The White Sox are 11-21, already 10.5 games behind the Indians, despite a franchise-record payroll of $126MM. Not only that, they got no-hit this week. However, the club was set to become sellers last June before surging and finishing with 88 wins, so the White Sox know turnarounds can happen quickly. Here’s what GM Kenny Williams has to say about his club, via Scott Merkin of MLB.com:
- Though Adam Dunn has struggled mightily so far (3 homers and a .583 OPS), the White Sox remain comfortable with the mindset that led to Dunn’s $56MM deal: “exhaust ourselves to try to get the greatest impact players in tow to try to win a championship.”
- Constructing rosters is not all about numbers and despite Nick Swisher’s talent, he “didn’t fit” in Chicago, accoridng to Williams.
- Jake Peavy hasn’t thrown a Major League pitch in 2011 – he’s rehabbing in the minor leagues – but Williams doesn’t regret acquiring him. "He was going to be No. 1," Williams said. "If you have hopes to beat the best in the league, you better have the best in the league facing them. In our assessment, that's what we had to do.”
The “all in” approach is looking great so far…
J
Swisher didn’t fit? His ring fits just fine… after all who wants an upbeat, hard nose player? Baaaahahahahaaa… “Kenny” lol Williams is a moron!
They’ll get it turned around in some fashion, whether they can contend or not is a different matter. I guess it’s in their favor that #’s 1 and 2 in their league were expected to be #’s 4 and 5. The teams that were supposed to be their real competition haven’t done so well yet either. Maybe we’ll see an 85 win team make the playoffs out of the AL Central this year.
I hope that I don’t come across as an ignorant Sox fan; but Kenny (and Ozzie, but that is for a different post) needs to go. It’s not that he’s not a good GM, but I don’t trust him AT ALL to manage the White Sox struggles the correct way. When a team is already 11+ games out, their chances of winning a division are minuscule, and it looks like the Sox will need to be sellers this season.
However, it is not just that. A teams best interest should always to have the best staff possible, and, at least in my opinion, the best staff would have Rick Hahn at the helm. Kenny has been riding the 2005 World Series win for too long now, and as much as I like his aggressive style, the best option is the sabermetrically inclined Hahn. Kenny, on the other hand, while always putting out a competitive team, has produced the worst farm system in the league, and now the team is looking uncompetitive.
I think it may be hard for KW to go into rebuilding mode. Hes much better when he’s tinkering with a contending team and trying to pick up a piece or 2 to help the club. I feel he may be promoted and Hahn will take over to oversee what will likely be a painful 3-4 year period for the Sox.
If the Sox continue to struggle,I see several moves being made with an eye on picking up some prospects. Danks and Jackson will probably be the first traded. Danks should be worth a decent return but Jackson would more likely be a salary dump. Buehrle will probably stay since his contract is tough to trade…and I see Paulie being kept since hes a fan favorite and signed for 2 more years.
Gonna go through another “These kids can play” period….sigh
You make some good points, but I believe you’re a bit pessimistic. In the potential trades that could be upcoming, for example, Danks will not be worth a decent return. Danks will be worth a monster return. A young pitcher for more than a half year rental, borderline-ace status, and lefthandednes to boot? I believe that’s worth a ton. I also think you’re underselling Jackson a bit as well- GMs are always tantalized by his stuff. Also, they do play in the AL Central: a 3-4 year project would not guarantee them to fall out of contention for that period.
I don’t think you can expect a “monster” return for Danks. He’s not Cliff Lee or Roy Halladay. His ERA is barely south of 4.00 year in and out. I think you can expect a “good” return as he is a “good” pitcher. He’s not great. At this point Edwin Jackson is a salary dump.
I agree on Jackson. His return is not what some Sox fans think. However, Danks will land more than a decent return…a lot more.
I used the word “decent” when maybe I should have used “good.” Just my vocabulary. I meant that Danks is probably the one player who could bring the Sox some significant return. As for Jackson, he makes quite a bit and is so inconsistent. Plus, hes a free agent after this year with Boras as his agent…not a good combination if any team wants to sign him after trading for him.
While 3-4 years may be a little pessimistic, I dont see much at all in the Sox system to bring up in the next year or 2. Remember, the last two #1 picks that the Sox made are already on the roster…Sale and Beckham…so you need to go lower than even AA to find any young players who could make a difference. Thats tough to predict.
When you consider that Dunn, Konerko, AJ, Peavy, Rios, Alexi, Teahen and Thornton make up a HUGE portion of the payroll next year, its very unlikely that JR would want to go “all in” again if this disaster of a year continues in 2011. And when you consider that none of the above named players are worth a tremendous amount in a trade…or in the case of Konerko(IMO) is unlikely to be traded, I dont see much help in the short term.
