Rotoworld predicts sox to sign Jarrod Washburn

[Yeast Confection]

30+ = red

28-29 = blue

<28 = purple

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I am dancing to FF's 'Take Me Out'-themed Ipod commercial. What color am I?

[Gene Honda Civic]

Is douchebag a color?

[Leonard Zelig]

Is douchebag a color?

 

[Yeast Confection]

Is douchebag a color?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Yes and no.

[Frank the Tank 35]

SWEET! I love speculation threads. WARNING: If you don't like speculation, STOP READING NOW, for you will surely hate this. Read at your own risk, so don't b**** about it if you're not for speculation.

 

Durham: Check his stats the past few years...not so good. He's rebounded nicely the past couple months from a horrid start. He's been oft injured lately, so I wouldn't want him.

 

B Giles: He's starting to get up there in age. His power numbers have gone down the past couple years (yes, he's at Petco, but still...). He has a great BB/SO ratio, but you'd rather have him than bring back Frank at DH? Frank's only a couple years older anyway. If you're gonna oust Frank for somebody, at least make it worthwhile. Our outfield is set for next year, so there's no room for him at the inn there.

 

Overbay: He'd be an awesome pickup if only because his contract is so much less than Konerko's will be. However, the Brewers were reluctant to trade him at the deadline, so why would they trade him after the season? At his price they can afford to keep him and ease Fielder into 1B. He may be available at the trade deadline next year though...

 

Chipper: Yeah, he's getting old too. He's had considerable injuries recently which would definitely worry me. He'll probably be a Brave till he retires anyway.

 

I like the idea of trading Contreras for Tracy, signing Burnett, trading away Duque and Hermanson, and letting BMac take the 5th spot.

 

Here's a thought: BJ Ryan, the flamethrowing lefty closer for the O's, will be a FA this offseason. Sign him first off. Then trade Hermanson and Duque to Baltimore, a team in need of SP and recently relieved of their closer, hehe. Mora would be a free agent after the 2006 season, maybe they'd be willing to part with him early with the knowledge that he'd be in for a big payday after the season. We could even do a sign and trade with Crede in arbitration (that's allowed, right?). Ryan + Cotts would make Marte expendable, plus there are a plethora of good righty RP's (Timlin, Gordon, Howry, Tavarez, Eldred, Seanez, T Jones, Dempster, etc) but only a couple lefty relievers (Eyre, Hammond). Gordon, Eldred, Seanez, Jones, and Hammond are gettin old. Timlin will cost too much. Tavarez has a temper. That makes Howry, Dempster, or Eyre good matches. Most don't want a former Cub, so the former Sock Howry would be the best righty fit. Eyre would be good too but that would be 3 lefties in the pen... necessary? That makes the pen:

Viz (maybe he can regain his form of 2004) - $1.3? (correct?)

Howry - $1 mil ($900 thousand this year)

Cotts - near minimum

Politte - $1.2

Jenks - minimum

Ryan - $7 mil (unfortunately, yes that much... Wags made $9 this year, BJ is a young Wags)

That's a pretty imposing pen that can throw some heat with two guys at the end who throw in the upper 90's. Total cost: $11 mil

 

The D'backs are starting to have a decent starting rotation with Vazquez, Webb, emergence of Halsey and the surprise Vargas. SO, why would they take on Contreras... how about instead we trade Marte to them since their bullpen still sucks? Maybe include a prospect or two. Mmm... Chad Tracy.

