Sox fans, Brace for Changes

[RockRaines]

There's absolutely no one that will disagree with you (well, maybe one person might). I can't see the Reds trading Freel now that they've given up Lopez (their other potential leadoff hitter).

Well, they really dont have much room for him, they have 2 younger players who they would like to step in. I would think that they wouldnt mind seeing Cotts in a reds uni.

[Heads22]

This writer is smoking some messed up s***......

[Balta1701]

I hope no one thinks there's a realistic chance the Sox sign Zito. The White Sox don't give pitchers more than 3 years. Someone will give Zito at least 4 and if the Yankees and Mets are involved, it may go to 5 or even 6.

I hope to God the only reason the White Sox get into any Zito talks is to give Boras another team to use to drive his cost up. I really, really don't want to sign Barry Zito.

[Texsox]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

And with Boras, the Sox don't even have to actually talk to him. A Boras hypnotic stare is usually enough for any GM to start tossing tens of millions. That's why some Sox fans don't want Kenny talking to Boras.

[Balta1701]

This writer is smoking some messed up s***......

On our Center Fielder...yeah he is. Spending the money on Hunter or Cameron when we have a guy who can do almost exactly the same stuff for $400k is just silly.

 

Any of the other options...I'm open. Sweeney in LF, and hell even leading off (a-la Grady Sizemore) I could live with happily. A trade of Uribe, Podsednik, and a starting pitcher or two, I'm game for. Brandon McCarthy better be in that damn rotation next year. And I wouldn't mind seeing 2 pitchers moved one bit, especially if it brought back enough talent. Doesn't even have to be ML ready talent, IMO...with this offense, I could tolerate giving either Haeger or Broadway a shot in the big leagues as the dreaded sh*tty fifth starter next year.

[Colorado Sox Fan]

No Mike Cameron. Please.

[Heads22]

Let's totally forget the logical place for Sweeney to slide in next year, and let's stick him in center.

[Colorado Sox Fan]

I hope to God the only reason the White Sox get into any Zito talks is to give Boras another team to use to drive his cost up. I really, really don't want to sign Barry Zito.

 

[Kalapse]

The amount of people who would rather keep Garcia over Vazquez is appalling.

[Balta1701]

The amount of people who would rather keep Garcia over Vazquez is appalling.

The only argument I might see for trading Vaz and keeping Garcia is that Vaz might have higher trade value if he closes out this season well. Well, and Vaz is a little more expensive.

 

With both of them, basically if you keep either of them, you're hoping for the best next season. You're hoping that a longer offseason and it being a contract year gives Garcia reason to find his fastball again, or you're hoping that Vaz has actually turned a corner and can at least give you 6 quality innings in most games next year if you're careful with him. I'm not sure I'm confident in either of those statements. So if someone's willing to throw a top 20 prospect at me for Vazquez but not Garcia, I jump on the deal.

[SleepyWhiteSox]

The amount of people who would rather keep Garcia over Vazquez is appalling.

 

Yes. Yes, it is.

 

I question if they watch the games.

[fathom]

Yes. Yes, it is.

 

I question if they watch the games.

 

I'll take "people who are still stuck in 2005 for $1000 Alex".

[Texsox]

I'm with Balta, flip a coin. It isn't that I prefer one or the other, either way it's a prayer. Whomever they can get more for in return works for me. For some reason, perhaps it's Championship hangover feelings, I like Freddy before Vaz. But it's like do I perfer a headache or a toothache?

 

In a strange way, it's too bad there wasn't an extended period of time that Brandon could have been inserted into the starting rotation and in effect pushed someone out.

[Kalapse]

The only argument I might see for trading Vaz and keeping Garcia is that Vaz might have higher trade value if he closes out this season well. Well, and Vaz is a little more expensive.

 

With both of them, basically if you keep either of them, you're hoping for the best next season. You're hoping that a longer offseason and it being a contract year gives Garcia reason to find his fastball again, or you're hoping that Vaz has actually turned a corner and can at least give you 6 quality innings in most games next year if you're careful with him. I'm not sure I'm confident in either of those statements. So if someone's willing to throw a top 20 prospect at me for Vazquez but not Garcia, I jump on the deal.

