sunofgold

How is our bullpen going to look? Different than 2011. Sale in the rotation. Frasor and Santos traded. Crain, Thornton, and Ohman will be back. Wonder how the rest of the bullpen will be. Addison Reed as the closer. Maybe Stewart as the longer reliever. Infante? Yikes!

Is there going to be Frasor appreciation thread? Maybe on the Cardinals board. lol. Anyways Frasor helped us move Teahen. I am not going to like playing against Toronto. Have to see Teahen, Frasor, Santos Kinda of tired of just getting pitchers. Kinda of tired of just trading with the Blue Jays. lol. So we traded Jackson & Teahen for Stewart and two guys whose names I already forgot.

Oh no. i forgot. This means more Dunntime in the OF. Lillibridge might be extended to play some backup IF.

No need to hate KW. Actually, KW went out and made a great trade to get him in the first place. Nice 4 underpaid years with the White Sox. With the White Sox, .346 OBP 107 hrs, 320 rbi comes to about 27 hrs and 80 rbis a year (would have been more of course if it wasn't for the injuries) Two time All Star, one time Silver Slugger, and MVP considerations in 2008. Maybe he will be back in a White Sox uniform in the future. You never know.

Padres GM Josh Byrnes was the GM for the Diamondbacks when we traded for Quentin. KW traded Chris Carter to the DBacks for Carlos Quentin. What a steal! Let us hope that KW stole from Byrnes again! OK, probably not. lol. However, Byrnes will be picking up the tab on TCQ especially if they extend his contract.

The Carlos Quentin. You were a beast in 2008. You definitely don't mind taking a hit by pitch for the team. You always give 100% and have a Konerkosque intensity and self-analysis. Maybe even more intense and self-aware. Wish you well in your return to California.

Well, kinda good news for Carlos Quentin. He returns to California. He played for Stanford. And he returns to the NL West where he must know some of the pitchers. He could have some good success there and I can cheer for him when he plays the CuBS. lol! Wish that we could have gotten more but maybe these are pitchers that KW/Cooper wanted. Guess that they think Cooper can help improve. However, we have a ton of unproven arms now in our minor system. I hope that the next minor league prospects we get are infielders. Maybe a first baseman. Paulie only has two more years left on his contract. And we could use a little bit more insurance in the infield. Who do we bring up if one of our infielders goes on the DL or something? Escobar or the Ozzie guy that we got from Miami. No real good hitter to bring up from AAA if we need another bat.

I hope that our rotation works out. Never know. Guys can look good in the minors, suck in the majors. Vice versa. We at least have hope that at least a few of these young pitchers become fixtures in our rotation.

Do you think that Adam Dunn would make a good designated driver? I might need one this weekend.

QUOTE (Brian @ Dec 27, 2011 -> 12:16 PM) At least somebody got that. Thanks for the link. Well that movie correctly predicted that there would be a baseball team in Miami. However, they show an alligator swinging a bat as the logo for the Miami team. Actually. wouldn't mind seeing that as Miami's logo. The Miami Gators.

QUOTE (Brian @ Dec 25, 2011 -> 06:22 PM) So the Cubs wOnt be sweeping Miami in the series that year? Cubs are in the NL. Miami Marlins are in the NL. They cannot meet in the World Series. One team from the AL and one team in the NL in the World Series.

My favorite Robin Ventura moment is coming up in the future. When he manages us to a World Series winner.

QUOTE (CWSpalehoseCWS @ Dec 23, 2011 -> 09:45 PM) I think Crain is going to get the job, and Reed will take over middle of the year. Although, maybe they begin the year with a closer-by-committee? Haven't heard the White Sox are going make Stewart a short reliever. I could see him in the long reliever spot since there is no opening for starters right now. And we also have Axelrod who could start and then Molina hopefully coming up soon. Right now I think that Reed has to get the job (by default really) . Crain backing Reed up if he cannot do the job. Or open competition for the job. But Thornton cannot close. 25 blown saves, 20 saves. That is enough for me.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 23, 2011 -> 09:59 PM) It's reall hard for me to see Verlander repeating that run. Yes es always been good, but his heart grew three sizes last year. That is true and he pitched a ton of innings with postseason thrown in (less time also to recover for 2012). Their closer had a career year (no blown saves). Peralta had a career year. Al Al is out at least half the season. Wasn't Victor Martinez pretty much banged up at the end of the playoffs? I think a couple guys got banged up in that series with the Rangers. Anything is possible because they could just feast again on their division foes. But it is going to be hard for them to be as good as last year.

