White Sox Acquire Nick Swisher from Athletics

[bmags]

I'm not saying Santana is going to be a Cy Young winner but i think he could be a nice #3 or #4 guy which would fit well with MB and Javier. Besides....apparently it's a forgone conclusion (reading this board) that both Danks and Floyd are going to suck so you have to have someone pitch....and as an added bonus..I'd like to see Figgins in CF and at the top of our lineup.

 

1.Figgins

2.Cabrera

3.Thome

4.Dye

5.Swisher

6.Crede

7.A.J.

8.Fields

9.Richar/Uribe

 

why'd we trade for quentin then?

[bmags]

can I get a link of where he said that? If we got some of the LA scouts, I'd have a little more faith...

 

LA=latin america, sorry.

[DaTank]

Horrible trade. This deal no leaves us with no farm at all. We didn't need another power hitter who strikes out a ton, we have that in Thome. And he only has a .251 BA. But when Kong gets older and DH's and Thome retires, Swisher can play 1st since he is versatile.

Edited January 3, 2008 by jenks45monster

[BearSox]

I think it would be crazy not to bat Swisher either 2nd or 3rd. Leadoff, I hate the idea of having someone like Swisher leading off when he's strength is power and driving people in. Bat him 2nd or 3rd, and have Thome behind him. That way we have two guys who will be getting on at or close to a .400 clip for Konerko, Dye, and Fields.

[WCSox]

so you are going to trade paul konerko for a pitcher that is slightly better than floyd? Come on.

 

For Santana AND Figgins? I would STRONGLY consider that deal.

 

Santana has filthy stuff, he's relatively cheap, and our rotation is pretty average right now. Figgins is also cheap, incredibly versatile, and can steal 40-50 bases per season.

 

[southsideirish71]

And for the record, ... Greg Walker is still our hitting coach.

 

 

Swish should work on his uppercut finish to his golf swing at the cell. Hit the concourse contests.

 

 

[BearSox]

why'd we trade for quentin then?

he's still delusional and thinks Crede will still be with us.

[Greg The Bull Luzinski]

why'd we trade for quentin then?

You assume there is logic in KW's moves. This Rebuild/Spend on Big Free Agent/Be Happy with what you have/Trade the Farm off-season lacks logic.

[BearSox]

LA=latin america, sorry.

okay, that makes more sense... boy, if we had the Dodgers scouting, I would not mind this trade one bit.

[Greg The Bull Luzinski]

Swish should work on his uppercut finish to his golf swing at the cell. Hit the concourse contests.

 

LMAO, I miss the Greg Walker ripping session of the season.

[juddling]

why'd we trade for quentin then?

 

 

Couldn't answer that one for ya' but i think if the chance was there to get Figgins.....you should go get Figgins.

 

Figgins>>>>>>Quentin

 

 

[NCsoxfan]

Here is my .02

 

KW won this trade and won this trade in a landslide, my reason?

 

Let's imagine for a minute that this trade happened on January 3, 2007 and not 2008. Would the A's of made this trade? Absolutely not. Swisher was coming off of a huge year and Gio was traded for Freddy. Now the big question is whether or not Swishers big year was an anomaly. I say no. Some more thoughts:

 

-In essence, we capitalized off of Swisher having a down year to get him cheap. Yes, I said cheap.

-Not only that, but we traded DLS at arguably "peak" value.

-We get a young player with much more certainty of future success, whereas the others have no guarantee of anything

-Highly rated prospects only help teams in two ways: 1. trading for another proven player or 2. turning out to be productive players. Having highly rated prospects sitting in our system does not have value in itself.

-Get over the fact that our farm system sucks, it can always be replenished.

-NOBODY knows how DLS will turn out, not KW not BB not DLS himself. Thinking he is a sure thing is foolish.

 

My prediction? Swisher has a great year, Gio has a solid year and DLS has a good but not great year. A year from now, this will look like a lopsided trade in the Sox's favor.

 

Sorry for the rambling post!!

[Jeremy]

Swisher is a very good player signed to a favorable contract through 2012; my only concern about him is whether or not he can play CF.

