Freddy Garcia Close To Finding A Team

I think he would end up with the mets. he is a good friend of santana. he once said he would love to pitch with johan on the same team.

Mets definately could use him.

White Sox make sense,familia!

Thanks for clearing that up for me Hyro =)

Aaron: Absolutely not. Garcia will be competition for the 5th spot. The Mets still need a #2 starter...

Posted by: Hyro | January 19, 2009 at 05:35 PM

Well with Lowe out, Sheets is the only "#1-2" pitcher out there. Perez is a #3-4 type guy. The rotation would look decent-good if the Mets can sign either of those guys. Any other signing would be competition for the 5th spot.

I wonder how the Mets are doing on the Garland/Wolf/Pettitte front. They can just use that as leverage against Sheets and Perez. I also wonder if they can look into Mark Mulder as a buy low type.

As a Sox fan, I don't like this purely because my pessimistic side says we're not going to be able to hole off CLE and MIN.

Therefore, I believe we should be giving the 4 and 5 to some of our young pitching, so we can cull the weak.

I like sweaty Freddy as much as the next Sox fan, but we're not a Bartolo and Freddy away from locking this division up.

GO SOX!!!

ptp,

As a fellow Sox fan, I would like to see Freddie come back and see what he's got in ST. If he's not ready, he goes to extended ST and give Poreda,Broadway or Marquez a shot. None of them have the experience at MLB level to inspire confidence in a 162 game schedule.I'd even go so far as to say KW should make an offer to Pedro.

The Sox are competetive as they stand. Unfair to expect a full seson of production from unproven kid pitchers. So load up on cheap veteran pitchers,put them in the 4,5 slots or alternate them during injuries, play the hot hand until the all star break see who's available for the stretch and try to pick them up for the duration. If they are class a FA's we'll at least get the DP's

Look at the rest of the Central
Indians
Lee
Carmona
Laffey
Pavano
?

Tigers
Verlander
Bonderman
Willis
Jackson
Robertson

Twinkies
Liriano
Slowey
Baker
Perkins
Blackburn

Sox
Buerhle
Danks
Floyd
Colon
Garcia
Martinez

I'd say more than competetive

I am slightly skewed, watched the 05 Series like 3 times the other day, sorry all, and thanks for your patience
I do like our chances this year though

rfro,

Well who wouldn't be skewed then? '05 was a thing of beauty!

I don't think Poreda should be in the rotation just yet.

Part of the prospect process is knowing when to keep them down for longer. Poreda needs longer in AAA to develop that additional plus pitch he will probably need to succeed long-term as a starter.

"I don't think Poreda should be in the rotation just yet.

Part of the prospect process is knowing when to keep them down for longer. Poreda needs longer in AAA to develop that additional plus pitch he will probably need to succeed long-term as a starter."

Once again, melonis rex is right on. Major league hitters will crush fastballs if they know they are coming.

We have plenty of pitching depth. We're talking about 4 or more people playing for one spot in the rotation. If one guy goes down, we have several options to pull up from AAA. That is the definition of depth. We can't just go out and get 8 proven major league starters and keep three of them in the farm system.

I agree with you guys on Poreda, was just pointing out that he will be considered.

What we lack in the rotation is the same as we have always lacked. We don't have a true ace. If Colon stays healthy, that gives us 4 proven guys in the rotation (all of whom had a sub-4 ERA last year). The only question mark in those four is Floyd, and I think he will only get better. That's a pretty good spot to be in. Now we've got competition at the 5 spot, and some backup with whoever doesn't get the spot in case Colon goes down. Signing Garcia will only help our situation.

In order to get an ace, we would need to spend more money than we have this offseason. That's why we didn't get in on any of the high profile SP signings, and as of yet, haven't done much in the way of trading because we don't have depth in several positions to make it happen.

Later,

other Aaron

I think the Sox are doing a great job of retooling on the fly this year. A lot of us are forgetting that a few of the older guys contracts are up very soon and probably won't be resigned. As much as I like Thome, Dye and Paulie... I won't be sad to see them all gone in a couple years. We'll have the likes of Gordon, Quentin, and Flowers to replace these guys. And all of these guys can flat out rake.

K-Dub did a great job of getting potential prospects as well as ones that might be right around the corner of being ML ready in the near future. That's where we have to trust Coop to get the cheap vets to fill the back end of the rotation until the young guys can step in (which coop has shown he can do... Esteban Loaiza-the first time around). I also think it's never a bad thing to have too much pitching. I don't think there's such a thing as too much pitching.

