DBAHO

Well I'm glad KW is trying to fix the pen. But maybe that's the only positive I'll say here. I don't like this signing. And it's for these reasons. 1 - He hasn't been good away from PETCO. In 2006 he had a 3.92 ERA in away games, in 2007, that number rose to 4.64. 2 - He'll give up too many home runs. Gave up 12 last season. That number could rise to say 15 pitching half his game at the Cell. For comparisons sake, MacDougal gave up 3 in 07, Thornton 4. So he's not a guy I really would like to bring on with runners in scoring position in an important situation, if you get my sort of thinking. 3 - Post ASB in 2007, he had a 5.23 ERA. Now maybe that was because of the new surroundings etc. But since 2004, he has thrown 84IP, 73.2IP, 75.2IP and 70.1IP. Is he suffering from the Scott Shields syndrome of having thrown too many innings in the past few years? At least he's durable I guess. 4 - We give up another draft pick. Rebuilding the system should be at a premium right now. And yes, I know a few people such as Jason have said, well the Sox could draft someone later on and offer them 2nd round money. But how often do they do that? 5 - We overpaid. No if's or buts. The Indians just signed Masahide Kobayashi to a 2 year deal with an option for a 3rd for 9.5M. So that's about 3.25M a season. We're paying Linebrink about 4.75M a season. Kobayashi could have the better numbers, and Cleveland don't give up a draft pick. So I just think signing a guy from Japan would have made more sense.

Well this is a big time shock and I don't think anyone saw this coming. 5 years for $80M, I think that's overpaying. He'll be worth it for the 1st 2-3 years, but not after that. So on that aspect, I'm glad we haven't signed him. Now what do the Angels do with Vlad, Matthews, Willits, Anderson and the forgotten man Juan Rivera? I'd target Willits in a trade if I was KW. He'd be an IDEAL leadoff hitter for us, but I doubt anything will happen there. I wonder if the Angels now would possibly offer Matthews Jr. back to the Rangers in a trade deal? Stranger things have happened I guess. But the Angels are going to be tough to beat next season with the additions of Garland and now Hunter. If they can get Miggy as well, well they're my pick to win it all in 2008.

Hmmm still seems like a lot of issues he has to work through here. The talent there is obvious. But he has to want it, and he has to develop the NBA work ethic that's required, if he wants to stay in Chicago. Guys life Griffin and Wallace should be showing him what it takes. There were stories of his selfishness at the Dunk Contest last season, so I can't really say seeing something like this is all that suprising.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Nov 21, 2007 -> 02:40 PM) 1 - If 2 players are of equal value I will take the one that wears his hat correctly and not cocked to the side like some hip hop freak. Silly - probably. 2 - I don't know. I don't know if he won't or if Jones will be a productive player over that time either. That is the chance you take with any free agent. 3 - How do you know you wouldn't be locked into long term with Jones? Boras recently said that Jones will not accept a 1 or 2 year deal. I still think there will be a period of adjustment for a player that has played his entire career in the National League. Well the only team to have shown interest so far in Jones is Washington. Do you think he will accept a long - term deal with them? Will a team offer him a long - term deal based on his play in 2007. I don't think there's a real big period of adjustment. Hitters should be able to hit no matter what league they are in. Uribe when he 1st came over, that was his best period as a hitter for the Sox. Iguchi hit ok when he first came to the Sox etc. so there are examples. Hunter's a sure thing in the short - term, but I don't think he is worth $15M a season, and not for 5-6 years. It's just because the Sox had the worst production in CF out of any team in the MLB, that they feel they need the best available player there.

