The only people I see gone are Cabrera, Crede, and Griffey. Then possibly Anderson. I don't see where or how we could trade Konerko, Thome, Vazquez, or Dye (i.e. the most logical guys you'd like to dump from the roster). The combination of big money, no trade clauses, and crappy performances means they'll be difficult to move.

 

Swisher is a guy who would be easy to trade, but then KW's ego won't let him dump Swisher so quickly and for a much smaller return than what Williams gave the A's.

 

I think this team won't change much. 2009 might get ugly.

If the Sox count on Contreras for anything next season, they are screwed. You have to assume Jose will never pitch again. If he does, then it's a bonus.

 

He IMO would be much better than the MR we have on this team. I'm not saying he should be a closer or setup guy, just a MR who could eat up innings.

 

The only people I see gone are Cabrera, Crede, and Griffey. Then possibly Anderson. I don't see where or how we could trade Konerko, Thome, Vazquez, or Dye (i.e. the most logical guys you'd like to dump from the roster). The combination of big money, no trade clauses, and crappy performances means they'll be difficult to move.

 

Swisher is a guy who would be easy to trade, but then KW's ego won't let him dump Swisher so quickly and for a much smaller return than what Williams gave the A's.

 

I think this team won't change much. 2009 might get ugly.

 

I agree, it probably won't change much at all unfortunately.

I voted for 17 people. f***ing crazy.

The only people I see gone are Cabrera, Crede, and Griffey. Then possibly Anderson. I don't see where or how we could trade Konerko, Thome, Vazquez, or Dye (i.e. the most logical guys you'd like to dump from the roster). The combination of big money, no trade clauses, and crappy performances means they'll be difficult to move.

 

Swisher is a guy who would be easy to trade, but then KW's ego won't let him dump Swisher so quickly and for a much smaller return than what Williams gave the A's.

 

I think this team won't change much. 2009 might get ugly.

 

Sadly, I think you're completely right. Hell, we wouldn't rebuild after a terrible 2007. There's no way KW won't go for it again after competing in 2008.

He IMO would be much better than the MR we have on this team. I'm not saying he should be a closer or setup guy, just a MR who could eat up innings.

 

He sucks at middle relief because he's too slow and deliberate to the plate.

 

And, he won't be healthy until August or September '09.

I'm really feelin' the Juan Uribe love in this thread today.

only 4% want Kenny Williams out?? Should be way higher.

There is an obvious and glaring problem this year again and it's the relief corp.

People who voted for konerko baffle me. The man is on fire and that will probably continue next year.

 

Yeah, sell low on an uptrend. That makes a lot of sense.

Edited September 28, 200817 yr by MAX

And the Sox are entertaining game 162, still controlling their own destiny for the playoffs.

 

And once again, this is purely due to the fact that the division is laughably bad. We're not a serious contender in the least. That won't change by next season.

Konerko, Cabrera, Crede, Hall, Carrasco, Dye, Owens , Junior, Logan, Wasserman, Vazquez, and MacDougal.

 

And the greatest of these is Vazquez.

Edited September 28, 200817 yr by Drew

I hope to see wholesale changes next season, here are who I want the Sox to get rid of:

 

He Gone:

 

*Joe Crede: He's become the south side's version of Mark Prior. Also, he hasn't helped us since 2005, he waited a year too late for back surgery, and his agent is Boras. Get rid of him, good riddance.

 

Jim Thome: Even though he has a vesting option for 2009, he hasn't been much of an asset to this team. He's too slow-footed, Ozzie's afraid to play him on the field, he only tries to hit home runs, and he almost always ground-out to first. I'd rather not have someone on the team that other teams will always use the Thome-shift on. We need to replace him with someone who's more verstatile and speedy.

 

Paul Konerko: I think his time has come. Out of all the players I don't want to see back next year, I think he has the most trade value. It'd be nice if we can trade him, in a package possibly, for some speed and 5-tool players. Then we can shift Swisher to first base and field a more defensively-capable outfield.

 

Javier Vazquez: He's clearly proven that he's not a big game pitcher, I think his time with us is over. Hopefully Kenny can pull off another trade similar to the Garcia-for-Floyd/Gio and the McCarthy-for-Danks/Masset trades.

 

Boone Logan: He had a lot of promise and I don't know what happend to him, but I'm tired of seeing him giving up runs everytime he comes to the mound. I hope he's replaced with another lefty, hopefully someone from free agency. I will give him credit for having the coolest name on the White Sox roster, though. But even if we can't get rid of Boone, I rather stick him in the bowels of Triple-A, never to see the daylight of the Major Leagues again.

