fathom

On chicagosports.com, there's an article that states that Grilli will likely go into spring training with the 5th spot his to lose... :fyou KW. Also, it says that Ben Davis will definitely be offered abritration. I can't see the Sox spending like 1.5 million on Davis and also offer A.J. Pierzynski like 3.5 million a year. Looks like another disaster of a season waiting too happen if you ask me. Please, will any true Sox fan not believe KW's bulls*** if he says that they're saving money for June/July. If you really want to make your team better, you play for the whole season, and not just half the season. We can't trust KW to make good trades anyway. The Sox could be 5 games out, and I'm sure he'd still look to trade Sweeney, Anderson, or McCarthy for some 35 year old injury plagued outfielder.

With the absolute s*** that KW has done to this team the past few years, why should we not b**** about it? He's the laughingstock general manager of the baseball world. And you think things are bad now? Wait until the Cubs sign Beltran in a month.

The Brewers will absolutely not trade Ben Sheets. They're under new management, and they have the farm system in place where they will have a solid squad in a few years. Their GM has been on record as saying that Sheets is untouchable. I guarantee you they'll resign him to a 4 yr, 40 mil contract sometime this year.

Exactly why there was no reason to waste the million on Timo. Backup outfielders are incredibly easy to sign for the minimum also if need be. It would have been much wiser to spend the million on a 2nd baseman like Cairo or Grudz (Polanco and Cabrera will cost too much).

Am I the only one who's baffled that Grilli is being considered for the 5th starter slot after he posted a 7.40 ERA last year for the Sox? Not only that, but I remember him getting out of a ton of jams in those outings. He could have easily had an ERA in the 10 range.

I totally agree with you that those 3 moves would make this offseason an absolute success. We didn't get Clement, so it's time to move on. I just would be more confident if I knew that KW wanted to spend the money from the Carlos trade.

I hope any of the foolish posters that state they wouldn't mind Grilli or Schoeneweis also realize who 2 of our other 4 starters are to begin with. Maybe if we had the Cubs top 4 in their rotation, we could risk a number 5 starter who not a lot would be expected from. However, Garland and Contreras are no better than 4 or 5 starters themselves. Every game that Contreras pitches, you never know if he'll make it out of the first inning. And we all know the tribals and tribulations of Jon "Judy" Garland. On a team with inferior players starting like Willie Harris, Ben Davis, and Joe Crede, this type of rotation will not work. Our offense will not be nearly as good as it was for the first part of last year. Sometimes it really seems that KW has a plan...but it's just ignorant. All these players that he says he has his eye on (Schoeneweis, Hermanson) aren't exactly good major leaguers.

According to the article, they don't trust Zambrano to stay healthy the entire year, and might look to move him to the bullpen. The Mets seem to be going after every free agent, wouldn't shock me to see Odalis come down to Mets, Angels, and Marlins.

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!