fathom

There was a report last night on the espndeportes website that Odalis Perez is interested in joining the Mets and Pedro Martinez. I haven't heard one thing about the White Sox being interested in Odalis.

I honestly dont think we were as close to getting Clement as many others think. No national source really said we were ever close to the lead. Rather, it was only the Tribune that stated reasons why he possibly would want to stay in Chicago. However, if you noticed, he did choose a team because of location...and it was Boston cause it was close to his hometown. Also, Clement mentioned the chance to win all of his years during his contract. I think the White Sox were hard pressed to convinced Clement we had a better team than Boston or Anaheim.

Schoenweis is not a MLB starting pitcher, period. He would not have an ERA under 5 in the AL as a starting pitcher. Not only that, his atttitude is piss poor. If KW gives him like a 3 million dollar contract, it would be the worst signing of the offseason in all of baseball. I can guarantee you that if we don't resign Schoeneweis, he wouldnt get more than like a million from a team to be a reliever.

Yep, it clearly seems to me that the Carlos trade was a salary dump to get within budget, and not to clear money for our potential moves. If the Sox had signed Clement, there's no doubt in my mind we would have traded someone like Konerko to get back within budget. I don't know when Sox fans got the idea we were going to have a payroll in the 75 million range. In just the last two days, we've spent nearly half the money resigning Uribe and Timo, and not to mention we're trying to lock up Rowand. That's where the money is going! IF Kenny Williams goes into spring training with Ben Davis at C, Willie Harris at 2b, and Jason Grilli or Schoeneweis at SP, I will not attend a single Sox game. KW has done nothing but make this team into a middle of the road franchise. When he took over, we were the up and coming organization that looked to have a decade of prominence set up.

With the rumors of a 4th team added to the whole RJ trade, I wouldn't be surprised if it dealt with Vazquez and Navarro going to the White Sox, and Konerko and Garland going to the Dodgers. The 4th team is a rumor, the White Sox involvement is purely my theory.

Timo's defense is flat out awful. His arm is solid, but his range is worse than almost everyone else in baseball....besides Carl Everett. Because of his terrible range, he has to play on the warning track for almost every hitter. With Rowand, Podsednik, Dye, Everett, Gload, and Escobar, we had absolutely no use for him. Terrible signing in my opinion, but thankfully it wasn't a multiyear deal. Money could have been spent much more effectively.

I'm getting the feeling now that KW is using the money saved by trading Carlos to sign the rest of the players to contract extensions from this team. If you think about it, the 6 million saved would likely be slotted for Uribe, Perez, Davis, and Burke.

I don't like this because it doesn't help give us another option in the outfield if we're facing a tough lefty. We would have been better off letting Escobar be our 5th outfielder, so he could face tough lefties instead of Podsednik in guys like Randy Johnson, Santana, and C.C. The million we spent on Timo could have helped out greatly in getting another infielder. You know this all boils down to the fact that Timo is one of Kenny's "guys". He has trouble letting go of guys that he brings in.

May I give this advice to Ozzie: If our lineup shapes up with Podsednik, and then either Uribe or Rowand, DONT HAVE THEM BUNT if Podsednik is on first base. We all saw last year how many times Ozzie had our players bunt in similar situations. With Podsednik, he has a very good chance at stealing 2nd base. With no outs, and him on 2nd, I would have less of a problem with Ozzie having Uribe bunt. However, there's no reason to give up an easy out with Uribe or Rowand, two of our most dangerous hitters.

If Ben Davis is our number 6 hitter, we're going to absolutely suck.

No offense, but I couldnt disagree with you more. Willie Harris has never proved that he can bunt for a sacrifice. Also, I feel that Rowand is very good at hitting the ball the opposite way. A big problem I've seen with Willie so far is that he doesn't hit the ball hard enough to get it through a hole on the right side. Rather, everything is a weak grounder to 2b.