 

Here's where we take a turn and get even MORE far-fetched (excited yet?). Remember the rumors of Texas trading Michael Young? Why would they even think about trading him? He's under contract for the next two years for $3-4 mil per year with a team option for a 3rd year at $4 mil. VERY affordable. Well, did you know that the Rangers have 2 hot SS prospects (Ian Kinsler and Joaquin Arias) coming through their ranks? As everybody knows, they have a dire need for SP. Jose Contreras + our highest pitching prospect(s) outside of BMac for Young, ooo I love speculation. But you say, why wouldn't Hart just sign Burnett? Well, as evidenced by the Rangers trying to dump Soriano's salary, their owner has realized he can't spend willy-nilly, so Contreras at $7 mil (incl. the $$ from the Yanks) instead of Burnett at $11-12 mil leaves an extra $4-5 mil plus the $3+ mil from Young to sign another SP such as Millwood, Washburn, Weaver, Rogers, or Lilly. But again you say, wouldn't they rather get rid of the more expensive (due to arbitration) Soriano and move Young to 2B? Yes, they probably would, however, he's cleared waivers and probably won't be traded... not much of a market for him seemingly. Even if he were traded, the Rangers have Jason Bourgeois coming up. Like I said, it's a BIG stretch here.

 

Another (much more likely) option at SS: Julio Lugo. Yes the D-rays are ridiculous when it comes to trades. However, they've tried unsuccessfully to sign Lugo to a long term contract, and he will be a FA after 2006 season. They also have someone named BJ Upton coming up! Cantu's at 3rd, Nick Green is a good option for them at 2nd. It would probably be that Marte (+ prospects) would have to go to them since they wouldn't take on Contreras' contract. The Count would have to go to the D'backs in this scenario (they could always use a 5th starter anyway).

 

So here's the readjusted starting lineup and starting rotation:

 

Buehrle - $7.75

Garland - (arb) ~ $5 or (resign) ~ $7

Burnett - $11-12

Garcia - $9

BMac - minimum

Cost: $35 mil

 

LF- Pods - $1.9

2B- Gooch - $2.4 or SS- Lugo - $5

SS- Young - $3 or 2B- Gooch - $2.4

3B- Mora - $4

DH - Thomas (yes, Thomas... my fantasy) - $5

1B - Tracy - minimum

RF- Dye - $5

CF- Rowand - $3.25

C- AJ - $3.5ish

Cost: $28 mil (Young) or $30 mil (Lugo)

 

Total cost - bench players: $74-76 mil... that would leave $10 mil if the Sox were to raise their payroll to $85 mil. That $$ would be for bench players. Maybe we'd have to take on a bad contract (Nevin or Sosa, ugh, with them paying some of that) in the whole process, which would give us some leverage.

 

As you can see I don't even know how to arrange that lineup, it's just soo good and soo cheap. Obviously this is all ridiculous and would never fall into place like so... but it's a sweet dream.

[YASNY]

Tank, your alarm clock should be going off any second, now.

[DBAHO]

B Giles: He's starting to get up there in age.  His power numbers have gone down the past couple years (yes, he's at Petco, but still...).  He has a great BB/SO ratio, but you'd rather have him than bring back Frank at DH?  Frank's only a couple years older anyway.  If you're gonna oust Frank for somebody, at least make it worthwhile.  Our outfield is set for next year, so there's no room for him at the inn there.

 

The D'backs are starting to have a decent starting rotation with Vazquez, Webb, emergence of Halsey and the surprise Vargas.  SO, why would they take on Contreras... how about instead we trade Marte to them since their bullpen still sucks?  Maybe include a prospect or two.  Mmm... Chad Tracy.

I first was of that thought on Giles. I just don't think you can shy away from a guy who has a 1.018 OPS on his road games from this season though. I think the PETCO excuse is just so valid, because he'll hit the majority of his homers to right field, and it's just so bad out there. At the Cell, it's a guarantee he'll hit at least 10 more home runs then he would at PETCO. And he crushes righties, which we have a serious weakness at. He's only 34, so he's not really that old, he can still be very productive for another 2 to 3 seasons.

 

And yeah I'd rather have him than bring back Frank. Thomas coming back from an injury is not good for numbers, his career has shown us that. There's no guarantee he's ever going to be 100% again, so we need a contingency plan in place.