QUOTE(29andPoplar @ Nov 21, 2007 -> 01:19 PM) Key points here. I hope they suddenly start signing Boras clients but I'm not seeing it. We can only hope Jones does what some others have been doing lately and that's to dump Bora$$.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Nov 21, 2007 -> 12:21 PM) I totally disagree. Crisp was good in Cleveland but hasn't been the same since. I don't like what he brings and I don't like his sideways wearing hat. I don't know what others see in Patterson. He does good for a bit then falls off completely. Andruw Jones long term? Why him over Hunter? I like Hunter's all around game. I also like his leadership style. I like the fact that he is vocal and doesn't take crap from anyone. Give me 5 years of Hunter over any of these other jamokes. Explain why Jones would be a better long term solution than Hunter. Hunter has played in the American League. He has played in the Central. He is very familiar with the pitchers, the style of play, the ballparks. You shouldn't have a transition struggle phase. You may have this with Jones. You really don't know how good he will be in the American League. Hunter still brings speed and stolen base potential to the offense as well. He is really good in all areas of the game and plays winning baseball. I can't say that Andruw Jones always does this. A couple of points; 1 - Crisp has been chronically injured with his shoulders and wrists in Boston. Not that I'm making excuses for him, but there are validating circumstances as to why he struggled in Boston. And you don't like him because he wears his hat sideways? If Hunter wore his hat sideways, would you be saying we shouldn't be signing him? That's a pretty silly reason to me. 2 - Is Hunter going to produce good numbers over the term of a 5 year contract? He'll be 37-38 when he finishes it, so I'd say the odds are probably not going to be in his favor of producing what he is producing now. 3 - You do make some good points on Hunter and Jones. But we wouldn't be locked into a long - term contract with Jones, and he would be moving into a more favorable league for hitters, and into a more favorable hitters park. And he has produced better offensive numbers than Hunter before.

QUOTE(Brian @ Nov 21, 2007 -> 12:04 PM) If he goes to Texas, it is purely for cash. Don't want to hear about going someplace to compete. Texas is the team that shipped off Tex and may want to deal Blalock. Well I wouldn't totally agree with that. He may just be more comfortable there, because that's where he lives in the off-season. We don't know what his mind-set is. Texas and the White Sox are probably both similar in terms of they want to get back above .500. We obviously have an older core so we should be better in the short - term, but the Rangers could be better in the long - run with the young players that they have, and that could appeal to Torii, I don't know.

Sounds like the Lakers just traded Brian Cook and Mo Evans to the Magic for Trevor Ariza. Interesting trade. Ariza was a revelation in the playoff series against Detroit last year, but never seemed to get much of a chance under Van Gundy. He's got the potential to be a lock down defensive starting small forward, but he doesn't shoot that well, but he'll crash the boards and provide energy. Cook's just a soft outside shooter (we already have Pat Garrity for that), while at least Evans can contribute off the bench I suppose.

Well Uribe could be a decent addition for the Rays. Would certainly improve their defense up the middle (although it did slip in 2007 badly, Uribe's D that is), and they really need that, to help out their young pitching in anyway possible. Baldelli would be an interesting addition, but won't be happening if we sign Hunter. So I'd say it'd be most likely for a prospect. Certainly not a top prospect, but maybe one who's in the top 10 in the Rays system.

If we weren't going to sign either Hunter or Rowand, I'd say it's more likely we'd try to trade for Coco Crisp rather than sign Patterson. But it looks like we're signing Torii.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Nov 21, 2007 -> 08:48 AM) I say this is one of the top three days in white sox history. I thought you would be quite pleased. Now we've just got to find a better replacement. Whether we can do that, will be interesting to see.

Cole Armstrong. There's a suprise I would have thought.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Nov 20, 2007 -> 07:08 PM) Remember all those people that made fun of the Rashard Lewis signing by Orlando? Yeah, good call guys, he's only the best offseason acquistion this side of Kevin Garnett. He's definitely overpaid, but him alone has allowed Dwight to take his game to another level. Nelson's stepped up his game, Bogans doing well at SG, I couldn't be more happy with the way things are going with this team at the moment. Also, a lot of rumors that Isiah Thomas could be canned soon. He kicked out all of his players in practice yesterday, sounds like he's getting desperate.

Just FWIW, someone a few posts ago used a Owens / Ozuna platoon for a leadoff hitter. Just what were the splits for Pablo against LHP in 2006, and Owens against RHP in the 2nd half of 2007 FWIW? Do they give you a .350 OBP for example? Because I guess I could live with that. You could then trade Crede for a nice prospect?

Magic move to 10-2, beating the previously 9-2 Hornets in New Orleans. We're 7-0 on the road, that's quite unbelieveable. Dwight was a monster again, and while we didn't shoot well from the outside we were very good defensively, they didn't have Chris Paul though.

Shame for Bourque. He was a borderline player coming into the season, and he seemed to carve out a good role for himself with his play especially on the PK. Hopefully he's back soon enough and contributing the same as he was before the injury.

