Frankensteiner

Well, if the Cubs gave Fuku more than 4/55, then I don't see the Sox topping that. If they didn't, I don't see why the Sox couldn't just offer Fuku the same contract they offered Rowand. Rowand is a popular player but I doubt he sells any tickets.

Rowand's a pretty good player but I'd like to see a leadoff hitter acquired, and with Quentin now on the roster, CF is the only spot for a leadoff hitter. So I guess I'd rather have Fukudome, unless there's a belief he won't be able to handle playing CF and is more of a corner.

QUOTE(sircaffey @ Nov 19, 2007 -> 10:58 PM) I think they make a good amount of sense. They have a good young replacement 1B in Jackson, they have a plethora of quality OF, and they have a few pen arms that we could use. I was just assuming they would like to get Jackson and Konerko in their lineup at the same time, otherwise how much net improvement are they getting? I could be wrong in thinking they gave Jackson a couple of opportunities to play OF, and if he's strictly a 1B, then he'd obviously be the main guy coming back which would be good for the Sox. Who are their "quality OF" guys? Are you talking about Carlos Quentin? I thought he was coming off some disappointing seasons. Also, I was thinking our leadoff hitter would have to come from LF, so I don't know if we can get that player from Arizona. Then again, Arizona does have Orlando Hudson. Hmmmm...

PK to Arizona makes sense for Arizona. I couldn't help but laugh at Arizona's anemic lineup during the playoffs. On the other hand, I don't know how much sense Arizona makes as a trading partner for the White Sox unless there's a 3rd team involved.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Nov 1, 2007 -> 06:06 PM) Richar seems like, at worst, he'll be able to give us those OPS numbers this season for the league minimum. And Danny will probably put up significantly better OPS numbers than that given a little more work. He put up a .695 OPS this season after coming up as a very raw talent, and he put up a .752 OPS in September (his 2nd full month). That's one way to look at it. Another is that he had about a 2 week hot streak during his enitre 2 month stretch. Regardless, his OBP was pathetic. If Uribe is our shortstop, we need someone to get on base. Castillo might be a singles hitter but singles are still better than outs. We need some guys with high OBP.

What kind of contract will Castillo get? If the money is right, I wouldn't mind him as our 2B/leadoff hitter. He's kinda old but still fairly productive. His OBP would be the 2nd highest on the team. I think I like Castillo/Uribe better than Eckstein/Richar (although I don't despise Eckstein like many here seem to) and certainly better than Uribe/Richar. And if we could sign a semi-decent CF, I'd like our lineup. 2B Castillo LF Fields DH Thome 1B Konerko RF Dye C AJP CF Hunter/Rowand/Jones 3B Crede SS Uribe Well, we'd have to see which pitchers are here, but at least that lineup wouldn't look like an embarassment or anything. I guess it depends on the $$$ for Castillo and the CFer.

I don't really understand the level of excitement for Melky Cabrera and his .327 OBP and .718 OPS. He's a much better player for the Yankees because of their explosive lineup (i.e. they can afford to stick a s***ty hitter in the lineup). The trade doesn't do much for us, and the marginal improvement over Owens isn't worth Joe Crede.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Sep 2, 2007 -> 03:59 PM) Unless Garland can be resigned rapidly and Javy or Jose are dealt...I think it's time. We have so many different pitchers who could take that spot for so much less money...and so many different needs that he could be used to fill in a trade... Problem is, if you're Kenny Williams and you're hoping to contend next season, counting on a staff of Buehrle, Vazquez, and 3 question marks is a bad idea. So I don't think Garland should be traded if we're working under the assumption the Sox plan on contending in '08.

Maybe he's hurt? I seem to remember some talk of a bad back around the ASB. His start got pushed back when the Sox went to Baltimore right after the All-Star game. Maybe it's nothing major but I can't seem to find any other explanation why our best pitcher through the first 3 months of the season is probably our worst pitcher right now.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 19, 2007 -> 02:50 PM) The thing I hate most about this free agent market is that it is totally impossible to construct a team on the FA market unless you're the Yankees. There are so many teams out there looking for that one last, single piece, or so they think, that the price of everyone gets pushed upwards. It makes no sense to try to build a team through the FA market these days. It only makes sense to build a team through trades and the draft. I disagree with you here because we have the 2005 White Sox as an example. IIRC Dye, AJP, Gooch, Hermanson, Politte, and Duque were all acquired in free agency. So we filled multiple holes instead of signing just one "last, single piece."

