Levine On Young, Dye, Poreda, Peavy, Heilman

Jeez, how did Willie Bloomquist get passed the White Sox? They could have had him on a sweetheart 2 year deal.

That would make no sense, as Young is not a top of the order hitter. He'd be a solid number 2, but with a career OBP of .346, he's not leadoff material. Not to mention, we already have a shortstop, so unless he would be moved to 2B I don't think there's much merit to this rumor.

later,
Aaron

Really dont see Michael Young being traded at all, especially for another hitter. If Jon Daniels doesn't want to get fired, he better get at least two young pitchers in return. And one of them has to be Billingsley/Bucholz caliber...this trade will not happen

Very intrigued by the Jermaine Dye to texas rumor though...

Other than the fact that Poreda isn't likely to be going anywhere anytime soon, Young would be a decent hitter for the Sox to pick up. He fits the philosophy change they are trying to go with of more speed and putting the ball in play rather than trying to hit homers all the time. But most likely Young would just end up blocking Beckham in a year or two. You'd be better off trading Dye for either a need position or prospects, not a luxury for 1-2 seasons.

If Jon Daniels can get out from under Michael Young's contract, he should do it by whatever means necessary...

Sure, the casual fan will be upset... But anybody that's paying even the least bit of attention can see that contract is weighing down the payroll fairly heavily, and that Young isn't exactly going to be worth $16 million a year or two from now...

There's no chance he's getting two legitimate young pitching prospects for him, so if he can swap Young for a guy like Dye and a legitimate prospect, he's done pretty well for himself on that front...

This would be pretty awesome. Nice to finally see some Sox rumors, even if it is from Levine.

And yeah, if this did go down Alexei would definitely be moving back to second as MY is a gold glover at SS.

Maybe Dye, Clayton Richard and Jon Link(35 saves in AA last year) would work. And of course KW would ask for some salary relief. Still don't see this happening though.

maybe Sox can get O. Hudson on a cheap 2 year deal?

.898 2005 28
.815 2006 29
.784 2007 30
.741 2008 31

Young is in decline and is not worth 16 mil a year

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/chi-10-basebitsjan10,0,685585.story

Williams says he's not going to "waste time" with this rumor. Something tells me Levine cooked it up, either by himself or from a pretty weak source in either organization.

Munchman,

Yes, Young would of course be the top leadoff candidate on the Sox, but still would not be a leadoff hitter. The situation would be similar to what we had last year when we had Cabrera, a typical number 2 hitter, batting leadoff. While it happened to work out ok last year, it is not an ideal situation. Don't get me wrong, I love Michael Young and if he fit our needs, I would be happy to see him come to Chicago, but we need other things more, and it would be silly to trade away one of our most reliable RBI men and not get someone back who specifically fits one of our needs.

Later,
Aaron

hahahahha lmao... SOMEBODY ACTUALLY HAS INTEREST IN HEILMAN?!?!

Id actually be worried about the Rangers if they got rid of Michael Young. One of the top 5 most over-rated players in the league.

Of course only stupid people think he is any good. The same people that think the gold glove is a representative award.

Now that Michael Young is bad enough where even Ranger fans begin to realize that he is a bum, you know the next few years are going to get ugly for him.

1) Michael Young had some of his contract money paid in bonuses the past 2 years. He is only actually due around 12 million per year for the next 5. A lot and probably still overpaying him? Yeah, but its still a significant difference.

2) Saying young is a bad player is as silly as saying you'd have to get kershaw and another player with none of the contract in return.

3) He was having a fine season and tanked when he broke a finger and played through it, re-aggravating the injury several times.

Is he on the decline? Yes. But there is also good reason to think last year's drop was injury effected and that he should be projected to have a reasonable bounce back in 2009.

I don't believe the Sox are actually "rebuilding". They are getting younger (no pun intended), but are remaining competitive at the same time. They are trying to make smart moves- keeping the payroll under a certain Reinsdorf-imposed threshold and keeping the future in mind.

