caulfield12

A rival GM revealed weeks ago the White Sox were shopping every decent-sized contract they had (and maybe he wasn’t exaggerating that much), and so far Kenny Williams has traded away Nick Swisher and Javier Vazquez, or almost $17 million off 2009 alone. from yahoosports.com

Have you seen how big he is in that youtube video clip? He makes A-Rod look like a dwarf.

But did you also think the White Sox would shop Buehrle, Konerko, Thome, Dye, Jenks, Javy, Swisher and AJ this offseason too? I just think that Hardy's power numbers are respectable, but that many believe Escobar has a nice upside and they need to invest that money that Hardy will start making into someone better than Jeff Suppan...or investing in Japan, DR, Venezuela, etc. Quoting HR statistics alone doesn't tell the WHOLE story. Reyes is 5X the ballplayer Hardy is, but he has fewer homers. It's like saying Dye is clearly the best MLB RFer over the last four seasons because he has the most homers. Not sure I am willing to go along with that, because defensive ability is also important, especially at SS.

Central Division Chicago White Sox What’s new: More than a few scouts were dismayed to see 19-year-old Cuban Dayan Viciedo out of shape at his Dominican workout last month, but they agreed he could hit, and the White Sox made him rich. It seems a longshot, but there’s some talk he could play third base or shortstop (ARE THEY SMOKING CRACK?)for the White Sox this season, or they could turn him into an outfielder. What’s old: A rival GM revealed weeks ago the White Sox were shopping every decent-sized contract they had (and maybe he wasn’t exaggerating that much), and so far Kenny Williams has traded away Nick Swisher and Javier Vazquez, or almost $17 million off 2009 alone. Winter meetings: And Jermaine Dye would make it about $28 million. He is being shopped and there would be plenty of interest. In fact, he’d make a lot of sense for the Mets. from yahoosports Possible Cabrera AL destinations: CLE (move Peralta to 3B), MIN, Baltimore, Oakland...

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 7, 2008 -> 02:00 AM) 3 years 36 mil with an option for 4 which makes it 50. Its up to his agent to accept. how much would the buyout for the 4th year be?

QUOTE (Rooftop Shots @ Dec 7, 2008 -> 12:19 AM) Not really. I believe that we would have to trade heavy for him, and it would be risky....given his injury status. After Seattle spending so heavily last year and coming up with nothing but a dismal failure of a team, are they in the market for cutting expenses?? Not sure! Okay, who would you be willing to give up for Bedard? Of course, the conversation begins with Poreda, and Fields makes sense at 3B/1B/LF/DH, especially if they're going to deal Beltre...I guess they also might want an outfielder (with Ibanez's departure), but giving them Anderson, Wise or Owens probably doesn't do a whole lot to excite their FO, although I guess there are some possibilities. This is another team that might have use for Lillibridge as an outfielder, but certainly not LF.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Dec 7, 2008 -> 12:12 AM) If Cabrera accepts arbitration, that's fine - we'll just trade him. We won't get a ton, but we should get a nice prospect. A team like the Dodgers would probably prefer to give us a prospect for a year of Cabrera than to give up 2 draft choices for him (of course we'd lose the choices by trading him). That may even be something Beane would do - he wants a SS and tried to sign Furcal - trade for him for 1 year of Cabrera the draft choices next year when the market may be better. A 3 year contract would be great with Furcal. If Beckham is ready before then, we'll work it out. Does anyone believe at this point the market really will be better for 2010? Don't hold your breath. I agree that if we could trade Cabrera for a CFer/leadoff hitter, that would be great. I'm not so concerned with the draft picks as I am Cabrera's likely $9-12 million price tag for an "average" MLB shortstop. Cabrera is the equivalent of Vazquez among the position players. I think we can win without him. KW's probably thinking the same thing, that his money would be better invested in CF or the starting rotation. I really think Beckham ends up at 2B, Fields stays at 3B and Viciedo makes his impact in LF/RF or 1B after Konerko is gone in 2010. The reasons are simple, Alexei Ramirez is a "plus" offensive threat at SS, and Beckham likewise is a "plus" offensive player (much better than AL or MLB average) at those positions. The only thing I see happening is Viciedo or Betemit taking the place of Fields at 3B, but I'm just not sure how good Viciedo is going to be over there defensively. Maybe he has "cat-like" first step quickness, but he just has the look of a corner OF, 1B, DH, just like Carlos Lee when he was trying to play that position early in his career. Now, from everything reported, Viciedo and Ramirez would go head to head for the best arm on the team, so there's hope he can stay there, but I'm not 100% buying it, at least until we see him play there in AZ.

