fathom

A.J. is married...to a very pretty woman. I've personally seen his wedding photos.

So we have our catchers for the season. KW now has to find a middle infielder and another starting pitcher. He's saved like 9 million over the last two weeks. I guess the rest of the offseason will prove to us what the motive was for the Carlos trade. Prove me wrong KW.

4th place, here we come! The funniest thing about that article was KW saying we have a solid pitching staff from top to bottom. Everyone does realize that Grilli had a near 5 ERA in the minors last year, right?

We need a middle infielder that we can count on to hit lefties. Cora has rarely played against lhp during his career. I would have no problem with Cora being our 2nd baseman, with Willie out of the picture. However, having Cora be Willie's back-up makes no sense.

Not many teams are going to compete for the playoffs when you have the worst catching core in the majors, one of the worst starting 2nd baseman, a below average 3rd baseman, inconsistent 3 and 4 starters, and the worst number 5 starter in the league. KW sure is a terrible general manager.

In terms of being a back-up, there's no doubt in my mind that Burke is better suited for it than Davis. First, Burke has a very short swing, while Davis has an enormously long swing which is important because if you only play once every 4 days or so, you're not going to be able to maintain a rhythm at the plate. Look at how s***ty Daubach was off the bench because of how long his swing was. Also, Davis is not much of a righty hitter, which is important because if we signed someone like A.J., then we would still need someone who could face the likes of Randy Johnson. Burke is a much better option than Davis at making contact in crucial situations, etc. Also, I don't think we should keep 3 catchers at all. We have some old guys on our team who aren't exactly speedy. We need to have guys on the bench who can pinch run or bunt in crucial situations.

Yes, Ben Davis will not sign for more money than he was making last year. The main reason we didn't tender him was because we would have had to pay him more than we wanted. By non-tendering him, we can sign him to a lesser deal. However, if we were to sign someone like A.J., I think Burke makes a much better back up player.

I firmly believe the troubles of this offseason were caused by terrible moves that KW made last year with regards to trades made during the season. Currently, we're saddled with paying 10 million dollars for Contreras and Everett next year. Now, Contreras is so inconsistent, and 6 million should be spent on someone that's not a good candidate to be taken out of the game during the first inning. Then, the 4 million on Everett is a bigger problem for the Sox because there's a likely scenario where he would be a bench player for the Sox. Since when did a mild payroll team have 4 million dollar bench players? If KW doesn't get fired after this season (barring a playoff team), then he might as well build a statue of himself behind center field for being the luckiest man in history.

Alex Cora doesn't solve the Sox holes in the middle infield: a 2b player that we can play against tough lefty pitchers. Cora is decent against lhp, but that still means he'd be at a great disadvantage against guys like Johan and C.C. Of course, anything is better than Willie though, and if we signed Cora, he'd very likely end up being the starting 2b...which is fine by me. Cora doesnt strike out much, plays good D, and can handle the bat well.

KW never ceases to amaze me. If KW was really interested in A.J., he should have been on a plane to meet him the first day he cleared waivers.

it said 8:22 pm on the espn board. I'm saying it's b.s.

Just looked up the rumor on the board, doesn't seem very legitimate. Says he heard it on fox sports radio, but we would have heard something by now. The post was started like 3 hours ago.

We just saved nearly 2 million dollars on Schoeneweis and his whiny attitude. I'm just as happy with this move as I am with anything else that has happened this offseason.

Can we change the headline so it doesnt look like he signed with the Sox? I thought that's what it meant when I first clicked on it....thankfully they didnt.

Wade Miller will want a multiyear deal, and we know how JR feels about giving multiyear deals to pitchers who he thinks will have injury issues. I don't think there's any chance we go after Miller. However, maybe this will open the door up for Odalis to not be the focal point of the bidding war.

Miller has major injury issues after last year. I can't see KW going after someone who wants a lot of money but is an injury risk.

When I first read the report, I thought it said it would be good news for Sox if he announced tonight. So basically, it sounds like we haven't offered him yet. Wouldnt surprise me at all.

The fact we haven't heard anything about players being offered arbitration shows there could be something going on with A.J. Oh well, a man can dream!

I think the reports of A.J. signing anywhere soon are false because he would be much better off waiting until Varitek signs somewhere. If Varitek left Boston, he could get a nice contract offer from them.

Are we sure that it's not just a poster on WSI that saw the thread on this site, and wanted to start it on that site? That seems like the likely scenario.

I've honestly never heard of a team that saves that much money for a deadline deal. It sounds like a bunch of BS, if you ask me. However, the heat will definitely be on KW if he doesn't spend that money. If he refuses to sign anyone else this off-season, I would be willing to guarantee that he gets fired after this year. I'm confident this current team won't make the playoffs, and that's the only way he can keep his job (making playoffs).

We also didn't win with Willie, Crede, Uribe, Rowand, etc., etc. Getting rid of one power hitter was excusable, but you can't have an offense where you have to rely on mediocre to average MLB players to have career years in order to just have a sufficient offense.

I have to say that when 3 or more different respectable sources report the same thing, it's a lot more than just another stupid message board rumor. I don't trust the White Sox official that told Levine that the Sox aren't involved in the deal. Also, anyone that doesn't think Garland wouldnt be included in the trade is nuts. Dodgers need like 3 starting pitchers to complete their rotation.

Did the Score say that Konerko would be traded for 3 players, or would Vazquez be traded for 3 players from the Sox?

Qwerty: I agree with you, I think Cabrera sucks. However, he's definitely the type of guys that Ozzie/KW seem to have a hard-on for these days. However, I personally feel that any move which makes Willie Harris a reserve is a good move.