GreatScott82

QUOTE (kev211 @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 03:41 PM) In Kenny I trust. Best GM in town! No doubt about it.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 03:08 PM) Thats a lot coming from a thome boy I agree, although if Thome is ridiculously cheap due to good teams already having a DH.... and the fact that he can chase 600 in a HR-friendly park (while close to Peoria) Then maybe enough stars align for the Sox to take him and they can spend the savings elsewhere The Sox are in a possition right now where they may be better off signing Pods and Thome to 1 year deals and letting Dye walk. With guys like Jared Mitchell, Jordan Danks, Tyler Flowers and Dayan Viciedo waiting in the wings. If they do that you'll have Thome, Pods, AJ and Konerko coming off the books. THe only player out of that list i see coming back is Konerko. I'm hoping Viciedo will be ready for next season. If that happens we could perhaps center a package around Chris Getz for a young starter such as Zach Duke. I wouldn't mind this at all: Pods LF * Beckham SS Rios CF Thome DH * Konerko 1B * Quentin RF Pierzynski C* Ramirez 2B Viciedo 3B *= last year of deal. Peavy, Buerhle, Floyd, Danks, Duke= WOW!!!

If you could aqcuire Zach Duke for a package centered around Chris Getz you do it. Our rotation would be set for many, many years. Peavy, Buerhle, Floyd, Danks and Duke- thats simply amazing! KW still wants to get younger and if Viciedo plays very well in Fall Ball- bring him up! KW has done a great job this season showcasing his prospects and young talent. I truly believe we could aqcuire a young starting pitcher such as Duke w/o giving up Ramirez. With the depth of our farm- we could risk losing Chris Getz.

QUOTE (suicidesqueeze @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 02:39 PM) His cheap contract is what could net us a solid starting pitcher or 3rd baseman, IMO. Shed a little payroll here, a little there, and we're in the ballpark to add another piece... Ramirez is just a freak with the bat. I hate to lose that. Honestly we maybe able to get a solid starting pitcher for Chris Getz. Pittsburgh will likely be looking into adding a 2B this offseason after losing Freddy Sanchez. I would love to bring over Zach Duke. Ramirez is much more effective at 2B. You could move Beckham to SS and perhaps bring up Viciedo for 3B if he's ready. The thing is Viciedo will likely not be ready for 2010. Here is the latest Viciedo #'s from Double A Birmingham: In 422 at bats he is hitting: .277 with 10 HR, 63 RBI's with an OBP of .314. What worries me about Viciedo are his 77 strike outs. The good news is he has improved greatly since the start of the season and he is proving to be developing into a solid run producer. My question is can he play defense. If he can't than its simple- keep the infield the way it is.

After consuming all this payroll going forward, I highly doubt KW trades away one of his cheap talented players.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 02:04 PM) Pierre will earn $7.5 million next season, $8 million in 2008, $10 million each in 2009 and 2010, and $8.5 million in 2011. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2672676 Interesting that it's descending from this point on, and also surprised to learn Pierre is three days away from being 32. Thought he might be slightly younger. I really do think that last Thome or Dye spot will be replaced (whether in '10 or '11) by a power hitter. Thanks for those Pierre #'s. I guess if you could swap bad contracts i would do it. However, is Pierre that much better than what Pods has given us? As far as the 5th starter goes. . I would like KW to go out and get a young starter via trade. We have enough depth in the farm to make a deal for a guy like Zach Duke, Ross Ohlendorf, Johnny Cueto or Homer Bailey. Why not add to our strength which is the starting pitching. .

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 01:49 PM) It wouldn't surprise me to see KW try and trade Linebrink's bad contract for Juan Pierre's bad contract this offseason and put Pierre in LF Whats the current status of Pierre's bad contract?