According to Dan Graziano of the Newark Star-Ledger, the Cubs offered Jason Marquis and salary relief to the Mets for reliever Aaron Heilman. The Mets declined. It's been suggested the Cubs are willing to eat as much as $4MM of Marquis' $9.875MM. Graziano seems to believe the Mets are targeting a Marquis-like free agent starter, Jon Garland.

QUOTE (Rooftop Shots @ Dec 7, 2008 -> 12:07 AM) I'm going with Bedard also. Not really a top choice that I would hope for, but I remember KW drooling over him and how much he coveted him a couple of years back. He was always talking of how his stuff was scary. He struggled last year and had shoulder issues with surgery ...but with different scenery, and another Coop and Herm fix????? 7 mil for 1 year. You're assuming the M's are just going to cast him adrift. I don't think that's so obvious, anymore than the Orioles letting Daniel Cabrera go with nothing to show for it.

QUOTE (YASNY @ Dec 6, 2008 -> 10:54 PM) That makes so much sense, it could happen. Well, sort of...but why would we want Garland to pitch for about the same amount of money as Vazquez with the same or probably WORSE results? There are many other answers out there that would be better than paying Jon Garland $12 million dollars to be the 4th starter again. If they tried to cut him 20% (the Angels), they'd still be paying Garland $9.6 million, but we all know the odds are stacked against the teams winning these cases...he might actually end up costing more money than Vazquez. I know in another thread someone mentioned that $18 million for Ichiro is pretty crazy, or $27 million for A-Rod, but if you're going to pay Jon Garland $12-13 million to be a "pedestrian" fourth starter, why not take a bigger risk and really go for it? I don't think we'll ever see Garland here again in Chicago, any more than I believe we'll see a CC Sabathia signing this offseason, a trade for A-Rod, or the acquisition of Manny Ramirez.

Where else is Furcal going to go, logically? He basically has been cast away by the Dodgers, the A's are out of it, and the Giants as well as the Cardinals. The Dodgers and Tigers are looking at Jack Wilson or even Adam Everett. Of course, if Cabrera does end up coming back at $11 million per season, I can see a significant number of fans whining and griping that we didn't get Furcal when we had the chance. Of course, whether he would actually stay healthy and productive over the life of that contract is anothe matter entirely, but the initial reaction of Cabrera coming might would not be an altogether happy or contented one.

OU tearing apart Missouri and continuing to justify their BCS selection. Now we'll see if Stoops can get his team up for the NC game...the last couple of times out against LSU and USC were duds, especially the USC game. But Bradford is five times the QB Jason White or Josh Heupel ever were at OU. While Murray and Brown aren't better than A. Peterson individually, their combined threat is scarier (Murray's not even playing tonight), and Gresham is far and away the best TE in the country right now, with Chase Coffman a distant second.

QUOTE (Friend of Nordhagen @ Dec 6, 2008 -> 08:36 PM) Or Furcal moves to 2nd. I've seen it mentioned in the past few days that he might do so, in order to generate a larger market for his services. And I really believe that Williams wants Ramirez at short, period. If Furcal was to go the Mets, it would definitely be at 2B, but they would need to unload Castillo on someone by eating most of his salary. If he came to Chicago, I can't see why/how they wouldn't prefer to have Furcal at SS with Ramirez at 2B. You would be asking two players to make position changes from places where they've proven they can play very well, albeit somewhat erratically.

Well, at any rate, with Flowers and Armstrong, Corky Miller and Chris Stewart, I guess we're about in as good a shape as possible right now, assuming we don't trade Armstrong for Cantu. I know some prefer Blanco as the back-up, we'll just have to wait and see what his asking price is...seems like a distant memory when F. Hernandez was one of our Top 10 prospects there.