I also think you're looking at the start of a thing of beauty. Can't ask for anything better then a division rivalry that is shaping up to be the Sox and Twins. Both have young guys that can really be the motor of their team.

Johnny Danks will step up to be the ace. I don't think there is a doubt in my mind. He's always had ace type stuff, just now finally starting to be that ace. Also, an ace is a guy that steps in every fifth day and gives your bullpen a day off, keeps you in the game, wins more often then he loses and can step up in a big game. I still think Buerhle has done that just about every year he's been here. He may not scare you in the batter's box, but he's going to come at you.

So I say, bring on '09... and whatever other SP they sign. I like my chances for this year and beyond.

Aaron,

I agree with you that signing Garcia can only help. I also agree with you that Getz would be more than adequate playing 2B and batting 9th as well as Fields playing 3B and batting 8th (if his defense improves as much as he is implying it will)

Where we part ways is with Jerry Owens. I just don't see it. Hope I'm wrong but at this point it looks like the best option to bat leadoff is Wise... and that's not a great option.

Signing Freddy makes no sense for the Mets. I like Freddy, I think he still has a little bit left in the tank, but didn't the Mets just sign a borderline 5 starter? So what if we sign Freddy and he ends up winning the 5 slot and Redding goes to Buffalo. Then we're paying our Triple AAA ace 2.5 million a year. Couple that with the probably 3 or 4 million that Freddy will make and there goes our bat. I would much rather use that money on Sheets and Perez, or Perez and Abreu, or Sheets and Abreu. If Omar signs Freddy and we lose out on Ollie and/or Sheets and/or a bat, I will be very angry.

I don't think you have any reason to worry about Garcia costing 3 or 4 mil. I don't see him getting any more than Colon, who is a pitcher with a similar injury record, and the benefit of a past Cy Young award. Colon got a one year 1 mil guaranteed contract, with incentives based on innings pitched of up to 2 more mil. That's a maximum of 3. Freddy won't get that much as Freddy's injuries have been worse and he doesn't have as strong a history as Colon does.

Later,
other Aaron

And, Colon actually made good starts last year, unlike Garcia.

"And, Colon actually made good starts last year, unlike Garcia." - monster rex

Actually, "big-game" Freddy saved his best for last and pitched really well against the White Sox in game 162.

No real baseball fan was surprised.

"Why? First of all your scenario would hace Richard followed by Buehrle ... 2 lefties. Besides, most managers don't want to sit their every day lineup two days in a row, so your second lefty would be facing more left handed hitters... a good thing."--------Svengoolie

I agree that putting lefties back to back can sometomes work in your rotation. However if you put two lefties who have similiar soft tossing pitching styles together you will get absolutely crushed. A lineup will get smoked the first time through the order, second time through they start to catch up to the pitcher. They seen his stuff. So giving them 6 looks at a similiar pitcher on back to back games will result in quality at-bats. Put Danks or Buerle back to back with Richard and that's what you'll get. I know Danks and Richard have better fastballs than Buerle and that makes them a slightly different style pitcher. But not enough. Thier fastballs are not overpowering by any means.

The Sox will have to play with the rotation on a weekly basis. For example, if your 2 lefties are pitching games 2-3 of a series and you had an off day in between you bump up your right-hander to pitch game 3 (*he still needs to get his normal rest with the off day). Here is where this gets tricky. If they do go with Colon or Garcia they don't have enough in the tank to get bumped. They will need the extra day. Floyd has the perfect make up to do this but anyone who know the Whitesox organization knows that they can get the best out of you in any given season but it usually costs you a long career in baseball. Case in point, Mike Sirotka has his best years with the Sox and we trade him. Why? Blows out his arm the next year. In fact he tried to block the trade because he told Toronto his arm was damaged and they tried to get compensation for the deal. Bobby Thigpen. Sets the save record-never the same again. Jack McDowell, Alex Fernandez, Freddy Garcia, Wilson Alveraz, Tanyon Sturtze, "El Duque", Estaban Loiaza and we were just 2 years wrong on Bartolo Colon. Every single one had arm problems after pitching for the Sox. Herm Schnieder has a magic scope on the the pitchers arms. That's why as a pitcher I'd be leary to come to Chicago. Even better, why would you trade for a pitcher from the Sox.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining one bit. This is why I trust everything that Kenny Williams does. Not only does he see talent that others can't but, he and his staff can see what's left in an arm. We have not had to endure the losses of top line starters like other teams have had too(Contreas. Yes but, you can't see an Achelies injury. And NO, I'm not calling Contreas top line guy).