Whose our 5th starter? Who will leadoff? If there will only be 15 million left to spend, then to me you have keep Thome because he will be shorter term and cheaper than Dye. If you could get Thome to sign for 5 million- spend the rest of the cash on Figgins. There is no way Figgins will earn more than 10 million/season. Unless a team out there is very stupid. Another area of concern is our bullpen. Tony Pena has show me nothing so far, Scott Linebrink is regressing at a rapid pace, Jenks appears to be slowing down. The only 2 consistent arms out of the pen this season has been Carassco and Thorton. How come Aardsma figured out how to pitch in Seattle and couldn't do it here?!?

Another thing we need to consider is positioning the OF. Left field is the easiest OF spot to play- and honestly Quentin isn't the best fielder out there. So to me Quentin should be in LF. That leaves RF open. Is it possibly that Dye AND Thome return to sigificantly less pay? Thome signs a 1 year deal and Dye signs a 3 year deal, meaning he'll play RF for 2010 then move to DH in 2011? Who will lead off then? KW has a lot of thinking to do. .

If JD decides to take pretty significant pay cut i'll take him over Thome for sure. The advantage we have with Thome is that he'll likely accept a super low salary $3-5 million just to end his career here and reach that 600 HR plateau. It will be a tough decision for KW to make. Do we want a long term DH with Dye for like 3 years or do we sign Thome to a 1 year deal giving KW more flexibility financially. .

The bullpen of a .500 team. The defense of a .500 team. Hell we are a .500 team!! If we don't improve in those areas we will not make the playoffs. With or without Peavy and Rios.

Come on Pierogi king! Lets tie this b**** up. We need a comeback win!

SHIBBBBBBY!!!!!!!!! Hell yeah! A real CF!!!!

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Aug 10, 2009 -> 01:07 PM) With the risk of being stuck with $60 million over five years, this simply isn't just a block. Sure, it might be a secondary reason, but the primary reason is the Sox wanting Rios. Although, I have a strong feeling tomorrow passes and we don't have Rios. Riccardi is clearly in a bind, he wants to dump him, but he also wants to get a prospect. My best guess is that he simply holds onto him, hopes he finishes off the year strong and builds up his value into an off-season trade. If Riccardi does what you are guessing he does, then the Blue Jays would likely have to include a nice chunk of money back in such a deal. Toronto simply does not want to do that. I'm guessing Rios is a member of the Chicago White Sox come tommorow at noon.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 9, 2009 -> 06:45 PM) I would guess the odds are about 85/15 against offering Dotel arbitration, so we won't get any picks there. Contreras and Thome will definitely not be offered arbitration...and JD's situation is the biggest question mark for 2010. Figgins will undoubtedly be a Type A FA, correct? So that would mean two lost draft picks...depending on the team that signed him, other FA losses for the Angels (Vladdy, Abreu, etc.), the cost alone for the contract is a huge risk, then figuring in the loss of a couple of higher draft picks, it's just not worth it. If it was Chone Figgins at 26-27 years old and coming into the prime of his career (like Rios), you pull the trigger. In this case...no. All good points. . What about leadoff? Do we dare to bring Pods back? I guess he's a good 1 year stop gap while we are waiting for Jordan Danks or Jared Mitchell.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 9, 2009 -> 05:56 PM) Even if you grab Rios, you still only have 2 obvious starting OF's. With the 3rd hopefully being Figgins to round off our lineup.

Ken Rosenthal's take "Yet, the teams that like Rios — and the White Sox have had a longstanding interest in him — are enamored with his 30-home run, 30-stolen base potential and ability to play center field." 30 SB's, 30 HR potential? where have you been!!! "The Jays cannot look at this opportunity in the traditional sense. They will be criticized in some quarters if they receive a minimal or no return for Rios, but who cares? This would be a "trade" with a different kind of gain" Like I said, Riccardi cannot botch this oppurtunity.

