Fresh from his blog. On a side note, I hope nobody minds me flooding this joint with Gammons and Co. I'm paying for all this shit though, so I figure I might as well share it w/ ya'll. And I know theres a bunch of baseball junkies around...
Check out his R&B reccomendation at the end. I guess he's a music reviewer now too.
Quote:
The solutions to the Scott Podsednik injury are a rookie, Josh Fields, and a low-cost veteran of proven character, Darin Erstad. Both can play different positions when (and if) Podsednik comes off his groin surgery.
The Erstad signing might not be the end of Ken Williams' winter if Juan Uribe has trouble getting out of the Dominican Republic, although for now Williams expects his shortstop to return to Chicago. But Erstad's acquisition is a low-risk complement to Williams' intrepid reshuffling of the 2005 world champions.
"There are a lot of people who have suggested I have lost my mind," says Williams. But as one rival in the very competitive American League Central says, "Kenny has taken a lot of risks, but he's combined the present and the future and pretty much insured that they will not go over the cliff after 2008." Indeed, at the end of that season, the White Sox could lose Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland, Javier Vazquez, Jim Thome, Jermaine Dye and Joe Crede.
To put it mildly, that winter of 2008-2009 will be a watershed for the division. Johan Santana and Joe Nathan will be free agents, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau will be fifth-year arbitration candidates, and C.C. Sabathia and Travis Hafner will be free agents. So will Pudge Rodriguez. At the end of 2007, Buehrle, Jake Westbrook and Torii Hunter could all be on the market.
"I'd like to think we're better prepared for the next few years than we were," says Williams. "I appreciate that we want to be competitive every year, and I think we will be this season. But we have to take a long view of the organization." Which is precisely what Williams has done, without fear of talk-show retribution across town from the freewheeling, rebuilding Cubs.
Uribe's status remains an issue. How the Brian Anderson/Erstad/Ryan Sweeney dynamics resolve themselves in center remains another issue, as does the Crede/Fields mix at third base.
But Williams' major deals that sent Freddy Garcia, Neal Cotts, Brandon McCarthy and Ross Gload for pitchers Gavin Floyd, Gio Gonzalez, John Danks, Nick Masset, David Aardsma, Carlos Vasquez and Andy Sisco have made made three things clear about the Williams administration.
The first is that he believes in his and his scouts' eyes. "I'm a firm believer in statistics and every bit of available data," says Williams, "but the eyes tell us a lot of what we need to know. For instance, our scouts convinced me a few years back that Esteban Loaiza had come up with a cutter that changed him as a pitcher, and we went with what they saw."
So, for instance, while the Phillies and many scouts lost their passion about Floyd as the velocity on his fastball and curveball seemed to decrease the last couple of years, the White Sox saw enough to believe that he can be a solid major starter. Sisco, Aardsma, Masset and Mike MacDougal -- whom Williams re-signed for three more years -- are all pure scouting arms.
That leads to point No. 2, that the White Sox so believe in pitching coach Don Cooper's ability to handle power arms and that Ozzie Guillen has such an instinctive feel for pitching that Williams will trade for underperforming power pitchers and turn them over to Cooper.
"Jose Contreras is a good example," says Williams. "What was Bobby Jenks before he got here?" Matt Thornton makes three; after being acquired in a spring training deal, Thornton learned to harness his 95-98 mph stuff and become a prime left-handed reliever.
So now Massett, Aardsma, MacDougal, Sisco, et al will get opportunities to fit in and form a deep power pen in front of Thornton and Jenks. Then, if indeed Floyd does make it, the White Sox can develop Danks, Gonzalez and knuckleballer Charlie Haeger along with Lance Broadway in Triple-A.
Most other general managers felt that trading McCarthy was a huge gamble, that he is a potential frontline starter and strike-throwing machine. But Williams is always cognizant of their home stadium being a home run haven and that McCarthy allowed 17 homers in 85 IP and is a flyball pitcher. Williams wants power and sinker arms. He also likes having different looks in the bullpen with Jenks' curveball, MacDougal's slider, etc.
The third aspect of the 2007 Chicago staff in which Williams still has faith is the starters that carried them to the world championship in 2005. "We could all see them get tired in the second half," says Williams. "There's no question that all the pitching they did to get us by Cleveland in the last week and through the playoffs and World Series took its toll." After the All-Star break, Buehrle's ERA was 6.44, Contreras was 5.40, Garcia 4.12. For the 2005 season, Chicago's starters' ERA was 3.75; for 2006, 4.65.
