The Time To Act... Unfortunately is Now.

[JDsDirtySox]

We are 50 games into the season and we are an average ball club. Something has to be done. Fire Greg Walker, Make a Desperate Deal, or start the sale... we have to get some sort of action out of our ballclub.

And this is not an overreaction from these first two games in Minny... we are just average. I am tired of waiting for our bats to warm up, Vazquez to dominate, the pen to protect a lead, Joe Crede to actually look like half the player he was last year, Pods to get healthy, etc. We are just an average ball club.

If we hold out hope too long for this season... it could cost us for many seasons to come.

Please do something Kenny.

[Flash Tizzle]

I'm probably going to offer the same suggestions others will of you -- albiet with less criticism and sarcsm. It's much too early to discuss an immediate fire sale. Whatever the future is with Greg Walker I could care less. It would serve more as a wakeup call than anything which will translate to victories.

 

We're an average team, and that's probably how it's going to be all season. Most knew these last few seasons, with an average to medicore minor league system -- and more talented divisional opponents -- we were going to have a moment where the proverbial window shuts. This, unfortuntately, may be it. No use throwing everything away to save this season. Either we're losing or winning with what we have.

 

Best advice I can give is wait several weeks. Because we are 50 games in, it's quite possible everything turns around. I doubt it, but who knows.

Edited May 30, 2007 by Flash Tizzle

[fathom]

The time to act was in the offseason. There was little done to help this big league roster...a roster that looked dead tired all during the 2nd half last year. KW's inability to get major league ready talent for Garcia really hurt. I'm not sure how much it matters though....the Tigers/Indians are much more talented than we are, and they have younger legs. If Liriano can return for the Twins next year, there's no way you can project the Sox higher than 4th place for the next few seasons.

[JDsDirtySox]

Unfortunately, I personally can't handle much more of the wait and see approach.

I know there is nothing I can do about it, but I hope something, Anything is done to try and ignite a decent 3 week stretch of winning baseball.

[whitesoxfan101]

How can you say that? It's still early, the pen's bad weekend at Wrigley was a fluke....everything will be fine.

 

/most of the board

[TitoMB345]

It's almost a stretch to say we are average.

[Gregory Pratt]

It's almost a stretch to say we are average.

 

Yeah. I don't believe in this team anymore. We suck.

 

I'll be the first to say I'm wrong if they pull off a 2006-Twins all of a sudden but that's not going to happen. This team is poorly constructed and it shows.

 

I'm aboard the firesale bandwagon. Don't know if I'd get rid of Buehrle, but most everyone else is available. Actually, I don't like the term "firesale." I don't want to get rid of everyone, or even every veteran. I want to hold onto Buehrle. But I'd trade him for the right package.

[vandy125]

 

Give me a break.

[JDsDirtySox]

 

Give me a break.

 

 

Great Insight... atleast give me a pat on the back and tell me everything will be okay... that's what you are telling me right?

[Flash Tizzle]

If Liriano can return for the Twins next year, there's no way you can project the Sox higher than 4th place for the next few seasons.

Even without Liriano they'll have Santana, Bonser, Garza, Slowey, Perkins/Baker/whomever. Add him into the equation and you'd be correct to assume 4th place is our destination.

[joeynach]

Dollars and Sense bro. The sox know that if they bring up the farm and trade away the vets nobody will show up and it will destroy their projected income and budget. At least they know they cant do it now, they can wait 2 more months and then do it if they have to. The sox aren't dumb they are in the business of selling tickets and merchandise, etc. If they sell off now and play the no names they will lose out on business and profitabilty, more so than if we just stand pat and continue to be .500.

[winninguglyin83]

we've got to do something.

 

no way we can play with the Tigers and Indians with this group.

 

figure Crede has to go. We have a guy in the minors who has been groomed to play his position.

 

and an outfielder, too.

 

bring up owens or sweeney

[jasonxctf]

the only way the Sox could have been competitive this year was if everyone was healthy.

 

because of podsednik's, hall & thome's injuries, we've been stuck with Mackowiak/Sweeney/Ozuna as regulars with pierzynski playing nearly everyday for 2 months.

 

Now Ozuna is hurt so we've got Mackowiak/Terrero/Gonzalez.

 

Uribe's offense has been predictibly horrible as KW chose not to upgrade that position or any other position during the off-season. When you've got a team of players who hit their peak years 2 years ago, (Konerko, Dye, Crede, Thome, Pierzynski, Erstad) you're stuck with a team who will get consistenly worse and worse over time.

 

Unfortunately the only player on this team that I think will get consistently better over time is Danks.

Edited May 30, 2007 by jasonxctf

[JDsDirtySox]

we've got to do something.

 

no way we can play with the Tigers and Indians with this group.

