DBAHO

Ok here's some reasons why I think we can be a + .500 team next season. 1 - Excellent talent at the top of the rotation. Whatever way you spin it, Buehrle and Vazquez is a top 1-2 combo, and one of the better ones in the MLB. Buehrle had a 3.63 ERA and Vazquez had a 3.74 ERA, and yet they only won 25 games combined. If they can produce that kind of pitching again in 2008, they SHOULD win more than that, probably around 30-35. 2 - Jon Garland if kept, should have a good season in a contract year. And for 4 months this season, Garland was pretty damn good, ERA's under 4. It was only the 2 months after the ASB when he was working thru those shoulder issues, where he really struggled, and it put his ERA above 4. So the key here is Garland's health. If he's healthy, I think he can have an ERA below 4, and win around 15 games, 5 more than this season. Of course that's if we decide to keep him. So a top 3 of Buehrle, Vazquez and Garland is pretty good. 3 - The bullpen just can't be as bad. It's got to be better surely. They'll sign or trade for a couple of relievers, hopefully 1 from Japan, and MacDougal and Thornton should be improved in 2008. The overall bullpen should improve by at least 1.00 in ERA, and that will not cost the Sox about 5-10 games as it did in 2007. That's the major thing for mine for this team, fix this pen, this team is a .500 team at least. 4 - The Sox had the lowest total OBP last season with .318. They also had the lowest BA/RISP with .243. The Sox have made it a mission to bring in some more OBP guys. And there should be progression from the various players. Danny Richar had a .289 OBP, if he starts, that number should be around the .315-.330 mark. Jermaine Dye went down to .317 from .385 the previous season, but post ASB had an OBP of .368. That should be the norm for him this season. A.J Pierzynski had a post ASB OBP of .338 after a pre ASB mark of .287. I just can't see us being as bad as were offensively last season from happening this season. But a lot of it falls on Greg Walker's shoulders, and that is cause for concern. So the important thing is, the Sox have to find a way in the cold weather early in the season to produce offensively. It would actually be a good thing, if they played more games on the road in fact. So I think this team can be AT LEAST .500 next season, with the potential for 90 wins if they can fix the pen, don't trade Garland and the offense bounces back to 2006 levels. And yeah maybe I'm the eternal optimist, but someone has to try and drum up some positives for this team in light of recent events.

No they're not, and I'm going to make a detailed post on this tonight. The main thing, they have the starting pitching to contend next season, IF, they decide to hold onto Garland. A few changes mainly to the pen and bringing in a new leadoff hitter and this team can contend next season IMHO, at least for a wildcard spot.

Well at least TT and Smith can put the ball in the basket compared to Big Ben and Noah eh? It has been a pretty good start to the season for Thomas though, and the Bulls have needed him to step up. The Shawn Marion comparison is actually a pretty good one, and just on Marion I do love his shooting action when he's putting up 3's, it's very unique.

Ok so do you think the Sox would include Danks in a deal to try and get a Miggy Cabrera for example? They're not exactly stocked with young talent compared with other teams.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Nov 9, 2007 -> 11:32 AM) I completely disagree with your sentiment. I would never go into the long-term relying on these young pitchers we have right now. Quantity isn't quality and poor quality in great quantities isn't quality and I want quality. I just wish our farm system popped that out a little more often. I'm a little bit more bullish on our young pitchers. If DLS develops as planned, he's a potential #2 starter in the bigs, that's pretty good. Gio is probably going to be a solid #3 starter if all goes to plan for him and he stays healthy so that's ok. And then yeah we have some guys below those 2 that we don't know what they are going to become. Your Broadway's, Floyd's, Egbert's etc. They could become solid #4 starters, or at least that's where I think most likely they'll be. So obviously they're not "top notch", but they should still produce at the major league level, if given the chance. Floyd in the last month and even Broadway in his 1 start showed that they are worth persisting with. So I think compared to past years, our SP prospects isn't looking as bad. Think of where we were this time last season, when we didn't have DLS or Gio in our system, things have improved a bit on that end. The issue is for the Sox, they need to focus on finding more DLS's in the Latin America region, because in the long - term that will obviously make a big difference. As for whether I'd trade Fields for Garza, well I see the chances of that below 1%. Teams just don't trade a stud prospect for a stud prospect that often, especially not division rivals. If the Sox could actually sign Crede long - term to a reasonable contract though (based on him producing and staying healthy), then yes I could see Fields being dealt in the right deal.