 

I think this deal is pretty awful though because I just don't believe you can decimate your farm system like this, at least not unless you're adding the final few pieces to a championship team. We now have the worst farm system in baseball by a considerable margin. I don't understand how any Sox fans can be okay with that. Even if you don't like prospects we can't improve the major league club through trades any longer because we don't have the prospects to trade. Furthermore, if you never inject homegrown young talent into your system then you end up paying everyone on the roster a ton of money and the only way to win with that type of team is if you have a $200 million payroll, which I don't see the White Sox doing anytime soon. It's hard for me to understand how some people think we can be a successful organization without ever incorporating successful home grown talent into the major league squad.

[Greg The Bull Luzinski]

FWIW, I think Billy Beane is going to pick up some serious votes in the Iowa Caucus tonight.

[Steve9347]

Here is my .02

 

KW won this trade and won this trade in a landslide, my reason?

 

Let's imagine for a minute that this trade happened on January 3, 2007 and not 2008. Would the A's of made this trade? Absolutely not. Swisher was coming off of a huge year and Gio was traded for Freddy. Now the big question is whether or not Swishers big year was an anomaly. I say no. Some more thoughts:

 

-In essence, we capitalized off of Swisher having a down year to get him cheap. Yes, I said cheap.

-Not only that, but we traded DLS at arguably "peak" value.

-We get a young player with much more certainty of future success, whereas the others have no guarantee of anything

-Highly rated prospects only help teams in two ways: 1. trading for another proven player or 2. turning out to be productive players. Having highly rated prospects sitting in our system does not have value in itself.

-Get over the fact that our farm system sucks, it can always be replenished.

-NOBODY knows how DLS will turn out, not KW not BB not DLS himself. Thinking he is a sure thing is foolish.

 

My prediction? Swisher has a great year, Gio has a solid year and DLS has a good but not great year. A year from now, this will look like a lopsided trade in the Sox's favor.

 

Sorry for the rambling post!!

I agree with everything in this post. Swisher immediately becomes the most valuable offensive player on the team, is only 27, and a prolific switch-hitter who was playing in a pitcher's park. This move oozes of selling high on iffy prospects and buying low on a true, entering his prime, All-Star talent. I absolutely love this trade.

[JPN366]

Gio is the nicest guy ever, period. Plus, a great pitcher. I like Nick Swisher a lot, but you guys will regret losing Gio down the line. Now, how many guys from the White Sox system last year are now in Oakland's system? 9? 10?

Edited January 3, 2008 by JPN366

[Jack Parkman]

I absolutely despise this trade. KW talks about these guys as being too much to give up for Cabrera and then trades them for Swisher? That is bulls***. The Sox needed to be doing what the As and Marlins are doing, stockpiling prospects and trading away overpriced veterans. I don't know if Swisher can even play CF, meaning that the Quentin trade was stupid. The Sox will be challenging the 1962 Mets for worst team ever in 2010. There is no one, at the moment, in the minors that is ready to play in the majors. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nein. Aaron Poreda is an injury waiting to happen. I doubt Lance Broadway will do anything at in the majors once he faces a team other than the Royals. Most of the guys that project to be major leaguers are HS guys who were drafted in 2007, meaning they are at least 3 years away. KW is on crack, acid or needs to be put in the looney bin if he had any hope or prayer of the Sox competing before 2010 before this trade, because Detroit and Cleveland are that much better than us. Now, we'll be lucky if we're competing by 2013. Here's to 5 seasons in last place. I still love the Sox and will support them through this terrible play, but I hope that JR sees the light and fires KW before he runs the franchise into the ground, to the point that we're the laughingstock of MLB. Hell, the Marlins will compete before us.

[klaus kinski]

I love major league talent

 

If you cant develop it, trade for it.

 

We are much better now than when we got up today.

[WilliamTell]

FWIW, I think Billy Beane is going to pick up some serious votes in the Iowa Caucus tonight.

 

 

lol I'll vote for him.

[WCSox]

I just don't believe you can decimate your farm system like this, at least not unless you're adding the final few pieces to a championship team. We now have the worst farm system in baseball by a considerable margin. I don't understand how any Sox fans can be okay with that.

