GreatScott82

Im sure KW is working on some sort of a deal right now. I doubt they are going to let him go for nothing. Brian Roberts and Ellis seem to be the two names mentioned.... Is Ramirez ready to play 2b every day? I think Uribe was better defensively at 2b and Richar is injured.. Something has to be in the works.. Especially if Ramirez was playing CF today..they wouldn't put him out there today if they knew he is going to be our every day 2b. It should be an interesting 3 days.

Uribe will likely start the season at 2b. And he will be on a short leash. Dont be suprised if start the season with Crede-Cabrera-Uribe in the infield to start the opener. Its kind of funny with all the Uribe/Crede being traded talk that has happend. I think the 25 man roster is set. Starters Owens CF Cabrera SS Thome DH Konerko 1B Dye RF Swisher LF Pierzynski C Crede 3b Uribe SS Starting Rotation Buerhle, Vazquez, Danks, Contreras, Floyd Bullpen Jenks, Dotel, Linebrink, Thorton, Wasserman, Macdougal, Masset Bench Ozuna, Ramirez, Anderson, Hall

I think Jenks will get his 40+ saves. Wasserman is my suprise guy this year.. this guy just gets outs! He is the new and improved WUNSCH! Linebrink will be crafty enough to help bridge the 7th and 8th innings to get to Bobby.. he is a guy that this team desperately needed last year. If Dotel can be healthy for an entire season- look out! He has NASTY stuff and most hitters will tell you that they HATE batting against this guy.. so if something does go wrong with Bobby, he is a good security. I think Thorton can be an effective 6th, 7th inning guy. We will be seeing him a lot in the days Danks and Floyd pitch. Macdougal... i dont know what to say about this guy. He just may be the garbage guy. Pitch in games that we are blown out or blowing the other team out.. this can benefit him and help get him back on track. And i think the last spot will go to Masset. This team needs a long man/ 6th starter and this guy fits the bill. If Floyd ONCE AGAIN sucks butt early in the season, look for Masset to take his spot in the rotation. If that happens Logan will be brought up. For once the bullpen has decent depth. KW did a really good job with this area of the team this offseason.. Im not worried about our pen, im worried about our SP. Just like everyone else of course.

According to Steve Stone. Most pitchers in ST go through a dead arm period. Explains that in a pitchers 3rd, 4th start in spring training, pitchers arms re-structure themselves where there arms aren't sore but the arms are re-gaining strength. He says this happens almost every spring training to even the best pitchers in the league. Im just trying to shine a little possitive light on a shaky Floyd performance.... Oh also he is the 5th starter we have to remember. El-duque had an ERA over 5 in our championship season but still won 10 games. If Floyd can win 9 and Danks can win 12 i'll be happy. Will that be enough to win a division... not so sure.

With all this talk surrounding the Cubs getting Roberts.. it would be even sweeter if KW landed him. Uribe, Richar, Anderson or Owens, and pitching prospect and I think you have a deal.. thats giving up a hell of a lot but your getting back a hell of a ball player and a true leadoff hitter. I listened to Hawk on the Mike North morning show last week and North asked Hawk "Why don't we hear the Sox being part of the Roberts sweepstakes?" Hawk replied with a "I'm not so sure that there not after Roberts"

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Mar 15, 2008 -> 10:35 PM) Uribe needs to take Alexei out to eat wherever he goes. He is soooo skinny! But damn he has a nice swing. Its good to see most of the guys out there today that are going to be in the starting lineup come opening day. Uribe looks pretty solid at 2b. Crede sacrificing home and making it safely was a great sign that he is indeed healthy. Lets start opening day already!

rotation set: Buerhle, Vazquez, Danks, Contreras, Floyd. Opening Series will likely start like this: @ Cleveland March 31: Buerhle vs Sabathia April 2: Vazquez vs Carmona April 3: Danks vs Byrd @ Detroit April 4: Contreras vs Willis April 5: Floyd vs Robertson April 6: Buerhle vs Verlander Home vs Minny April 7: Vazquez vs Bonser April 9: Danks vs Hernandez April 10: Contreras vs Liriano

This just means Buerhle will be the White Sox home opener starter...

Owens reached base 4 times today... and stole 2 bases... in a split squad game... Jerry Owens is my boy!!

