Even with Peavy gone, we still need a hitter more than a SP

[Eminor3rd]

Peavy was killing batters, guys. It hurts to lose him, badly.

 

But is Hudson really THAT bad as a 5 starter? Even without Peavy, we've got four pitchers pitching like #2 guys, which is not something many teams can boast. Our pitching is STILL the best in the Central, including the bullpen.

 

Now, imagine how effective it would be if we added a legitimate bat to the DH slot, putting our offense on par with everything other AL team! Kotsay's line is .225/.322/.385 -- and he's NOT playing below his potential! This is ridiculous!

 

Now, let's consider the options and their costs as well.

 

Haren is a stud, but we absolutely do not have enough to get him, period. Even if we did, do you really want to give up the ENTIRE depleted farm just to put Haren over Hudson? Oswalt is expensive, declining, injury-prone, and from the NL, and he hates us and has a NTC anyway. Ted Lilly is not good enough to pitch much, if any, better than Hudson in the AL and in a homerun park.

 

Now, what would Adam LaRoche cost? Clevelan Santeliz? Jeff Marquez? Prorated salary of a million bucks? LaRoche's numbers are down this year, but he's one year removed from an .844 OPS and would absolutely benefit from the Cell and a contending atmosphere. He would be SO much better than Kotsay and cost almost nothing.

 

NOW, suppose we sign Pedro Martinez! I know, I'm getting ahead of myself, but he could be Freddy Garcia: Round 2. Freddy's arm is due to fall off sometime over the next 5-7 starts, which is just about time for Pedro to get ready for 8 weeks of slow, crafty veteran pitching.

 

All of a sudden, we've significantly improved our offense, and adequately patched our SP hole, and given up nothing!

 

Even if we go bigger than LaRoche (Adam Dunn?) and do trade our precious few decent prospects, I would argue that we would benefit massively more from a good LH bat, whose runs will relieve pressure from our entire staff, making it easier for us to win every night instead of just every five days.

[hi8is]

Word

[balfanman]

Peavy was killing batters, guys. It hurts to lose him, badly.

 

But is Hudson really THAT bad as a 5 starter? Even without Peavy, we've got four pitchers pitching like #2 guys, which is not something many teams can boast. Our pitching is STILL the best in the Central, including the bullpen.

 

Now, imagine how effective it would be if we added a legitimate bat to the DH slot, putting our offense on par with everything other AL team! Kotsay's line is .225/.322/.385 -- and he's NOT playing below his potential! This is ridiculous!

 

Now, let's consider the options and their costs as well.

 

Haren is a stud, but we absolutely do not have enough to get him, period. Even if we did, do you really want to give up the ENTIRE depleted farm just to put Haren over Hudson? Oswalt is expensive, declining, injury-prone, and from the NL, and he hates us and has a NTC anyway. Ted Lilly is not good enough to pitch much, if any, better than Hudson in the AL and in a homerun park.

 

Now, what would Adam LaRoche cost? Clevelan Santeliz? Jeff Marquez? Prorated salary of a million bucks? LaRoche's numbers are down this year, but he's one year removed from an .844 OPS and would absolutely benefit from the Cell and a contending atmosphere. He would be SO much better than Kotsay and cost almost nothing.

 

NOW, suppose we sign Pedro Martinez! I know, I'm getting ahead of myself, but he could be Freddy Garcia: Round 2. Freddy's arm is due to fall off sometime over the next 5-7 starts, which is just about time for Pedro to get ready for 8 weeks of slow, crafty veteran pitching.

 

All of a sudden, we've significantly improved our offense, and adequately patched our SP hole, and given up nothing!

 

Even if we go bigger than LaRoche (Adam Dunn?) and do trade our precious few decent prospects, I would argue that we would benefit massively more from a good LH bat, whose runs will relieve pressure from our entire staff, making it easier for us to win every night instead of just every five days.

 

Why is Freddys' arm due to fall off? I've heard several people say that they can't trust Freddy to stay healthy, Why not? He's well over 2 years (almost 3 I think)removed from his surgery and other than that I don't believe that he's ever missed significant time. I don't understand why they think Freddy is going to get hurt.

 

That said, any pitcher, no matter how healthy, is one pitch away from being done. I would think that the way they're trying to handle Buehrle with kid gloves and Gavins hip, that those two are much more likely to go down than Freddy.

[Eminor3rd]

Why is Freddys' arm due to fall off? I've heard several people say that they can't trust Freddy to stay healthy, Why not? He's well over 2 years (almost 3 I think)removed from his surgery and other than that I don't believe that he's ever missed significant time. I don't understand why they think Freddy is going to get hurt.

 

That said, any pitcher, no matter how healthy, is one pitch away from being done. I would think that the way they're trying to handle Buehrle with kid gloves and Gavins hip, that those two are much more likely to go down than Freddy.

 

Before this year, he hasn't made more than 11 starts in a season since 2006.

[hogan873]

I'm starting to believe that Freddy is healthy. He obviously doesn't have the same velocity he had years ago, but he's found other ways to get outs. I'm not convinced his arm is "going to fall off". He will have a hiccup here and there...all pitchers do. But I think Freddy will be fine.

[balfanman]

Before this year, he hasn't made more than 11 starts in a season since 2006.

 

Well yeah; that's kind of my point. He is now all the way back from his surgery. Before his surgery I believe that he never missed significant time. It's not like Freddy is injury prone and we're just waiting for another body part to fall off.

[witesoxfan]

Before this year, he hasn't made more than 11 starts in a season since 2006.

 

And to be quite fair, he did make 15 starts last year between the majors and minors, though he only threw 87 innings. That will be worth watching too...because he hasn't thrown many innings in the previous 4 seasons, he may go through a bit of a dead period within the next month or two simply due to number of innings on his arm. Just because he's been a workhorse, 220 IP in the past doesn't mean it is suddenly going to translate into 2010.

[chw42]

Freddy should be fine as long as he doesn't hang his breaking ball. His fastball velocity doesn't really matter if all he does is throw junk up there.

[Heads22]

I'll keep repeating this, Kotsay would have to kill someone to be left off this team. They love him in the clubhouse. And, he's not been too bad the last month.

[chw42]

I'll keep repeating this, Kotsay would have to kill someone to be left off this team. They love him in the clubhouse. And, he's not been too bad the last month.

 

Darin Erstad vol. 2.

[Eminor3rd]

I hope you guys are right about Freddy -- I was just trying to illustrate that we could look at free agency in the case of a pitching emergency.

 

Also, now Jorge Cantu is available. What do you think about him?