South Side Fireworks Man

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 7, 2010 -> 08:13 PM) ^ See poll. I think Kotsay is a good bat off the bench and good for an occasional start at first, not a starting DH in the 5 hole. I agree that Kotsay is a good guy to have on the bench. He's shown to be an effective pinch-hitter coming in cold off the bench and plays a pretty good defensive 1B as a backup. He used to be an excellent defensive outfielder and can still be used to back-up the corner OF spots and maybe even CF in a pinch. But having him as a DH is a joke and batting him fifth in the order is worse.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 01:02 PM) Especially, when he has trouble naming any of the players. LOL! "Kaminsky Park" Ugh! From the Sun-Times: President Barack Obama not quite a White Sox expert

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 17, 2010 -> 04:49 PM) Lyons said apparently Ozzie asked the players who the best CF was and they said Jones. I guess Ozzie would have to ask the players about who is the best CFer with Ozzie's track record on centerfielders. Oz has shown that he has little eye for talent as far as CF defense is concerned.

QUOTE (Ken Harrelson @ Mar 14, 2010 -> 04:05 PM) Nix' 900+ OPS and .350 average is very disappointing. good one ozzie you dumb s***. mercy. Ozzie has a great eye for talent. Remember, he's the only on who noticed Dewayne Wise's tremendous ST last year.

So Walker is penciling in the DH for the ninth spot in the lineup. What team that expects to contend in the AL goes into the season expecting whomever their DH is to be batting ninth? Shows me at least Walker doesn't have much confidence in Jones/Kotsay/Vizquel/Nix DH either despite what Ozzie says.

Sign Leslie Anderson and hope he's the 2010 version of Tadahito Iguchi?

@ $8M for one year, Tigers overpaid. Let them have him at that price.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 05:35 PM) No one thinks higher of him than I do. I just think it would be hard to give up ALL of your remaining prospects for him while agreeing to an 8 year or so extension without it having a huge impact on the shape of the organization. I still believe that we wouldn't beat out Boston for his services, but that's a different argument. What if the Sox offered Beckham for AGon straight up (or including lesser prospect on both sides)?

QUOTE (b-Rye @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 04:43 PM) "ESPN.com's Buster Olney hears that Scott Boras wants two things from the Tigers. First, he's asking them to remove all deferred money from the one-year $7MM deal they have offered. Second, he wants the Tigers to add a second year (Twitter links)." And now we see why KW was smart to pull his offer. Now the Tigers feel no pressure to meet these demands. When they say "No" Damon can either take their $7M offer or have Boras tell the Sox that if they put their $6M back on the table he'll sign immediately.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 04:41 PM) I dont think thats the way it works, the agent works for the player. He tell Boras and boras makes the call. I know. What I meant was the Damon camp.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 04:31 PM) This really sucks. Gonna be an interesting Sunday for KW to speak about this.... Especially after Damon calls and accepts KW's terms.