Were stuck with Contreras the rest of the way. I hate to say it but it is what it is.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 9, 2009 -> 05:00 PM) That's what I'd do if I were in that seat. Or at least, when Tuesday rolls around, I'd drop my asking price for Rios to something KW might accept. There is no way Riccardi botches this oppurtunity to clear that much payroll. Esspecially after the Halladay embaresment. I'm guessing Rios will come here for 2 middle level prospects. Get this done KW!! Finally a CF who could play solid defense and actually hit the ball!! Oh how we've been craving this for far too long. . .

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Aug 9, 2009 -> 12:43 PM) It’s bouncing around the net (Baseball Prospectus has a mention about it) that the Jays are strongly considering just giving Rios and his salary over, without any moves in return. Apparently, they’d like to work something out, but haven’t ruled out simply making it a straight waver claim. So, nothing really new to report, but the story has legs. Call me crazy but i think Rios will be a member of the Sox by Tuesday.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Aug 9, 2009 -> 11:44 AM) Both sides have to agree to pick up the $12M option. If Dye is willing to come back for 1 year at $12M and the Sox think the same of him then the option can be exercised and he'll be under contract for another year at $12M. However, this almost never happens since usually one side doesn't agree that the player is worth the exact value of the option on a 1 year deal. I really can't see how Jermaine Dye is worth $12M in this economy given that he's pretty much a DH at this point in his career and someone like Thome is probably looking at ~$6M next season and is outproducing Dye right now and Bobby Abreu (who it also can be argued is a more valuable player than Dye) just signed a 1 year, $5M deal this past offseason. The more i am reading this thread, the more i am leaning toward keeping Thome over Dye. Thome would want nothing more but a 1 year deal for like 5 million. You could use that extra 7 million to sign Figgins for LF. I'd take Thome AND Figgins over just Dye. If we get Rios this year we have an OF of Figgins, Rios and Q which isn't too shabby. You would have Thome, PK and AJ off the books after 2010 leaving even more flexibility for KW.

QUOTE (black jack @ Aug 9, 2009 -> 11:00 AM) Didn't the Sox save a ton of cash last offseason with the dumping of Javy(10), Swish(6-7?), Joe(5), the crazy SS(8-9?)? That in itself has paid for Peavy and Rios (if he comes). Then with the departures of Dye, Thome, and the Count there's still lot's of money to sign a lead off man and a quality 5th starter. Yep there is finally some spending cash. Lets not forget that AJ and PK are off the books after 2010 so thats another 18 million. If KW doesnt aqcuire Rios, he could definitley go after one or even two top tier free agents this winter.

QUOTE (kev211 @ Aug 9, 2009 -> 02:55 AM) He isn't allowed to say he made the claim, or if he didn't make the claim. Your not allowed to speak about it to the media. KW is doing what he has to do just tip toe around the questions. Ding Ding Ding! We have a winna!!! Here is what i think happened. KW knows he needs to find a true CF (im sure he's tired of all the CF criticism.) He looks at the Free Agent market and doesn't really see a true CF that would help our team. KW woke up one morning saw that Detroit claimed Rios. He said "I dont think so. . we need a CF!" So KW claimed Rios. This solves our defensive CF issue for 5+ years. We have potentially 40 million off the books after this season. So most of that 40 million would be going to arbitration players such as Q and Danks as well as newcomers Rios and Peavy. But it could definitley work and i expect a deal to get done by tuesday. We would still have enough money to bring in Figgins or even re-sign Pods.

QUOTE (WSoxMatt @ Aug 8, 2009 -> 10:57 PM) His contract is worth LESS in Canada, he should want to come here All he has to do is approve a trade . And i highly doubt he would reject a deal where he goes to a hitter friendly ballpark.

QUOTE (Hanky Panky @ Aug 8, 2009 -> 05:06 PM) To tell you the truth, I want Thome. I like Dye a lot, but I think Thome serves better as an on base machine when he's not hitting HRs. Plus, he's left-handed. I would love Thome to get his 600th HR here but honestly we need to think more long term. Dye fits that bill better. He could still play a decent RF which would give Ozzie more flexibility. I expect Dye to sign a 3 year deal worth about 6-8 million/season which would be a bargain with his production.