QUOTE(TheOcho @ Aug 10, 2007 -> 11:17 PM) Beltre, Vidro, Bloomquist, and like you said Guillen are all putting up solid numbers. Then even Johjima and a few others still have high averages with bleh OBP. Only 3 guys have OPS numbers over .800, and it's not by much. Ichiro (.830), Beltre (.814), and Guillen (.814). That's really the mark for good hitters in my eyes. By comparison, Cleveland has 5, Detroit 5, NYY 6, Boston 5. And these teams all have multiple players way above the .800 mark (and not to mention starting pitchers that are much better than the Mariner SPs). I just don't get how Seattle is getting all these wins because they are clearly inferior to the other contenders in individual statistics.

I look at the Mariners and think: Smoke & Mirrors. Outside of Ichiro, I can't even find one above average player. Maybe Jose Guillen? Even King Felix hasn't been all that good (1.40 WHIP).

QUOTE(WCSox @ Aug 10, 2007 -> 03:40 PM) Since Jose has been permanently (for now, at least) moved to the 'pen, that's not going to happen. Coop said yesterday Jose's going to start the opener in Seattle.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Aug 9, 2007 -> 11:19 AM) Small sample size, but he looked pretty good in those two innings of relief last night. He was hitting 93 regularly on the Comcast gun, but I'm not sure what the (more accurate) stadium gun displayed. Moreover, he was locating his forkball. I think that command has been a much bigger problem for him than velocity this year. If he can re-gain that, we may not want to trade him next year. This probably isn't all that accurate but Gameday had him at 96mph.

I think he can and will get better. I don't think his problems are age related. You don't go from one of the best pitchers in baseball to one of the worst in the span of a year because of age. A gradual decline is expected but this is too sudden to simply attribute it to old age. There's something else wrong, either mental or physical.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Aug 6, 2007 -> 07:07 PM) It cracks me up the Rowand love fest on this board. I mean, I liked him and all... but not at the cost he's going to get this offseason. Well, I'd rather have Grady Sizemore but that's not going to happen. It's not like there's a horde of productive OF talent beating down our door. With Rowand, you know if we come close in $$$, he'll probably sign here. So bringing up his name, at least from my perspective, is not really so much wishful thinking as it is something plausible.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Aug 6, 2007 -> 05:12 PM) I could live with a Fields - Rowand - Dye OF in '08. Though I'm not convinced the Sox could afford it. I'd rather see Owens-Rowand-Dye in the OF and Fields at 3b. I don't see a reason to jerk around Fields for one season just to get some potential value out of Crede. Outside of last season, he hasn't been a very productive player, and now his back is as bad as ever. Plus the salary savings on Crede would probably enable us to afford someone like Rowand.

I don't know about the playoffs, but I still believe we'll end up with a pretty decent W-L total (.500+). This team had way too many talented players underachieving for the first half of the season to have the current record be reflective of their true ability. If anything, I think the next two months will at least prove we're not 3 years away from competing.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Jul 25, 2007 -> 02:44 PM) I have to agree with the poster who is claiming we'll have a decent shot next year to be competitive IF we see this starting pitching intact minus Contreras. Add a couple of relatively decent bullpen arms, and you've got the makings of a solid ballclub. Say what you want about the Indians/Tigers/Twins, but I think some of you are sufferring from a bit of the "grass is always greener" syndrome. The Tigers are an excellent team, but they aren't exactly young bucks at every position either. They could suffer a similar falloff to us, considering they have plenty of aging players in IRod, Sheffield, Guillen, Polanco, Ordonez and Casey. It isn't out of the realm of possibilities that a few of those guys could really start struggling at some point in the near future. The Indians have their young core locked up, but I'm not quite so impressed with their pitching staff, especially considering Sabathia could be gone after next year. Take him out of that rotation and they look a LOT weaker. They are playing well this year, but still not really drawing, so it's possible that they could feel a payroll squeeze in the near future as well. I'm just not sold on them being some juggernaut for years to come with that pitching staff of theirs. I agree with all you said here. And just to add to this, the Indians were a sub .500 team last year, really not all that different from this year's Sox. I think we have a good nucleus of talented players (Konerko, Thome, Buehrle, Garland, Jenks, etc.) comparable to the other good teams. Problem is we also have our share of really awful players (Uribe, CF, Crede, set-up guys) where other teams can fill those gaps with at least average and mediocre talent. So really I'm not that pessimistic about our chances next season. There's gaps to fill but I don't think it's some incredible rebuilding task and we can acquire some competent players through free agency without breaking the bank (you know, sort of what KW did in 2005).