Especially after 2006, when he struggled so mightily to get through the 5th and 6th innings. A couple of those games still stand out, one when I was in Peru and following through Internet against TOR (not a good game, to say the least!) The other was the GS by Craig Monroe (I'm pretty sure it was Monroe) in DET. That game was a dagger, and an omen of things to come later in the season. For some reason, Aardsma's walkoff gopher ball to Thames stands out, too.

The fact that they won't have to give up draft picks has to be enticing to GM Smith. But that $33-36 million over three years has to be scaring the heck out of them at the same time...at Furcal's age, playing on turf for one season, with his recent history of injuries. It sort of worked okay for one year of Luis Castillo, who was even more "beaten up" by all those stolen bases over the years that Furcal seems to be. But that salary commitment would be huge for Minny, and if they're really trying to trade Delmon Young, it just seems contradictory to normal Twins' offseasons. Maybe they really are serious about having the best possible team assembled for their new stadium opening in 2010.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Dec 6, 2008 -> 05:59 PM) The Brewers wont trade Gallardo or Parra, you should just forget about those two. They're going to lose Sabathia and even if Sheets accepts arbitration they're still left with a huge dropoff after the #3 in their rotation. A great move would be Bobby Jenks for Alcides Escobar and Cole Gillespie. I know we have a lot of middle infield prospects in Beckham, Lillibridge, Getz and Nix but none of those guys are Escobar; hes on a totally different level as a prospect than everyone in our system except maybe Beckham. I really like Cole Gillespie, college ballplayer who's matured as a hitter... really gets on base and can steal a few bases. I'd love for the Sox to get him. The problem is that the Brewers, if they can't bring back either Sabathia or Sheets, it just doesn't make any sense to bring back an elite closer whose salary is projected around $5 million for 2009 and even higher for 2010 and 2011. In the process, they possibly lose him for one of the best middle infield prospects in the game that would cheap/affordable to a "rebuilding" team trying to compete with the Cubs and Cardinals. Also, I think they would learn from the $10 million they wasted on Gagne (of course, one could argue that paying half that for Jenks is much more logical). They did "okay" with Salomon Torres as the closer, but there's lots of other cheaper options out there like Brandon Lyon, Juan Cruz, Jose Valverde, etc., that wouldn't cost nearly as much as Jenks to acquire. Sure, trying to dump Hardy would make sense, but you don't trade Top 10 MLB middle infield prospects (especially at SS) for a closer, unless it's Mariano Rivera in his prime or someone like that.

How can we possibly be in on Furcal if we don't know if OC will accept arbitration? I mean, we COULD be a player there, but everything has been so public about his (Furcal's) viable options...how would it be possible for KW to stay totally under the radar? Lots of conflicting stories, that he turned down a solid offer for 3/$39, but then rumors that the other teams were balking at adding a fourth year and that a deal offering 4 years for $35-40 million was about the best he could possibly do. With Cabrera slated to make $9-11 million next season, I don't see how we're not at least waiting. As another Phil Rogers article that speculates about Cabrera's destination and competition amongst the remaining SS's for those teams, there aren't very many viable options left for OC. Maybe the Dodgers, maybe the A's, maybe the Twins. But do we see Minnesota signing anyone to a 2 year/$20 million contract as a FA? By the way, it also looks like the Twins are shopping Delmon Young, who would be a "cheaper" player most teams would probably prefer to one year (or maybe two) of Jermaine Dye for $23 million.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...,3772436.column Another article basically summarizing where the Sox are at this point in the offseason: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...,0,515366.story

That's certainly one more reason to think that holding onto him one more year and hoping he reverts back to 2007 form is probably just wishful thinking...as he's only pitched really well (consistently) when the Sox were not in contention.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Dec 6, 2008 -> 02:00 PM) Jenks traded. Juan Cruz signed. Cruz/Thornton/Linebrink, closer by committee (unless one emerges). I don't think we'd touch Juan Cruz due to his Type A status and losing the picks...too expensive for a set-up guy, unless you really believe he could step in and be a closer to replace Jenks, which some teams apparently see him as this offseason.

