident that he's all of a sudden going to bring his game up a level or two. Of course I hope I'm wrong, but like I said, I'm not confident about this guy at all. Not one iota.

I like Carlos, but the thought of Crawford in left flanked by Rios in center is very appealing. They're the same age (28), and so if you could somehow extend Crawford we'd have a relatively young, athletic outfield for years to come. Just get a stop-gap measure for right field until Danks and Mitchell come along, and the outfield would seem to be set for awhile. Interesting.

Throwing out the idea of Jones starting strikes me as more "Pods, we're ready to move on without ya, Buddy, one way or the other" public posturing in order to get Pods to bring down his current contract demands. Somewhat similar to the leaking of the interest in Coco Crisp a couple of weeks ago. This will probably play out for a little while longer, but I think at the end of the day, we'll have Pods back at lead-off and strictly in left field, with Jones serving as the 4th outfielder and part time DH against certain lefthanders. That is based on a not-too-far-out assumption that someone in the Thome/Matsui mode will eventually be brought in to be the DH.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Nov 24, 2009 -> 03:42 PM) It's funny how some people seem more likely to forgive Pods several years of injury plagued awfulness, but wont apply the same optimism to the career of Coco, who is younger...and has been a lot more consistently decent over the years. Coco fits the profile for a bounceback year. Pods toes the line of falling into a downward spiral due to age. Bounceback to what, though? Another year of a .340 OBP and 25 stolen bases? That's his usual level of production offensively, and certainly nothing to get too excited about.

I think the uncertainty of the level of production we're going to get out of Carlos and Rios next year makes acquiring Crisp and his mediocre at-best offense a risky proposition.

If we acquired Crisp, we would then feature in our 2010 Opening Day line-up two of the nine starting players in the Royals' 2009 Opening Day line-up. And by two I mean two of their very mediocre players at that. How do we figure to compete for a championship if we continue collecting the likes of these kind of guys?

QUOTE (Markbilliards @ Nov 24, 2009 -> 10:56 AM) This is a tough one because they're were a lot of good offensive players in his day that will be competing against him for the Hall. Answer this with your head, not your heart. Nothing tough about this one at all. Two time MVPs with 500+ home runs and a career .300 batting average go right on into the HOF. No questions asked.

I'm not disappointed in parting with either Fields or Getz. They are both replaceable parts. What I am not quite happy about, at least at this moment, is the fact that we appear to be penciling in a starter for next year who has yet to drive in 70 or more runs in a year and who strikes out a whole bunch. Is that who you replace someone of Jermaine Dye's caliber with? How in the world can that be considered an upgrade for right field, if indeed that's where he ends up playing? I don't care how much better he is defensively. His offense is sub-par for a corner outfielder. And even if Teahen ends up going to third base, his numbers are below average for a third baseman, too, as third base is typically a power position of sorts as well. It would be one thing if he had speed like Chone Figgins, but he doesn't. No, I am not thrilled about the prospect of watching this guy make 500+ plate appearances in a White Sox uniform next season.

There is a certain amount of poor behavior that you might be inclined to put up with if the player in question is putting up astronomical numbers. Dave Kingman, Albert Belle and Manny Ramirez are a few players who come to mind there. But Milton Bradley does not even come close to providing that kind of production, and so the combination of him only being a decent offensive player on his best days (and one who doesn't play good defense, either) along with being someone who consistently behaves even more poorly than those other three guys I mentioned makes him an absolute "NO SALE" for me.

QUOTE (jphat007 @ Sep 25, 2009 -> 08:41 PM) If Thornton is our closer, he prolly won't have many games to save with the way our setup would likely come together We have no idea what our set-up relief pitching is going to look like yet for next season. Give Kenny a chance to work on it over the winter before you throw down with the negative outlook on things.

This game may very well have featured both the ace of our 2010 staff as well as our new closer.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Sep 25, 2009 -> 08:11 PM) Two-dinger Jenks warming? I should hope not. He's out for the season with a calf injury.

Just a terrific game for Peavy, especially given that it's against a team in the throes of a pennant race.

You can cancel the postgame show!

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Sep 25, 2009 -> 06:48 PM) gotta say, i'm already psyched to see a healthy JP come spring. I think he sees all the talk about the transition from NL to AL as a challenge. I fully agree. From what I've seen, I like the tenacity he brings out there to the mound.

Stone Poney and Mike Huff with the call tonight. Hawk off tending to some "family bizzness".

QUOTE (G&T @ Sep 25, 2009 -> 09:15 AM) Doubtful. The time to get him was last off season when he was dirt cheap and the Sox didn't get him. He had a great year and will want a big contract. Is he worth it? Probably. Will the Sox spend it? Doubtful. He was great in 2008, too, and wanted a big contract last winter as well, but didn't get it. Now he's a year older. There's no doubt he'll get a better deal than the one he got with the Angels, but I don't think it'll be the kind to break the bank.