5th starter.

[Gene Honda Civic]

First of all Borchard still as too much potential to give up on -- Especially considering the $5.3MIL price tag he brought just to sign him --

 

Second, While I would certainly welcome Garcia on the Sox, His numbers away from Safco Field have been anything but dominating.

 

Home (4 starts) 2.00ERA .197BAA

Away (4 starts) 3.74ERA .274BAA

 

Most Disturbing is his GB/FB ratio -- 74/72(1.03) would not cut it in USCF. Garland(1.20), Buerhle(1.33), Loaiza(1.19), and Schoeneweis(1.28) all have better ratios. Hell even Neal Cotts has a better GB/FB ratio than does Garcia. All four of the Sox starters have a better ERA&BAA away from home -- USCF(especially with the new roof) is a hitters park. To succeed there, you have to keep the ball down and get the ground ball --

 

Garcia is a good pitcher, but he's not the best fit on the southside.

[Soxbadger]

Can we give Cotts maybe a week or 2 to stretch out and then have a fair shot at the 5th spot?

 

He made a few mistakes, but he could of given up 0 runs as easily as 4 runs.

 

He had a 50 pitch limit.

 

It was his first start.

 

We should give him a few chances before we just throw the towel in, in fact some might say after the last 2 days the Twins were due.

 

SB

[Yoda]

Can we give Cotts maybe a week or 2 to stretch out and then have a fair shot at the 5th spot?

 

He made a few mistakes, but he could of given up 0 runs as easily as 4 runs.

 

He had a 50 pitch limit.

 

It was his first start.

 

We should give him a few chances before we just throw the towel in, in fact some might say after the last 2 days the Twins were due.

 

SB

I think Ozzie is tired of giving these guys so many chances. He says he wants to win games, in order to do that he has to make some good choices. But I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw Cotts as the starting pitcher once again. We gave Wright 4 chances and Diaz two of them. Cotts might as well have another chance.

[beck72]

IMO Lee is very, VERY expendable at this point.  I'd say he's even more expendable than Paul Konerko, because really we only have one option outside of a trade if we did trade Paully, that being Ross Gload.  I'd try now, not later, NOW to make a package including Lee and Borchard (as well as others) to Seattle for Freddy Garcia. 

I agree, Lee is expendable. He has a lot of talent but doesn't have baseball smarts. He was almost picked off 1st base for the umpteenth time yesterday, swung again at ball four whne the Sox needed baserunners, etc. He doesn't justify his next year salary of $9 mill. Trade now or the Sox will regret it next year.

 

If Lee is traded, the Sox need Borchard as another OF option to go with Reed. Sweeney and Anderson are a few years away. The Sox brass should go with Reed as the Sox need on base guys not another slugger.

[beck72]

Why is it there is always this stuff about trading Konerko and Valentin? Plus we never seem to think their worth any more than a 5th starter or some utility man in value. Please may we dispense with these kinds of statements?

Valentin and PK are valuable. They shouldn't be moved unless a great offer is put on the table. As none will probably be in the offing, sticking with these guys makes sense.

 

One thing about Valentin though. Having him at SS may hinder both Uribe's and Harris' development. Ozzie has a tought task ahead to give these guys and Crede the necessary playing time. While it makes sense to make a decision next year, with Uribe being the full time SS, having all these guys this year will help in case someone gets hurt [Having Harris go down probably shot down any spec. about trading Jose]