Rebuilding season is over. Improving/fine tuning season is underway. This is the AL Central and we can compete with the team that we have now.

This team is coming together very nicely. If KW has to cut some salary, there are still a couple guys that he could trade (Thornton, Quentin). If he doesn't then there isn't any rush to make moves. Both Thornton and Quentin might have more value near the trading deadline in 2012. KW has been putting out high prices for our players. Thus, he probably isn't in a rush. Maybe JR said that team salary is in an acceptable range right now. It is lower than 2011. Probably the only big question going into next year right now is who is going to be the closer? A lot of people are saying Addison. Just don't make Thornton the closer if he is on the team.

Could always trade Quentin & trade Rios at some point (trade bad contracts or send a lot of cash). Make an future OF of De Aza, Cespedes, and Viciedo. With Lillibridge as the fourth OF. Just have to be creative. I would like that.

Sounds good. Danks is basically a younger version of Buehrle. Going to need a stabilizer in the rotation. Like the move.

If I was KW, I would just hold pretty much right now. Unless you get a deal that you cannot pass up. Team salary has been shaved a lot recently .... no more Teahen, EJax, Buehrle, Pierre, Santos, Vizquel. The AL Central is weak right now except for the Tigers. And who knows what they will be like next year. They ended the season pretty banged up. Al Al is going to be out at least half the season. Not impressed with the Royals, Indians, or Twins rosters right now. Seriously, we can compete in this weak division with the team that we have now. If guys like Beckham, Peavy, Rios and Dunn can rebound from last year, we will be looking good. Morel, DeAza, Flowers, Viciedo, Reed, Molina give us some promising young players.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 13, 2011 -> 10:11 AM) jcrasnick Jerry Crasnick Dontrelle Willis close to agreement on one-year deal with #Phillies, source says. Would be for about $1M + performance bonuses This is a good signing. Phils know what they are doing. They are putting Willis in the bullpen. He has solid numbers against lefties. I wanted the White Sox to sign him and make him a LOOGY. And this guy is a decent hitter. Could be used in certain situations as a pinch hitter.

Do you think that the Marlins and White Sox could make a trade(s) in the future that helps both team? They are in different leagues. Why not set up something up that helps both team. A legal collusion. Share information and then meet up in the World Series. lol!

It is a minor league deal. Why didn't we think of that? LOL@ We should have signed him first. The 2012 Marlins : The 2005 White Sox Class Reunion Who else can make it to Florida? Jenks - if he and Guillens make up Freddy Garcia - midseason trade from Yankees Garland - where is he? Uribe - trade with Dodgers?

The thing is that the AL Central is pretty week divison. Cle, Min, and KC all seem to be rebuilding. Can you partially rebuild and partially compete? Rebuilding is just a nice way of saying cheaper and younger. If Detroit has an off year in 2012, then this division is going to be wide open. Personally, I would still try to compete in this division and at the same time get a little bit younger and cheaper each successive year. We have trimmed some payroll already. We can afford to trade Quentin since we have Viciedo at lower price. And we can trade Thornton b/c we hope to have younger lefties available who can be placed in the bullpen. Buerhle, Pierre, Vizquel are all gone. I say keep Danks and Floyd. At least give yourself a solid rotation and see what happens. Next year Peavy's contract comes off. The following year I believe AJ and Konerko's contracts come off. Trade a couple of players each year when you have younger but hopefully equally or more talented replacements. Trade Floyd and/or Danks and then we definitely cannot even compete in a weak division.

LILLIBRIDGE is drawing a lot of interest. Probably teams think that he can start. I say trade him if you can get a good deal for him.

Seriously, if Rowand started as much as Rios last year ..Rowand could have posted better numbers. If Rios still sucks next year, then Rowand would be a better option and more likeable. I see a possible spot for Rowand as a backup OF. We aren't re-signing Pierre and Vizquel. Quentin is highly rumored to be traded. Nothing lost inviting him to spring training. If he is good enough to make the roster, then good. If he is willing to take a minor league contract, then that is good too (insurance for the OF).