 

figure Crede has to go. We have a guy in the minors who has been groomed to play his position.

 

and an outfielder, too.

 

bring up owens or sweeney

 

 

supposedly the Angels would be willing to deal Brandon Wood to the Rockies for Garrett Atkins. I would love to see KW try to jump in there and get Wood for Crede.

[southsideirish71]

supposedly the Angels would be willing to deal Brandon Wood to the Rockies for Garrett Atkins. I would love to see KW try to jump in there and get Wood for Crede.

 

Crede is hitting like an overwhelmed AAA hitter these days and has a bad back. That doesnt scream, give me your best prospect.

Edited May 30, 2007 by southsideirish71

[JDsDirtySox]

Crede is hitting like an overwhelmed AAA hitter these days and has a bad back. That doesnt scream, give me your best prospect.

 

 

Garrett Atkins, his 3 Home Runs, and his .220 avg isn't so hot right now either, but that doesn't stop the Halos from wanting to address the Hot Corner.

[vandy125]

Great Insight... atleast give me a pat on the back and tell me everything will be okay... that's what you are telling me right?

Pat Pat Pat

 

Is that better?

 

Didn't we go through this "Blow this team up!" crap a couple of weeks ago? I don't think there is much that can be done right now. How many teams are going to give anything good up right now? Pretty much EVERYONE is still gauging how well their teams can do this year except for the no-talent teams.

 

Maybe we can trade with KC? That's gone really well so far this year. Or, throw out the Devil Rays as trading partners out there. They never ask for the moon.

 

All of this crying about the team only shows up during bad stretches, and it is pretty annoying. For better or worse, we are pretty much stuck with this team. I'm going to cheer them on and hope they can pull through the tough stretch. I'm not throwing the towel in this early.

 

How about a couple more pats now?

 

[caulfield12]

Garrett Atkins, his 3 Home Runs, and his .220 avg isn't so hot right now either, but that doesn't stop the Halos from wanting to address the Hot Corner.

 

 

The best we could do is get something like Dallas McPherson or Tommy Murphy for Crede. Forget Saunders, Santana, Aybar, Wood, Willits, Shields or Kendry Morales.

[JDsDirtySox]

Pat Pat Pat

 

Is that better?

 

Didn't we go through this "Blow this team up!" crap a couple of weeks ago? I don't think there is much that can be done right now. How many teams are going to give anything good up right now? Pretty much EVERYONE is still gauging how well their teams can do this year except for the no-talent teams.

 

Maybe we can trade with KC? That's gone really well so far this year. Or, throw out the Devil Rays as trading partners out there. They never ask for the moon.

 

All of this crying about the team only shows up during bad stretches, and it is pretty annoying. For better or worse, we are pretty much stuck with this team. I'm going to cheer them on and hope they can pull through the tough stretch. I'm not throwing the towel in this early.

 

How about a couple more pats now?

 

 

 

much better... a little to the left...

now in all seriousness... I understand the fire sale might be a bit early right now... thats is why I am asking for something, anything to be done. Hell I won't be pissed if they try to add to the team, we just can't continue to sit on our hands and wait for this group the way it is. We are getting embarassed too much this season. Whether its by the DRays who are absolutely awful on the Road, the Twins without Mauer, or the freaking Cubs who can't win a series against anyone but us.

I want to see something done... anything.

[santo=dorf]

I would love to trade Crede to the Angels, but they don't seem to be like a team that makes any trades.

 

Someone send Stoneman a copy of the 2005 ALCS and promise him that is the Crede he will get. Anybody but Kotchman or Santana for him will do.

[JDsDirtySox]

This is the article that mentions the Angels possibly being willing to part with Wood for Atkins.

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6834248

[BearSox]

Aybar and McPherson would be ideal for me...

[SnB]

The sox will have a "wait and see" philosphy until the calendar flips to july, then something will happen either to try and make a push for the playoffs this season or for the future.

 

Until then, we will just have to hope for thigns to turn around.

[spiderman]

We are 50 games into the season and we are an average ball club. Something has to be done. Fire Greg Walker, Make a Desperate Deal, or start the sale... we have to get some sort of action out of our ballclub.

And this is not an overreaction from these first two games in Minny... we are just average. I am tired of waiting for our bats to warm up, Vazquez to dominate, the pen to protect a lead, Joe Crede to actually look like half the player he was last year, Pods to get healthy, etc. We are just an average ball club.

If we hold out hope too long for this season... it could cost us for many seasons to come.

Please do something Kenny.

 

I don't think there's much we can do to fix this mess. Let's examine our issues, and see how quickly we can do something.