 

I agree in general, but our farm system was pretty bad before this deal. Gillick dealt Gio for one year of a broken-down Freddy. That doesn't exactly scream "Future stud!" I don't recall DLS being projected to be a super-stud either. Having Sweeney would've been nice, but we're not lacking outfielders at this point.

 

Outside of losing Garland, I think that Kenny's done a halfway decent job of doing what he said he was going to: Re-tooling this team for one more shot at the playoffs... especially considering that he had no top-tier prospects to deal. He's improved the team significantly at SS, in the outfield, and we have a legitimate setup man now. I'm not sure that the Sox are a playoff-caliber team right now, but they look a hell of a lot better offensively than last year. And I'm not sure that the 'pen could be any worse.

 

And if things don't work out this season, KW deals Paulie and Cabrera at the deadline for prospects and the Sox get a jump-start on their rebuilding. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Edited January 3, 2008 by WCSox

[Steve9347]

I love major league talent

 

If you cant develop it, trade for it.

 

We are much better now than when we got up today.

[juddling]

Gio is the nicest guy ever, period. Plus, a great pitcher. I like Nick Swisher a lot, but you guys will regret losing Gio down the line. Now, how many guys from the White Sox system last year are now in Oakland's system? 9? 10?

 

 

i think the same was said when Royce Ring was traded. He then went on to be traded 3 or 4 more times that season IIRC. Sox traded him twice in the last few years and Phillies got him and gave him back so mabye his sh*t isn't as good as everyone thinks it is.

[Vance Law]

Furthermore, if you never inject homegrown young talent into your system then you end up paying everyone on the roster a ton of money and the only way to win with that type of team is if you have a $200 million payroll

 

Your argument here doesn't work logically. If you trade away prospects and get back prospects, players making the league minimum, or other young relatively cheap players you aren't hurting your payroll. You won't end up with a $200 million payroll.

 

 

Carter for Quentin (making $400k)

 

3 prospects for Swisher (making $3.5 million this year)

 

[CWSGuy406]

Outside of losing Garland, I think that Kenny's done a halfway decent job of doing what he said he was going to: Re-tooling this team for one more shot at the playoffs...

 

I'm sorry, but that's a terrible goal to have. I think the goal should be prolonged success, and the Sox don't look to be in that position. Their core on offense (as we sit today) is still very old. That could change with good years from Quentin, Fields and (to a much lesser extent) Richar, but for three of the four 'core' offensive players are in their mid-30s (Konerko, Dye, Thome and the fourth who isn't, Swisher).

 

And we're still without a CFer, as it doesn't look like Swisher or Quentin could do anything better than average out there (and talking long-term, neither project to be CFers for the bulk of their -- hopefully -- long careers).

 

If we were playing our first game tomorrow, we'd be an absolutely terrible defensive team:

 

C - Pierzynski - average-ish. Not going to hurt you but he's nothing wonderful either.

1B - Konerko - Terrible range, great hands. Overall probably below average.

2B - Richar - TBD.

SS - Cabrera - Above average, but it's been a long time since we've had a bad (or even below aveage) defensive SS -- yes, Valentin included -- so...

3B - Fields - Below average-to-brutal.

LF - Quentin - Well-above average. The smart move would be putting him in RF.

CF .... (If it's Swisher, we're below average.)

RF - Dye - Terrible.

 

That's why I have to think a Konerko trade is on its way. For a team that stresses pitching and defense and has done so since before the championship season, you CANNOT go into the season with Nick Swisher in CF.

[yoyozuna]

wouldn't we all, bearsox? But we don't, and when we make a move like this to greatly improve a position on this team for the next 5 years, how is that different than having a all star potential OF waiting in the wings? I think in the next few years our new scouting dept. will have this team suited well to have impact players coming in about 2011. So i'm not worried about moving these spects for a legitimate hitter. The point of having a farm system is so you can nab guys like this. Now we have a legitimate OF for the first time since ... maybe 04 i guess. Now we have the #8 pick in the draft and a new scouting dept. what's the point of keeping guys that weren't that highly thought of anyways for a really good hitter?

BRAVO! Couldn't have said it better myself!