 

Mike MacDougal: Too many wild pitches. He can prolly turn things around, but the only way I'd like to see MacDougal back is if he only pitches for mop-up duty. Hopefully we can package him in a trade for a bullpen upgrade.

 

Horacio Ramirez: Out of the group of Boone/MacDougal/Horacio/Wassermann, the only one I wouldn't mind seeing come back, but in a mop-up role in the lowest position in the bullpen (the position Adam Russell holds now), is mop-up. However, he doesn't seem like he's able to find his niche with the White Sox.

 

Ehren Wassermann: I definitely don't want to see him back, I have no confidence in him.

 

Toby Hall: I'd rather see the Sox use a young back-up catcher in the mold of Russell Martin/Kelly Shoppach/Geovany Soto.

 

Brian Anderson: I don't get people's love for this guy. He's a defensive replacement, at best. Hopefully we can package him in a trade for someone.

 

Ken Harrelson: Seriously, get rid of Hawk and keep DJ. I'm sick of hearing all of Hawk's nostalgia.

 

 

As for players I think the Sox SHOULD keep:

 

Keepers:

*Orlando Cabrera: I don't know why the Sox won't try to keep him, he's the only one who's been performing consistently in the 2nd half. Sure he may be a little bit of an antagonist, but I think he's been trying to be a team player. Besides, I think keeping Cabrera and keeping Alexie at 2nd is better than Alexie at shortstop and Getz or a free agent at 2nd.

 

*Ken Griffey Jr.: I like him better than Thome because he bats left-handed as well, but he is also still capable of playing on the field. I think he can help the team much more as a DH who can make starts in the field in 1/3 of the games the Sox play, that's something Thome can't do.

 

*Carlos Quentin: No brainer.

 

*Alexie Ramirez: No brainer.

 

*Nick Swisher: I think the reason he sucked so much in his first year with the Sox was cause he was trying too much. I think we'll see a much more consistent Swisher next year.

 

*Juan Uribe: Whether Uribe plays as a utility player off the bench or not, he's extremely valuable with his defense. Plus, I think his batting improved significantly over the past few months, I think he should stay.

 

*AJ Pierzynski: We need him for the controversial umpire decisions that are bound to happen in the future just because he's AJ.

 

*Jermaine Dye: If we can get rid of Thome, I can see Dye and Griffey splitting time at DH and right field, with Dye getting 2/3 or 3/4 of the starts in right field.

 

*Dewayne Wise: One thing the Sox really needs is a speed element, so we should keep Wise, eve if he ends up being a pinch runner off the bench. We no longer have Ozuna, we might as well keep Wise.

 

*Mark Buerhle: no brainer.

 

*John Danks: no brainer.

 

*Gavin Floyd: no brainer.

 

*DJ Carrasco: I think he can still contribute next year when a new season starts.

 

*Bobby Jenks: no brainer, unless we trade him for a package and sign free agent K-Rod.

 

*Matt Thornton: no brainer, one of the few relievers I have confidence in.

 

*Adam Russell: I have confidence in him, I don't know why Ozzie hasn't used him that much this month.

 

*Clayton Richard: He has surprised me. I wouldn't mind seeing him as a 5th starter, but I'd rather see him pitch as a long-reliever out of the bullpen for another season.

 

 

NOT SURE:

*Josh Fields: bleh.

*Jerry Owens: bleh.

*Chris Getz: didn't impress me.

*Lance Broadway: I don't really have an opinion of him.

 

 

DON'T TRADE AWAY:

*Jordan Danks

*Gordon Beckam

*John Shelby

 

 

Free Agents I'd like to see with the White Sox:

*Juan Cruz: I think he would be an improvement in the bullpen, he also consistently strikes out more batters than innings pitched.

So because the division was poor, this season results doesn't matter? Wonder what Cards fans would say about that.

 

You said the Sox should have started to "rebuild" after 2007. The 2008 team was in 1st for over 3 months, and as I type this, can still make the post season by winning 3 games.

 

If someone told me those facts after 2007 ended, I would be very upset if Williams decided to "rebuild", as would most Sox fans.

 

So, we'll get older and worse, and hope that the other teams in the division have more bad, fluke seasons. Cool.

Right, like this year.

 

Exactly. We are predominantly an old team with key players becoming worse and worse. We get beat by good teams and will perhaps crawl into the playoffs via lack of competition in our division. Instead of addressing the glaring issues with the team, we should just do the same exact thing next year when many of the players will be even worse. You're looking at the glass half full, I'm looking at a glass half empty. Either way, it's halfway filled with s***.