Well they'd probably have to take one of Milledge or Martinez out and put in Gomez. IIRC, there was an article sometime this year with the Mets brass raving that Gomez had 30/30 potential, an excellent blend of power and speed. As for Humber, yeah he's got elbow problems, but he's still a decent SP prospect. I don't know if the Twins would want Heilman, if they can just plug in one of their minor league arms, unless they would use him in the pen, where's that's more of a possibility.

So will the Bears target a replacement for Brown in FA or the draft? They need to get younger on that offensive line no doubt.

QUOTE(fathom @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 05:15 PM) Obviously, I'm not calling for it to happen right now or during the season. However, I honestly believe Paxson will really come under fire if this team underachieves this year. It's disappointing how this team went from a team with an unlimited ceiling just a few years ago to a team that seems to have lost their fire and isn't exactly young anymore. It seems like every year, the same problems exist with this team: no true point guard and no low post offensive player. The problem is fathom, how many "true" point guards are there in the NBA, ones that actually pass first and shoot second? And how many of them are available. Hinrich would be in the top 10 in the NBA for PG's I would say, so I don't see that as a problem area for them. The issues the Bulls have is Gordon taking too much of the offensive load, and the player who needs to do that is Luol Deng. For mine, the Bulls would be a better team if they had taken Andre Igoudola and matching him up with Deng. They'd be better defensively, and Deng would have to carry more of the offensive game on his own shoulders. And I wasn't a fan of the Wallace signing when it happened, just simply because of the age and injury factor. For a young team that was trying to move forward, Wallace looked more like a short - term signing to try and the Bulls in the NBA finals last season, and maybe this season. It didn't fill the need for a low post scorer, and it almost looked like to me that they were trying to hurt the Pistons.

Sub Humber for Heilman and that's probably closer to the mark for mine. I don't know if Minaya would deal 4 of his best prospects though. And the Twins could ask for Gomez possibly?

Yep, you make a very good point there Balta. Of course it depends if Bill Smith is in "KW mode" where he is trying to win next season. If he is, most likely they'll hang onto Johan, but to get the MOST value for him, it makes sense to deal him now for the package you've mentioned. And as sircaffey mentioned, IF Liriano can get back to where he was in 2006, they don't really lose a lot in terms of their rotation from 2007 going into 2008. I mean Johan's the #1 SP in the game today, but if ever you wanted to deal him and replace him, now's probably the time. It also frees up salary, so they could possibly retain Hunter if they wished, or at least replace him with a decent bat.

I can see why the Twins would do this. They're obviously loaded with good young pitching, and they've got needs in their lineup. Still they have targeted some position players with their early picks in the draft over the past couple of seasons I think. I could see them doing a Carlos Gonzalez plus another spect for one of Slowey or Garza possibly, or something such as that? I suppose they have doubts over whether they can afford Mauer and Morneau once their current contracts are up. It's a shame from their sake that Carl Pohlad is quite the cheapskate because if they could have kept the current nucleus together, and they'd be even better.

It would be a lot of pressure to put on Richar at such an early stage of his major league career, but at least you know he's got decent plate discipline and a good K/BB ratio, so it wouldn't be the worst move I guess, still he's probably far more suited as an 8th or 9th hitter in the lineup.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 04:46 PM) These guys are always worth a flyer. Heck, Okajima was a cheap throw in sign by Boston to make Dice-K feel more comfortable, and look how that worked out. And hell, we even got one great year out of Shingo at least. Why not?? And there are relievers such as Otsuka have come over and sustained that success for more than a year or 2. Also, it saves us from having to target relievers in trade talks when we're dangling Garland, Crede etc., so we can focus on acquiring good young talent that this aging ballclub and weak farm system desperately need.

