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Hmmm, obviously only having a .700 OPS is not going to win him a starting job for this team you wouldn't think, so his value maybe as a super utility player. Do you think he'll start off 2008 in Charlotte Bureau (I suppose this may also depend on what they do with Uribe as well).

It's 4.75M total according to the White Sox official site;

Well we were talking exactly about this yesterday in the Crisp thread on Trade Winds, and wouldn't ya know it, a day later they go out and sign him. And I like the move. If he's ready, he could platoon at 2B/CF and maybe even a little SS if needed. He may need time at AAA to adjust. But at least it gives us another option, and one that could really pay off. He'll be in an excellent situation for him to be able to hit in a real good hitters park as well.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 11:29 AM) You must of missed the part that the sox suck against lefties for the last few years. Now you suddenly think that adding another lefty is a good thing. And before you quote me how bad Willis is, I can show you a list of crappy lefties that have wrecked this team over the years. If he can match the outings of JP Howell and other associated crap he should do fine against us. Well considering the splits, if I were Dye, Fields, Konerko etc., I'd be most looking forward to facing Dontrelle in 08. And it's a chance for the likes of Toby Hall, Ozuna in their platoon roles to produce good numbers against him. It would be nice to have a good RHH DH/1B such as Josh Phelps to use in these situations as well though (if there was room on the bench).

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 11:08 AM) I really don't care whether the best hitters in this division are righty or lefty...If he puts up that .913 OPS against righties again next year, he's toast. Put up a .760 OPS against righties in 06. We'll see which one harkens to the future better. Yeah exactly. It won't matter if he does well against Thome, Hafner and Morneau, if he's getting hammered by the likes of Konerko, Guillen, Fields etc.

Yeah that contract could turn out to be really, really good, or really, really bad if Willis continues on the form of last season. And looking at his splits, if teams just load up with RHH against him, I think he'll struggle in the AL.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 10:10 AM) Kenny Williams traded his best chip for a slick-fielding shortstop with a career line .273/.321/.403/.724 making $9 million a year when he had a slick-fielding shortstop with a career line .254/.295/.427/.722 making $4.5 million a year. If Cabrera tanks this season or a few second basemen, third basemen and other shortstops have monster years, Cabrera could become a type B. Look at that 2nd line though. A .295 OBP. And Cabrera had one of his best offensive seasons in 2007. And Uribe has been going downhill offensively ever since that 1st half of the 2004 season. He's never been the same type of hitter since. And he didn't have a great season defensively either by his standards in 2007.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 10:07 AM) Called on it? How? Make the comparison then. So far you have compared him to Erstad, owens, Pods, Fields, am I missing anyone? Really great players there. In 115 games he has a .326 OBP and a .257 average. He is thrown out stealing bases 50% of the time. 22 years old you say? Nice. Let me know how this works out for the Nats. Ok so if you've used those numbers, if you compared Milledge to say Josh Fields. Milledge has hit at Shea = pitchers park. Fields has hit at the Cell = hitters park. And yet, doesn't Fields have a worst OBP and a lower average than Milledge using those numbers you've given above? Obviously he has the better power though.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 09:46 AM) If he was any good there would have been a bidding war already... There were a few players who came out of Cuba in the last two years (Linares is the only one I can think of off-hand), but they landed with poor teams... It was no coincidence. I believe two of the three I'm thinking of required major league deals, while none has sniffed the majors... None were what I would call "prospect young" like Morales in Anaheim. They've all been listed at 23-27. Alexei is 26, he either is a major league talent right now or he's a minor league lifer. The lack of serious suitors at this point tells me he's the latter. Isn't he still trying to declare residency though in the Dominican Republic, hence why there's no been concrete bids in for him (I may be wrong on that though). I don't know, I think it's worth the risk at least. We should be at least enquiring about him I'd hope.

Yeah there's enough interest in guys such as Jennings, Garcia etc. who have had surgery, so that shows precisely where the pitching market is at. I mean would you rather Carlos Silva at 4/44, or rather take a 1 year flyer on Prior? I'd go the latter. If it pays off, you either try to re-sign, or trade him at the deadline for some nice value. If it doesn't, well it was worth a shot.

QUOTE(fathom @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 09:33 AM) Some people got excited because his agent, of all people, said he was ready to play in the majors already. Well of course Jaime Torres is going to say that, he's trying to drum up as much interest as possible in his client. What would really annoy me is if Cleveland (one of the teams most interested in him) did sign him, and he became a very good hitter for them who was under their control for 6 seasons. That would really, really hurt.

I say that, because you look at the market right now, and what the Sox's needs are. Now maybe Ramirez is not ready, such as Morales was. But he's older and probably more advanced as a hitter than Morales was. We need to be taking a chance on a guy like this and hoping it pays off. It's what the Reds did with Hamilton, and now it seems everybody on here wants us to trade for him. If it pays off, Ramirez can be your CF for the next 5-6 seasons. If it doesn't, well he'll obviously improve in the future, so it's not really going to cost us a great deal. It's not like we're giving up any talent for him or anything.

