Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Question of the day

Posted in:

Illinois

We have plenty of divisive political topics for today, so let’s switch gears.

What the heck is up with the White Sox? Should they just start dumping “talent” and rebuild or is there still any sort of hope? Should Ozzie go? Should Ken Williams be dumped? Explain.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 9:59 am

Comments

Time to clean house. Ozzie needs to go. Let Buerhle and Dye go. Hopefully they can get some good talent for them. Give the young-uns a chance. I know the Sox have some talent down in the minors, give ‘em a chance to play. See what they got. This season’s been an absolute disaster.

I’m heading to Milwaukee to see some real baseball.

Comment by Jerry Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 10:04 am
They are bad and hurt. Vs the Pirates, they’d anounce Sox players and I thought they played for the Bucs. Plus, Alex Cintron does not impose fear as a pinch hitter. After a World Series and a 90 win season, Ozzie must go! THat is the difference between Sox and Cubs fans, Sox have unrealistic expectations, while (too many) Cubs fans just want to see a game. Last year, a lot of CUbs fans wanted to retain Baker after similar inuries that the Sox suffer this year.

Comment by Wumpus Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 10:09 am
I think that Kenny has to go. The key to sustainable success in the MLB is a minor league system that produces the core assets of a team. Just look at the Yankees of the 1990’s or the Braves throughout John Shurholtz career. Kenny has failed completely on that front. The Sox minor leagues have not produced a position player since Kenny took over (Crede was last good player to come from the system and he developed when Ron Schuler ran the team) and Kenny has made consistently bad picks of pitchers.

That said, Reinsdorf is incredibly loyal and will no doubt give Kenny a really long rope given 2005. Look how long he let Krause screw up the Bulls before he finally had enough (and Reinsdorf didn’t really care about the Bulls as a team). Unfortunately, I fear that Kenny will be around for a loooong time. I guess the upside is that my season ticket seats will improve and I will again be able to park in lot C.

Comment by Tom Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 10:10 am
Keep Buehrle. Find a way to dump Vasquez and Contreras. I know that is unlikely, but figure it out.

Comment by Jon Shibley Fan Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 10:13 am
Ozzie cannot control all of the injuries this year. It has been a bad year. But I still hold out hope for a much better second half of the season. The Cubs series was brutal but it can only go up from here!

Comment by Leigh Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 10:14 am
a team will respond to an overly emotional manager for one year, maybe two — and then they tune him out. Ozzie is the biggest problem. Konerko could be carrying more leadership as team captain, but he is always overly focused on his own performance and down on himself in slumps. The Sox may have the best pitching coach and hitting coach in the majors — is it time to elevate one of them to team manager, or bring in outside talent?

In terms of players, Dye is a hot weather hitter and is already coming out of his annual spring slump. Konerko has no marketability for his salary; the two that I wouldn’t mind getting the gate are Uribe and Iguchi. Uribe is a jerk and has a short attention span - less than nine innings. If Ozzie wasn’t a good personal friend of his, he would have been gone before this spring. I can’t figure out why Iguchi has fallen off, other than being bounced all over the batting line-up, but he is clearly unhappy and under performing.

I agree that Kenny Williams deserves blame for the minor league teams falling off, but he is now addressing that. We all know that he gave up some good prospects for the 2005 banner year. Replacement good prospects take time to develop.

The question is: can the team still bounce back in 2007. Recent history suggests that teams can bounce back after weak starts, as late as late June. After the Cubs debacle, I have to conclude — no. So trade one of my favorite players, Mark Buehrle, for two good players and a prospect and aim towards another pennent in 2009 or 2010.

Comment by capitol view Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 10:28 am
- Do Not Trade Buerhle
- Get rid of Dye & Uribe
- Get Michael Young from the Rangers.
- Get Torri Hunter from the Twins.
- As much as I love Crede, I think it’s time for Fields to get third. Crede can’t stay healthy. He should’ve had surgery after the World Series.
- Sign one of the Alomar brothers…just kidding

Comment by Ron Burgundy Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 11:13 am
The offense, counting on productive seasons by Erstad and Podsednik imploded, making it the worst in baseball. Joe Crede’s back didn’t help matters and Konerko and Dye have folded trying to shoulder too much of the load (especially when Thome went on the disabled list). Regrettably, the bullpen (which looked promising) followed. What the Sox need to do is deal the impending free agents and hope to get good, young hitters back in the deals.

This team can be good again soon. There’s a lot of good young pitching talent in the minors (Gio Gonzalez has a wicked curve, and the team’s stocked up on pitching the last three drafts) and the bullpen should rebound under the leadership of Jenks and a fine young lefty in his second year. Josh Fields has power and Ryan Sweeney might be the answer in center. If Crede recovers and Fields moved to one outfield corner, the team might rebound quickly with the addition of a productive outfielder (Ichiro? Dunn?) and second baseman. The Sox may have played over their heads in 2005 and most of 2006, but the team is not as wretched as it looks now.

