fathom

I have a sick feeling right now that KW is not going to spend the money that was saved in the Carlos trade. Rather, a thought that has bothered me is that the Sox were over budget before the trade, and the move was made to get back within budget. The Sox would never come out and say they needed to trim payroll from last year, but it's not out of the realm of possibility, especially after KW said on the radio the other day that they Sox had lost money the last two years.

If I had to choose between landing A.J. for like 2 yrs/8 mil, or adding Randy Johnson while having to trade Garland, Sweeney, Marte, and another prospect, I would much rather have A.J. The main reason being is that the A.J. move would fill a hole, while the RJ move would not and deplete the frachise in the future.

Exactly! If the guys say they have an issue with him, then he won't be here, plain and simple. However, at least it sounds like we're going to give ourselves a chance at adding someone who could fill a gigantic hole on this team. I know I'd be a lot more confident with a bottom of the order that include A.J. over Ben Davis.

If Sox signed A.J., I'm sure we'd then sign Burke to be his backup. Then, Burke can continue to be Buehle's personal catcher, something that worked well last year. Burke's right handed hitting would help a lot vs guys like C.C. and Santana.

I think it's great news if the Sox are going to talk with A.J. about his attitude, etc. This at least means they're interested, and I'm sure A.J. will likely tell them what they want to hear. I would be just as happy to get A.J. as I would a starting pitcher because A.J. plays about 80 pct of the games, while a starting pitcher would participate in no more than about 20 pct of the games. He'd be a significant upgrade over anything we've had at catcher in a long, long time.

Well, if we're not going to give our pitchers a lot of run support, I'd rather have a guy like Clement who can shut down the opposition than someone like Schoeneweis or Grilli who you are happy with if they give up 4 runs in 6 innings.

Schoeneweis with 12 wins as a starter? I thought that Schoeneweis proved last year that he's not reliable enough to be a starter. He's effective vs lefty hitters but when you start a game, the other team can stack their lineups with righties. I would love to see KW non-tender Schoeneweis.

I don't want anything to do with RJ or Vazquez now. We're not in the position to create more holes than filling them with any trade we make.

You can't tell me that we couldn't use a package of Garland, Marte, and some high prospect (not Sweeney, Anderson, or McCarthy) to try and trade for Tim Hudson. Huson is much less of a risk than RJ, and he's likely to be here longer than RJ.

If the Sox don't bring A.J. in, I don't think it's cause of his attitude. Rather, it's cause of the money that would be involved in bringing him in. Recent acquisitions didnt exactly come in with the greatest of reputations either...Garcia, Everett, R. Alomar, Ben Davis.

If we do sign him at about 10 mil a year, I have a feeling that someone like Marte or even possibly PK should get their bags packed and be on the lookout for a trade. We would be like 5 mil over budget already, and would still need like 5 million more to fill out the rest of our roster.

Oh lord, this is making this too confusing for my psyche. I would love Clement on the Sox, but 10 mil a year over 3 for him is insane. Considering he has no experience pitching in the AL, I would rather the Sox now sign Lowe for like 7 mil a year if they could get him for that much. Almost makes you wish we went balls out like this for Pavano and just offered him 4/48.

At least if he's not going to choose the White Sox, he's going to down it sooner rather than later so KW can pursue other pitchers.

If this was all it took to get Ginter, I would have liked to see KW give up Adkins in the trade to get Ginter also. I'm really concerned about our 2b position, especially against lhp.

8 mil is too high for Lowe, but if you want to sign a respectable pitcher like Clement, Odalis, or Lowe, it's going to end up costing you about 24 mil over 3 years....if not more for Clement. I honestly have a very hard time seeing KW spend this much money on a pitcher. He's fooling himself if he thinks he can get one for 5-6 mil a yr.

Schoeneweis wants to start in the majors, I don't think he'd agree to arbitration if he knows that they want him as a reliever. In today's market, he stands to make more money as a crappy starter than a solid reliever. Also, I thought that Ozzie hated Schoeneweis last year, and that Schoeneweis had some injury problems.

I disagree that Vizcaino can come in and replace Marte in the role of lefty hitter stopper. Look at some of the better lefty hitters in our division. Guys like Hafner, J. Jones (if he's still there), and Joe Mauer hit significantly better against rhp than they do lhp. Yes, Vizcaino can be tough vs lefties, but Marte is one of the best 3 lefty relievers in baseball.

I didn't say that the Carlos trade created more holes for the Sox. It just infuriated me that the particular trade didnt help the Sox out by obtaining a middle infielder, catcher, or starting pitcher. Now, I know the money saved could go to a starting pitcher...but I'll believe that when it happens. Also, there's quite a big downgrade in talent from Marte to Cotts or Schoeneweis. Even in his down year last year, Marte was still lights out against lefties. Another thought I have about RJ is that it makes a lot more sense for the Yanks to get him than the Sox cause the Yanks are basically one stud pitcher away from being the favorite to win the WS. Rather, the Sox need RJ to even have a solid shot at winning the division.

Hidalgo is a lot younger than Everett, he has the potential to have a monsterous season, and the difference in their defensive abilities is night and day. Don't forget the fact that we have no clue what type of shape Everett is in, and that he's very injury prone.

Isn't it sad how so many of us are terrified as the type of moves that KW might do? To say a lot of us have no confidence in him would be quite the understatement. Just like the Carlos trade, there's one main reason why this trade would suck....it creates more holes than it fills. Only KW could go and take 2 of his biggest assets in Carlos and Rowand and not fill any of our holes, which are plentiful.

I've seen a lot of rumors and personal opinion on this board lately (it's been a great time though), and the following is a list of things I don't think will happen: - Sox sign A.J. Pierzynski....I haven't seen one source mention that the Sox are interested, and I doubt after articles like the Cowley one today will the Sox be in a hurry to add a questionable clubhouse character. - Sox sign Orlando Cabrera.....Not a chance in hell that KW spends like 8 mil a year to get a SS who is not nearly as good as Juan Uribe. Miguel Cairo or Jerry Hairston Jr. would be much better fits for the Sox, and much cheaper - Sox keep A. Rowand in any Randy Johnson deal. Don't kid yourself folks, there's no interest by anyone in obtaining Everett. Hell, we were hoping he wouldn't activate his player option this year. Rowand would be at the core of any trade we would make.

Neal won't be a starting pitcher in the majors. He only has one pitch that he can count on, and his control is not consistent enough to last 5 innings. Even in the minors, he would only average like 5 innings a start because of control issues. Cotts is effective because of his unique delivery, etc. However, that type of delivery is more effective because hitters only see it once a game when he pitches in relief. Also, Cotts benefits by pitching in relief cause he gets to face more lefties than if he started a game against a set lhp lineup.

The DBacks already have one butcher of an outfielder in Luis Gonzalez on their roster, no way would they want Everett on their roster also. They need a CF, and obviously Everett is not a CF. So anyone that thinks this deal would be Everett, and not Rowand, is 99.9 pct wrong.

If KW is really interested in trading our top prospects like Sweeney, then he would be much better off trying to use an asset like him to acquire the type of 2b that Oakland wants for Tim Hudson. A possible 4 years of Hudson will be a lot more valuable than one to two years of Randy.

According to rotoworld, Matt Clement was in Arizona visiting with the DBacks yesterday. Well, according to the MJH, they thought that KW was calling from Arizona. It's very likely that KW was talking with Clement or Clement's agent then. However, there is also news that he will visit the Angels and Dodgers this week, with the Angels being a serious contender to sign him.