1- A.J. Pierzynski 2- Miguel Cairo 3- Jerry Hairston Jr.

Tremendous potential signing. I think with the injury problems, we should look at making Jenks our closer for the future.

The Daily Southtown today said that not only are Sox trying to sign Rowand to a multiyear deal, but they're also trying to sign Timo to a multiyear deal. Why in the hell would we give Timo a multiyear deal? If KW was smart, he'd just save the money on Timo and use it to fill other holes. We have plenty of outfield options in the organization.

Something I love above Clement is that he's filthy against righty hitters. He would be a great addition to help shut down some of our yearly enemies like Mike Sweeney, Huntter, and Shannon Stewart. However, Clement struggles against lefties, so I don't like his chances facing a team like the Indians with Hafner and Victor Martinez.

Couldn't agree more with you. We already have too many question mark hitters on this team. We can't afford another one at catcher.

The Red Sox trying to enter the Milton bidding could be possible good news for the White Sox in regards to our chances at signing Clement. Who knows, trying to be optimistic!

The general manager's main responsibility is to put a contending team on the field while staying within a set budget and maintaining an equilibrium for the future of the franchise. Has KW achieved the goal of putting together a contending team? If you asked any non-biased expert, they would say right now that the Sox are an average team that would be picked to finish either 3rd or 4th in the AL Central. If KW really has maximized his budget already with this roster, then he failed at putting together this team. For two straight years now, the 5th starter has been our biggest downfall. However, he has done nothing to solve this problem. And anyone saying that Dustin Hermanson should start needs to realize that not only has he had a history of injury problems recently, but he also was unable to have an ERA under 4.5 last year in the National League in a monsterous pitcher's park. There's no chance he could maintain a 5 ERA next year as a starter. Hopefully, KW will add to this roster in the future to put a contending team on the field. If not, there's no way that Reinsdorf can justify keeping KW in the position where he hasn't produced a division champion in the worst division in baseball with the highest divisional payroll most years.

The one thing that keeps coming to mind with everyone hoping for a hometown discount is the following: HE WASNT ON THE WHITE SOX LAST YEAR! Yes, he would prefer to stay in Chicago. However, I'm not going to get my hopes up. Remember, this article was written by a Chicago writer who was trying to give reasons why Clement would possibly go to the Sox. I can't see someone like Clement turning down the Red Sox or Angels because of the pressure.

The last line in that article scares me about the biggest bidder. That sure seemed like agent talk as an excuse why Clement would choose the biggest bidder.

These late night rants are caused when people actually read what is being said by Sox management, and not by the rumor mills or the dreaded message board poster. All along, KW has stated the line about saving the money for the trade deadline. Well, we all jumped on the RJ, Clement, and other rumors thinking that the Sox were going to go all out for them. However, why in the world would we think that we could compete with offers made by powerhouse budget teams like Yanks, Red Sox, and Angels?

As it looks now, the Sox might not get the impact starting pitcher that all of us fans wanted them to sign, and KW might stick to his statement that they'll keep the money for later resources. The problem I have with this is that with the players we've lost recently (fan favorites of Lee and Maggs), combined with possible outrage by fans over KW not spending the money saved in the lopsided Carlos trade, the possibility of public relations problems between the Sox management and Sox fans is forseeable. I don't attended SoxFest, but I could only imagine what the Q & A would be like with KW if things stay status quo.

The PTBNL is not a major leaguer. The Brewers GM even said this.

I'm convinced that KW came up with the term grinder so he could sign cheap players and not get bashed by Sox fans for it. Tell me any grinder that makes more than 3 or 4 million a year? None...they're called talented players. I hope KW doesn't consider someone like Everett a grinder. He's a terrible defensive player that is injury prone...not exactly a grinder in my mind.

Polanco will be on the Cardinals..guaranteed. They have openings at 2b and SS, and I've seen nothing to suggest we're going after him. The only options I hear we may go after are Miguel Cairo or Alex Cora.