GreenSox

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 28, 2009 -> 07:40 AM) Josh Kroeger can make a legitimitate argument that he deserves that spot overall based on his play, but the problem there is he can't play CF or SS adequately, and he's looked very shaky (at best) at 1B, so that can of nullifies one of the arguments for keeping him around. Not to mention the fact that Betemit is also better at 1B than Kroeger and has a track record of pounding RHP at the major league level the last couple of seasons. Just watching the game yesterday, it's fairly clear why Kroeger can't seem to make a roster: defense. He was terrible at 1B -he couldn't catch the ball. And everyone says he can't really play CF (I've never really seen it, but I believe it). His O isn't good enough for a corner spot. It really would be nice if he could play CF - and it wouldn't have to be much to be as good as Owens or Wise.

There's little point in developing nice prospects, if you are going to trade them in on some better than brian anderson mediocrity.

The mistake was the first Swisher trade. Sweeney and Anderson could be platooning in CF and that would be that. Ozzie can't stand called third strikes- of course, if you're going to take walks, you're going to have your share of called 3rd strikes. Guillen didn't like Swisher, so Williams had to get something for him and he did.

QUOTE (fathom @ Mar 22, 2009 -> 05:07 PM) There's been no buzz about Kroeger over the past few weeks making the big league team. Can he play CF?

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Mar 8, 2009 -> 03:54 PM) Start him at short, move Alexei to CF and let the best man win at 2B (preferably Getz). It would solve quite a few problems. sure would solve a lot of problems. But from what I understand, he's not a good CF. If Beckham is really a stud defensive SS (I'm not sure he is) it's sort of undervaluing him not playing him at SS; same with Alexei

If we trade Dye, move the missle to RF and sign Furcal. Getz will be fine at 2b Give CF and the 9 hole to Anderson. Furcal makes more sense than the other offensive FA because he can hit leadoff.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Dec 7, 2008 -> 09:49 PM) why do people still go on saying 2B is a hole? My god, you'd think Getz, Lillibridge, and Nix weren't on the team. I agree. Getz will be fine. Beats overpaying for a more experienced 2b Lillibridge will be no worse than a very good utility player. 2B is not an issue.

Cantu's everythign we don't need: poor defensive corner infielder; slow; good power but low OBP. Exactly what we're trying to move away from.

QUOTE (quickman @ Dec 6, 2008 -> 11:25 PM) why would we go after another shortstop? In addition we are suppose to get younger and trim payroll. We will not be signing furcal. For whatever reason people think we are actually trying to load up to win it all this year. We are not, call it what you want but this is the start of rebuilding. Furcal is a good player who meets a real need without having to give up talent. We don't know when Beckham will be ready, but we'll figure things out when he is. Any Furcal scenario has a relatively short contract - 2 or 3 years. I do agree that it's unlikely that we'll sign him. But Williams is going to make some unexpected moe before this is all oer. On the other hand, trading for Brian Roberts WOULD be loading up to win this year. That's giving up talent for a rent. And this particular rent has an inflated price.

If Cabrera accepts arbitration, that's fine - we'll just trade him. We won't get a ton, but we should get a nice prospect. A team like the Dodgers would probably prefer to give us a prospect for a year of Cabrera than to give up 2 draft choices for him (of course we'd lose the choices by trading him). That may even be something Beane would do - he wants a SS and tried to sign Furcal - trade for him for 1 year of Cabrera the draft choices next year when the market may be better. A 3 year contract would be great with Furcal. If Beckham is ready before then, we'll work it out.

Swisher is the 2nd to best CF on the team. Anderson is the best. Take your pick.

Owens needs to stay in AAA. He can't hit and he can't field and he has scant little potential to hit. Guillen's man-love for players who hit like he did is absolutely ridiculous. Erstad last year "a .400 hitter" because he swung at everything and could make his outs wherever Ozzie told him to - just like Ozzie did as a player; Owens this year over 3 superior candidates (Ramirez, Anderson, Quinten). Uribe - anothter Ozzie-style hitter, but with more power. Meanwhile, legitimate talent wallows in AAA or in Ozzie's doghouse. Here's a suggestion to young players: forget taking pitches and drawing walks. Swing at everything and emulate Ozzie and Walker as hitters as best you can, and you'll have a better shot.

