caulfield12

7. Detroit Tigers as the desire for pitching everywhere else. Over the last week, Detroit lost its right fielder (Magglio Ordonez(notes)), third baseman (Brandon Inge(notes)) and second baseman (Carlos Guillen(notes)) to the disabled list. While GM Dave Dombrowski referenced by name pitchers Jacob Turner and Andy Oliver(notes) – the Tigers’ two best prospects – when talking about youth he didn’t want to mortgage, he didn’t call them untouchable. So the prospect of trading for Hart, or Toronto’s Jose Bautista(notes), or any other bat to help Miguel Cabrera(notes) win the triple crown – and the Tigers win the AL Central – isn’t far-fetched. Dombrowski certainly isn’t against dealing young talent. Jair Jurrjens(notes) is thriving in Atlanta (for Edgar Renteria(notes) – d’oh.) Cameron Maybin(notes) and Andrew Miller(notes) are still in the minor leagues in Florida (while Cabrera has been the best hitter in baseball). And though they don’t have the makeup of a team that could steal a division, the Tigers are still just two games behind the … 8. Chicago White Sox and their tenuous grip on the AL Central lead. The White Sox miss Peavy. They’re rotating a group of replacement-level hitters at DH. Bobby Jenks(notes), lost his job as closer. And somehow, they’re still in first place. Getting Fielder, Adam Dunn(notes) or someone else who can step into that DH slot and provide the middle-of-the-order bat the White Sox have missed all season would transform them from even-money-at-best to distinct favorite. Minnesota, while on the periphery of big trade talks, doesn’t seem inclined to make a blockbuster move, and the Tigers are injuring themselves out of October. Both of which make White Sox GM Kenny Williams all the more inclined to strike, his desire for a deal … 9. Similar to Ned Colletti’s with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the only difference being Williams’ payroll flexibility and Colletti’s fiduciary handcuffs. Jeff Passan, yahoo sports

Wasn't Passan all over the DiamondBacks for throwing Byrnes in front of the bus a month ago?

I hear what you're saying. I wonder how many would support this kind of a move from KW and JR, though. If they wrote out a letter to shareholders right now. "Dear Friends, We really don't have any more money to spend. Our big moves for the offseason were made when we acquired Jake and Alex Rios last year. Unfortunately, the team didn't play very well the first two months, our revenues across the board are down or flat, so we don't want to overextend ourselves again like we did last year, with nothing to show for it. After many discussions, we feel the Twins are the team to beat, and they have the luxury of making trades and taking on more salary because they have a much stronger farm system, more quality depth and a larger income stream than we do. So we're going to cross our fingers with Freddy Garcia and Daniel Hudson and hope they can pull us through. That's where we're at. We made a BIG mistake not bringing back Jim Thome while simultaneously thinking Mark Kotsay could repeat his 2009 success offensively. But we don't want to compound the problem now by trading away our future young stars like Gordon Beckham, Dayan Viciedo, Daniel Hudson and Tyler Flowers for a 2 month run at the pennant when doing so will put as at a huge competitive disadvantage moving forward into 2011 and 2012. Yes, we STILL should have gone after the best available bat when we saw that Vladimir Guerrero was on the market for a reasonable price. We messed up and take full responsibility. You're just going to have to trust us now that Jake Peavy will be back at 100% next spring, that Dayan, Tyler, Daniel and Gordon are all future American League All-Stars and that our future is a very bright one, especially if you factor in our injured (but possibly prodigious) talent from the 2009 draft and the addition of Mr. Chris Sale. I believe that Kenny and Ozzie are the right guys to place my confidence in, and I hope you'll agree with me, too, by sending in your 2010 playoff deposits as well as 2011 season ticket renewals. Thanks in advance for your support. JR