I was just looking at a slideshow of pictures of J.L Spears on a news web-site down here. It's amazing how small she was about 4 years ago, compared to where she is now being pregnant and all.

QUOTE(fathom @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 09:18 AM) Sweet, Charlotte needs a CF. Ramirez certainly wouldn't be the worst option to have platooning at 2B/CF with Richar and Owens.

QUOTE(hitlesswonder @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 08:57 AM) Why didn't they do it with Riske? There's 2 reasons they may not: 1) Cabrera plays badly or gets hurt (he is 33). 2) The Sox don't want to pay out the money required to sign multiple high draft picks. Well Riske was hardly used in the 2nd half of 2006, as Ozzie lost confidence in him. The Sox were probably worried that he would have accepted, and they didn't want him back (which as we saw wasn't the right decision). I don't think Cabrera will play badly. He'll be hitting in a more favorable park this season so his power numbers should increase, and he's one of the best fielding SS's in the game. And the Sox still have around $15M to spend (if they were willing to sign Hunter to that type of contract). They could always put some of that money towards draft picks and signings from the Latin America region.

QUOTE(hitlesswonder @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 08:51 AM) Not too mention there's a good chance the Sox won't offer Cabrera arbitration and so will fail to get those draft picks. Why would they not do that? Considering Julio Lugo got 4/36 last off-season, and that the Sox want to re-sign Cabrera (but he's not interested in that at the moment), I can't see why we wouldn't offer him arbitration unless he got injured such as Maggs did. If he accepts, then you've got your starting SS again for 2009.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Dec 21, 2007 -> 08:48 AM) White Sox fans should get off the draft pick compensation as the way to re-build the minors. You wind up having to pay these draft picks over $1 million each and most don't pan out. Its better to trade players of value for young guys already on their way to making it, showing they can be successful, with their bonuses already paid. Well obviously the more early picks you have, the better the chance that they do pan out. And I think now at least the Sox have changed their scouts and replaced Shaffer, so they see it as an area that they need to improve at.

At least if Cabrera leaves in FA, we'll get more compensation for him then we would have with Garland. As for the DLS + Gio + Shelby for Bowden and Crisp rumored by Fathom, ummm there's absolutely no way I make that deal. DLS should be untouchable, unless I'm getting a Jay Bruce.

Well that settles it then. Buehrle's sticking around. Now if the Reds would want Contreras, I'm certainly willing to listen.

Buehrle's the face of the franchise. He's the 1 guy who during this season the fan base pretty much swayed KW and JR into re-signing him. He'd be the last guy I'd say KW would trade. Isn't there some deal with his No Trade Cluase as well (whenever that comes into effect). But I will say this, I'm a big Javier Vazquez supporter. But if you offered Vazquez for those 2 (or maybe try to work Bailey into the deal by adding something else), yeah I would seriously consider that, considering where this franchise is.

Good article here;

Well that would certainly push some people over the edge. I know Rogers suggested yesterday Crisp and Lugo for Cabrera. I would much rather prospects though.

QUOTE(jenks45monster @ Dec 19, 2007 -> 02:52 PM) Still, they shouldn't be called one of the worst bullpens in all of baseball. They've got the second best bullpen in our division next to Cleveland. And IMO they have a middle rank bullpen in all of baseball, with a healthy Zumaya of course. Minnesota?

QUOTE(jenks45monster @ Dec 19, 2007 -> 01:28 PM) The thing that stands out to me here is that "their bullpen is of the worst in baseball. How do you figure that? Joel Zumaya, 23 and already has proven to be top talent throwing over 100MPH quite often. Todd Jones, 39, their closer, a member of the 300 save club, and yes I realize he is aging and has had an up and down career but you can't really call this guy "bad" compared to some relievers we have. Fransisco Rodney, 30, set-up man, yes he had Tommy John surgery after the 03' campaign, but with a mid-90's fastball and a devastating change-up, this guy is able to dazzle hitters. So really you cannot call this bullpen bad, at all compared to ours. We have 1 trusty bullpen guy in closer Bobby Jenks. They have 3 proven guys. I would call them below average because; 1 - Zumaya out for half the season obviously and he's their most dominant reliever 2 - Jones would be one of the bottom 5 closers in baseball. He's on a level with Borowski. 3 - Rodney got hit hard at times last season IIRC. And other than those 3, who else do they have? Jason Grilli? Not much else there that I can remember off the top of my head. I wouldn't call Jones a "proven" guy, in terms of yes he has over 300 saves, but recently his ERA has not been good, especially at a pitchers park.

Yeah I saw that. The headline said "Oops I did it Too!!!" I thought that was pretty fitting to be honest. I wonder how their Mom is doing right now. Probably not great, considering Britney's apparently going to get married to her P.A.