 

Vazquez can demand a trade and become a FA if that's not granted, doubt it will happen, but it's still possible. I doubt Vargas is going to continue the way he's been pitching all the way thru next season too. So Contreras makes sense for them, he's never pitched in the NL, and could even pitch out the bullpen. Will they make a deal for Chad Tracy for Count though? I doubt it, not unless someone like Brandon McCarthy is included instead.

[RockRaines]

As you can see I don't even know how to arrange that lineup, it's just soo good and soo cheap.  Obviously this is all ridiculous and would never fall into place like so... but it's a sweet dream.

Wait, Anthrax is posting under a new name?

[JUGGERNAUT]

The Padres have made Giles their #1 goal .. he's not going any where.

The Marlins aren't letting go of Delgado no way no how. Especially if they

win another championship.

 

But Damon is very intriguing for the White Sox. I don't believe we can't outbid the Cub for his services. If we can get past BOS in the playoffs or if BOS doesn't make it then Damon might consider the White Sox. At 33 he would greatly help our ball club.

 

We don't have to get rid of Dye. He can become the 4th OF option that Everett currently fills. We get rid of Everett which we won't need with Damon on board.

 

Better balance in the lineup:

LHB - Pods LF

SHB - Iguchi 2B

LHB - Damon RF

RHB - Konerko/FA 1B

RHB/LHB - Thomas/FA DH

RHB - Rowand CF

LHB - AJP C

RHB - Crede 3B

RHB - Uribe SS

[Kalapse]

The Padres have made Giles their #1 goal .. he's not going any where.

The Marlins aren't letting go of Delgado no way no how.  Especially if they

win another championship.

 

But Damon is very intriguing for the White Sox.  I don't believe we can't outbid the Cub for his services. If we can get past BOS in the playoffs or if BOS doesn't make it then Damon might consider the White Sox.  At 33 he would greatly help our ball club.

 

We don't have to get rid of Dye.  He can become the 4th OF option that Everett currently fills.  We get rid of Everett which we won't need with Damon on board.

 

Better balance in the lineup:

LHB - Pods LF

SHB - Iguchi 2B

LHB - Damon RF

RHB - Konerko/FA 1B

RHB/LHB - Thomas/FA DH

RHB - Rowand CF

LHB - AJP C

RHB - Crede 3B 

RHB - Uribe SS

Iguchi bats right handed he's not a switch hittter, I don't see how wouldn't know that. Johnny Damon's arm in RF would be atrocious, they'd run on that OF all day long. I don't see a player like Jermaine Dye moving to a 4th OFer spot, he could start for a lot of teams in baseball, I don't see him exepting a role like that.

 

You say FA DH/FA 1B. Plaese name a few DH/1B that you would like to see in a Sox uniform. There isn't much.

[JUGGERNAUT]

Iguchi bats right handed he's not a switch hittter, I don't see how wouldn't know that. Johnny Damon's arm in RF would be atrocious, they'd run on that OF all day long. I don't see a player like Jermaine Dye moving to a 4th OFer spot, he could start for a lot of teams in baseball, I don't see him exepting a role like that.

 

You say FA DH/FA 1B. Plaese name a few DH/1B that you would like to see in a Sox uniform. There isn't much.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I agree he has not been used in that capacity with the White Sox. I recall reading something along those lines in Japan. What I meant to say is that with the Sox his numbers are pretty much even VS. LEFT: .275 / .788 VS. RIGHT: .282 / .792. So it's like having a SHB in that spot.

 

What Damon lacks in arm strength he makes up for in speed. You're argument suggests his arm in RF will have more bearing on wins/losses for the White Sox than his bat & speed. I don't buy that argument.

 

On this team Dye would get plenty of playing time even as a part-time 4th OFer & DH. It would come down to $, his trade value, & how we could use him as to whether he remains with the team. His 2005 yr has not been good enough to suggest he's not tradeable.

 

As for FA 1B well that would include RFA as well. I'd prefer to keep Kong as I think he's really grown defensively but I don't know if the team can afford 50/4 to keep him. I don't worry so much about FA DH because Everett can be retained for $7M

if nothing better pops up.