If anyone’s going to get fired, it’s Greg Walker. Whatever a hitting coach is supposed to do, he hasn’t helped this year’s team.

Comment by Boone Logan Square Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 11:14 am
Fire Kenny Williams. Dude is arrogant, won’t draft Scott Boras’ clients and his trading away Chris Young (now CF for Arizona) for Javier Vasquez was just dumb. Fired Duane Shaffer, long-time scout because he wouldn’t kiss Kenny’s rear end. Sadly, we White Sox fans are stuck with him since Kenny is a pet of Jerry Reinsdorf.

Comment by Fire Ron Guenther Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 11:18 am
the Sox do really badly when they face a
pitcher who is just brought up. teams
seem to do this lots to them. so, there
seems to be some other kind of scouting problem.
I think the recent scouting firing is just the tip of the iceberg.

the injuries are problematic, the bullpen needs help, although the last two games were oh so much better. so, both are on the mend.

uribe…..get rid of him now when he is hitting
ok. crede….we have fields, yes, we will lose
some in defense, but, time to move on.

i want to keep Buehrle, Paulie, and A.J. the rest can play whatever part in trades.

Ozzie, come on, he’s a great baseball mind who
probably should take a couple games off. he’s tired. if he does go, they will be in good
hands with Cora.

Comment by amy Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 11:21 am
The Mets have shown interest in Contreras, so I think the first line of action should be to see what they can get for him. Deal Contreras first. Free up that cash and give it to Buehrle for a contract extension. Jerry and Kenny have this ridiculous philosophy of not giving pitchers 5-year contracts and to their credit, it has worked out for them, however, Buehrle should be the exception to this rule. He is the left handed Greg Maddux. He may not win 300 games in his career, but you know what you are going to get from him every start. The guy has also not spent time on the DL and doesn’t show any signs of having arm trouble.

LOCK HIM UP FOR THE NEXT FIVE.

After you do that, you can do what you want with the rest of the team. You know that Konerko, AJ and Crede aren’t going anywhere. Crede maybe down for the count, so you can’t trade him, which is why he is on this list.

Get rid of Dye, Iguchi and Uribe if you can and get what you can for them. Go young, take on expiring contracts, do whatever you can to get something in return for these guys.

Comment by Greg the Bull Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 11:58 am
Buerhle needs to go to the Cards since that’s where he will sign in the offseason. How much else could KW get for Dye or Contreras?

One guy who could go AND fetch a lot is Jon Garland. He is doing well on a bad team, is still young and could command a player ready to go now and a top prospect. The Mets are always in need of pitching and might give up Lastings Milledge.

Comment by Team Sleep Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 2:04 pm
The Sox need to blow it all up. AJ’s bat has been down since his hot first half last year. And he’s one of their better hitters so far. Their farm system has no big prospects ready to jump in. Trade Buehrle for the best package. See if anyone wants Dye.

- Get Torri Hunter from the Twins.

I have a friend who is a big baseball fan from MN. He says Hunter’s lost a step since his injury in ‘05. His defense has been slipping (that inside the park homer in the playoffs would’ve been a catch before). He’s having a great year this year, but he’s a terrible bet to repeat that performance. Get him and you get his decline. Singing players in the early 30s is what the Cubs have done for the last 20 years. Fat lot of good it’s done them.

In terms of players, Dye is a hot weather hitter and is already coming out of his annual spring slump.

Wait a sec, looking at the splits info at baseball-reference.com, Dye was better in the first half of ‘06 than the second half (.318 with 25 HRs vs. .313 with 19 homers). He was about the same in the halves in ‘05 (average 9 points higher in the first half, but 19 of his 31 homers in the second half). In ‘04 he hit two-thirds of his homers in the first half & hit fifty points higher.

Comment by Some Guy Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 2:05 pm
The Mets are always in need of pitching and might give up Lastings Milledge.

Actually, the Mets have really good pitching this year. Everyone but Glavine has an ERA under 4. Three of their starters have ERAs under 3.20.

Comment by Some Guy Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 2:08 pm
The White Sox are perfect just they way they are!

Comment by Clark & Addison Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 2:08 pm
Ozzie is fun, funny and passionate as well as interesting - a keeper. Lou P. on the other hand comes off as not very inspiring in fact rather boring - another keeper as he matches the Cub image.

Comment by A Citizen Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 3:09 pm
We Cardinal fans don’t comment on losing teams…..Sorry, but I don’t want to pile on.

Comment by Jechislo Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 3:16 pm
My suggestion is to be like Rep. Froehlich and change your allegiance to the team that is more successful at the moment.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Tuesday, Jun 26, 07 @ 5:11 pm