QUOTE (jphat007 @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 04:26 PM) KW is f***ing playing games with Boras. Trying to show that he's the boss. He never f***ing talks about offers. Smart move by Kenny. He's tired of Boras trying to make the Sox bid against themselves. Apparantly the reported 2 year $14M offer from the Tigers was BS. Boras had the Sox' $6M offer in his pocket and he was trying to squeeze more out of the Tigers while at the same time hoping the Sox would up their offer. Now with KW publicly declaring his offer is off the table, Damon and the Tigers both know that there is no other offer. If Damon really wants to play for the Sox for $6M, he'll have to call KW and commit himself. If not, he's stuck playing in detroit for whatever their last offer was, which apparently he wasn't too thrilled about in the first place.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 05:33 PM) If we sign him, I hope he goes back to the caveman look. I hated that "Cave Man" look. I like the "Yankee" look a lot better. Maybe there will be an in-between "White Sox" look for Damon this season.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Feb 12, 2010 -> 02:15 AM) Who DH'es with Damon here? Quentin? I'd split time between Damon and Pierre with Damon getting 60% time at DH and 40% in LF. This keeps both Pierre and Damon's legs fresh which should help their running games.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jan 30, 2010 -> 05:02 PM) Also, I know this would never happen but I'd personally hit Damon leadoff, Beckham 2nd and Pierre 9th, I think that's the optimal configuration. 2 high on base percentage hitters with good speed at the top and your super speedy, low on base guy turning over the lineup at the bottom. I agree. I'd bat Damon leadoff and Pierre ninth. But Ozzie would probably bat Pierre leadoff and Damon second. It would still be an improvement over Jones/Kotsay somewhere in the middle.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Jan 30, 2010 -> 04:52 PM) So Damon to RF, and Quentin to DH? LF) Pierre 2B) Beckham DH) Quentin 1B) Konerko RF) Damon C) Pierzynski SS) Ramirez CF) Rios 3B) Teahen Is that the line-up? No way do you ever play Damon in RF. I would have Damon and Pierre alternate between LF and DH. This keeps their legs fresh all season which helps both their running games. Pierre would get about 60% of the starts in LF and Damon 60% at DH.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 09:09 AM) The Twins are turning into the Sox. They may be transitioning to a power team but they'll still play fundamentally sound baseball both in situational hitting and on defense.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 05:17 PM) I don't know if it's been mentioned here on soxtalk.com (it probably has) but what about Johnny Damon? He is a lefty, can still play in the field on a part time basis, can still hit, and his price has seemingly dropped like a rock. There's your versatility, Ozzie. At the beginning of the offseason, I was thinking no way. But now that the pickins' are slim.... it might not be a bad idea. I have a feeling that the Sox are going to sign Damon maybe even as soon as within a week. Just a hunch, nothing more. I never really cared much for Damon, but given that Ozzie is set on having a rotating DH and wants more speed, and that the Sox need another competant LH bat, I think Damon fits perfectly. He can alternate with Pierre in LF/DH thus keeping both his and Pierre's legs fresh, and when They want to DH Quentin and rest Pierre they can put Damon in LF and still have a legit leadoff guy in the lineup. Oakland signed Sheets so they probably don't have the money tomake a good enough offer to Damon, and the Yankees don't seem to want to offer him near what he originally wanted. Even though Boras is his agent, for some reason I have a feeling the Sox are going to wind up with Damon. I'd be happy with it.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 05:27 PM) Just league wide, midseason trades do not work out that well. There was a huge report on this at the deadline last year showing how little impact midseason trades have had in the postseason. Beltran is one of the only ones to really make a difference. I agree with you. I could envision a scenario where the Sox lose more than their share of close games early in the season due to a lack of production by their DH. Then, at the deadline KW pulls off another one of his good trades bringing a big bat to add to the lineup. However, the new player struggles and the Sox fall a little short. The next spring we hear "We're expecting (Acquired Player) to rebound and match his career numbers this year. The problem was that he felt that he had to carry the team when he came here last season and put too much pressure on himself."

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 24, 2010 -> 12:50 PM) Ozzie: "Well, if I want one guy out there, I want (Thome). I already talk to Kenny about that." If the Sox get Thome, Ozzie better not play him as the full time DH batting third or fourth in the order. If that's the case, I hope they don't re-sign him. What I would like to see is the Sox sign Thome for $2M or less, and platoon him at DH with Nix (or Jones if Jones makes a miraculous showing in ST). Bat him around fifth in the order, but late in games when it's a key situation and they bring in a tough left hander to face him, pinch hit for him. Using Thome like this would make him a great asset to this team. Misusing him as a full time DH and relying on him to carry the offense would make him a liability.

QUOTE (ChWRoCk2 @ Jan 24, 2010 -> 12:32 PM) I'll be pissed even more if we sign Thome for around 5 million. There's no way they sign Thome for anything over $2M if even that much. Thome @ 2M used as a platoon LH DH batting around 5th or lower in the order is a great fit for the Sox. Paying him more than that or trying to use him as a centerpiece of the offense would be a big mistake. Personally, I'd rather see the Sox acquire someone better than Thome for that last roster spot (someone like a Luke Scott would be a nice fit) but I'd much rather see the Sox sign Thome for cheap and platoon him at DH with Nix than go into the season with a Jones/Kotsay/Vizquel rotating DH.

QUOTE (The Beast @ Jan 23, 2010 -> 02:23 PM) Now Ozzie wants 13 pitchers on his staff???

I wish Kenny can get Luke Scott for a couple of prospects.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 23, 2009 -> 06:07 PM) IIRC, we can not offer a contract until like March or April to anyone from our team who we did not offer arbitration to. I thought it was June 1st or something like that.

I expect Rios to hit around .275 with an OBP around .330 along with about 15 HRs and 20 SBs. Add that to his above average defense in CF and he'll give the Sox the best performance from CF that they've had in quite a while.