QUOTE (Pumpkin Escobar @ Jul 25, 2010 -> 11:42 PM) I'm not knocking what they've done or do. I'm just saying this is a business and sometimes when things need to be done, they just need to be. Dealing one or both of them to help build for the future 3 years ago in my eyes was a smart play. I thought we were entering a period where we were old, had nothing worldy in the pipes coming up, and that those guys be dealt at their peaks was a smart move. Keepign them I felt only would have us finishing a series of 3rd or fourth place finishes and then being left empty handed when their time was up. Thats basically what we'll see. If the goal here is to put together teams that can win the mediocre AL central then bow out to the East or West, fine. If the goal is to win, then sometimes you need to restructure things. In the world of baseball, one of the best ways to do that is by spending and developing. We spend moderately well but we have to because we don't develop. We won't ever be the Yankees but we could and should be the Angels. Who have a deep farm and then spend 100 mil. If we do that - then we wouldn't need to worry about having to sell fan favorites off because theyre the only way we can rebuild. Thats all. Nothing against mark or paulie. I love them both just found it in better judgement to have sold high on them. Yes, but hindsight is always 20/20. It's like saying we should have drafted Porcello and Garza instead of Poreda, McCulloch and Broadway, etc. How many baseball teams in your memory have traded their two most identifiable players while still in their prime years? How can you be so certain the net in terms of prospects would have mitigated the losses in revenue? You're assuming that someone would have taken Konerko's contract three years ago. There was no deal out there like that...the time to have been making this argument was right after the World Series championship, when Konerko was presenting the ball to JR. Goodbye, Paulie? Were you advocating that move in October, 2005? Same thing with Buehrle. You take away all those memories from Sox fans, the no-hitters, everything that he represents to this franchise, it's okay to overpay for that...and you might end up with the players the Twins got from the Mets from Johan Santana, perhaps the best pitcher in baseball, certainly much more "valuable" than Buehrle and yet what do they have to show for that now? JJ Hardy? If you want to continue this line of reasoning, we shouldn't have given Contreras a contract extension (certainly not that length), and we should have traded Crede and Jenks while they still were at close to their prime values. The problem is the same one in the stock market, it's very very difficult to part with an asset that's performing at a high level for prospects that may or may not pan out in the future...not only that, but you destroy the competitiveness of the team, you're no better than the Oakland A's or Florida Marlins, dumping your best players as soon as they get too expensive and alienating your fanbase in the process. Look at a team that's done as you have suggested, the Cleveland Indians. There are other factors here in play, but that team was king of the city until Dolan started to tear it apart in 2001 and 2002....what was their string of consecutive sell-outs at Jacobs Field? What is their attendance now? Sure, we can all talk about Santana's potential, but how many sure things have they acquired over the last half decade that haven't panned out. LaPorta? Josh Barfield? Andy Marte? The list goes on and on. They signed players like Hafner and Peralta to long term deals unwisely and then traded away their best defender, F. Gutierrez, and got what back exactly? For all their manuevering, they got stuck with Kerry Wood (trying to maintain some level of competitiveness) and now might even end up trading Carmona. So no thanks to going that route.