So Ozzie is going to bench Quentin or Anderson for Ramirez, but he won't dream of benching Uribe or even Anderson. This is worse than his BS last year. The Sox finally have some offensive talent, but Ozzie insists on playing his woodchoppers.

One of the jobs of a manager is to deal with different personalities, even with difficult ones at times. You aren't always surrounded by yes men. Ozzie's answer to a difficult young player is to throw him off the team. Ozzie's so easy to get along with himself. At this point, some of the blame has to go to Williams; he knows Ozzie stubbornly wants speed atop the lineup; nevertheless, he never got Ozzie a good speedy leadoff man. It's no suprise that Ozzie will play an inferior talent like Owens simply to get that speed...look what he did with Erstad last year. Williams has to step in and take these bad hitters away from him.

Anderson has had a great spring and has a lot more talent than Owens. Anderson is an outstanding center fielder and Owens is a bad center fielder. But it doesn't matter - Owens plays Ozzie-style and in the land of Oz, that's all that counts. Anderson had a good spring last year - but with a talent like Erstad, he sat and then went to AAA. A lot of this is on Williams. He gave Ozzie a big extension, he knows Ozzie's preferences, so he needs to get some GOOD Ozzie-style players.

Ellis can't hit. The Sox don't need yet another bad offensive player.

You trade for Inge, you're stuck with his high salary for severl years. Crede's a lot easier to move.

QUOTE(WHITESOXRANDY @ Feb 7, 2008 -> 11:00 AM) Crisp is young. Crisp can hit and hit from both sides. He can play all 3 OF positions and has a good arm and he can run and he's not too expensive.Crispt can't hit a lick. Crisp's OBPs the last 2 years are .317 and .330. And he checked in with c.8 homers. . And people want to trade serious talent for him? If we want him - Uribe for Crisp. Trade our excess mediocre veteran for theirs (we sure don't need lugo).

If we acquire Crisp, then the sox are just reacting, and not acting from a plan. Use our prospects to acquire 2 LF, when we need a CF. And if Swisher moves to 1B, what is already a really high price for a hitter of Swisher's level has now skyrocketed if that production is at 1B and not CF. And then, of course, we would have traded talent to get Quinten, who is now a bench player. Together, it makes no sense, and smells of reacting, instead of acting from a plan. BTW we have a bad hitting good fielding CF (better fielder than Crisp) right now. Why do we want another? Swisher can lead off - he's superb at getting on base. Chone Figgins is in his contract year. Please don't trade talent for a hitter in his contract year.

If we wanted Crisp, we shouldn't have traded for Quentin. But we did, so that's that. Can't keep throwing more resources at essentially the same thing. Crisp brings nothing above average other than defense, and I think the Sox made their position on CF defense known when they benched the best defensive CF the team's had in a decade for Rob Mack and then for Erstad.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jan 30, 2008 -> 06:26 PM) Uribe, Richar and Danks for Brian Roberts I wouldn't trade Danks straight up for roider Roberts. Danks is damn good - he's not fully developed yet, but there's a really good chance he will be soon.

If we trade Konerko, I would hope we get some young players. 34 year old career middle relievers (geeze), rents of Figgns, head case pitchers like Santana....good gracious, I hope we can do better than that.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jan 8, 2008 -> 01:14 PM) And they bailed on the idea of playing Fields in left. He can play the position. He's no Crede, but he'll be fine. Putting him in LF or 1B also decreases his value, as decent 3b are much harder to find ... and he will be a decent 3B. Look at how bad Aramis Ramirez was. It takes work and it takes time, but Fields has shown he is willing to pay the price to be good at what he does ... otherwise he never would have been a starting QB at OK State. I hear ya and that makes sense. But I'm not convinced he can handle the D. Any idea how Swisher handles CF? It seems he'll have to for that trade to make sense. CF have value - LF and 1B, as you said.....

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 8, 2008 -> 01:11 PM) I think every single point you make there is wrong. I meant the Sox played Fields in LF last year. And he's not a good fielder at 3B. But thank you for your input. We'll see what sort of a contract a mediocre hitting 3B gets.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jan 8, 2008 -> 01:04 PM) Because we are going to need him at 3B once Crede's gone ... and he'll be gone before 2009. But he can't play the position. Crede's contract isn't going to be that big, Boras or not. Also, the Sox played Crede in LF last year, so they must have had other ideas for 3b