Odds and Ends: Gillick, Cashman, Burnett

You're absolutely right, Ripwa. Beckham can't be dealt for a full year after he's signed.

I would imagine the Sox could get a very nice return for Vazquez if they decided to move him.

Ripwa- I think Beckham could be dealt as a PTBNL in a deal that happened during the 2009 season, but I might be wrong.

Uggla to the Cubs for Pie!

Here is your lesson for today. Don't even bother with that Rockies Mailbox thing. Most of it is trash.

i was joking...i knew some cubs fan would say it so i wanted to beat them to the punch

the white sox should seriously think about asking konerko to waive his NTC to try and get some speed/bullpen help. he finished the season pretty hot, but he's historically only a half-season player. by that, i mean he's only productive in one half of the season. problem is, you don't know which half it will be. the middle relief to get to thornton/jenks is awful. i don't count linebrink right now, because he's not totally healthy, though he probably will be by the time spring rolls around. i wonder what the sox could get for konerko? he makes the plays at first that he should make, but he doesn't have much range and might be the slowest player in MLB. thoughts?

oh, and pie alone gets you nothing of value right now. package him with some other useful pieces, then maybe. his stock is nowhere right now. i like uggla, at least offensively, but he's not what the cubs need. i'll take derosa's offense and better glove and try and upgrade center and/or right and shortstop. derosa's coming off a career year going into his walk year. i expect an even bigger year from him in '09.

Rosenthal needs to relax on the BoSox and white players. Maybe the BoSox see white players as less confratational/problematic. Maybe he should write about Minaya and the Mets signing latino players instead...

Uggla is not a stellar defender but Id be willing to trade Theriot and Marshall for him. Then sign Furcal, move Fukudome to CF and plant DeRosa in RF.
This still wouldnt fix their need for a left handed power bat. I beleive Uggla hits right handed...

I did some research. Is it just me or Minaya trying to put together the all-Latin team? I mean i know they have Wright and other player that they DEVELOPED, and have traded for Schneider and Church but this is overwhelming. And dont tell me they have a great scout team in latin america....every team does!

Of Latin decent on the 40 man roster:

Tony Armas
Luis Ayala
Ambiorix Burgos
Pedro Feliciano
Nelson Figueroa
Orlando Hernandez
Pedro Martinez
Carlos Muniz
Oliver Perez
Ricardo Rincon
Duaner Sanchez
Jason Vargas
Robinson Cancel
Ramon Castro
Johan Santana
Gustavo Molina
Luis Castillo
Carlos Delgado
Ramon Martinez
Argenis Reyes
Jose Reyes
Moises Alou
Carlos Beltran
Endy Chavez
Angel Pagan
Fernando Tatis

Thats 25 of 40 players from a Latin decent. And thats just the 40 man roster....amazing. If Ozzie was available, you know he be their next manager.

RED SOX DYNASTY!

Comments like that should be grounds for losing voting privileges.

clarknaddison is on the right track. But I like DeRosa as our 2B for another year. He doesn't hit well enough to be much of a RF upgrade.

I'd like to see us sign Burrell, deal Derrek lee, and get a guy like Eckstein to back up Theriot.

Sad to say, Fontenot should be dealt for his own sake, and I want Pie gone as soon as possible.

I wouldnt get too upset about Rosenthal's article. 9 times out of 10 stories like these are written to drive readers, viewership, audience, etc to the website. If it can generate even just a modest amount of controversy, the article will get picked up and disseminated by the syndicates (AP, Reuters) and drive more traffic. Nothing more, nothing less. You (shamefully) see these things in every media outlet.

If you actually read the article, Ken pretty much downplays every point he makes. I think Rosenthal's just trying to fill his weekly quota.

So Rosenthal writes a dumbheaded article, most people on here rightly pan it and a moron Boston fan tries his best to prove Rosenthal's theory. Stellar work, dummy.

Craig at Fishstripes looks at the ridiculous Dan Uggla and Scott Olsen for Yorvit Torrealba and a pitching prospect speculation, which appeared on MLB.com.

lmao too funny if real journalists at mlb.com believe that crap.

"Rosenthal needs to relax on the BoSox and white players. Maybe the BoSox see white players as less confratational/problematic. Maybe he should write about Minaya and the Mets signing latino players instead..."

Seems to me to be an issue about nothing. I can't see any way the the Red Sox are actively trying to prevent non-white players from playing for them. Racism in the past meant staying with your own kind and actively excluding others of a different race. The problem today, at least with MLB doesn't have anything to do with actively excluding non-white races, it has to do with managers and general managers who actively pursue those of their own kind (I'm talking about you Omar Minaya and Dusty Baker). Dusty, Omar and the Red Sox don't seem to exclude anyone based on race but they each do seem to prefer a certain race.

Of course you won't see anything serious written about Omar or Dusty, since they're essentially protected. You'll see tripe like Rosenthal's article though because the Red Sox are prominent and they've sinned in their past. Once a sinner, always a sinner, at least if it sells. They'll never be able to move on if people won't let them.

Really, it's sad that this is even an issue in today's game with the percentage of African-American's being so small. Given an 8.2% population of African-Americans and 25 man rosters each team would be expected to have about 2 black players on it's roster. Some teams will have 3, 4, 6 black players, some teams will have none. It's common sense. The Red Sox are well within tolerance, even though they have only one black player.

Now do that same test with Dusty Bakers teams of the past, or Omar Minaya's teams. If it's not an issue for them it shouldn't be an issue for the Sox either.