Richar is going to start the season down in triple-a i think we all know that. But i am shocked to hear that Anderson might make the team over Quentin. Im guessing its because of his health... Watching the game yesterday, when Hawk was interviewing Cora during the game its almost as if Ozzie and Joey have already made a decision on the Starting 9: Owens CF Cabrera SS Thome DH Konerko 1B Dye RF Swisher LF Pierzynski C Crede/Fields 3b Uribe 2b Bench: Hall, Ramirez, Ozuna, Anderson (only if Quentin is NOT 100%)

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Mar 9, 2008 -> 09:17 PM) I think you mean Lowry. Because I'd take Cain in a heartbeat for Crede. KW is doing the smart thing by waiting. I think he is waiting for a team to offer a legit young starting pitcher to become our 5th-6th starter. Obviously were not getting Cain or Linecum for a 1 year of service Crede deal. But now that Lowry is gone would can the Giants offer? Im hearing Sanchez quite a bit. What do the dodgers have to offer? Will they part ways with Billingsley? I doubt it..... I actually wouldn't be suprised if KW tried to trade Crede for Lowe. They are both entering the final year in their contracts.. Everyone seems to think KW is going to trade Crede for young pitching.. Well if he can get a veteran starter like Lowe im sure he will be all over it. Crede-Floyd for Lowe and B level prospect? If you look at LA's starting rotation they have Penny, Lowe, Billingsley, Kuroda, Loaiza and Schmidt. They have 6 starters... hmmm Im just speculating of course.. but this seems like a KW type move to me.

QUOTE(knightni @ Mar 7, 2008 -> 04:56 AM) With Lowry out now, the Giants can't trade a pitcher though, unless it's a lower level guy. I hope they have fun with the crafty Rich Aurrilia manning 3b in 2008 If the Giants don't want to part ways with one of their starting 5 then sorry we must move on. Good job KW! Let them become even more desperate.. BTW isn't Vazquel out 2-3 months also? Hmm they can use Uribe AND Crede... crank up that offer SF...

Pauly is NOT going anywhere.

Nick Swisher is a gamer thats for sure. For him to go up to Ozzie and say "I can't stand to be losing these ST games" says an aweful lot. This dude cares, he has fun and he will make an imediate impact. He will be on Sportsnite tonight at 10:30 for an interview. That should be entertaining.

QUOTE(WilliamTell @ Mar 2, 2008 -> 11:57 PM) I'd rather have Crede play than Fields but if the Sox can get a good player or two then I'd say it's ok to trade Crede. If they don't have a deal that'll help the Sox in the future or now, then there's no reason to trade him. Chances are we wouldn't even be having this conversation if Crede didn't get injured or if Fields didn't hit 25 homers last year in roughly 100 games. Obviously it happened so the debate is warrented, but I feel more comfortable with Crede in the lineup still. I agree. Something is telling me that Crede is going to come back strong this season.. Crede is being a true professional about the whole contract situation. I really do hope the Sox can pull off a miracle and sign Crede to an extension as he is a Boras client...

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Mar 2, 2008 -> 11:32 PM) Cabrera and the Tigers are working on a long term deal and I doubt Dombrowski and the Tigers want to give up Miller and Mayban for a renta-player so I wouldn't put any eggs in the Miggy basket. As for trading Fields for a legit #3 starter, I've seen a few people mention this scenario on here before. But what team can you think of right now that would be willing to part with a top of the rotation starter in order to land Josh Fields? It's easy to just say that a team would be willing to make such a deal but can you actually come up with a plausible trade partner. Well first you would have to break it down to which teams absoultely NEED a 3b and the two teams that come to mind are San Fran and LA dodgers. The Giants have 2 guys behind Zito in Lincecum and Cain that can easily fit in to our #3 starter possition. However, I've read before that they were both 'untouchable' but as we know as baseball fans that statement only goes so far. Can Fields and Danks bring one of those guys over? Is that giving up too much? You figure your getting a guy in your rotation who can win 15-16 games and has similar stuff to Josh Beckett. He is also very young and you'll have contractual control over him for 3+ years at a cheap rate before he hits arbatration. Lincecum has nasty stuff as well but i dont think he has the potential to be as dominate as Cain can be. I would offer: Fields and Danks for Cain. OR Fields for Lincecum straight up. The Dodgers have Billingsley who also has great stuff. With LA's depth at SP i think they would pull a move off like this. You figure with Kent and Garciaparra getting older the Dodgers are going to start searching around for some youth in the infield. However, im just throwing names out there. Who knows what Kenny has in store for Crede or Fields... but im sure KW is wieghing ALL of his options at this point. You figure SP is our biggest weakness. And to win the central we are going need SP. We can't just hope Contreras rebounds, Danks takes a HUGE step forward and Floyd finds himself finally. The chances of 3 out of those 3 things happening are probably 20%. The chances of 2 of 3 happening are probably 50% and 1 of 3 66%.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Mar 2, 2008 -> 11:13 PM) Briggs tested free agency, something Crede and his agent are also set on doing. Your probably right. Especially with Boras as his agent. Is Lowry really the key to the Sox success? I dont think so, he would be a decent #5 in the AL central. The Sox NEED a legitimate #3 starter and I think you can get that by trading Fields as a centerpiece of a package. What happens if they do go that route and Crede decides to leave after 2008 also. So we spend one season with a one year veteran 3rd basemen and then go throw all your marbles at Miguel Cabrera via free agency after 2009. The Tigers havent signed him long term yet... kind of makes you wonder. Ozzie wants him on the Sox badly...