The AL Central will again be one of the game's best divisions, and could easily represent the American League in the World Series. By consensus, Cleveland had a great offseason, setting a Keith Foulke/Joe Borowski/Roberto Hernandez safety net to develop Fausto Carmona, Fernando Cabrera, Adam Miller, et al in the pen, adding youth, energy and talent in Josh Barfield and building extraordinary depth with Trot Nixon and Dave Dellucci. Detroit added Gary Sheffield to one of the two best teams in the league. And while the Twins wonder if they can rebuild their rotation, do not turn your back on Matt Garza, Scott Baker, Boof Bonser and Glen Perkins behind Johan Santana.
The AL Central is a great division. It has the MVP (Justin Morneau) and the best pitcher in the world (Santana). It has two of the best players in the game in Grady Sizemore and Mauer; Hafner, whose stats equal those of David Ortiz; a World Series competitor in Detroit; and Alex Gordon coming to Kansas City.
If the White Sox had rested on their 2005 laurels, they might have faded deep into oblivion. "Maybe we didn't do it right," says Williams. "Results are to be determined. But we had to be proactive."
And intrepid, because the Indians, Twins and Tigers are going to be very good for the long haul.
If you are the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, why would you trade a Carl Crawford if you don't get a Philip Hughes or Clay Buchholz in return? And, with the value of top-of-the-rotation pitching being what it is, what is the chance of getting such a starter in return? Slight, at best.
So when the Rays open spring training with Crawford, Rocco Baldelli and Delmon Young in place as one of the best young outfields in the business and Elijah Dukes in reserve with an asterisk the size of a golden arch. The question will be where to put B.J. Upton if he doesn't suddenly get his feet at shortstop. As of now, Ben Zobrist enters spring training as the shortstop, so here's an idea: Why not make Upton the Rays' version of Chone Figgins? Upton needs to find himself at the plate, and his defensive struggles clearly have impacted him. So if he plays three infield and three outfield positions and is used as a designated hitter, he can progress offensively, get comfortable and work to find a position at which he is comfortable.
Incidentally, Edwin Jackson had a very good winter season in Venezuela at a time when he will arrive in spring training out of options. So Jackson might vault himself into competition for the rotation or bullpen.
Everyone with the Red Sox and in Scott Boras' office knew the J.D. Drew deal would get done and in the end the Red Sox would get the protection they sought if Drew's shoulder breaks down. The Boras-Theo Epstein chess matches are getting to be premier entertainment. But one club official says "Scott will fight to the end -- we went to Opening Day eve a couple of years ago not knowing if three of our players were going to be active the next day because they were Boras clients and had yet to sign a clause our ownership required."
Some fans in Boston are still stewing about the decision to let Mark Loretta hit the market and get signed for a backup role, but management is sold on Dustin Pedroia. One of the most telling statistics when looking at prospects is finding players who have more strikeouts and more extra-base hits than strikeouts. Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer, David Wright are examples of players who had phenomenal minor-league BB/XBH/K numbers and blew on through to the major leagues.`Pedroia last year had 48 walks, 38 extra-base hits and 27 strikeouts between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Pawtucket.
Three worries that get talked about a lot:
1. Barry Bonds' contract delay. All I know is that none of the contracts the Giants have signed this winter have been approved.
2. ADD prescriptions replacing amphetamines. Word is that one team has close to 15 players who have been "diagnosed" as having some form of Attention Deficit Disorder, and can get the necessary medicine to maintain focus on the smokiest of days.
3. That Venezuela may become a problem as far as the talent pipeline is concerned. Hugo Chavez's running battles with the current U.S. administration may alter the cost of doing business in Venezuela, and Chavez's baseball federation could force U.S. teams to pay dearly to import players.
Want the new, new thing in R&B? Go to the web page of Eli (Paperboy) Reed and download. He is not "American Idol" schlock; he is a brilliant talent on the rise.
Peter Gammons is a Hall of Fame baseball reporter for ESPN and a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
Edited by Madtowntripper (01/28/07 05:53 PM)
|
Yeah, I'm not sure what happened.
I vaguely remember hearing about it months ago, and I thought it was something with a machete and fire, but it could have been a shooting...
Alot of the Sox fans are crucifying Williams for what he did this off-season but as someone who pays attention, but isnt a Sox fan they seem to be generally good moves for the future, if not the present.
Agree/Disagree?
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
|