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Aaron Rowand

White Sox To Reacquire Rowand?

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The White Sox surely don’t regret using Aaron Rowand to help them obtain Jim Thome last winter.  But that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t like to have their scrappy CF back in the fold.

According to Scot Gregor of the Daily Herald:

"According to multiple reports out of Philadelphia, Phillies GM Pat Gillick would be willing to deal Rowand and a pitcher – either reliever Ryan Madson or starter Gavin Floyd – to the White Sox in exchange for starting pitcher Freddy Garcia."

Ultimately I think the White Sox would win such a deal.  The Phils would then have the surplus of starters instead of Chicago.

Machinations for Mench

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There’s been surprising interest in Kevin Mench, according to Doug Melvin, and one of the teams who are known to be looking at the right-handed outfielder is the Philadelphia Phillies.  One deal that was rumored a few weeks ago was Aaron Rowand for Mench and, perhaps, Damian Miller.  The money is about even and Melvin seems to think he needs a proven center fielder, so that seemed plausible, but the Brewers may have balked at including Miller.

So this is interesting: the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (perhaps optimistically) speculates that Mench could be part of a deal for Jon Lieber.  If speculation can lend credence to other speculation, here’s some: the Philadelphia Inquirer mentions that the Phillies could deal Rowand to the White Sox for one of Chicago’s surplus starters, freeing up Lieber for a different deal. 

This all makes plenty of sense: it’s essentially a three-way trade in which the White Sox get the CF they want and make room in the rotation for Brandon McCarthy; the Phillies get the corner bat they want, improve the rotation, and open up center for Shane Victorino; and the Brewers take on a bit of payroll (which they have room for, a least a few million’s worth) and fill their one need at the meetings: a mid-rotation starter to take the pressure off of some combination of Claudio Vargas, Carlos Villanueva, and Zach Jackson.

By Jeff Sackmann, Brew Crew Ball

Rowand for Garland Rumor

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A lot of folks are wondering if there’s anything to the rumored swap of Jon Garland for Aaron Rowand.  Todd Zolecki from the Philadelphia Inquirer said it best:

1. Garland has a 6.04 ERA.

2. He just signed a three-year, $29 million contract in December. He makes $10 million in 2007 and $12 million in 2008. Phillies GM Pat Gillick has talked often about payroll flexibility. It’s doubtful he would take on such a contract, especially for a pitcher who is slumping. Garland’s contract also includes a no-trade clause.

3. Perhaps most important, the Phils love Rowand.

Everything Zolecki says here is spot on.  The proposed deal here would be a huge win for the White Sox but the Phils could do better if they wanted to unload Rowand and replace him with Shane Victorino.

Garland succeeded last year because he sliced his walk and home run rates from previous levels.  His sharp control and low strikeout rate has been on par with the rest of the White Sox pitching staff, but he’s got the worst home runs allowed rate in all of baseball (over 2 per nine innings).  Also not helping is a hit rate over 11, third worst in baseball.  Can’t blame it on BABIP, which sits at a reasonable .310.

One would expect Garland to keep his ERA under 5 for the life of his contract, but he doesn’t figure to be worth more than three wins a year from here on out. 

Aaron Rowand figures to be a bit more valuable, maybe 3.5 wins per season for a while.  His current .301/.345/.509 line resembles his breakthrough 2004.  Rowand also has highly-rated defense, but that depends on which metric you use.

If the White Sox are looking to bring in a center fielder, names like Eric Byrnes, Kenny Lofton, Ken Griffey Jr.,  Ryan Freel,Torii Hunter, Matt Lawton, Joey Gathright, and Juan Pierre might be available.  Pierre and Griffey are players to which the Sox have been linked in the past.  Another option would be to shift Scott Podsednik to center and bring in a left fielder like Alfonso Soriano, Carl Crawford, Pat Burrell, Raul Ibanez, Luis Gonzalez, Jose Cruz Jr., Cliff Floyd, or Shannon Stewart.   

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