I really think Dye needs to move to DH. That will hopefully keep him fresh for a full season and overall help our defense. The downside of this is even though I like him, Thome needs to go. He obviously has an option so would be a trade. Obviously if we cant get anything of any value for Thome just going to have to keep him. Besides that I think OC needs to go because of money/draftpicks and Im sick of Vazquez.

JV has to go!

I would like to see the outright release of Contrearas, I know this won't happen but I feel like we were actually more consistant throwing up crappy Richard. That being said in this order I would like players gone.

 

Swisher (slow, crappy bat, who at best is a slightly above average 1st basement)

 

Uribe (this is actually my least favorite player in all of baseball. I don't care what Ozzie says, he can't play 3rd ok. He has a hard time reading the ball of the bat, is slow, and basically a strikeout/ DP waiting to happen.)

 

Logan, MacDougal, Wasserman ( the core of the pen is fine. Just these three guys are plain awful)

 

AJ ( His bat is solid and love his chemistry with the pitchers, but he simply cannot throw anyone out. Yes, part of this is on the pitchers but come on.... I don't event want to know the stolen base success rate against him since he's been with the W.S.)

 

I would keep Griffey as a extra bat if he was willing to restructure, and would also keep thome.

 

I wish we had more changes coming actually, but we just aren't that flexible due to lack of minor league talent, and the outrageous price of most players.

 

 

Go Alexei! The Cuban Missle.

Griffey, Ehren, Javy, Horriblo, Crede, Toby H., Juan, and MacDougal.

 

Need to bring in another dominant SP this winter, possibly CC? Sheets?

wouldn't mind seeing nick swisher and his .219 average upgraded

Uribe has a career OBP below .300. I find it astonishing that anyone would want to keep him around, especially when Ozzie's proven time and again that he can't resist putting Uribe in the starting lineup.

 

Also, what's with so many people wanting to get rid of Toby Hall? The guy's a backup catcher, he's not exactly supposed to be setting the league on fire.

Edited September 29, 200817 yr by Jeremy

All I know is KW has a TON of flexibility in the off-season for the 09 season. You got two guys (Thome, Griffey aka HOF's) who are ageing gracefully in their stellar careers. He can get one back, (or let both go and get younger) get your sandwich picks (which would be a smart move) then put Kong in the DH spot and get Swisher and that glove over to first (Kong will be hard to trade anyways esp. with the 10/5, the bad season, etc.. but I wouldn't put it past Kenny) He could leave Swish in OF (prob. RF since they envision Quentin as the future LF and they damn right better be) if he wants and maybe get a good package for Dye to fill some holes in the infield or starting pitching (or even CF if they give up on BA, which I would hate) He might even look to see whats out there for a trade with Swish involved. Even Javy being dealt is a possibility. We all know that OC is probably gone, (high pick) Uribe might also be gone, (ok pick) and perhaps Toby for an upgrade at a backup (they might have sour on Fields also, who knows) theres also a ton of BP arms that KW will probably dangle with. As of the off-season assuming the UFA do leave and we dont pick up the "old guys" options here's what we have...

 

C-AJ

1B-Swish (or Kong)

2B-Getz/FA(O-Dog?)/trade

SS-Cuban Missle

3B-Fields (who knows/we'll see) sorry Blalock

LF-God (should have a field day with the metal detectors)

CF-Golden manlocks (or traded)/trade/FA

RF-Dye (perhaps good trade bait?)

 

DH-Kong (or Dye maybe, who knows)

 

Buehrle

Pratt's crow Floyd boy

Danksy

Havy (pitching trade bait? I love Havy though)

Richard/Broadway/Poreda/trade/FA

[Count done forever]

 

Wise/Owens (not sure about the Tobys, Uribes, even Owens, Bourgs etc.. yet so have fun/go nuts making the bench)

 

Fat man

Thornton

Lines (no trade clause baby!!)

Dotel (I still see him here at least)

Carrasco(?)/Booner(I still believe in him)/H. Ramirez(....)/Robert Meiklejohn/The Wass/trade/FA/Jenks throwing up a couple of clones, whatever.

 

This is, of course, assuming some of these guys leave us (we might bring Thome back, perhaps Junior, or Uribe, etc..)

 

Should be another interesting winter folks.

^^Dude, they the only option to not have Thome here is to trade him.

Polls still open!

^^Dude, they the only option to not have Thome here is to trade him.

And he continues to have a full NTC.