Add to that, if you keep Konerko and Dunn(who wants a slugger who has forgotten how to hit home runs?) it will be 2-3 more years before their salary comes off the books. And in 2-3 years how good will they be?
I hope Im wrong. Its very tough to predict 2-3 years down the road in baseball. I hope there are some guys in the minors who develop. I hope the Sox can turn it around THIS year. I hope, if they dont, that KW(or Hahn) can turn some of the current roster for players who would be able to help next year or in 2013. I just am not all that optimistic however.
Man, Kenny might be close to moving into Hendry territory.
Kenny has been in Hendry territory for a while now.
I’m curious about the Swisher statement. I personally am not enamored with Nick, I find him to be too much of a Rah Rah guy and a bit superficial for my taste but most Yankees fans love him. He’s been nothing short of great with the fans and is genuinely liked in the clubhouse and has been a good representative for the organization.
If Williams is going to make a statement that ”he didn’t fit”, it would have been nice of him to elaborate. I’m sure Ozzie would have no problem explaining why.
He doesn’t want to admit he made a bad trade, look at what he said about Peavy. In this case he made two, now if we kept swisher I bet he would have eventually come around. Ozzie just likes the spotlight on him, not on a player.
For what it’s worth, I kept hearing that white sox players, especially, didn’t like his “in your face” attitude. It wasn’t just management who thought he “didn’t fit”.
Ah you keep hearing this from all your reliable inside sources in the White Sox clubhouse? get real.
Swisher lost his job to Dwayne Wise in the 2008 playoff push. It takes a special sort to do that especially when Quentin hurt himself and the Sox needed every bit of offense from any source. The Swishilicious trades will go down as some of the worst of KWs trades.
The Peavy trade is definitely not a win trade. But I still won’t consider it a bad trade because Clayton Richard will never be anything more than a sub par pitcher in a pitcher’s park. The other guys in that deal were nothing spectacular either. IF somehow we get some insurance money out of the Peavy ordeal, then the trade (in my eyes) is definitely not a bad trade at all. Right now, it was just a meaningless trade.
The Swish trade was bad because we sold him at the lowest his value could have ever been, and got junk for him. But if you believe in team chemistry (I pretty much don’t), then the trade was necessary.
I think that’s a great point. You didn’t trade anyone who isn’t easily replaceable for Peavy, and he’s at least a potential ace caliber pitcher if he can come back near to the point he was at before
It could have been worse…I bet the Braves are really, really happy they didn’t trade Heyward or Hanson in a deal for Peavy right now
As if they would have to begin with…
Sorry, Wren was not doing it.
You’re missing my point. My point was that nobody valuable was given up in a deal for him like it would have been if the Braves HAD decided to give up Heyward or Hanson. Obviously, Wren wasn’t doing it or else he would have done it. I was just using them as an example
It’s basically a bad mega-free agent signing. They gave up garbage for him. I don’t get the Clayton Richard lovers (similar to the Jon Ely fan club), and the Sox may be saved by the insurance clause in Peavy’s contract, so it’s not all that bad.
It was a bad trade. Have you seen his salary? I don’t care what park Clayton Richard is in. He had 14 wins last year with a 3.75 ERA and looks even better this year. He gets paid nothing, he’s young and healthy. All of which are negatives on Peavy’s resume.
What? Not sure what some Sox fans mean here. Some teams like the Twins that ARE their competition have stuck it to them. The Twins just took 2 of 3…at the Cell…with a no hitter as a stick it in your crawl to boot. Look at the record and who they have played!
That said, they can put together a nice win streak. However, they have dug a deep hole.
Swisher is fake when the chips are down nick shows his true colors he is yellow!
how does greg walker still have a job kenny cant go hit for them or make matt not suck this was a good team keeny built its not on him its ozzie and greg walkers fault people not from chicago cant understand what kenny has done for the whitesox he has made this city pro whitesox
“he has made this city pro whitesox ”
You are CLEARLY living in a fantasy land. This is not a good team and it is not a Sox city. I’m a Sox fan and I don’t drown myself in this sort of rhetoric. It’s like NY fans saying it’s a Mets city. Face realities. Bad team, bad GM. Blow it up.
Kenny has proven that his entire past is a fluke. He’s got his arse handed to him several times over and over in the past couple years. This current team does not mesh well. He’s assembled the streakiest bunch of hitters and the pitching was overrated to begin with. Buehrle has not been good for a couple years, Floyd is plain bad, Jackson has as many bad streaks as good. This is a bad team, with bad contracts and you can blame KW. Ozzie will be gone after this year.
Michael Hess… aka Kenny lol Williams… as transparent as glass… and just as fragile… lmfao
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