 

Offensive:

Coming into the season, we knew that we had major offensive questions in LF with Podsednik, CF with Erstad, and SS with Uribe. To this point, that has been realized. We also have other positions that have been inconsistent - 3B with Crede's back issue, 2B with Iguchi, and C with AJ's .250ish batting average. Dye and Konerko have been below average, and that's being kind until recently. Thome has been fine, but he's missed time with the injuries.

 

Darin Erstad is an overrated player - not by the league as a whole, but by Guillen, but he really has no other options. Yes, he does bring solid defensive play to the table, but offensively, there's just not much left in the tank. He's a stop-gap. Maybe we can get by with him if we were stronger in other spots, but we aren't. Even if we all agree that Erstad can be part of a winning team at this stage, he's not a leadoff hitter. He doesn't hit for a high average, and isn't a great base stealer anymore. At best, he's a #2 hitter, but I think he's really a 8 or 9 hitter in the AL.

 

We don't have a LF. Podsednik may come back, but if he isn't 100% healthy, and isn't capable of stealing and leading off (as Guillen has already said he won't be), what's the point ? Mackowiak is a utility player, who once again, is being forced into one position, and eliminating his versitility. Ozuna is probably done for the year, and the Sox don't seem like they want to try Josh Fields out there - he'd be a defensive liability, but then again so our the other options. The problem with Fields is that he's just another power hitter. We need more balance in the lineup. Jerry Owens ? Maybe he'd work out, but if you're depending on rookies to make a big impact in a tough division, you are probably in trouble. How about Brian Anderson ? I'm not against this idea. We'd at least get good defense out there. RIght now, we don't seem capable of getting either from our current situation.

 

The rest of the offense is HR or nothing. We can't steal bases, and we don't bunt well. If we hit HR's, this is a fun team to watch, but we're not going to hit 3 HR's per game with men on base. If we don't hit them, we're probably not going to score many runs.

 

So, what to do ?

 

Luis Castillo was brought up in the paper today. He could be a logical replacement for Iguchi. We do need more speed in this lineup. If Dye goes into free agency, chances are he's probably gone, and I don't see the team getting into a bidding war to replace him with somebody else, or to keep him. We could go into next season with a brand new OF as Pods will probably not be back, Erstad is probably back if he stays healthy and plays good defense, and Dye's future uncertain.

 

If Joe Crede can't stay healthy for us, and/or his numbers are down this year, what choice do we have to keep him for another year as his trade value would be way down. Where does that leave Josh Fields ? Do they consider putting him in LF next season ? What about Ryan Sweeney ?

 

Juan Uribe stinks. He's not a good player. Strong arm, yes, but he makes routine errors at times, and is just horrible at the plate. Yes, he gets hot from time to time, but 90% of the time, he's a liability.

 

We are probably looking at AJ at catcher, Konerko at 1B, Thome at DH, Erstad in CF (still in question), and ????'s everywhere else.

 

That's probably a good thing as hopefully Kenny will use that flexibilty to make changes. Only problem is how does he get some of the younger players (Owens, Anderson, Sweeney, Fields) in, and still keep us competitive at the same time.

 

**

 

Pitching wise, I believe the Sox need to work out something with Mark Buerhle, and Jon Garland by the next off-season.. I wouldn't go beyond 4 years, but we need to keep the starting pitching strong.

 

Contreras is one guy I'd like to move. I don't know how old he is, and he looks great at times, and possibly ready to break down at other times. He's under contract for a few more seasons, but, more than anything, I'd want to get from under the contract.

 

I love Denks so far, and Vazquez will be here so I don't mind having the 5th spot open for a Gio Gonzalez or someone else.

 

The bullpen is in dissaray, but I still believe there are enough arms/talent in there to straighten out. Williams will probably add a veteran to the mix if this continues, but the future here is with the younger arms.

 

Overall, this team is going nowhere right now. They have good starting pitching, a bad bullpen (so far), and spotty offensive production. Not going to get it done, but Kenny Williams will soon have to decide on Dye and Buerhle's future as the trade season begins soon. Crede could be another guy to go. We do need an offensive overhaul to add some speed to the power that we have. The bullpen will need at least one more veteran arm if this continues. I don't think they need a complete overhaul, and I hope that Williams doesn't turn this into a youth movement. We can still turn this around for next season if we add some proven veterans, and continue to mix in a few younger players (#5 spot in the rotation, maybe a spot in the OF)....

[elrockinMT]

The thing that we seem to be missing here is the fact we still have 110 games left and are only 5 games out. There is no reason to panic or simply give up. There is not one player on this team that you can point to and say it's their fault we aren't in first place. Please stop the finger pointing at people like Crede, Podsednik, UJribe, Dye, etc, etc. They are all failing to perform including Konerko and Thome and many, if not all the others. What they need is a good kick in the pants from themselves and this thing will turn around. We don't need to be firing people or trading everyone away. What we need is some intensity.