You can remove one possible shortstop target from the field, now that
the Braves dealt Edgar Renteria to the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers shipped a pair of prospects -- pitcher Jair Jurrjens (which sounds like a fake name
along the lines of "Teve Torbes") and center fielder Gorkys Hernandez (which sounds like a name Ed Farmer made up).
It's a pretty good haul for both teams. Detroit gets its shortstop, with Carlos Guillen moving to first, and still has an outside chance to acquire the services of one Alex Rodriguez. Atlanta, meanwhile, gets a high-upside prospect who could help a troubled rotation immediately, and a toolsy 19-year-old center fielder who has yet to fill out.
Moreover, Dave Dombrowski made a move to plug a big-time gap in a team that's on the cusp of returning to the playoffs. That's something Kenny Williams didn't do when he had 2 1/2 holes to address in his lineup, and went after raw, hard-throwing pitchers instead.
Of course, this is a move that the White Sox couldn't have made with the current state of their farm system. Jurrjens is rated higher than every Sox pitching prospect outside of Gio Gonzalez, and Hernandez is probably a notch below what Aaron Cunningham was, although his age and defensive capabilities make up for a lot of the gap between their bats.
Players of that caliber are easily expendable for Detroit because of the amount of money Mike Ilitch invests in the draft. Cameron Maybin, in front of Hernandez on the organizational depth chart became available at No. 10 due to signability issues. Andrew Miller had dibs on a rotation spot before Jurrjens after dropping to No. 6 because of -- you guessed it -- signability. Furthermore, Jurrjens won't be missed if Rick Porcello comes close to meeting his expectations. Some considered him the top pitching prospect in the 2007 draft, but the spectre of Scott Boras scared 26 teams. Detroit snatched him with the 27th pick, then signed him to
a four-year, $7 million deal.
Nobody on the White Sox's side should be kicking themselves for missing out on Renteria. He wouldn't lower the average age of the White Sox lineup any, faltered badly in his only American League season, and Atlanta's not picking up any part of an unfriendly contract. Renteria is owed $9 million for 2008, with a $11 million club option for 2009 (with a $3 million buyout). He's neither a long-term solution or a cheap fling. The Tigers acquired Renteria solely to win in 2008, something the Sox can't shoot for.
At the same time, the Sox should pay close attention to how Dombrowski pulled this off. Investing big-time in the draft made Jurrjens and Hernandez expendable, and that's why the Sox can't afford to go the cheap route with the No. 8 pick next year.
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Scott Merkin is the latest to join
the Coco Crisp bandwagon:
Don't discount trade possibilities over free agency, and how about Coco Crisp, specifically? Crisp makes $10.5 million over the next two seasons, and with the emergence of Jacoby Ellsbury in Boston, Crisp should be available. I still remember talking to a few White Sox higher-ups at SoxFest 2006, as to how they were stunned but certainly not complaining with Crisp being traded by Cleveland out of the division. They think highly of his overall game.
The second half of that blurb refers to
a Mark Buehrle quote that some tried to construe as trash talk in February 2006.
Mark Gonzalez also mentions Crisp as a definite possibility in
his brief shopping list, but the fact that he names David Eckstein first as "a case of one-stop shopping ...
fulfilling the leadoff and shortstop duties" and "a
perfect fit with his bunting and hit-and-run capabilities" scares me greatly.
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One of the biggest issues I have with the Boston Red Sox's second World Series sweep in four years is that it's dragging the White Sox down with it. USA Today's Hal Bodley presents the clearest example, when rating
the worst sweeps in World Series history:
No. 2: The Chicago White Sox's sweep of Houston in 2005. For the White Sox ending 88 years without a World Series title was monumental. For fans across the USA it was boring, not to mention Game 3 — which lasted a record 5 hours, 41 minutes before the White Sox won 7-5 in the 14th inning on Geoff Blum's pinch-hit home run.
Let's get this straight: The last three games of the 2005 World Series were, in order:
- Decided by a walk-off home run by a guy who hit zero during the regular season
- Decided by a 14th-inning homer by the 25th man.
- A 1-0 sweat-fest that featured a clutch diving catch into the stands.
And that constitutes a boring World Series? If those were Games Nos. 5, 6 and 7 instead of 2, 3 and 4, it would have rivaled the 1975 Series. Don't fault the Sox for taking care of business earlier.