Rediscovering middle-class values
The possibility of acquiring Milwaukee Brewers shortstop/outfielder Bill Hall
has been mentioned before, and now
The Daily Herald's Scot Gregor brings the idea to the Chicago market:
The Sox need help in center field, left field, shortstop and possibly second base.
In [Jon] Garland, they have a proven performer who can bring quality talent. A talent like, say, Milwaukee's Bill Hall.
The Brewers would have to give up more than Hall to get
a pitcher of Garland's caliber, but the 27-year-old outfielder is
exactly the type of player the White Sox need to get back into
contention.
I think he's valuing a Garland too highly, but he may not be off if Hall is truly
in Ned Yost's doghouse. Basically, the tension between Hall and Yost stems from
a comment Yost made in late August:
"He starts to put it together, then loses it," said Yost. "He can't
find any consistency. You can come up with all the excuses you want.
You're either getting the job done or not."
Hall took umbrage, since part of his struggles were due to hurrying back from injury. Thus began the spat, and in the final month of the season, with the Brewers fighting for their playoff lives, Hall only started 13 games.
So if Yost has no interest in playing Hall, he could see his value diminished by plenty. His contract calls for $20 million over the next three years, which is a hefty price for Milwaukee's budget.
The problem is that Garland isn't that good of a deal, either, since he's due to receive $12 million in 2008 alone. He would help the Brewers in one key area, and that's to help them win now. They finished a couple games behind the Cubs this year despite
only having two starters with an ERA+ over 100 -- and neither of them were around for the entire season. Garland's durable, he's effective, and as
he showed last year against Cincinnati, he can hit a little, too.
If Doug Melvin is aggressive (or desperate) enough, I can maybe see a one-on-one deal happening. Jose Contreras has a better contract but shadier health issues, so I don't see him being any more attractive in this case to warrant a separate discussion. For the sake of brevity, you can probably add "...and maybe Contreras" after most of the above references to "Garland."
Even if Kenny Williams had to throw in one of their non-Gio/Egbert pitching prospects, I'd be inclined to do it, because Hall is exactly the type of player Williams used to acquire:
No. 1: Doesn't cost a premium price. Williams made his name -- and earned the Sox a World Series title -- by raiding the bargain bin. That's how Contreras, A.J. Pierzynski, Tadahito Iguchi and Juan Uribe ended up on the 2005 team. It's an area Williams has to rediscover, because the big contracts handed out to Contreras, Paul Konerko and Co. have handcuffed the team a little.
No. 2: Does a bunch of things well. If Hall returns to his 2005 level, he'll be a guy who can hit, run and throw. He won't lead the league in any particular field, but he doesn't have any glaring weaknesses.
No. 3: Provides roster flexibility. Williams is under pressure to acquire a major-league outfielder to play with Jermaine Dye, having struck out in the previous two seasons. He also faces a decision on Juan Uribe's option. With a guy like Hall, Williams has the opportunity to look for the better deal for one of two positions, and he can place Hall in the other one.
Here's what excites me most about Hall -- even in a tumultuous year in which he battled both the injury bug and his manager, he still outproduced Juan Uribe by a considerable amount.
As I said earlier this month, the Sox need more players who make baseball look easy. A guy who can put up those numbers in a down year fits that bill.
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Speaking of buying low, Coco Crisp still intrigues me.
Because he excelled at drawing the ire of Red Sox fans this year, I was surprised when I looked up
Crisp's numbers and saw that he posted a .330 OBP this past year. That's better than Scott Podsednik, Jerry Owens, Darin Erstad and just about anybody else Ozzie Guillen stuck in the leadoff spot.
Crisp is owed about $18 million over the next three years, and he's been pretty lousy since joining the Red Sox (.266/.324/.383). But even with the mediocre OBP, he stole a career-high 28 bases, which leads me to believe that the physical tools are still there... somewhere.
Also, there's been a recent trend in which players have been traded from the Red Sox only to live up to their potential with their next team. Two recent examples:
- Edgar Renteria:
- With Boston: .276/.335/.385
- After Boston: .310/.374/.451
- Wily Mo Pena:
- With Boston: .271/.321/.458
- After Boston: .293/.352/.504 (only 133 ABs)
As atrocious as Crisp has looked at the plate during the playoffs, these are a couple reasons why Crisp has a fair shot at returning to his 2004-05 level of performance, during which he hit .299/.345/.456 for the Indians and played great defense in left (and acceptable in center).
Crisp will be pressured by the rising Jacoby Ellsbury. J.D. Drew and Manny Ramirez aren't going anywhere, considering they'll receive around $30-35 million combined next year. Bobby Kielty fits their need for a fourth outfielder. Crisp seems like the guy Theo Epstein could move just to free up resources, which could mean he'd receive 50 cents on the dollar. The White Sox have a lot of half-off items.
I'm not married to the idea of Crisp, but he's on the shelf Williams should be sweeping this offseason. Hall and Crisp would cost a combined $9.55 million for definite upgrades at shortstop and center or left field -- less than what Aaron Rowand will make in 2008, even if he comes up short of
his first asking price of six years and $84 million. If Williams isn't interested in holding a fire sale or throwing a lot more money into scouting and development, this scenario seems the next-most desirable.