I'd target Quentin or Gonzalez if we were dealing with the D-Backs for Garland. Gonzalez and Owings would be something that I'd look towards possibly, but there are a lot of possibilities.

Mike Woodson is the coach of the Hawks. They have too many 2's/3's/4's and not enough unselfish players on that team. They should do a sign and trade deal with Smith in the off-season for their 2 main needs, C and PG. Oh and a good coach would help too. Seems like they just have no system.

Whoever traded Stoudemire a 1st round pick for Jefferson a 6th-7th round pick, is well an idiot Steve. But if you can get away with it......... Josh Smith is fantasy gold palehosefan, but I've heard he's not a model teammate either. At least he's not jacking up 3's with alarming regularity so far I suppose. And the Magic move to 4-1. Still very early days but the signs are good. The big difference is not only obviously Rashard Lewis and Dwight's improved FT shooting, but Hedo Turklogu is playing as a borderline All - Star right now. And the Magic are actually allowed to shoot the 3 ball this year, unlike the past 2 with Brian Hill in charge. They look better offensively, but Stan Van Gundy's keeping the strong defense they had last season in check as well. Very happy with him as coach so far.

Vizquel and Uribe is actually a wash IMHO when you don't consider the salaries. People say Omar slipped a little defensively in 2007, but he was still rated better defensively than Uribe that season, and I'll always back him to have a better OBP than Uribe, it's just the power numbers which Juan has a clear advantage in. If Uribe gets back to where he was before 2007 defensively, then yes he is the better player.

Good. We need at least 1 maybe 2 acquisitions into our bullpen, and the best place to start would be from Japan. They have a good success rate in the 1st season, and you don't have to give up draft picks to sign them instead of a Scott Linebrink for instance. I hope we are targeting Iwase and Kobayashi too though.

3 stud prospects for Miggy from the Dodgers. That's basically the equivalent of Danks + Fields + DLS for us. I wonder if Ned Colletti would pull the trigger on that though. He's probably on the hot seat right now. Of course if they acquired Miggy, they may need to clear some salary and could maybe trade Furcal to do so?

QUOTE(fathom @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 09:56 AM) He was awful last year. Yeah he was. I imagine he'll be their starting 2bman this season, unless they go out and sign an Iguchi or a Luis Castillo. Just on the Astros and the White Sox though, haven't these 2 franchises really fallen down in terms of talent and win - loss records from the World Series a couple of years back. I wonder if there's even been such a dropoff for 2 W.S teams in just 2 seasons.

He'll probably get a Mark Mulder type of deal this off-season (or at least a Jose Guillen one). I wouldn't mind it IF we traded both Garland and Contreras and we had to sign a FA SP to fill a spot in the rotation. Of course he'd have to show that he is completely healthy, which there are certainly some doubts on.

I'll listen to the downloaded version tonight.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 09:04 AM) Trading Cunningham would also require the use of the wayback machine. Yeah I realise he's no longer with us, but I was trying to find a similar prospect to the Detroit OF who was traded, and he best fit the bill, unfortunately he's no longer with us, because I think he has a good chance of becoming a starting major league outfielder. Actually that's a good question though. Would you have rather kept Cunningham, and no longer have Richar, and use Cunningham with Gio to get Renteria if you could?

I doubt the Stros would trade Qualls. He's their 1 good reliever besides Lidge right now. It'd have to be prospects (Towles, Patton) + Scott I think as a minimum, but the Sox could maybe do better in a Garland trade with the Mariners or the Dodgers.

I think it would have been basically a Gio + Aaron Cunningham type of deal to nab Renteria, but Fathom hit the nail on the head. Here's where not having a good farm system really hurts you.