QUOTE (Pumpkin Escobar @ Jul 25, 2010 -> 10:59 PM) The problem here is the things you are saying can be applied to anything. What if we just dealt with the fact our system is weak and spent more money in drafts or internationally. Maybe developing a better scouting department for starters. Or drafting guys who normally fall due to their contract size or signability concerns instead of selecting these overly projectable average arms every year. Only time we take risks are for these stupid toolsy outfielders. Apply that sense to some pitchers from time to time and we may end up an ace in the system for a change and not having to deal for them. Something like a guy like Porcello falling past us to the Tigers comes to mind immediately. That ties into another subject which is the whole white sox vs boras nonsense. Anyways, fact is, most of those guys are good in our eyes because they are "our guys". Before Beckham, we didn't have a top 10 pick since Frank. Thats a long time to not get the top-tier talent because if you aren't buying it later in the draft, then you have to do well at scouting and get lucky to land it after that. Which we don't do. If you can't scout well, then you cant draft well. If we don't draft well, who cares who we have trying to develop them. If we don't develop them then why not try to deal them for something. Which is where we sit today. Horrible farm system. We can't apply what ifs. Things need to change down there and then it won't matter who we trade or whats left. It can only help in every aspect for this organization. Financially, talent wise, on the trade fronts, call-ups for injury, etc. Doesnt meant we need to lose 100 games for five straight years. Just need to wake up. I know Dick Allen will argue this one (the fact that we have less money than he thinks to spend), but the priority for the White Sox has always been producing a winning or competitive major league team on a year-by-year basis. Because of that, a higher percentage of available resources have gone into the major league team than with other organizations. I could cite Chris Young, Chris Carter, Ryan Sweeney, Frank Francisco, Gio Gonzalez, Brandon Allen, Faustino De Los Santos, Carter, Brandon McCarthy, etc. It's not like our system has been totally bereft of prospects, it's simply that we have prioritized the short term over the long term. If KW doesn't make a move in the next weeks, it will be the first time which this has happened in recent memory. So perhaps this is all a case of premature evaluation, until we see who KW ends up with. If you're a Twins fan, aren't you even MORE upset that they haven't acquired Lee, Haren or Oswalt, because, when healthy, they have a potentially dominant offense, yes? And they have the prospects to make those moves, yet they are holding back. Perhaps they want to keep Ramos in case they decide to make Mauer a 3B or DH to save all the wear and tear on his body. Maybe they look out and see the lack of athleticism at the corners and feel they need to hold onto Hicks and Revere. This has always been the biggest problem...we haven't had the luxury of going with a rebuild like we did in the late 80's and late 90's. Every organization goes through this, except for teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Cardinals, Twins, etc. Heck, look how long it has taken for the Braves to get back to the top of their division after struggling for the last 2-3 seasons. The problem is that there's perhaps no fanbase in baseball that's as "winning percentage" driven as the White Sox. Maybe everyone is right, we should have rebuilt after 2007. Except our division being winnable each season is also a curse. It prevents KW from going into that full rebuilding mode 100%, knowing that if the attendance slides, his resources to work with will correspondingly slide, and then he's left with a self-fulfilling prophecy of taking 3-5 years to turn the organization around completely. I'm not sure he has the patience to do that, he's still too competitive, but you're THEORETICALLY seeing his balancing of 2010 with future needs and I still wouldn't be shocked if he did nothing at all and hoped for a return in performance/health from all those guys like Mitchell, Thompson, Morel, Phegley, etc. There's no doubt that teams like the Astros held onto their stars too long, each year feeling they had one last run in them. The thing is, if you go back to 1990 or 1993 or pretty much any time period over the last 20 years, the White Sox will end up with one of the 3-7 best winning percentages compared to all the other teams in baseball, and the three others will always be the Red Sox, Yankees and Braves. A healthy Carlos Quentin, the Gordon Beckham of most of 2009 and a dangerous Mark Teahen instead of Kotsay takes care of 90% of our problems. Still, we're relying heavily on both Garcia and Hudson down the stretch, just as Minnesota is doing with Duensing/Slowey/Baker.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jul 25, 2010 -> 10:33 PM) Depth as in Lillibridge? Stranger things have happened in baseball...than a player in his mid to late 20's figuring things out. How many teams in the game have quality depth at every position? Look at the line-ups the Red Sox have been forced to use all season long, or the Tigers' line-up in the first game of the double-header against the Blue Jays. The fact of the matter is that we could play Vizquel and Lillibridge at 2B, not to mention Alexei Ramirez. I think we're better off than 20-25 MLB teams in terms of depth at 2B.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jul 25, 2010 -> 10:28 PM) Unless they somehow get into his doghouse, at which point they have no chance to get out. That's a legitimate point. The big black mark for Ozzie and KW the last couple of seasons has been the Swisher trades, both of them. Obviously, if Swisher was producing for the White Sox the same way he has in NY, we wouldn't be talking about Dunn, Fielder, LaRoche, Scott, Cust, either. The guy obviously rubbed quite a few of our clubhouse leaders in the wrong way, he pouted when he lost his job to DeWayne Wise, he refused to listen to Greg Walker and would only talk to his father about his swing...I suppose you can say it was a "bad fit," that Ozzie created a bad fit (same thing with Cabrera, although I haven't seen any threads about missing him, except last year when he was helping to lead yet another team to the playoffs), whatever. That's a fair point. And yet it also flies in the face of the conventional wisdom, to play a career minor league journeyman over an "established" veteran player, you really have to do something to piss off Guillen.