Special K

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 9, 2011 -> 01:23 PM) The issue with Young, other than $, is that he's a negative defender, and even the people who don't like the fancy new advanced stats will agree on that one; he doesn't help you much on defense. Adding young helps your offense but makes your IF defense a lot worse compared with Morel (not, however, compared to Teahen). The fact that Young is a negative defender offsets a lot of the value he does bring with the bats. If Brent Morel is a plus defender this year, then there's every reason to think he'd be almost as valuable as Young, just in a different way. And if Morel carries himself well with the bat...which is entirely possible...then he could be a more valuable player than Young this year...and very likely will be next year. I completely agree with you if Morel turns out to be adequate on offense. I think he's got a real solid glove. I remember someone had him projected around a .275 BA with roughly 9-10 homeruns. If he does that and plays good Defense, then that's outstanding. Especially given the fact that he's a cheap rookie and will only be getting better. This is all contingent on the premise that Morel is the starter, which is not set in stone just yet, cause Ozzy has loyalty to the veterans which will definitely favor Teahen.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Feb 9, 2011 -> 01:28 PM) And from the looks of it, not many other teams are interested in his services right now. He might have to stay put. The Rangers might get desperate enough to trade him to the Astros for Carlos Lee. I figured the Rays might be all over that. It's just his contract is too large.

QUOTE (knightni @ Feb 9, 2011 -> 01:21 PM) The only thing that Texas would want would be Danks back. Yeah, I gotta say, I feel like that's a pretty bad K they gave to Young. I didn't realize he was making $16 million a year. He's a very nice player, but I don't feel he's worth that much, especially given the fact that he's been given a diminished role on the Rangers.

Young wants out, the Rangers seem willing to consider. Obviously it's not going to happen, but it'd be pretty sweet. If Kenny were to consider it, he'd more than adequately fill what I feel is the biggest hole in our everyday lineup. Obviously money is an issue, and I don't know what package they'd consider, maybe something based around Tank, but it would certainly make the Sox a top 3 offense in the AL.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Jan 10, 2011 -> 04:35 PM) Then we should start another poll.... Biggest debate on Soxtalk --Sale to bullpen vs. Sale to rotation --Dan Hudson/Edwin Jackson debate Is the DeWayne Wise/Brian Anderson debate officially dead?

QUOTE (chunk23 @ Dec 5, 2010 -> 11:17 PM) Read this on another forum One of my best friends and co-workers was Casey Kelly's high school tutor and when I told her about him being the centerpiece in a trade for a really good player, she said, "Well he still reads at a fourth-grade reading level so he better hope this baseball thing works." I just read the White Sox were the runners up to get Gonzalez, having offered Gordon Beckham and Prospects per MLB Trade Rumors. Do you think they did this even after acquiring Dunn and were going for him instead of Konerko? And where the heck would they come up w/ that kind of money to sign him?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 6, 2010 -> 09:45 AM) Fixed. Joe Crede is a bad baseball player. He's not a bad baseball player, just injury plagued since 2006

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 02:51 PM) Oney Guillen just tweeted this: My sources r telling me that sox signed a big name. That organization can't keep any secrets. Leaks all over the place I can't find Oney's tweet, can you send me a link. Also, do you really think he has any clue whether the Sox are about to sign a big name player?

QUOTE (balfanman @ Nov 23, 2010 -> 12:27 PM) Because Dunn is very insistant that he can play defense and refuses to DH. He's already came out and said that he is willing to accept a diminished role as a fielder. If he wants to play 1B for 30 games out of the season, let him do it, it's not going to kill our defense that much. If he accepts that role, do you not agree he is the best available bat the Sox could ask for. Besides Thome of course.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Nov 23, 2010 -> 11:58 AM) ??? And Dunn does? No Dunn does not. But he is also one of the best power hitters in baseball, mashing much better than Martinez. So if you're going to spend $ on a lefthanded stick that doesn't play defense, why not spend it on the guy who hits 40 bombs a year.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 23, 2010 -> 11:35 AM) That is just crazy. If we are going to offer that contract to anyone, I'd rather see it be Dunn than Martinez. Agreed. Any big money spent should be focused on Dunn. Victor Martinez plays no defense.

