35th Street Mess

 
When you decide to trade most of your future for Freddy Garcia in an attempt to "go for it" you have do something when your best hitter might be out for the rest of the year.   Everett's not had a particularly good season with the Expos, he's been hurt for a lot of it.  I think though there's a good chance he'll be rejuvinated away from that Expos bunch and in a pennant race. 
 
He'll be a nice fit in the lineup and make up for some of the loss of Thomas' .430 OBP.  I'd like to see him bat second, Ordonez third, and Valentin fourth (against right-handers).
 
Interestingly Everett is owed $4 million next year.  If you were holding out hope that Ordonez would return next year you can let it go now.  The Chairman isn't going to pay a guy that much money to sit on the bench.  Look for Everett to get into good enough shape to play the outfield over the winter and he'll be the starting right fielder.
 
As far as what they gave up, Jon Rauch will be 26 in September and is a prime example of why White Sox scouting and player development should be re-evaluated.  An unacceptable amount of pitchers at the minor league level have gotten hurt.  What are they doing wrong?  If they aren't doing anything wrong, they should stop drafting pitchers with premium picks.   

 
Twins opponents winning percentage this year.  Good for last in all of baseball by a pretty far margin.  On top of that, they've been outscored this year.  Forgive me for not losing sleep over them. 

The first pitch has yet to be thrown and this year's All-Star game is already a mess. What was the deal with the managers ariving Blues Brother style? Even worse why did FOX use Blues Brothers type promos to hype this event in the first place? If I'm not mistaken it was last year's game that took place in a blues friendly environment.

Also, could the starting lineups descending from the roofs of the respective dugouts been more hokey? Was that a Gallas idea?

Perhaps the biggest oddity of Disco Demolition Night involves Rusty Torres.

Torres was a journeyman outfielder who happened to be on the 1979 White Sox. He started for the Sox in right field in the infamous Disco Demolition game. The second game of the scheduled doubleheader, was as everyone knows by now, forfeited by the Sox.

On June 4, 1974, the Cleveland Indians staged a 10 cent beer promotion. With the winning run on third, hundreds of fans jumped out of the stands and attacked Rangers’ rightfielder Jeff Burroughs. The game was forfeited and the Rangers were awarded the win. Rusty Torres pinch-hit in that game for the Indians. A side note, only 25,134 showed in Cleveland for the game. Imagine the crowd a 10 cent beer promotion in the 70’s would have drawn to 35th.

September 30, 1971 was the last game played in Washington. With the Senators leading the Yankees 7-5 with two outs in the 9th inning, fans stormed the field souvenir hunting. The crowd could not be cleared and the Yankees were awarded a forfeited victory. Rusty Torres was started in right field for the Yankees and homered.

One player involved in three different forfeits in the 70’s. What are the odds...

Frank Thomas- This outfit needs Thomas's bat in the lineup if they hope to crash the postseason in 2004. I'm not too concerned, as I suspect the ESPN report is a bunch of hooey. I'm confident Thomas will heal and be back in the lineup soon. The reason for my optimism? Trainer Herm Schneider. Schneider and his assistant, Brian Ball, have made this outfit the healthiest bunch in baseball over the last two seasons in terms of player/days in the DL. Frank is in good hands.

Magglio Ordonez- I still don't understand why there's a rush to resign this guy. I feel they should take their time here. Magg's contract is going to occupy 15-20% of the total salaries. That's a ton of money to give a 30something player. For that, Kenny has every reason to expect the same high level of production, without the injuries that have plagued Maggs this season. Also, any contract this large should include an escape clause, so the Chairman doesn't get stuck with the entire tab should Magglio's career suddenly fall off the cliff. Magglio, showing all the intelligence I've come to expect from the average ballplayer, has said he wants to play here and will do so for less money. That tells me something will get done, but at this outfit's time and price. Kenny needs to tell the media to quit fretting over this situation and that when there's something to announce, this outfit will announce it.

Garcia's contract- This one makes me a little leery. This outfit does not have a good history when it comes to shelling out big dollars to pitchers. Garcia could be an exception. He's still pretty young and his strikeout rate has remained solid through his recent struggles, suggesting his stuff is still strong. That said, I'm worried. When it comes to signing pitchers, there are only two ways to go. One is to break the bank for a dominator. Not a "tough competitor who just had a nice season hurling in a pitcher's paradise" type like Kevin Brown or Mike Hampton, but a unhittable ace, like Big Unit or Clemens in his prime. If none of those are available shop the bargain rack. The non-roster invitees. Stay away from the guys like Ritchie and Navarro. While Garcia is definitely a notch above those two stiffs, he's still not an ace. At least the Chairman wisely stuck to his guns and didn't commit to more than three years for a pitcher.

Cubs- Watching the pathetic grounds crew on the north side bumble through last Saturday's rain made me appreciate Bossard's crew that much more. I have no idea where the tribune found these gauche gutterpups, but I've never seen a more worthless crew. Had Bossard been in charge, the field is playable, the game goes nine innings and the Sox have a chance to pull it out. I hope MLB investigates this mess.