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jul 25, 2010 -> 10:01 PM) They had depth in their organization to replace Smoak and not worry too much about the short term/future implications that come with that trade. The Sox dont have much depth at all behind Beckham. If Mitchell and Thompson were healthy and producing at their expected ability levels, this conversation wouldn't exist. If Jake Peavy was still healthy... Even if Joe Borchard defied the logic of Sox first round busts and became the franchise player. Actually, we had enough depth in the middle infield that we could waive Jason Nix. Let's face it, almost EVERYTHING that could go wrong with our minor league system has happened, and we're still standing. Jordan Danks and Flowers have lost a lot of their shine (especially Jordan Danks), we've lost our two players with perhaps the most future potential as impact players, we've lost our most expensive starting pitcher and "ace" in Peavy, and yet we're still in first place. Viciedo and Hudson have demonstrated their potential and youth at the same time, which is the problem with prospects, they're not finished products. Heck, even Beckham, with the college pedigree in the SEC, numerous awards, accolades and honors, he still fell victim to the dreaded Sophomore Slump. I think we also have to give a lot of credit to KW for the acquisitions of Santos, JJ Putz, Omar Vizquel and Andruw Jones (for the first six weeks, but he's still valuable as the 25th man/PR/PH). The only mistake, and it's the biggest and most obvious one, was staying with Jones and Kotsay for so long. But we were winning games with them (the same argument for leaving Brian Anderson in the line-up in 2006)...so Ozzie didn't want to change things up. Fine, understandable. We're now 4-6 after the All-Star break and we have to look at getting better again (although we should be 6-4 and up 3 games on the Twins STILL). They really have a quandary to decide if Mark Teahen taking at-bats from Kotsay is enough of an upgrade to justify not making a move that will cost them in the future...versus someone like LaRoche or Luke Scott, etc.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 25, 2010 -> 08:26 PM) Yes, we are in that position. Thanks to a ridiculous 31-game stretch. Whatever KW does, will be lacking in either the pitching or hitting department. My beef is why wait until the deadline to upgrade the offense when it was crystal clear it needed upgrading in March and there were legitimate, realistic options out there? Now you can't foresee injuries. And like I said, I don't blame KW or Ozzie at all for what happened with Peavy. But look at our dilemma now. Just like I have no say so in whether Ozzie or KW get canned, I have no say so in who their replacements would be. Honestly? I have no idea off the top of my head. I know I'd like a manager that realized it's 2010 and managed like it. I'd like a GM that realizes unless you're the Yankees, the farm does matter. Specific names? Not my job. Total copout there. The talent has been there, we've been horrible at identifying it (and being cheap as f*** hasn't helped). No excuse. When you have to go back to the late 90's to find a legitimate player we signed from Latin America there is something wrong. See above. Yes, there has been a long lag time between Ordonez/Carlos Lee in the Latin American market. However, we went out and signed Viciedo to the biggest bonus ever, yes? International free agent, and we unearthed a gem in Alexei Ramirez, also from what is technically Latin America. We also spent more money on Borchard at the time ($5.3 milllion?) than any team in baseball history on a first round draft pick in that position of the draft...of course, he turned out to be a bust, certainly not the one to lead the franchise that was expected. If Joe Borchard had become another version of Dunn that quite a few expected, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Then you also have to consider Takatsu and Iguchi, who were in their own ways both key components in the 2005 WS title. The fact of the matter is that we really shouldn't be winning over the Twins with Peavy out, Garcia on his last legs and Hudson unable to pitch with any degree of command and control in the strike zone. I don't think acquiring Haren would have been the right move, simply because the cost would have been Hudson/Flowers/Viciedo again...and, once again, there would have been ZERO wiggle room for 2011 with Haren's contract added onto the payroll. It has been constantly pointed out that we can't have over 50% of our payroll invested in 4 starters if we want to field any type of offense. As it is, we'll have a very very difficult time bringing back Konerko and AJ, yes? The other thing you have to take into consideration is that so many of our young players have gotten hurt, Mitchell, in particular, but also Morel, Phegley, Trayce Thompson, Holmberg has been hurt as well. If you had a healthy Mitchell (looking like Carl Crawford-Lite) and Trayce Thompson putting up a huge season in low A and continuing to make progress as a baseball player, then you'd have the package to go out and get almost anyone, IF IF IF Peavy hadn't gotten injured. Remember, the 2008 team survived the losses of Crede (Uribe at 3B), Contreras, Linebrink and Quentin for the final weeks...yes, we got wiped out by the Rays, but at least we got there, and we had the lead in all of those games but one, it's not like we were the Cubs over their last two postseasons. None of the three teams fighting in the AL Central have a true shutdown ace in their rotation, Justin Verlander is the closest. After that, you'd probably have a tie between Liriano and Danks with baseball scouts (advantage to the Sox) and Gavin Floyd would have to factor in there with Pavano, but Gavin still hasn't put together one WHOLE completely dominant season. He seems/feels/looks like an ace, but you can never be quite 100% sure about him. With all that said, I think Ozzie and KW have done a very good job under the circumstances keeping this team in contention. Most of us thought the season was over on June 9th, but we've had an amazing run and STILL are in first place, as of this moment. If we want to fire Guillen, then the Red Sox, Angels, Phillies and Twins should also fire their managers and GM's for underperforming, yes?

