Grade the Off-Season

[The Critic]

I say B just because second base has not been addressed.

If KW can grab a decent 2B, it goes up to an A.

[Credepopsup]

I gave this off season a B. I had my doubts about how well KW would be able to make the necessary adjustments to the roster to fit the "new philosophy".

He's done well - the starting rotation is better, I love the bullpen, we've upgraded at catcher and aquired an outfielder who'll cause havoc on the base pads. One more signing - a reliable middle infielder and it will have been an excellent off season. There are obviously a few question marks over health and chemistry, but on paper I like this roster.

[AnthraxFan93]

Loaiza - A 21 game winner we thought would anchor the rotation.

 

 

Wait a sec..You thought Loiaza after one good year could anchor our staff? And before that year could not win more than 12 games, and at the end of 03 was getting toasted by the Twins? I said that if he won 12-14 games in 04, I would have been happy. WE didn't really take a loss with him.

 

As far as the topic at hand.. I give the Sox a C.. since this team can be really good/ or repeat prior years/ be even worse than before.

[Texsox]

Wait a sec..You thought Loiaza after one good year could anchor our staff?  And before that year could not win more than 12 games, and at the end of 03 was getting toasted by the Twins? I said that if he won 12-14 games in 04, I would have been happy. WE didn't really take a loss with him.

 

As far as the topic at hand.. I give the Sox a C.. since this team can be really good/ or repeat prior years/  be even worse than before.

 

I was expecting Elo to drop a little to 15 or so wins and Mark to move up to 17 or 18. Others were expecting more from Elo and with good cause. Months of rest for one. Imroved offense for another. I don't think it would have been crazy to believe Elo would be the #1 starter for another season.

[WilliamTell]

Wait a sec..You thought Loiaza after one good year could anchor our staff?  And before that year could not win more than 12 games, and at the end of 03 was getting toasted by the Twins? I said that if he won 12-14 games in 04, I would have been happy. WE didn't really take a loss with him.

 

As far as the topic at hand.. I give the Sox a C.. since this team can be really good/ or repeat prior years/  be even worse than before.

 

 

I knew you'd be one of the 2 so far to give the Sox a C. I gave them a B. But even if the Sox win the World Series you'll still hate Kenny Williams.

[YASNY]

Considering the unadulterated joy expressed here over the signing of AJ, I thought it was time to come back down to earth a bit. That's why I made my post.

 

As for expecting ELo to anchor the staff... maybe that was a little strong. But if you consider the guy won 21 games, finished second in the CY Young voting and was in a walk year on his contract, you'd figure he'd give us more than he did. ELo thought he had his engraved invitation to a contract to die for based on his 2003 season. I guess he's questioning his judgement .... and I'm questioning his effort in '04 ... of the current situation now. We should have gotten 17-18 wins from Loaiza, minimum. He had Wilson Alverez disease and was too lazy to throw his best fastball consistantly. That became apparent to me at the All Star game. he was chucking it at 93-94 mph in Houston and we were seeing 88-89-90 from him in Chicago. The Yankees soon discovered the same thing about him.

[Texsox]

Considering the unadulterated joy expressed here over the signing of AJ, I thought it was time to come back down to earth a bit. That's why I made my post.

 

As for expecting ELo to anchor the staff... maybe that was a little strong.  But if you consider the guy won 21 games, finished second in the CY Young voting and was in a walk year on his contract, you'd figure he'd give us more than he did.  ELo thought he had his engraved invitation to a contract to die for based on his 2003 season.  I guess he's questioning his judgement .... and I'm questioning his effort in '04 ... of the current situation now. We should have gotten 17-18 wins from Loaiza, minimum.  He had Wilson Alverez disease and was too lazy to throw his best fastball consistantly.  That became apparent to me at the All Star game.  he was chucking it at 93-94 mph in Houston and we were seeing 88-89-90 from him in Chicago.  The Yankees soon discovered the same thing about him.

 

I think you're analysis was solid.

 

IMHAOIO, the Sox addressed some weaknesses by weakening strong positions. Balance in baseball is usually good. Building a team around a manager seems a little strange, but I'm willing to cheer for a couple games (maybe more)

[YASNY]

I think you're analysis was solid.

 

IMHAOIO, the Sox addressed some weaknesses by weakening strong positions. Balance in baseball is usually good. Building a team around a manager seems a little strange, but I'm willing to cheer for a couple games (maybe more)

 

 

OK... I can usually figure these things out, but WTF is IMHAOIO?

