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LittleHurt05

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Doesn't like KW's recent moves to the line-up, and isnt scared to mention it. His FA targets are all too pricey or old DH's, none of which I expect the Sox to look at.

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writ....central/1.html

 

Chicago White Sox

 

PENDING FREE AGENTS: RP Octavio Dotel, OF Scott Podsednik, SP Bartolo Colon, OF Dewayne Wise, C Ramon Castro.

 

PLAYERS WITH OPTIONS: Jermaine Dye ($12/1M mutual -- declined).

 

TRADE ACQUISITION: 3B Mark Teahen (from Royals for 2B Chris Getz and 3B Josh Fields).

 

PROSPECTS ON THE VERGE: SP Dan Hudson, SP Carlos Torres, RP Jhonny Nuñez, C Tyler Flowers, RP Jon Link.

 

BUILDING FOR: A chance to capitalize on their weak division.

 

BIGGEST HOLES: Right field, DH.

 

TARGETS: LF Matt Holliday, LF Jason Bay, DH/RF Vladimir Guerrero, DH Hideki Matsui, LF Johnny Damon.

 

BREAKDOWN: Having picked up Jake Peavy at the trading deadline, the White Sox are well-armed heading into 2010 with a rotation of Peavy, Mark Buehrle, John Danks, Gavin Floyd and one from a group of Freddy Garcia, Hudson and Torres in the fifth spot. They're similarly well-stocked in the bullpen, with Tony Peña having arrived a few weeks before Peavy to reinforce the group headed by Bobby Jenks and Matt Thornton, whom I named the best set-up man in baseball. There are minor league reinforcements on the way there as well. The trouble with the Pale Hose is what GM Kenny Williams is doing to their offense. Williams packed off first-base prospect Brandon Allen in the Peña deal despite the fact that Paul Konerko is now entering the final year of his contract. Williams' waiver claim on Alex Rios was a total disaster, as Rios hit .199/.229/.301 in 41 games down the stretch while the Sox fell from two to seven games out in the Central, leaving them in a distant third place and on the hook for $58.7 million over the next five years to a player who hit .247/.296/.395 on the season and has had an on-base percentage above .350 just once in his six-year career. Even more perplexing was the recent acquisition of Teahen to play third base (with Gordon Beckham moving to second). Teahen is a poor fielder who has slugged over .410 just once in his five-year career and has hit a collective .263/.319/.405 over the last two seasons with 254 strikeouts in 293 games. He's also arbitration eligible and a free agent after 2010, whereas the two players Williams traded for him, while not major loses production-wise, were at least still under team control at the major league minimum. After those moves, Williams will have to make a big splash for a DH and/or a corner outfielder just to negate the damage he's already done.

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If some of the more questionable moves fail to materialize into something positive for the Sox then what will be the excuse next year? The one thing that bothers me is how we continue to pursue a player for several years or so we hear from KW so hopefuly we arent so fixated on someone we get a bad fit or a player on the decline. Plus we seem way to enamored by players from another team and not from our own system.

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