QUOTE (AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Jul 25, 2010 -> 02:54 PM) If these last 2 games don't scream "We need to trade for a starting pitcher" then I dunno what does. We don't need another bat, get some arms. Do you ever post in the game threads when the Sox are winning? Let me guess, you want them to trade for Haren or Oswalt?

I guess all we can do is read it as Beckham's inexperience. The ball had a ton of overspin on it, and it got on him faster than he was ready...causing him to take the wrong angle and misread the play. Still don't understand why he didn't leave his feet though, and try to block it and prevent 2 runs from scoring.

Beckham taking a questionable route to that groundball and not leaving his feet on hit really hurt us that inning. The A's announcers were pretty shocked he didn't at least stop it...if not make the play and keep it 1-0. Well, we're going to have to withstand a run from Minnesota, they now get the Royals, Greinke versus Liriano to start the series.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 25, 2010 -> 10:33 AM) also went on the DL today with a calf injury(big surprise) Quietly, Will Ryan, Jeff Larish, Sizemore, Kelly, Raburn (interestingly hitting 3rd today), Austin Jackson, Brennan Boesch, Scherzer, Ryan Perry and Porcello make this one of the younger teams in the majors. Quite an influx of young talent. Just a year or so ago, they were running Josh Anderson and Clete Thomas out there in the OF as well. Still, all the atrocious contracts and the 2009 fadeout have diminished the success enjoyed since the 06 World Series appearance. But after building the Marlins and playing important roles with the White Sox and Expos, I would never agree with comparing Dombrowski with Dayton Moore or even Mark Shapiro. He gave up Jairr Jurgens, but that package for Cabrera (based mostly on Maybin and Miller) turned out to be quite a steal...and the flipping of Matt Joyce for Edwin Jackson for Scherzer, even flipping Granderson for Austin Jackson has turned out to be a steal and created payroll flexibility.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 25, 2010 -> 11:20 AM) One of those guys don't belong in that sentence. If he didn't get hurt, he'd easily be the MVP favorite right now. Yes, I guess I was already anticipating a longer DL stay than initially expected, based on the Twins' response and these similar types of situations in the recent past with baseball players. Morneau was clearly one of the Top 5 MVP candidates had a vote been taken a month ago. Unfortunately (or fortunately for the Sox, I guess), he's getting a reputation, along with Mauer, for being somewhat injury-prone and "ouchy." Not quite like Carlos Quentin, however, in that regard.

