here's the way to look at it.
At the beginning of the year, when Paulie was hitting something around .240, I was all about getting rid of him. However, he has finally hit that hot stretch.
This man is a team leader. As much as we get tired of him talking, I belive his teammates truly depend on that. Over the course of the last two weeks, while Paulie has been on fire, he has gone about his business quietly. It seems like he scores 2 runs a game, jogging in from first with batting gloves in hand. If Konerko is not worth 10 million dollars a year, I don't know who is going to be. He is dominant defensively, and definitely able to carry the load.
If you are looking for someone to hit .315, 35, 120, you're not going to get him for 10-12 like you will Konerko; that person would garner approximately 15 million dollars a year. We know Sox management is sold on this, "no one player to tie down the franchise policy," which I totally agree with.
IF we spend 10-12 on a player, its going to be Konerko. We're not getting Furcal, because the bidding war for him is going to be huge. Not only that, but until this year, Furcal has been a huge dissapointment, and he still strikes out way to much for a guy at the top of the order, and his career BA (.283) does not really garner that much cash for a speed guy with little pop. He is batting .279 this year, batted .279 the year before, and chances are, will hit .280 again next year.