Frank the Tank 35

If the Sox traded Crede for one of the Angel's pitchers, I could see KW persuing someone like Wells to re-invigorate the offense after the loss of Crede and to transfer the rookie offensive liability from center to third (where Mack at least makes sense in a platoon).

Roto:

Roto:

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Dec 5, 2006 -> 06:05 PM) I love Burgos, and the Royals would be idiots to let him go. Wonder what we could give up to get involved in those talks...

Roto:

Philly fans are all over this rumor. There is even a general consensus that Rowand + one of those pitchers is not enough to get it done. That can only mean this trade is utterly bogus. Can someone say posturing the Phils against the Mets?

Hopefully this is a case of a misinterpretted, fuzzy phonecall. :crinkle fuzz: Rowllinzand Madson :crinkle pop: -Levine on the other end: "Oh, of course! Rowand and Madson! Naturally, I've been saying it all along!"

Competition from the D'backs, from Rotoworld:

Let me make a run-down of the leadoff options so far this offseason: 1. The incumbant Podsednik. He sucks, why did we resign him, waste of money, resembles a young Peter Pan, etc. 2. Crawford. (or Baldelli) Oh we can't trade away pitchers, we certainly can't sign or trade for any in the future, boo BOO this player who is hardly better than Podsednik. I guess I'd trade Heath Philips and Boone Logan for him... well, maybe not Philips. 3. Figgins. Oh, he's exactly like Pods except he could possibly play better OF, he totally sucked last year and he's going to start making more money (which we certainly don't have), but we can't trade Crede anyway cuz he's the best EVAR or any player from our roster for that matter, each one will bounce back and have crazy awesome years or get even better than last year, whichever option is more optimistic. 4. Pierre, Roberts, Lugo, etc. We're poor! POOR, I say! Bah-humbug! 5. Rollins. Ahh, look at that piss-poor OBP. Gosh, I hate good ss's who hit homers and steal bases while maintaining decent averages. Why oh why can't every single player on the Sox have great averages, OBP, and OPS while being lightning quick and having a thunder bat? Jeez, I don't think that's tooo much to expect. 6. Random high OBP guy/platoon. Speed, we have to have SPEED. Any and all worthwhile lead-off hitters have the burn, duh. I will conveniently cover the OBP% with my finger on stat pages for most leadoff hitters yet demand that they have AT LEAST a .400 OBP. 7. Ryan Freel. What a piece of garbage, character issues, can't hit lefties, can't play every day. If there was a poo-poo button I would press it... now. 8. Raphael Furcal. OK, all sarcasm aside, this is actually someone that people are, for the most part, in agreement about. The problem is he is in no way available. Now back to the sarcasm... We can't give up Dye!! He's a lock to win MVP next year, no doubt .330/.433/1.274!!!! AND he'll totally resign here for 3 years/ $24 mil because of his great character and all. I'm pretty sure he rescues small dogs, kittens, and other assorted adorable animals on offdays. 9. Ichiro. Ok, general agreement here too, but so very unlikely. Seems like the only way everyone's gonna be happy is if we trade fringe prospects for Ichiro. For all the people who flew off the handle when we signed Pods, what exactly would you prefer?? Something's gotta give, ppl. Quit your sissynannying and realize Kenny's not gonna be able to pull a quality leadoff hitter out of his ass in this market. We're either going into the season with Pods, or KW is gonna have to give up something(s) REAL good.

ESPN.com's winter meetings grid: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/hotstove06/n...tory?id=2684334 Gammons thinks Garland or Freddy might get traded. Jayson Stark thinks Freddy's going to the Angels. Jerry Crasnick has Freddy going to he Rangers or Padres. Phil Rogers thinks Joe Crede to the Angels. Gammons and Steve Phillips say, "Don't underestimate the White Sox."

QUOTE(iamshack @ Dec 4, 2006 -> 12:30 PM) Possibility: Garcia and Jerry Owens to Seattle for C Jeff Clement and George Sherrill Prediction: Goes This is the most awful trade I've heard all off-season.

lol The video of him on that site conveniently leaves out one pitch...

Rotoworld: Well there goes that option...

Off the market: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2682749 Back to Giants for about $14 mil over 2 years.

It was on an ESPN "Breaking News" segment. I was hoping the Braves would snatch him up, putting the Mets in an even more dire situation regarding their rotation.

