What a terrible weekend
Kenny Williams, White Sox GM: D
This weekend stunk. The Sox lost three of four from an Oakland team that seems to be flat-out better than the Sox. The simple fact is that the Sox have no high-OBP guys in the lineup since Frank Thomas went down with his ankle injury before the All-Star Break. The only thing the Sox did right was hit the ball fucking far when they made contact. The Sox hit six home runs in the four-game series. Of the 11 runs the team scored in the series, 9 were on home runs.
The team found out this weekend Frank Thomas will be out for eight weeks with his ankle problem. This, of course, is absolutely maddening. Magglio Ordonez is finally back (and not doing a whole lot, either), so the Ozzeroo can't put the full team on the field. Even so, Ordoñez was 2/16 in the Oakland series with a home run and no walks.
The one guy the Sox can't replace is Frank Thomas. For all the talk of Konerko's year and Ordonez being the best player on the Sox, Thomas has, this year, been getting on base and tearing the cover off the ball. His .997 OPS leads the team (and is among the leaders in the AL).
So, the Sox have lost 15 of the last 17 in Oakland. With Hurt out, the team has no DH of worth, as the right fielder is currently occupying that spot (and Joe Borchard, who stinks, is playing right field). The pitching staff isn't beating the world, but isn't absolutely horrible (and the bullpen has actually pitched pretty well). You're Kenny Williams. It's mid-July and the Twins are showing no signs of letting up. What do you do?
Well, apparently, you bring Carl Everett back for a second go-round. I guess, on the surface, this isn't the worst deal in the world, not unlike the Freddy Garcia deal.
But, like the Garcia deal, the more you delve into it, the worse it looks. For the Garcia trade, it was two things. The first was the players given up, specifically the best prospect in the system (Jeremy Reed) and the young starting catcher (Miguel Olivo). The second was the possibility that the team would re-sign Garcia, which it did. So, instead of having a rent-a-player for three months, the Sox now have a pretty good pitcher for three more years and a whole fucking lot of money.
The Everett deal is the same way. On the surface, big whoop. Gary Majewski was never really going to be much and Jon Rauch got on Kenny's bad side way too much. It is becoming more and more likely that neither is going to be much of a major leaguer.
That said, both guys were part of the team's top 30 prospects, according to Baseball America. The farm system is pretty bare and this is not helping. The Sox will have to draft really fucking well (i.e. Oakland-style) to re-stock the system. The upside is that the team isn't overly old. There are some good peak-age guys (Ordoñez, Lee, Konerko, Rowand) and some younger pitchers (Buerhle, Garland, Cotts, etc.), so the end isn't too near.
But... Ordoñez is likely gone after this year (maybe to the Cubs, which would be a bitch). Thomas, the team's best player, is near the end of his career. Valentin is a free agent, as well, after this season. Ben Davis and Jamie Burke are not the answers at catcher and Sandy Alomar is, well, Sandy Alomar. Esteban Loaiza is showing what kind of pitcher he really is. Garcia is having an excellent year (he's walked all of five guys since coming over), but will he keep it up?
But, back to Everett. The most important problem with this deal is that Jurassic Carl has a $4.75 million player option for next year. I emphasis "player" because I highly doubt Everett is going to get more than $4.75 million on the open market. Herego, the Sox are stuck with a 33-year-old injury-prone outfielder who, by the way, doesn't believe in evolution and beat his kids.
This is not good. The Sox could've waited a couple of weeks and gotten Beltran from Houston to fill an important void (OBP at the top of the lineup). No, instead, we get Jurassic Carl in the city as Sue the T-Rex.
I think we'll find that this past weekend, July 16-18 was the unraveling of the 2004 Chicago White Sox. And, I think, we have GM Kenny Williams to blame.
This weekend stunk. The Sox lost three of four from an Oakland team that seems to be flat-out better than the Sox. The simple fact is that the Sox have no high-OBP guys in the lineup since Frank Thomas went down with his ankle injury before the All-Star Break. The only thing the Sox did right was hit the ball fucking far when they made contact. The Sox hit six home runs in the four-game series. Of the 11 runs the team scored in the series, 9 were on home runs.