Per MLB Trade Rumors: "The Yankees declined their 2011 options for Kerry Wood, Lance Berkman and Nick Johnson and exercised their option on 2007 first rounder Andrew Brackman. It cost the Yankees $2MM to buy out Berkman's $15MM option and $250K to buy out Johnson's $5.5MM option." Any chance the Sox try to grab a Nick Johnson on the cheap? I think it's a move that might be a solid idea.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Oct 13, 2010 -> 04:22 PM) You got me. Jackson=Cliff Lee What's with you and clever quips? You offer nothing to support your arguments. I never said Jackson had unlimited upside, just that he had more upside. Plenty of guys bounce around teams before they get it together... Thornton, Jenks, Josh Hamilton, even Floyd could be tossed into that category. All I gotta say is that Jackson has been an all star, and if were lucky regain that form. I don't see Hudson getting to that point, and guess what, the Sox scouts agree.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Oct 13, 2010 -> 04:19 PM) First off, never use wins as a way to judge a pitcher's performance, wins are almost always out of the hands of the pitcher as an offense can score 10 runs to save a pitcher or none to kill a great performance, look at other stats to determine a pitcher's worth. Second, you don't trade a young, talented pitcher who struggled in one key area, walks, but showed in the past that those struggles would go away. Jackson was a decent pickup, but he was not worth Hudson, period. Kenny is shooting himself in the foot with this trade, and you'll see this when we have a Dewayne Wise/Mark Kotsay starting in our lineup somewhere because we ran out of funds, or we can't resign key players (and not just Konerko, who I think will get more money regardless elsewhere, but guys like Putz that we need in the bullpen). Big Russ, you're killing me. The verdict is still out on this deal. Maybe Coop does to Jackson what he did with Floyd, and Jackson has his best year ever next year. While I think it is definitely pricey, we do have Jenks coming off the books, so hopefully those two things kind of even out. Certainly i'd rather have Konerko here, and if the Jackson deal meant no Konerko, then i'm not happy w/ that deal. But we do have some money coming off the books.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Oct 13, 2010 -> 03:32 PM) Petco park is completely different from straight up pitching in the NL. It's like CarGo in Colorado vs. away. Jackson has had one good season, and even then he was TERRIBLE in September when his team needed him. And if the Sox thought Hudson was a back end rotation starter than shame on them and they should be called out for it. He may not have been a future ace, but he had swing and miss stuff, and combined with his peripherals in the minors he easily projected to a 2/3 starter, and IMO was a 4/5 starter NOW. Just because you don't value your own player as much as another team doesn't mean you should give them away for the price you value them, if a team likes him more you price him at that. I wouldn't consider 3-2 out of 6 games started that September terrible. His ERA was high, but by no means did he kill his team. Anyways, if we look back to now, he was very solid for us during his brief stint last year. I think he was 4-2 w/ an ERA in the mid 3s. I will certainl take that production (if possible for him to maintain) all year next year. I'm anxious to see how Hudson does, if he keeps up those numbers, than bravo to him and Kenny looks like a moron. All I know is that Hudson WAS NOT getting it done for us when we needed him to. Keep it in context, we were in the middle of a playoff race and that spot in the rotation was getting blown up. Jackson came in and changed that. In fact, he was probably our best pitcher down the stretch. If our bullpen didn't implode and our team made the playoffs that move would have looked great. Lots of fans would have gotten angry w/ Kenny for not solidifying that spot in the rotation in the middle of a playoff race.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Oct 13, 2010 -> 12:07 PM) You know this how? Looking at Hudson's performances and stats and you'll see that he had a VERY uncharacteristically high amount of walks. In the minors, and now with the DBacks, he has always been a low walk guy. With the Sox, he was walking too many batters and putting himself in trouble but never really got hit hard. He was showing swing and miss stuff which is important, couple that with his history of good control and his success with the DBacks had a very good chance of happening with the Sox. And if you're going to through out that NL no-pennant race bulls*** than you have to look at the first half that Jackson had, and tell me why the hell we gave up so much for a terrible pitcher in the NL who wasn't on a good team. Jackson has had about 1 good season of pitching total in 4, he had just as much risk as Hudson of performing well down the stretch. Remember his August/Sept. stats from Detroit last year, they were AWFUL. He has shown no consistency and no tendency to perform well in high pressure situations. Case in point Clayton Richard... Year Age Tm Lg W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP ERA+ WHIP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9 SO/BB 2009 25 TOT MLB 9 5 .643 4.41 38 26 3 1 0 0 153.0 154 81 75 17 71 0 114 3 98 1.471 9.1 1.0 4.2 6.7 1.61 2010 26 SDP NL 14 9 .609 3.75 33 33 0 1 1 0 201.2 206 89 84 16 78 6 153 2 4 861 98 1.408 9.2 0.7 3.5 6.8 1.96 Compare his 2009 year where he played a majority w/ the Sox, and then his 2010 year where he played solely w/ the Padres. In 2009 he started about 10 less games, but he was on pace to give up the same amount of hits over the same amount of innings pitched, his WHIP's were relatively similar, and so were the k/9. However, not pitching at the cell translated into a dramatic drop off in homeruns and runs scored. This translated into a an ERA of almost .75 difference. Jackson has two solid seasons, not including what he did for us last year. He pitches better in the central, i'm not positive why he does, but if it's because he is more comfortable, or because Cooper helped him work a couple things out is fine with me, because we are getting the results. Everyone in the Sox organization thought Hudson was at-best a back of the rotation starter. That's why they were fine w/ letting him go because Jackson has much more upside, and has much filthier stuff.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 13, 2010 -> 09:32 AM) Solid starting pitching is the #1 reason for success in baseball, especially come post-season. I can't see how anyone sees that as a problem. I mean, the Hudson/Jackson trade was dumb, but not because pitching isn't important - it was dumb because it was a trade down at the same position. I don't understand why you think that was a trade down? I concede that it was a bad move in terms of money, because Hudson can be had on the cheap and probably would have been serviceable. That money could obviously be used to sign/resign players. But Jackson is a better pitcher. Hudson doesn't have the type of season he did in the second half with the D-Backs here in Chicago. He would have been pitching in a playoff race, in a harder ball park to pitch, and most importantly in the AL. Jackson is a fine pitcher who will hopefully get back to his all star form.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 04:05 PM) Everybody knows the white sox should have signed Thome. We don't need to bring it up in every thread. I mean, why would I not bring it up in a discussion about possible DHs for the 2010 White Sox? FYI Thome hit a home run that scored the Twins 5th run today in their 5-4 win.