[Texsox]

OK... I can usually figure these things out, but WTF is IMHAOIO? 

 

Thank you for asking

 

In my humble and often ignored opinion

[JUGGERNAUT]

With the signing of AJ it's a definite A-.

If you read the reports behind these signings most GM's believe the best bargain this winter was Dye at 10M/2yr. Most GM's believe he is going to have a monster year at the Cell.

 

Next to that is Hernandez at 8M/2yr. That's right in line with BOS 8M/2yr base for Wells. But BOS could wind up paying more than double that with incentives. Most GM's believe Hernandez might be at the top of his game & his health.

 

The Pods deal was the toughest for CWS fans to accept. I expect greatness out of Lee vs NL pitching. That's going to haunt KW if Pods & Vizcaino are just average. Of course there is the PTBNL but unless Pods

is a star this season KW is going to be criticized for this for years.

 

I think it was a bad trade.

 

Vizcaino was bad vs RH & great vs LH in the NL. He came up with OAK & his best era was 4.66 before joining MIL.

In 2001 w OAK vs RH 282/333.424 vs LH 241/302/517.

In 2004 w MIL vs RH 290/331/522 vs LH 163/245/341.

 

I don't know what KW sees in this guy. Hie got worse vs RH & his LH improvement could simply be an indication of how weak the NL is these days.

 

So this trade is going to come down to Pods & PTBNL. I don't expect that to be Sheets, so it's basically Pods. Well at least we can say we saved 16.5M/2yr we could spend elsewhere.

 

AJ for 2.25M/1yr. A No-brainer. Good deal!

 

Here's the way I look at it. If we assume the CWS were not going to jump into the mid70-mid80 payroll range then the Lee trade really breaks down like this:

 

In exchange for Lee, we got El-Duque+AJ+Pods+Viscaino+PTBNL.

Looking at it that way the deal looks much better.

[JUGGERNAUT]

I forgot Hermie. I wonder why. Maybe he's forgettable. Let's take a look:

As you all know by now I think there is a big dropoff betw the AL & NL.

I was surprised when I looked at this but there really is something to be said about who's behind you & who's ahead of you in the lineup.

 

What has happened in the modern game where FA has led to great player movement the 6-9 hitters in the NL avg 200 OPS than the 6-9 hitters in the AL. That's pretty bad & it's obviously going to lead to lower ERA's & other stats for NL pitchers. Does the NL & AL differentiation exist in the ml's? I don't think it does.

 

In any case let's look at Hermie:

He has 1 AL stint: 2002 BOS 12GP, 7.77 ERA

2002 v R: .373/ .403/ .644/ 1.047 - horrible

2002 v L: .325/ .378/ .450/ .828 - bad

 

2004 v R: .242/ .291/ .358/ .650 - good

2004 v L: .285/ .352/ .498/ .850 - bad

 

Again I don't see it. I guess the hope here is that Hermie will be good vs RH in the AL & Vizc will be good vs LH in the AL. But since they didn't show that when they were in the AL I remain skeptical.

 

After looking at Hermie I'm knocking my grade down to B. Basically KW locked up 12M/2yr in guys I think will fail at the Cell.

[rcescato]

I still think they have one more move left and thats getting a middle infielder whether its Iguchi/Cora/Cairo.

 

But by the looks of this, on paper this is going to be a far superior team to the one the Sox put out there at the start of last season.

 

There is no question the White Sox have made major changes in this team. I give KW an A for this off season. Now we have the capability to produce runs not just hit homeruns. With this pitching staff and the better defense we should win 85-90 games this year. Hopefully this will be enough to win the division.

GO YOU WHITE SOX!!!!!!!

[CanOfCorn]

Yas, I hate to do this to you, but it's only January...every team is a question mark now.

 

Anything can happen during the year. people get hurt, don't live up to their billing. There is no chemistry. whatever.

 

Kenny said he wanted to balance the offense and he did. Kenny said he wanted to bolster the pitching staff and he did. Kenny gets an A.

 

I don't think we can grade the players until they've played. But the moves the White Sox have made have made this team more dangerous from top to bottom. We have big boppers, we have speedsters, LH, RH, no below average pitchers.

 

It's a near perfect balance of Go Go Sox and the South Side Hit Men, which is all Kenny and Ozzie wanted.