So after starting this post two weeks ago (I kid you not--two weeks), a ton of free-agents have been signed to ridiculously rich contracts. My personal vote for most ridiculous thus far is Gary Matthews Jr.'s 5 year $50 million deal. While the Cubs may regret their borderline absured Soriano contract in 4 years or so, my money's on the Angels regretting the Matthews contract in oh, about 6 or 7 months. Plenty of bloggers have talked about this with more depth and knowledge than I will here, but what it boils down to is that the 32-year-old Matthews cashed in on a career year that far, far, far outpaced his previous production. I could cite a myriad of stats to illustrate this point, but I'll just steal this one from ESPN: "Matthews posted a career-high .313 batting average for the Rangers this year; that's 50 points higher than his career average (.263) and 58 points higher than his 2005 mark (.255)." Enjoy your new outfielder, Angels fans.Anyway, on to the White Sox. Constructing a free agent wish list is pretty much completely a waste of time in the case of the White Sox, since their acquisitions will almost certainly come by way of trade, particularly of a starting pitcher (I'd rather see Contreras go first, followed by Garcia, Buehrle, Vazquez, and Garland... and most of that has to do with age... Contreras is about 45 now, right?). Anyway, since a free agent wish list is a complete waste of time, it seemed perfect fodder for a blog post.
As I (and virtually all the White Sox blogs I read) see it, the Sox could most benefit by upgrading in the outfield (I'm looking at you Podsednik--I'm giving BA a free pass for last year and I hope Ozzie and Kenny do too), the bullpen, and backup catcher. So now that a bunch of overpaid outfielders are already off the board (oooh, Soriano would have looked good in left and leading off... for the next 4 years, not the next 8), who's left?
JD Drew -- I do NOT want JD Drew on my team. Luckily, there's virtually zero chance of that because Kenny's not gonna throw the kind of money and years at Drew that he's going to get from some idiotic team (here's looking at you, BoSox).
Aubrey Huff -- I'm not thrilled about Huff; he's 30 and he hasn't really been that good since 2004. He may be over the hill, and if he replaces Podsednik there's no one to leadoff. Sorry, Aubrey, you have a girls name anyway.
Raul Mondesi -- Hahaha. I'm just bullshittin'. But that was fun, no? (aside: I hate Raul Mondesi for ruining the value of his Upper Deck die cut platinum plus baseball card that I so coveted when I was 13 years old. I should have sold that fucker when I had the chance).
Kenny Lofton -- Kenny fits the prototype for who the Sox would need to kick Podsednik to the curb. Yeah, he's ancient (he'll turn 40 next season!), but he last year he hit .301 with an OBP of .360 and stole 32 bags, only getting caught 5 times. Compare this to Podsednik, who hit .261 with an OBP of .330, stealing 40 bags and getting caught 19 times (19!!! That floored me; I knew he was bad, but that number is astronomical). Kenny'd also be a relatively cheap, short-term contract. Plus, I like Kenny. He has a pretty smile. And he's from East Chicago.
Dave Roberts -- He's got the edge of 5 years of youth on Kenny, but he'd come at a higher price and a longer-term deal. Last year was pretty much a career year for Roberts, hitting .293 with an OBP of .360, stealing 49 and getting caught 6 times. Red Sox fans can verify that Roberts is capable of coming up with a clutch steal, too. I don't think there's a wrong answer between Roberts and Lofton--we just desperately need to replace Podsednik (I love you for your 2005 early season stealing and postseason homers, Scott, but you just flat out suck ass now. Sorry.)Well, I think that pretty much does it. I could toss out names for bullpen and catching help, but rest assured that they'd pretty much just be random names that I happened to recognize, without any real concept of if they'd amount to shit or not. This is why I'm not a GM. That said, please sign Dave Roberts or Kenny Lofton, Kenny. Please...
9 comments:
I would vote for Lofton. The last time he played in Chicago, he helped send his team to the playoffs. I think Lofton adds a little something extra to the clubhouse.
Roberts is alright, but I'm wondering if he really has finally learned how to hit. I remember hating him as a fantasy player because his .250 average always sucked and he never scores 100 runs. Plus with the way free agency is going this year, a .293 average and 49 stolen bases is probably worth $10 million/year. Roberts has to be better then Little Sarge, right?
Yeah, Roberts is probably a bit more than the White Sox are willing to pay. But I bet he gets a contract more in the 4 year/$30 million range... he's older and has less of a track record than Pierre does.
Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind seeing Lofton play center field at Wrigley
Gotta like Lofton, he's the sort of player who isn't going to suddenly have a massive drop off from last years #s to next, regardless of age. He plays a good game, but leaves a lot to be desired personally (but the whole idea of chemistry is debatable to begin with).
As for Drew, I remember many a years back being in Chicago watching the Cardinals play the Sox in interleague play and watching as David Wells broke Drew's wrist. Sure it wasn't his fault, but good 'ol boy JD Drew just was never healthy with the Cards and I will forever resent him for it. Such talent wasted.
Gah. Fucking David Wells. What a fat bastard waste of a trade. Of course, the Sox essentially only gave up the never-to-pitch-again Mike Sirotka for him back in the day.
I guess I see now why the Cubs paid so much for Soriano. Every other free agent OF is 40 years old or JD Drew. Pods blew last year, that said, I'd rather have Pods than any of the guys you mentioned.
I think Bob has a pink Pods jersey hanging up in his closet... he's just afraid he'll feel dumb wearing it while he's watching games if Pods is gone.
It would be great if Bob's jersy just said "Pods" on the back. Or "Podsomething" or "Podsnotgonnagetahit" or "Podsyadayada".
I'll be here all week folks.
It actually reads "Gatesisabigdildo". And its not pink, they don't carry the pink ones in my size. Assholes!
Post a Comment