The team found out this weekend Frank Thomas will be out for eight weeks with his ankle problem. This, of course, is absolutely maddening. Magglio Ordonez is finally back (and not doing a whole lot, either), so the Ozzeroo can't put the full team on the field. Even so, Ordoñez was 2/16 in the Oakland series with a home run and no walks.
The one guy the Sox can't replace is Frank Thomas. For all the talk of Konerko's year and Ordonez being the best player on the Sox, Thomas has, this year, been getting on base and tearing the cover off the ball. His .997 OPS leads the team (and is among the leaders in the AL).
So, the Sox have lost 15 of the last 17 in Oakland. With Hurt out, the team has no DH of worth, as the right fielder is currently occupying that spot (and Joe Borchard, who stinks, is playing right field). The pitching staff isn't beating the world, but isn't absolutely horrible (and the bullpen has actually pitched pretty well). You're Kenny Williams. It's mid-July and the Twins are showing no signs of letting up. What do you do?
Well, apparently, you bring Carl Everett back for a second go-round. I guess, on the surface, this isn't the worst deal in the world, not unlike the Freddy Garcia deal.
But, like the Garcia deal, the more you delve into it, the worse it looks. For the Garcia trade, it was two things. The first was the players given up, specifically the best prospect in the system (Jeremy Reed) and the young starting catcher (Miguel Olivo). The second was the possibility that the team would re-sign Garcia, which it did. So, instead of having a rent-a-player for three months, the Sox now have a pretty good pitcher for three more years and a whole fucking lot of money.
The Everett deal is the same way. On the surface, big whoop. Gary Majewski was never really going to be much and Jon Rauch got on Kenny's bad side way too much. It is becoming more and more likely that neither is going to be much of a major leaguer.
That said, both guys were part of the team's top 30 prospects, according to Baseball America. The farm system is pretty bare and this is not helping. The Sox will have to draft really fucking well (i.e. Oakland-style) to re-stock the system. The upside is that the team isn't overly old. There are some good peak-age guys (Ordoñez, Lee, Konerko, Rowand) and some younger pitchers (Buerhle, Garland, Cotts, etc.), so the end isn't too near.
But... Ordoñez is likely gone after this year (maybe to the Cubs, which would be a bitch). Thomas, the team's best player, is near the end of his career. Valentin is a free agent, as well, after this season. Ben Davis and Jamie Burke are not the answers at catcher and Sandy Alomar is, well, Sandy Alomar. Esteban Loaiza is showing what kind of pitcher he really is. Garcia is having an excellent year (he's walked all of five guys since coming over), but will he keep it up?
But, back to Everett. The most important problem with this deal is that Jurassic Carl has a $4.75 million player option for next year. I emphasis "player" because I highly doubt Everett is going to get more than $4.75 million on the open market. Herego, the Sox are stuck with a 33-year-old injury-prone outfielder who, by the way, doesn't believe in evolution and beat his kids.
This is not good. The Sox could've waited a couple of weeks and gotten Beltran from Houston to fill an important void (OBP at the top of the lineup). No, instead, we get Jurassic Carl in the city as Sue the T-Rex.
I think we'll find that this past weekend, July 16-18 was the unraveling of the 2004 Chicago White Sox. And, I think, we have GM Kenny Williams to blame.
2 Comments:
Oh, Ross. Don't be so pessimistic. This weekend wasn't the unraveling of the White Sox. The White Sox haven't played well on the west coast at all in recent memory, and Oakland is a place where they've just gotten wrecked. I don't think a bad road trip out west is going to cause them to unravel. The White Sox playing poorly on the west coast is like the Cubs playing poorly in St. Louis. It sucks, but it's probably what's going to happen.
It isn't the way the team played this weekend. Rather, it is the fact that Kenny decided that Jurassic Carl Everett (and his two-year contract) is the answer. I understand the Sox stink on the West Coast; that's fine. The thing that annoys me is that Carl Everett will now be patrolling center field for the Sox when Hurt comes back.
Player A- .252/.319/.378
Player B- .295/.335/.536
Which player would you rather have? Probably Player B. Unfortunately, the Sox just traded for two years of Player A, along with his non-dinosaur-beliefs.
This would be perfect if Jurassic Carl was just on for this season, but burning $4 million on him next year might prove costly for a team on a (supposedly) tight budget.
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