Most everyone knows that if the Sox did "rebuild", which means they would be trading veterans for young talent which would cause a drop in the standings for a few years, Sox fans would stop attending games and revenue would make a significant drop.

Unlike the Yankers and Red Sox, the Sox don't have a bottomless wallet and unlike the Cubs, Sox fans stop going to games when the team is not winning. When you keep this in mind, the moves that the Sox make make a lot more sense.

It's a shame that everyone can't just spend, spend, spend like the Yankers and Red Sox. It's an unfair league where the playing field is not level, so teams go about building in many different ways.

Boo hoo whaaaaa!!
My team doesn't spend a lot of money
Whaaaa!!!

Please

Shut up about Yankee and Red Sox spending
It gets old

Thank you nrmax. I can't stand these clowns that think Heilman is the worst pitcher to ever play the game. Where were they from 2005-2007?

Kenny doesnt spend thta kind of money.

Alan, that argument would make a lot more sense if the White Sox didn't actually have a higher payroll than the Cubs in 2008. They ranked 5th while the Cubs ranked 7th. In fact, the White Sox were just behind the Red Sox.

Levine is a joke. There's no way Texas would ever trade Michael Young for Jermaine Dye.

As for the question of Young's worth, last season he suffered a substantial setback in performance, and didn't even reach 200 hits like he usually does. But the guy played through two BROKEN FINGERS. Most players would have taken a month or two off with that injury. But if Young gets back to his normal self, a guy who hits about .315, drives in 100 runs, hits a few homers, steals a few bases, and leads the league in hitting with runners in scoring position, he's pretty valuable. I don't know if he's worth 16 million in today's economy, but he's worth a lot.

Expect big numbers from Young this season. To the guy who said "only stupid people think he's any good" - then just about everyone in baseball is stupid. A player's worth in REAL LIFE is not based on his fantasy stats. For you to not know the difference between the two shows your intelligence level, my friend.

Kenny and Ozzie LOVE Michael Young and I'm not the least surprised they inquired about him. If the asking price comes down I can see these two making a deal.

I hope people paid attention to what damian wrote:

"1) Michael Young had some of his contract money paid in bonuses the past 2 years. He is only actually due around 12 million per year for the next 5. A lot and probably still overpaying him? Yeah, but its still a significant difference."

Big, big difference in price. While I still don't see this move happening, Young is still a top-five shortstop in baseball and there is no doubt that he would improve the White Sox on several levels. Being a Ranger fan, I like the idea of getting his contract off the books ONLY because Tom Hicks has turned into a penny-pincher, to the point where it adversely affects the team. However, I don't want to see Young playing for a different team, that'd just be weird.

Whatever improves the team, I'm down with. But I doubt this rumor has any legs.

Cot's says $15 mil is "deferred". It says nothing about bonuses already being paid. Where did you find that information?

"He is the heart of this entire organization"

With Kinsler, Hamilton, Salty, Teag, Davis, etc. losing the "heart" of a 70win team isnt that big of a deal.

Trade Young for whatever you can get, avoid that 60m, and they have that young kid they got from ATL ready to come up right?

Their payroll is already jumping 18m due to raising in already signed contracts. Trade Padilla, Millwood, Young, & Catalanotto for whatever prospects you can get and move on. Why have a 80m payroll for 70wins??

As for Heilman, yes he had a horrible season and as a Yankee fan it was fun watching him blow games, but look at his previous 3 years- his price is low and he doesnt get paid a lot so if cubs or another contender gets him for cheap he could be a good surprise, or disaster

The deal for Heilman would have to be more. If they included Micah Hoffpauir it might be doable. Heilman for Cedeno, Hoffpauir and single A reliever/closer Dan McDaniel. Done.

The cubs will always sell out no matter how bad they are. GO CUBS!!!!!!!!!!

oh and why were you watching the Cubs then because that is the only reason to even know anything like that would even happen

they just started going to games in 05.b4 that,they never really talked.now all of a sudden they all have mouths.they dont know what there talking about half the time,but at least they finally speak.they are however,the biznitches of chicago still.thats what ozzie says.