Bad news. In what would be yet another occurrence of Vickery's Law, ESPN Radio reports that if Frank Thomas' ailing ankle doesn't respond to the latest cortisone shot he could require season ending surgery.

Jeremy Reed for a playoff run of a week with Freddy Garcia. It couldn't possibly get worse than that my friends.

I find the writing on Twins Geek usually very insightful so I was a bit taken aback by the basis for this negative opinion on Garcia.

To summarize writer John Bonnes’ opinion, he believes now that Garcia is armed with a new 3-year deal he will lack the motivation to pitch well and that could hand the Twins the division.

Garcia may not pitch well and that very well could hand the division to the Twins, but to say it would be because he isn’t motivated is a huge stretch in my view. You get into very dangerous territory when you make guesses at what motivates people you don’t know or even the ones you do for that matter.

Buried in a Yankees notebook article in the New Jersey Star Ledger reports that the Sox have signed Freddy Garcia to a 3-year $27 million contract extension.

After giving up so much to trade for Garcia Williams had no choice but to sign him to a long-term deal. I thought the figures would be closer to 4 years and $40 million so it looks like the Sox made out okay for the time being. Garcia is far from a sure thing however so I’m not going to celebrate this. He has shown the ability to implode for a year and as a fly ball pitcher at U.S. Cellular Field it wouldn’t shock me if his ERA flirted with the 5.00 mark during his stay on the south side.

In the Sox favor, Garcia is only 28, consistently throws 200 innings and has never had an arm injury. He has good enough “stuff” to think that a true top-of-the-rotation year is possible for at least one of those three years too.

Depending how much if any of Garcia’s money is back loaded the Sox face $39 Million tied up in six players for the 2005 season. Signing Ordonez is still possible I suppose, but Valentin and especially Loaiza are a step closer to the door with this deal.

Take this for what it’s worth, but New York Newsday reports the Sox have offered Freddy Garcia a 3-year deal worth $24M.

If true, that’s a fair offer and they’d still have room to sign Ordonez. Loaiza appears to be the odd man out in this equation which is the probably the right thing. He's too risky of a proposition to sign long-term.

Maddux’s Painful March to 300 Wins.

Greg Maddux has the reputation as a smart pitcher. In a post-game interview Dusty Baker said the difference between Maddux’s performance against the Sox yesterday and the one a week ago was that he faced the hitters and knew how to pitch them. A week ago Maddux was only going off scouting reports.

Right Dusty.

Okay for the sake of argument I’ll concede that Maddux is a smart pitcher, but the real reason Maddux was able to stymie the Sox was because there’s no DH in the N.L. Watching Greg Maddux pitch yesterday gave me a brand new appreciation for the DH. He is excruciating to watch. He nibbles and when he isn’t doing that he’s flat out pitching around guys. When he has a sympathetic home plate ump giving him a couple of inches off each corner this is a very effective way to pitch.

One of the arguments purists have against the DH is that it keeps hitters around who otherwise would have to retire. The flip side of that is the Non-DH league keeps pitchers like Maddux around too long. Besides Jim Hendry who upped his contract offer to Maddux after the Yankees enter the bidding did anyone believe for a second that Maddux would pitch in the A.L.?

His march toward 300 wins is somewhat reminiscent to Carlton Fisk’s breaking the all-time games caught record in 1994. Fisk had no business hanging around to break that record and Maddux has no business hanging around to win 300. It’s not like if he never wins 300 he wouldn’t still be regarded as a great pitcher. I’d have had more respect for him had he retired with dignity than get 300 wins the way he’s going about it this year.

Since field conditions and not rain is the reason for the game being called, hop on the bus and head south to finish the game. Rest assured Roger Bossard's infield is bone dry.

There’s no denying that the Sox gave up a lot, and in reality too much, to acquire Freddy Garcia. The landscape of baseball has changed enough the last two years to make me wonder though how much the losses of Reed and Olivo actually will hurt them.

Contracts of three years or less are now the norm for free agents and the market is over saturated because of it and non-tendering arbitration eligible player has become a popular practice these days further increasing the number of free agents. Add all this to the players teams want to move who are in the last year of their contracts and there promises to be a glut of players on the open market again this winter.

The new way of doing business in baseball will reward teams with financial flexibility. The Yankees always have this flexibility, but for a team like the Sox it means the fewer long-term contracts the better. Losing Reed and Olivo won’t be as bad as it seems as long as the Sox maintain the financial flexibility to fill the holes their departure creates on a year-to-year basis until they develop their next prized hitter and solid regular at whatever positions it may be. And with $30 million tied up in five players (Buehrle, Konerko, Lee, Marte, and Thomas) they will have money to spend this winter. Whatever one thinks of the Sox financial situation, their payroll assuredly can be the highest in the division.

The Chairman as the A.L. Central’s Steinbrenner has an uneasy feel about it.