The whole thing is ridiculous. The Sox are particularly white, the Rays are particularly black, the Mets are particularly Latin. It's just a matter of distribution. It happens. Who cares?

The Giants are racist against hitters. Isn't that a bigger deal?

Pagian,
Great post!

Theo got rid of Manny b/c he was a cancer. Not because he was Latin. Minaya will sign Manny b/c hes latin, not because he thinks hes a great guy. Thats Minayas problem, he doesnt realize that chemistry matters...and thats why they will flop again for the next 4 years of his ridiculous extention.

I hope President Obama signs into law some sort of ban on useless message board posters. That would be neat.

Not Joe Morgan, why would Obama ban useless board posters when democrats like to pay people for being useless?

Wow, I did not realize that the mile-high altitude of Denver also affected all sane reasoning and intelligence... Thomas Harding should stick to his roto league, and MLB 2k8 before he makes another pathetic trade rumor like the Uggla and Olsen deal for Torrealba.

bjsguess, I pretty much agree with your interpretation of Rosenthal's article except why bring up racism at all if there weren't some type of implication meant by it? All he had to do was give facts and figures regarding the Red Sox current roster and he could have compared and contrasted it more than he did with other rosters.

Instead what we got was an article saying "they were, but we're not saying they are now, it just looks that way". What exactly was the point? He goes out of his way to say they're not being racist, sort of exonerating them, but he brings up the past.

Maybe it needed to be said to keep them on their toes, keep them honest. I don't think so, I think that the more that people like Rosenthal write irrelevant stuff like that the more angry people get about things that don't affect them.

Before Foxsports posted the article, Ken Rosenthal did an interview on the Dale and Holly Show (WEEI)...And he did not make a good arguement at all. He said that he didn't believe that there were racial overtones, but that the "caucasian-ness" was merely coincidental. His main goal for the article was to "get people thinking". The funny thing thought, was after the interview, an e-mailer made a rather interesting point. He stated that in May, Rosenthal did an article on Minaya and the Mets. In the article, he states that Boston in a "model organization"...with a mix of young players and old, veterans and rookies, and a good (racially) mix of players. I don't know how to get article archives, so i did not read this article myself. But if true, you have to wonder what is Rosenthal's motivation for this article...and what made him change views about Boston in that 4 month span.

The Angels would never give up what it would take to land Scott Olsen, and then throw him in the bullpen. I mean come on the guy threw 201 innings this season, and posted a solid 4.20 ERA, and he'll be just 25 next season. That guy is going to have a spot in somebody's rotation next season.

i really do believe that dan uggla and scott olsen could possibly become angels. here me out. the angels have many (good) young infield prospects to use as trading bait. the angels need power because i do believe teixeria will become a yankee. dan uggla, a power slugger. just what the doctor ordered. the angels will need another reliever. with k-rod and oliver leaving. could be very possible. both teams win. marlins will get some good prospects.

Posted by: johnnyholden | October 14, 2008 at 07:01 PM

our need for next year is a corner outfielder, we are solid at SS for the next 6 years, we are solid at 2B with coughlan (best 2nd base prospect in the minors atm). That said I am sure we would have an interest in Kendrick back for Uggla move :)

Make that 13-2. Ahh, I love the Rays..

"Olsen may not fetch much this off season, 200 innings pitched or not and be a throw in in a trade (much like Jason Marquis) only Marquis will be with his salary paid by the Cubs."

Excuse me. Guys like Olsen are heavily valued commodities. A middle of the rotation starter, relatively healthy, who will be cheap (arbitration salary will be relatively low compared to what guys like Garland make in FA), can fetch a decent bounty.

President McCain?

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

That's about the funniest thing I've heard all week.

I did some research. Is it just me or Minaya trying to put together the all-Latin team? I mean i know they have Wright and other player that they DEVELOPED, and have traded for Schneider and Church but this is overwhelming. And dont tell me they have a great scout team in latin america....every team does!

Of Latin decent on the 40 man roster:

Tony Armas
Luis Ayala
Ambiorix Burgos
Pedro Feliciano
Nelson Figueroa
Orlando Hernandez
Pedro Martinez
Carlos Muniz
Oliver Perez
Ricardo Rincon
Duaner Sanchez
Jason Vargas
Robinson Cancel
Ramon Castro
Johan Santana
Gustavo Molina
Luis Castillo
Carlos Delgado
Ramon Martinez
Argenis Reyes
Jose Reyes
Moises Alou
Carlos Beltran
Endy Chavez
Angel Pagan
Fernando Tatis

Thats 25 of 40 players from a Latin decent. And thats just the 40 man roster....amazing. If Ozzie was available, you know he be their next manager.

Red Sox Dynasty, just c'mon man. Just stop. Stop, man. Leave it alone..

"The Giants are racist against hitters. Isn't that a bigger deal?"

By far the best post in this thread.

I think there is a legitimate case to bash the rosenthal piece. For those defending it saying he backed away from most of the harsher claims, well then why mention them in the first place and make them the subject of a whole article. He constantly backtracks and contradicts himself (the phillies are ok because their stars are not-white but where is ortiz from again? I am sure dominican guys are totally going to balk at the chance to be ortiz's onlyish dominican buddy if by some miracle the sox could unload lugos contract). Why write a piece and then say everything is my odd speculation that I do not actually believe and then bill it the way it was. Irresponsible at best. Since when do free agents choose clubhouse racial makeup over money and a competitive team?