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 9, 2007 -> 11:15 AM) So seasons of... .315/44 .274/31 .321/33 Don't exist in your mind? Because he has done all those since 2000. .274/31 isn't really .290/35. It's closer to the .270/30 number I provided. In general, I like to go by these whacky things called career averages instead of cherry picking a couple of season here and there. He's also had sesons of: .265/23 .252/24 .282/26 and then there's this season where he's on pace for .214/25 So combined with his good seasons, that makes him about a .270/30 homer guy, on average.

QUOTE(michelangelosmonkey @ Jul 9, 2007 -> 10:10 AM) Jermaine Dye is hitting .214 right now. He's been injury prone a lot of his career...and has seemed hurt much of this year. He's 33. Is he REALLY going to bring trade value? Is he REALLY going to get a good contract in the off-season? You think the Sox could extend him at say $8 million per year for three years? The idea is he may not be the 1.000 OPS guy from last year, but also not the .670 OPS of this year. If you can sign a guy when he is mentally low and get a discount, there's no real reason to believe that he won't bounce back and be more like a .290/35 homer guy with pretty good defense. JD next year at $8 instead of Ichiro at $15? So many on the board are talking about some teams top prospect or just waiting to collect two number one's for him. But what if the option is neither...he walks and we get nothing. He's not going to be a .290/35 homer guy because he's never been a .290/35 homer guy; more like a .270/30 homer guy. Plus he's aging and can barely run. I think we were lucky to get two above average seasons from the guy (one of those an excellent season) but it was foolish to assume, as some here did, that Dye could duplicate his stats from last season. I agree we probably won't get much for him, but giving him a 3 year contract at $8M per is just compounding the problem.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jun 11, 2007 -> 02:11 PM) If firing Walker will fix the offense, shouldn't the Sox fire Cooper to fix the bullpen, and fire KW to fix how the roster is put together, and fire Ozzie to fix how games are managed and players are used? I'm all for making changes as much as anyone, but I still don't think how making Walker the scapegoat is going to get this team going. I don't see how its going to make the offense any better. I've seen some of Walker's biggest critics rave about the Rangers hitting coach. The Sox got on base more times last season , hit more homers and struck out less than the Rangers with their mighty hitting coach. If Greg Walker doesn't deserve to get fired for this mess, then there isn't a single other baseball coach/manager/executive in baseball that deserves to get fired, for anything, ever. Now I know you can't possibly think that...

The team has underachieved, there's no question about it. Walker is horrible. Is it really coincidence the guy with the highest BA on the team is the guy who's been around Walker the shortest amount of time? I guess I'd still like Williams to try and salvage the season with some deals. Some might disagree, but the Sox look like they'll get good starting pitching for the rest of the year, so I'd try and give this team a shot. And I can't imagine the hitting can go anywhere but up.

Well, if the Sox were in 9th place right now, they'd have 20 more runs, and probably 3 or 4 more wins, so that's pretty good.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 2, 2007 -> 05:31 PM) I think it's balta or kalapse that has stats on how our offense was like 12th in the AL during the 2nd half last season. Are you sure about that? I thought they were middle of the pack instead of at the bottom. It would be difficult to finish 3rd in runs scored overall for the season if you're basically at the bottom for one half.