QUOTE (Benchwarmerjim @ Jul 25, 2010 -> 08:03 AM) that is pretty good analysis of the Twins. The only thing you left out is the Delmon Young (!) is pretty much carried the team since Morneau went down The irony is that Garza is the type of pitcher they need for success in the playoffs...but they wouldn't be able to reach the playoffs without Delmon. Still, for all of Young's offensive prowess, the Twins' defense has fallen off greatly with Kubel and Young playing in the OF together and Cuddyer playing either 3B or 1B. Are you in the Valencia camp or not? Seems like Gardenhire won't play him regularly, just like Guillen consistently playing Kotsay over Viciedo. So I guess Mark Kostay=Lil Nick Punto for White Sox fans this season. FWIW, the Tribune baseball writer gave the Twins the highest probability (2-1 odds) of getting back to their division lead, compared to the Red Sox, Phillies and Angels, three other disappointing teams.

Several scouts, notably from the Tigers and Phillies, have been in attendance at Sheets' recent outings. Though Sheets, who missed all of 2009 following elbow surgery, has not recaptured his one-time ace stuff from his Milwaukee days, he's been intriguing enough to allow contenders to imagine him helping them. One scout who watched Sheets warm up in the bullpen before Monday's start said Sheets threw very few warm-up pitches. And scouts who have watched him recently say he has been very reluctant to throw his breaking pitches in games. Over 20 starts in 2010, Sheets is 4-9 with a 4.53 ERA. He's worked 119 1/3 innings in 2010 and last started on Monday evening against Boston, going 6 2/3 innings and allowing the Red Sox two runs and seven hits, striking out two and walking two. "He had no velocity but he adds and subtracts," one scout who was in attendance to see Sheets on Monday told CBSSports.com's Danny Knobler. "He threw only five pitches over 90 [m.p.h]. He was pitching at 86-88. "He still competes, though. You know what he is? Right now, he's Freddy Garcia." And, sadly, right now, he's not even that. www.cbssportsline.com

Raburn and Clete Thomas put up some very decent numbers last year in their outfield. Same thing with Boesch, although he's been almost amazing, this year. Maybe they can't go to the well one more time and expect an 875 OPS, but I think a range of at least 775-825 OPS from their farm system would be expected. And yes, I know Raburn and Avila have been huge disappointments this year coming off 2009.

Including Mitchell, even if he could be traded, would be pretty short-sighted. Unless we felt he was never going to come back 100%, then that's the kind of move a GM who wants to do business with other teams might want to think twice about...it's a violation of the buy low/sell high maxim, selling him at perhaps his lowest possible value. And even though Sirotka/Wells happened almost 10 years ago now, some baseball personnel have long memories. Thankfully, KW has a better reputation now for bargaining in good faith, compared to his early years on the job.

Well, with Minnesota seemingly jumping up as the favorite to challenge the Sox with Ordonez and Inge down, it seemingly will come down to pitching (as always): Garcia/Hudson versus whatever they can get from Duensing, Slowey, Blackburn and Baker. For the moment, you don't see them trading for Oswalt (although I wouldn't be shocked, either) or Haren, I think they're pretty confident about Duensing after 2009 down the stretch. For whatever reason, they've gotten through to Pavano. From one of biggest jokes and worst contracts in baseball to probably their co-#1 starter along with Liriano. As much as their fanbase has been on SLOW-BAKE-BURN this season (along with Rick Anderson and GM Smith for their contracts), Pavano and Liriano have certainly been somewhat unexpected success stories which have somewhat mitigated the drop off from Kubel, Cuddyer, Morneau and Mauer. Of course, having Nathan go down early didn't help matters either, they still have some shakiness in their middle relief corps.

Every time you intentionally bring in the "wing man" who is a friend to use her in a manipulative way, it never works. One can only be so "strategic" in this...if it happens naturally, that's the only time it is really effective, that girls will notice each other and recognize instinctually that another is circling "their" territory and they have to decide whether the fight or flight response is necessary. As noted, some girls want their guy to stay single, even though they don't really want to date him...it's strange, like that movie My Best Friend's Wedding, even where the guy has a fiance, he still doesn't want another man to be with his friend, even if nothing has ever happened between them romantically.