No matter what I want Garcia gone after this season, even if you can get something of great value for Vazquez I'd rather see both of them go as opposed to keeping Garcia and trading Vazquez. Garcia has proven this year that he's just a s*** teammate and that he'll likely never be a dominant starting pitcher in the American League again.

[TaylorStSox]

I'm still not convinced McCarthy will be any better than an average 5th starter next year.

 

We have to find some speed somewhere. The only 2 viable positions are LF and SS. I wouldn't mind seeing Pierre in left. He does get on base, steal bases and cover alot of ground. He's better than Pods. If we fill SS with a speed guy and start Sweeney in left, we might have a shortage of guys who can drive the ball.

[2nd_city_saint787]

the only way i wanna see Buehrle in a Cards uniform is if i can also see Anthony Reyes in a sox uniform

[Balta1701]

I'm still not convinced McCarthy will be any better than an average 5th starter next year.

 

We have to find some speed somewhere. The only 2 viable positions are LF and SS. I wouldn't mind seeing Pierre in left. He does get on base, steal bases and cover alot of ground. He's better than Pods. If we fill SS with a speed guy and start Sweeney in left, we might have a shortage of guys who can drive the ball.

The top 3 offenses in the AL are the Yankees (#1), the White Sox (#2), and the Indians (#3). The White Sox have 79 stolen bases this year, the Indians 43, the Yankees 119.

 

Here are the offensive rankings of the teams with at least 100 Stolen Bases:

New York Yankees (1)

NY Mets (5)

LA Dodgers (11)

Cincinnatti (13)

LA Angels (14)

Baltimore (17)

San Diego (28)

Chicago Cubs (29)

Tampa Bay D Rays (30)

 

You can build a very successful offense without a ton of speed if you have the players, and a ton of speed clearly does not guarantee a good offense. We don't NEED to find speed somewhere. It would be nice...but it would not justify spending the money on bringing in a guy like Pierre when Sweeney is sitting right there for a lot less green. It could justify bringing in a Carl Crawford if that was possible, but Crawford brings so much more to the table that the speed is just one of hte many reasons to like him.

[Kalapse]

I'm still not convinced McCarthy will be any better than an average 5th starter next year.

 

We have to find some speed somewhere. The only 2 viable positions are LF and SS. I wouldn't mind seeing Pierre in left. He does get on base, steal bases and cover alot of ground. He's better than Pods. If we fill SS with a speed guy and start Sweeney in left, we might have a shortage of guys who can drive the ball.

1.) Pierre does not get on base he had a .329 OBP in '05 and a .333 OBP this year that is absolutely terrible for a leadoff man. Not to mention the fact that he was nowhere to be found for the first few months of the season.

 

2.) He is a pretty bad defensive player who, like Podsednik, uses his above average speed to make up for a lack of defensive ability. He also has one of the 3 worst arms in the history of major league baseball, he makes Pods look like freaking Roberto Clemente in that regard.

 

3.) Just because he might be slightly better (SLIGHTLY) than Scott Podsednik does not mean he should be playing for this team, that would be settling for mediocrity again and I'm sick of seeing it. All I want next year from my LF/Leadoffman is someone who can play a little D with an above average arm and a .360+ OBP.

 

4.) Juan Pierre is bad. He's also bad and when it comes to playing baseball he is not good at it.

 

5.) He's going to get more money than he is worth because people think he's an excellent leadoff hitter due to his speed, I do not want to give a s***ty player $6-$8M a year over 4/5 years that money could be spent better elsewhere on players who are good at baseball.

 

6.) Even in all his suckiness he's never played in the AL, imagine how far that .333 OBP could dip once he shows up in the superior league, we could be looking at a .300 OBP leadoff hitter.

 

7.) Juan Pierre sucks at life.

[Texsox]

Those last two posts are gold.

[southsider2k5]

I also wanted to throw out there that the one consistancy during Williams time as GM, is that there are always big deals done in the offseason, and way before the trade deadline. There will be some change during this off-season, I have no doubt about it.

[CWSGuy406]

Yes. Yes, it is.

 

I question if they watch the games.

 

I question whether the writer of this article has watched games this year.