With all of this Crede being traded talk... i was thinking what if Kenny shocks us all and trades Fields? Crede keeps talking about how he wants to play the rest of his career here. What if hell freezes over and KW and Crede agree to an extension before the end of spring training? Obviously if he traded Fields, Crede would have to sign first.. But lets face it, we can get a lot more back by trading Fields than trading Crede at this point. Im just thinking waaaay outside the box... i know this probably most likely NOT happen. But hey if Briggs can re-sign with the Bears after all that leaving talk.. anything is possible.

I predict another 100 years of futility. In all seriousness the Cubs are in the worst division in baseball. The Cards are in in a re-tooling plan, the Reds and Pirates will suck again, the Astros might be a suprise the added K. Matsui and M. Tejada for some more offensive power to help Berkman and C. Lee. And the Brewers are still very young and im just not sold on Gagne being their closer. On paper the Cubs have the best team in the NL central. But we've seen them choke before and i wouldnt be surprised if it happened once again. Lets not forget that no Chicago baseball team has went to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons since the early 1900's. I wish the Sox were in the NL central.. what a pathetic division.

With Richar's visa issues and if Ramirez continues to shine, I wouldnt be suprised to see him as our starting 2b to start the year.. With Quentin/Owens, Hall, and Ozuna garunteed spots on the bench, that final bench spot would be between Anderson, Uribe and Richar. And since Ozuna, Owens/Quentin can all play OF i wouldnt be suprised if Uribe is not traded to add some more INF depth on the bench. Uribe doing what he did for the Sox when he first got here (INF bench guy) is a strong possibilty...

Yep that lineup is going to be sick this year... Our only hope to stay close with them is there suspect pitching. D-train will likely get rocked in the AL and Kenny Rogers seems to have lost a few steps with age. But i guess our rotation is kind of the same, except we have 3 quesiton marks not 2...

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3262747 I would have liked our Sox to get him but its not the end of the world. If we need it KW will go get a guy at the ASB. Kind of like how he aqcuired Freddy in 2004. If Milwaukee struggles this year, look for Sheets to be on his radar come the trade deadline.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Feb 20, 2008 -> 04:13 AM) Another thing to keep in mind: The 40 man roster is currently full, someone would have to be dropped in order for this to happen. (assuming it's a major league deal) No worries that will soon be resolved when the Sox trade Floyd, Uribe, Richar and more for Brian Roberts Hey a man can dream right? haha.

Signing Colon would be the equivalent to signing El-duque in 2005 IMO. HE came off a couple years of bad injuries but pitched respectable as a 5th starter and won 10 games... When El-duque had his shoulder soreness- McCarthy was ready to come up and pitch. I think Danks being the 6th starter and spending time in triple-a for some seasoning wouldn't be a bad thing. Im all for this move... its a minor risk worth taking.

QUOTE(R.J. @ Feb 19, 2008 -> 10:43 PM) I don't see anything wrong with waiting to trade Crede before the deadline. If Fields is a beast in Spring, then you probably just get what you can (2 single-A relief prospects!?!?!) for Crede. No contending teams are really in the position of needing a third baseman, so it won't be much. Buf in the situation you presented... If the Giants are offering us basically nothing (Noah Lowry) right now because Crede hasn't proven anything, then maybe you give him a couple of months time to play and hope he develops value. I understand Fields is ready, but I don't think anything he does will make this team more than a third place finisher. I wouldn't be against that idea. Keep Joe Crede until the ASB and see what has happened at that point. If the White Sox are in the race because of Crede than hold on to him. Will it stunt Fields' growth that bad for him to have one more season in triple-a? Are the White Sox really that much better with Noah Lowry in their rotation? I would like to see how the season unfolds before KW makes a deal with a team. What happens if an injury occurs? Or what happens if Richar struggles and we need a 2B? Crede can be that one chip the White Sox have to offer DURING the season if they chose to go that route. Buerhle said himself "Nobody is better than Crede at 3rd. He makes plays that every other average 3rd basemen cant make" So he is spoiled. A defense of Crede and Cabrera would be pretty impressive on the left side...