Well, one thing's for sure, the team is definitely not going to be bankrupt because of the owner. It's not a situation like the D-Backs or Rangers, and interestingly, and both of those teams contended quite nicely when they were supposedly going through financial problems (although you can see the effects/fallout out in Phoenix now). The Scherzer and Austin Jackson trades have worked out better than expected for the Tigers, and I have a hard time seeing the Tigers being dismantled when we thought the same thing going into this year and they were able to add Valverde and Damon. If they can get Galarraga and Porcello straightened out 100%, they'll be a competitive team, for sure. Like seemingly every team, they have a hole at the back end of their rotation...but so do the White Sox, possibly.

Inge ($6.6 million), Laird, Damon ($8 million), Bonderman ($12.5 million), Willis ($12 million) and Robertson ($10 million)...not sure exactly how much they ate on those last two deals, probably about 75-80%. Plus the money from Magglio Ordonez now saved, $15 million for 2011 option. I'm guessing they will try to pay lip service to bringing back Ordonez and Inge on smaller deals, and PERHAPS Bonderman as well, but Jeremy's one of those cases where they might be better off investing the big money he's sure to get from someone (glad Hawk isn't our GM anymore) and going in a different direction. I think you'd have to consider DET, coming into the offseason, as the team best positioned to make a run in 2011...especially with Peavy's status unknown.

Today was the first day for the Seattle Mariners to respond to the report that Ken Griffey was asleep in the clubhouse during a pinch-hit opportunity and Mike Sweeney(notes) didn't have any trouble standing up for his elder teammate. The devout Christian who once bullrushed Jeff Weaver(notes) says he challenged the Safeco Field deep throats to stand up and fight him, but no one took him up on the offer. Pity, too, because Mike Sweeney's a man! He's 40!

http://www.seattlepi.com/baseball/2010ap_b...gout_fight.html I guess KW and Sox fans should be thankful we didn't trade for/sign either Figgins or Bradley... There's another article in the Seattle Times, I thought this was the most interesting insight... The Mariners are 2-7 since the All-Star break and have committed numerous baserunning, situational hitting and fielding blunders. But through it all, the players committing the gaffes have been allowed to remain in games and stay in the starting lineup. Wakamatsu has been saying since before the break that his players would be held accountable for mistakes. This time, he made good on that pledge. "I think you're talking about baserunning plays, and not all of those are cut and dried," Wakamatsu said of the prior gaffes that went unpunished. "I thought this was cut and dried." There has been an underlying tension brewing between Wakamatsu and some of his players since the hasty retirement and departure of Ken Griffey Jr. in early June. The pair did not speak for roughly two weeks before Griffey leaving, and several players believe Wakamatsu forced him into retirement — a charge the manager vehemently denies. The week following the retirement, Figgins reacted angrily and criticized Wakamatsu's decision to bump him from No. 2 back to No. 9 in the batting order during a series in Texas. The Mariners were embarrassed on the field during that series, and several veterans — including the since-traded Cliff Lee — held a players-only meeting in San Diego afterward to clear the air about several topics, including putting the Griffey episode behind them. One of the reasons Branyan was acquired was for additional leadership at a time the team knew Lee was soon to be traded. "It's something where we need to come together and pull through this," Branyan said, "as opposed to pointing fingers and tearing the team apart."

It's going to be interesting to see how long they wait for Kotsay to spring back to life. When you looked at the match-up before this game and the fact that the A's have been playing playing pretty well, not to mention Buerhle's decade-long history of struggles in Oakland, it really seemed set up for a loss...or at the very least, another Jenks appearance. It wasn't a very exciting game, but one thing Ozzie did do well was get the runners moving to stay out of a double play situation early with Konerko at bat (could have been a triple play) and also running Jones and Lillibridge late, setting up the clinching insurance runs. 26th complete game of his career, has done his customary blue-collar work of battling to get his ERA back to 4 from the mid 5's range.