 

First off, he talks about this team like we're the Cubs. As dissappointing as this season has been, we're on pace to win 90 games. 90% of the time, 90 wins gets you into the playoffs -- it's just this year, the AL is excepionally good, and 90 wins won't get you in. The core of this team is very good, and should stay that way through next year. We need to make some minor changes; a new LFer, moving McCarthy into the rotation, perhaps a bullpen tweak, and maybe look at replacing one of your two middle infielders.

 

Second, I agree with Dick Allen in that Uribe still doesn't need to be replaced. The numbers this year still show that he's a damn good fielder, and I still believe personally that he gets to more balls than the average SS. I think you can live with the offensive frustrations, just as you can live with them in CF, so long as you have two elite defenders at those positions, which we certainly have.

 

Third -- notice how there are ZERO quotes (or very few) from Kenny Williams in this article? This writer is going on pure speculation, no factual basis. Oh, wait -- he's going by Ozzie's mouth. And I personally believe, that for every time Ozzie spouts off about Anderson not doing something well, Kenny has someone much smarter and much more rational in his other ear saying that Brian has saved however many runs over the average CFer defensively, and that he's been a much different player since June.

Edited September 8, 2006 by CWSGuy406

[CanOfCorn]

These guys are tired. Tired, tired, tired. they don't need to be shipped out, they need to be coddled in the off-season. Relax and recharge.

 

There will be an upgrade in LF and there will be one pitcher gone. After that, I think the Ryan Sweeney era has begun in CF.

[Texsox]

Can we realize something here. We are talking about some guys that only a year or two ago were treated like gods and needed to be wrapped up in long term contracts. They were the can't miss HoFers. Now we have another group of guys that are can't miss HoFers and people are rushing into the lineup. And guess what, they'll be dog meat at some point also.

[Kalapse]

Third -- notice how there are ZERO quotes (or very few) from Kenny Williams in this article? This writer is going on pure speculation, no factual basis. Oh, wait -- he's going by Ozzie's mouth. And I personally believe, that for every time Ozzie spouts off about Anderson not doing something well, Kenny has someone much smarter and much more rational in his other ear saying that Brian has saved however many runs over the average CFer defensively, and that he's been a much different player since June.

The funniest thing about Ozzie's appearant hatred of Brian Anderson is that Kenny Williams seems feels the opposite way. He was on the Score with Offman and Rogers and basically said that Ozzie is handling Anderson all wrong and that he'd like to see him play everyday. Kenny had to go to Arizona for a few days just to clear his head and get away from all the bulls***, I think that's pretty telling right there IMO.

 

Can we realize something here. We are talking about some guys that only a year or two ago were treated like gods and needed to be wrapped up in long term contracts. They were the can't miss HoFers. Now we have another group of guys that are can't miss HoFers and people are rushing into the lineup. And guess what, they'll be dog meat at some point also.

Who are the current group of HOF that will soon be dog meat because if it's the players I think you're referring to, it already seems like a lot of people have jumped straight to the dogmeat already.

[CWSGuy406]

BTW -- I also agree with DA in that I'd maybe look to trade Iguchi this offseason, on the basis of...

 

a.) While his defense is praised by most everyone in the Chicago media, his range really isn't very good. He does very well on turning the double play, and his hands are overall pretty good, but I'd say he gets to less balls than the average second baseman gets to.

 

b.) Iguchi certainly hasn't been a problem for this team offensively, but his .760 OPS is, IMO, replaceable.

 

c.) Iguchi turns 32 in December. It wouldn't hurt for this team to slowly infuse in some younger talent into the lineup wherever possible.

 

And, because I hate when people pick on a player and then don't bring up a viable solution to the problem, I'd like to see the Sox go after Orlando Hudson. For one, he's arguably the best defensive second baseman in baseball. Second, his career OPS is .761. He's 28 right now (turns 29 in December), so you get a little bit younger. Third -- he might have one or two more seasons like he's currently having with 'Zona (.809 OPS), although I wouldn't expect it. Maybe a .775 OPS would be reasonable over the next couple years.

 

Can we get him? That's my problem with most hypothetical trades, and this is a tough call. I do know that Arizona is a.) in need of some pitching (prospects or otherwise) and b.) has a lot of young, up-and-coming prospects, and that if Justin Upton rushes through the system, Stephen Drew will most likely need to move somewhere else. Maybe someone with a bit more knowledge on the DBacks situation could enlighten me?