I finished Portal last night. Absolutely loved the ending. One of the most fun games I've played in years. Pity it wasn't longer.

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Nov 20, 2007 -> 05:52 AM) You have slipped on the ice and landed on your ass before though, right? That's all my one encounter with "ice skating" was. I went surfing for the 1st time ever last weekend. Was using an 8' board, and I proceeded to fall off so many times when I stood up, and fell onto the sand in the water many times. Was quite funny at the time, now I have a few good bruises on my body which ain't so good. I will definitely be trying again though. I was able to stand up for about 10-15 secs without falling which I figure is pretty good for a 1st go.

Maybe the Sox are thinking, if they trade Paulie now, and then either trade for Miggy using the prospects you get from a Konerko deal, or try to target Miggy as a FA in a couple of years, to replace Thome when he eventually retires. So a lot of possibilities here. Personally I can't see them trading Paulie here unless they are overblown by an offer from someone.

Also, we still need a leadoff hitter in all of this. I'm really hoping that Pods isn't back with us. But if we can't trade Crede for a leadoff hitter who can play LF, is KW really going to give that spot to Owens? No I can't see that happening myself. And what leadoff hitters are available out there (and isn't going to break the bank)? Would KW and Ozzie really give the leadoff spot to a Luke Scott type of hitter, someone without speed? I would say no.

So just a couple of questions and points quickly; 1 - It's essentially Garland for Cabrera, and the cash it's freed up has probably ensured that we are to sign Hunter if the above report is true? How are people with that overall scenario? 2 - Is Hunter worth 75/5 (or even more)? At 1st glance, definitely not. At least we'll be hurting the Twins I suppose. 3 - What draft picks do we lose for signing Hunter? 4 - Signing Hunter for $15M, lose Garland for $12M, Cabrera for $9M, and we'd probably being paid about $2M. That's an overall gain of $10M. What's our total payroll at, and if we traded Crede and got rid of his $5M salary how would that impact it? 5 - Now with the Hunter signing, do we concentrate on fixing the pen, or do we have to find a SP to fill in for Garland?

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Nov 20, 2007 -> 10:03 AM) Why couldn't this trade have been made BEFORE the Sox were dealing with Uribe's contract? Is it going to be easier to dump Uribe at this point than it would've been to acquire Cabrera after declining Uribe's option? I imagine the Sox think that with the weak FA market for SS, and Eckstein asking for 4/36, the Sox think that a team needing a SS, may come to them instead. If you can get a prospect out of it, then it's been worth it, rather than letting Uribe go for nothing.

QUOTE(fathom @ Nov 20, 2007 -> 09:42 AM) I wonder if Yanks could be interested in Konerko. What would they give up though? The big 3 of Hughes, Chamberlain and Kennedy is basically untouchable on their end. Unless it was a 3 way deal, but then we would need a replacement at 1B (Miggy is really the only guy I can see here, unless we traded for a Richie Sexson on the cheap, and hope he rebounds).

Hmmm ok. Well I have mixed thoughts right now. I'm happy I no longer have to see Juan Uribe in the starting lineup ever again. That alone makes me very, very happy. We get an upgrade offensively, adding more OBP to the lineup, and Cabrera should hit in the #2 hole, which would push Fields down to a #6 spot. I imagine Uribe could be traded to say the Devil Rays. They're desperate for a slick fielding SS, and it would certainly help their defense. He'd be useful as a 1 year stop gap before their SS prospect Breignic (something like that) is ready. So try and get a decent prospect off them, or even try to nab Baldelli possibly? But now the problem, it leaves a big hole in our rotation. Buehrle, Vazquez, Contreras, Danks and Floyd is not a good rotation from where I'm sitting. 1st 2 guys are fine, Contreras is iffy at best, while the last 2 have question marks written all over them. Do we go out and try and sign a SP now? Do we trade for one? Do we give pitchers such as Egbert, Gonzalez and Broadway and open competition in Spring Training? Still a lot of questions remain. And I thought Garland was set for a real solid season. But maybe the Sox think that with his shoulder issues, and with him only 1 year from FA, now was the time to get some value for him and fill a need. Also, do we try to re-sign Cabrera now? He'd be in for a decent contract, especially considering David Eckstein wants Julio Lugo type of $$$.

Would anyone do Danks, Gio and MacDougal for Crawford?