QUOTE (knightni @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 02:50 PM) Player A: .242 8 hr 30 rbi .314 obp .391 slg - 1.5 mil Player B: .266 7 hr 43 rbi .356 obp .392 slg - 8 mil 6.5 mil was spent on .024 ba, 13 rbi and .042 obp by a team. A is B is I mean, as nice of a find as that is... Damon's line is not the issue, this line is 20 HR, BA. .270, OBP .394, SLG. .603, and OPS .998 Those are Thome's numbers and it dwarfs both of those guys. He is also doing it with only 290 PAs. Lastly, although things may not have worked out the same, had we resigned Thome the Twins would really have been hurting for those numbers this year with Morneau missing almost the entire 2nd half. But things are looking up now that we went out and picked up a legit DH. I think he's making $1 million too.

As good as our offense has been (second to only the Yankees)... the real story has been how awful our pitching has been since the all star break and how surprisingly good the twins has been (even though I believe their starters are overperforming)... Minnesota ranks 2nd in ERA, while the Sox are 18th. As a team who was supposed to win this division on the backbone of their starting pitching, it's not hard to see how we are currently 4 games out even though our offense has been so good. I think a majority of this is attributable to our bullpen, but let's be honest, the starting pitching (with the exception of Jackson) has not exactly been lights out. RK TEAM GP W L ERA SV CG SHO IP QS ER R BB SO BAA 2 Minnesota 45 31 14 3.36 10 4 0 402.0 0 150 160 112 278 .258 18 Chicago Sox 46 24 22 3.94 8 2 0 415.1 0 182 196 142 320 .268

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 30, 2010 -> 08:57 AM) Unless the rules change in September, you can't do that. If someone gets sent down, they have to stay down for 10 days. Yeah I think they are modified so that rule wouldn't apply. But i'm not 100% on that.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 30, 2010 -> 08:53 AM) Don't forget Peavy or Threets could hit the 60 day DL to free up a roster spot. Also, September call-ups start Wednesday so it really doesn't matter. They'll just send Lilibridge down for a day or something. My only question is if we get Manny today, will we see him in a uniform tonight?

Heyman sounds like a complete jerk. Some people just report what they want to hear rather than what the obvious truth is. To say the Rangers are the favorite makes absolutely no sense because the Sox are clearly ahead of them in the process, and made it pretty clear they would be claiming him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 27, 2010 -> 08:38 AM) We probably will know much more by the end of the day...but remember, we'll probably know nothing official at all. If Manny has passed through completely, we won't hear about it officially through anything but leaks. If Manny has been claimed by someone, we won't know officially which team has claimed him unless the Dodgers immediately let him go, and they still have another 2 days to work out a trade even if we did claim him. Loks Like the Dodgers may hold onto Manny, at least for the weekend. http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/MLB-lat...m-August-080110 They're behind 4 teams, what a bunch of chumps.

QUOTE (bighurt574 @ Aug 24, 2010 -> 02:38 PM) It's not my money. If Kenny and Jerry are ok spending a few million for a month of Manny, I'm all for it. Manny at his worst is still better than Kotsay/Jones. Exactly. There should be no questions about this. Manny is an extremely better option than anyone else we would have. Plus it might just breathe some life into the clubhouse. My only reservation about signing him would be if it were to prevent or hinder us from making moves for next season.