Flash, please indulge me as to how we'd be able to get MCab while the Angels, certainly more prospect equipped than us, would settle for Crede. I'm not patronizing, I'm just curious. Believe me, any deal for MCab, far-fetched as it may be, gets my attention. Outside of Pujols, who will never be available, I think MCab is quickly growing into the best hitter in the league. Is it your opinion that the Angels lack the OF prospect depth to accommodate the Marlins' needs? That seems like a rather easy hurdle. Or is it that Stoneman refuses to "overpay" with the necessary talent? Can you envision this scenario (and I know I'm indulging something like a fantasy)?: Crede+Garcia for Santana+Figgins+Mathis(or whomever) Vaz for Milledge+Heilman(or prospect) Milledge+Fields+Anderson(or Sweeney)(+Broadway?) for MCab It would leave us short on the minor league pitching depth (like we currently are), but Heilman or Haeger could be emergency starters. It also kinda leaves us in a bind regarding Dye's expiring contract, but there will probably be a nice selection of OFers available next offseason. So if we sign Jose Guillen (with either Anderson or Sweeney splitting time to stave off his injuries), we could have a team like: Figgins Iguchi MCab Dye Thome Konerko AJ Guillen Uribe Buerhle Contreras Santana Garland BMac Haeger Aardsma Heilman MacD Thornton Jenks Sweeney/Anderson Mathis Mack/Ozuna Gload Cintron Yeah, that's too perfect to happen. Marlins might want more, perhaps a 1B since Jacobs was a dud last year. Gload probably wouldn't be good enough, maybe we'd have to try to get Kotchman from the Angels too. We'd only have to be concerned with resigning Mark to keep the rotation intact after '07. We wouldn't be improving our minor leagues (which would be pretty barren), but our major league club would be younger and improved. That certainly looks like a WS team to me. Alright, back to reality...

Rotoworld: Seems like the scrubs are getting $8 mil per year.

From Rotoworld: I'm kinda shocked. Hopefully the rest of the available pitchers get some big $ to keep the value of our SP's up.

Update:

From Rotoworld: In typical Orioles fashion, they've absolutely picked the best offseason to stock up their middle relief.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Nov 22, 2006 -> 12:23 PM) I'd much rather find a way to get a bunch of chips and go after a Vernon Wells or Torri Hunter. God, can you imagine the amount of money Hunter will get next year. That is if the market is the same in 07 as it is in 06. Two ways to think about it: 1. It doesn't look like we'll be signing any free agents to any significant amount of money, so we should have some extra cash to extend someone in their last year if we traded for him. However, given the contracts of this offseason, I'd guess most players a year away from FA would want to test the market. 2. Here's some of the possible outfield FA's after next year: Dye, Ichiro, Abreu, A. Jones, Hunter, V. Wells, Dunn, Bradley, Cameron, Patterson, TIMO PEREZ In addition to some of the other possible FA's: Castillo, M. Giles, Kent, Inge, Lowell, Barrett, Lo Duca, Posada, I-rod, Nathan, Rivera, Wickman, Isringhausen, Hoffman, (Buerhle), D. Davis, K. Rogers, F. Cordero, Linebrink, Carpenter, Colon, (Freddy), L. Hernandez, Smoltz, C. Zambrano, C. Guillen, M. Young I'd think most of these players, after seeing the market this year, would be hesitant to sign reasonable extensions with their current teams. If most of these players hit the market next year, it's possible the market would deflate due to all the talent, especially in the outfield, that would be available. I really can't see KW signing anyone to an inflated contract this offseason, so I'd guess that this would be the more likely route.

$50 million/ 5 years http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6198342

Rosenthal giving DD and the Sox some praise: Good scouting by the White Sox, who added right-handed reliever Dewon Day to their 40-man roster just one year after selecting him from the Blue Jays in the minor-league portion of the Rule 5 draft. Day, 26, pitched only 161/3 innings at Class A in 2005, missing much of the season due to elbow-ligament transplant surgery. He held opponents to a .199 batting average and averaged 11.7 strikeouts per nine innings with Class A Winston-Salem Class A last season. http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6196916

If the deal was just straight up Garcia + prospects, then hell yes. It would be a raping. What it would probably cost, ie multiple major league parts, might be overpaying. At this time last year, his numbers were more pedestrian. Last year at this time would you have traded Garcia and one of our best prospects for Wells? Mmm... maybe, but just barely. Sure in '06 his OPS for CF only trailed Beltran and Sizemore. But in '05, Brady Clark and David DeJesus had higher OPS numbers.

Wells has had up and down seasons. In '06 it was up, but would you want to risk our biggest trading chips this offseason for a chance at replicating that? He's basically had 5 full years in the majors after short appearances in the 3 previous. In his 3 down years ('02, '04, '05), he averaged about a .272/.320/.785 line. In his 2 up years ('03, '06), he averaged about a .310/.358/.905 line. Given the market for FA's this season and his stats last year, I can't see him accepting an extension worth less than $15 mil/season. Hey, if the Sox brass think we can afford it, then I'm all for it. You have to take chances to be the champ, and this is one that could pay off big time. Realistically though, it doesn't look feasible.