There are a lot of teams that took chances by offering arbitration, and nearly as big. The Angels offered to bring back Jon Garland, although he's only a Type B FA. I guess it's a lesser risk due to the value of pitching in this market, and the fact that the Angels have 33-50% more money to play around with than we do in this current/future market. Still, if another team signed him, the Angels wouldn't have as much to lose as not offering a Type A FA.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 6, 2008 -> 09:01 AM) For everyone clamoring for OC to return, you fail to realize that this wasn't in the plans that KW had. Thus, who knows what other deals he wanted to make will be impossible due to the financial ramifications if OC returns. I assume that the Swisher and Javy trades weren't made with OC returns in mind. Or it could bring about a trade that Kenny doesn't really want to make in order to dump Dye's or Konerko's salary...assuming Cabrera's $9-11 million one year deal is back on the books. That, or trading Jenks. Kind of frustrating, in the sense that we just won the AL Central, but all MLB teams except for the Red Sox, Cubs, Angels, Mets, Yankees and Red Sox will be making decisions based much more on the financial ramificationas, such as the Dodgers turning down a deal for Furcal for four years already, even though Torre really wanted to bring him back.

“The negativity is never good," Vazquez said at his news conference in Atlanta. "I’ve always been a big believer in being positive, especially in professional leagues. You’ve got a lot of negative things going on, so you always try to be positive. "I’m a positive guy, try to be positive all the time. I’m glad to be here in Atlanta." Vazquez declined to say anything bad about Guillen. "The only thing I’m going to say is it’s good to get away from the negativity and start fresh," Vazquez said. "I like the city, like the stadium. I’m a flyball pitcher, so this park, I think suits better with the type of pitcher I am. I’m looking forward to pitching here." chicagotribune.com/sports Well, when I read the headline, I thought it would/could be worse. Ozzie and former Sox players have been extremely "cordial" to each other the past couple of days. Nobody being thrown under the bus, must be something in the water.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Dec 6, 2008 -> 09:05 AM) Chris De Luca still thinks the Sox will call MacPhail about Brian Roberts during the winter meetings. Obviously he is the perfect one year stop gap until Beckham is ready for his call up in 2010. Now that our farm has been well re-stocked, we may have the amunition to pull off such a deal. Brian Roberts Jermain Dye will likely be moved this offseason. And I would most definitley trade him for a young SP. Teams like the Reds, Giants, Rays, and Phillies will call KW about his services during the winter meetings. Possible Returns: Reds- Homer Bailey: Former 1st round pick and top pitching prospect. Sox can get him back on track aka like they did with Floyd. Giants- Jonathan Sanchez: young pitcher with some MLB experience. Can be a bottom of the rotation servicable starter. Rays- Edwin Jackson or Sonnestiene: One or the other will be dealt this offseason as they need to make room for Price. Both of these starters played a role in the magical Rays season. Jackson has a high cieling and has nasty stuff. Phillies- Not sure what they have to offer... The whole Jenks thing is intruiging. If they move him then it may be a loooong 2009 and a partial rebuilding phase. I would do it if you can get a promising top prospect who can potentially be our CF of the future. I wonder if the Mets would ever cave in and accept a Dye, Jenks for Fernando Martinez. I have been reading up about this young fella and boy is he exciting... If you were the Mets, an oppurtunity to add a 30+ HR-100 RBI guy AND a 35+ save guy has to be intruiging... The Winter Meetings will be interesting.... The Mets absolutely refused to part with him as part of the Johan Santana deal. If you can't get him included for arguably the best starting pitcher in baseball, then there's no way Jenks/Dye gets you very far. The possibility of having another Kazmir/Zambrano deal go against them still lingers, to this day, with young Mr. Martinez. Cafardo believes the Dodgers will turn to Bobby Abreu, Pat Burrell, or Jermaine Dye if they fail to re-sign Manny Ramirez.mlbtraderumors.com Anyone interested in signing Matt Clement on a "spec" major/minor league contract?