Sox get Pierre; a Dotel in decline

Update: Since discussion has already started here, I’ll just tack on that the White Sox acquired Juan Pierre for two PTBNLs and $9 million.
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With the lack of White Sox news for once, I turned my attention to eulogies tonight, knocking out parting words for Octavio Dotel and D.J. Carrasco.
If you follow me on Twitter — or read the box to the right — you’ll see a couple of interesting numbers about Dotel, namely that:

  • He allowed more than half of his inherited runners to score in 2009.
  • Compared to 2008, he allowed more inherited runners to score (13 to 12) despite having far fewer of them (25 to 43).

Add in the rising walk rate, declining strikeout rate, the lack of success with his fastball and his 37 years of age, and the Sox were smart to not offer him arbitration. Sorry, Chris.
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Christian Marrero Reading Room:
*South Side Sox has an awesome MS Paint art gallery going.  Might not be safe for work, only due to the vivid colors and sheer hilarity.
*Andrew says J.J. Putz is composed of Sox parts.
*It’s not related to the Sox, but this Roy Halladay-Cliff Lee-three-team-trade is amazing.
*Hideki Matsui is changing coasts and joining the Angels. “Cross him off the list, then.”
*Fun to look at: A photo of old Old Comiskey from the Library of Congress (by way of BTF).
*On Facebook: A classic Christmas card from Kenny.

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striker

I wonder what inherited runners scored rate would be considered average in the MLB.

knoxfire30

I didnt realize dotel was that old, geez, maybe im getting old.
Whirlwind of activity yesterday with some premier teams getting stronger, redsox adding lackey, phils getting halladay, and the cash crazy mariners all of a sudden having a big offseason by adding lee. (although i still dont get the mariners offseason plan, they had the best leadoff man in the game and signed a top leadoff man, they had a pretty good staff and traded for a top flight pitcher, both are nice moves but neither address the massive lack of power in their lineup which is what I would consider their biggest weakness.
Dotel and Carrasco eulogies kind of remind me, that this may be the last year with Konerko and AJ. What a sad day it will be in sox fan land when those two play their last home games. Although it will likely be the right baseball decesion to let them go after 2010.

bigfun

I agree with you that they (like the Sox) seem to be putting off a much-needed move for a power bat, but who exactly is on this “pretty good staff”? After Felix they had guys like Doug Fister and Carlos Silva. I’m waiting for the exact details of the Lee trade to finalize but it sounds pretty good for the Mariners.

knoxfire30

they found a way to be 2nd in quality starts in the AL last year so…. not sure if it was smoke and mirrors but i thought they had bigger needs

bigfun

I think a lot of that comes from some of the best defense in the majors. Just look at Washburn. The guys they have are either unproven (Smith, Morrow) or provenly mediocre (Vargas, et al).

knoxfire30

If its true the cardinals offered holliday a 8 year contract and he didnt take it, he should be admitted into a ward right away.

ceverettsdinosaurs

White Sox acquire Juan Pierre: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/12/white-sox-acquire-juan-pierre.html
BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

striker

Wow, what Kenny Williams wants he gets. He always coveted Pierre, Griffey Jr., Andruw Jones and Omar Vizquel.

striker

He just gets them after their prime.

bigfun

Sounds like a mediocre move if it’s for C or D grade pitchers… at least the price is right. Definitely a bad move if it’s one of the guys with ML upside.

ceverettsdinosaurs

Jon “Boras” Heyman has an update on the money. It appears that the Dodgers are picking up more than what was reported on the mlbtraderumors link. Heyman says “The White Sox will pay Pierre $3 million in 2010 and $5 million in 2011. meaning the Dodgers will pay a little more than half of what’s remaining…” (excuse Mr. Heymans bad punctuation and capitalization skills)
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/12/15/heyman.pierre.whitesox/
The first post reported the opposite (that the Dodgers were only picking up 9…now it looks closer to $10.5 if Heyman is to be believed)

knoxfire30

those two pitchers better blow

knoxfire30

1. Pierre
2. Beckham
3. Quentin
4. Konerko
5. DH
6. Rios
7. Pierzinski
8. Ramirez
9. Teahan
Is that about right or what are everyone elses thoughts

bigfun

What’s the updated payroll look like? There can’t be any money left to spend.
I think that DH is probably going to be Jones/Kotsay. As in the three outfield spots plus DH will be shuffled and you’ll see these guys in order of likely number of PAs: Rios/Quentin/Pierre/Jones/Kotsay.
On base, mediocre, league average at best. Power, below average. Defense, very good. Kenny wanted to build the 2009 Mariners?

ceverettsdinosaurs

I’d think that you could just give that DH spot to Vizquel…
In all seriousness, that lineup doesn’t look bad but I don’t know if Ozzie would want to group Teahen and Pierre together b/c they both bat left-handed. Especially since that would be two of our 3 left handed bats. If he did do that if might make him move Pierzynski up in the order (ahead of Rios at least) so that opposing teams can’t leave a lefty out there for 4 batters and face all three of our lefties.
Just a thought:
1. Pierre
2. Beckham
3. Quentin
4. Konerko
5. DH/Vizquel
6. Pierzynski
7. Rios
8. Teahen
9. Ramirez
However, somehow Ozzie needs to get Alexei higher in the order when facing lefties because he absolutely mashes against them.

knoxfire30

yea not bad, i just dont like aj ever being in the top 6, he doesnt drive in runs, but that would eliminate back to back lefties at 9 and 1 which i do like

ceverettsdinosaurs

yeah, agreed, but I know Ozzie likes to put him there. Against lefties maybe we can play Vizquel at 3B (switch hitter) and bat him ninth moving Ramirez up to 5-6 and Pierzynski down to 7th. Something like this:
1. Pierre
2. Beckham
3. Quentin
4. Konerko
5. DH/Ramirez
6. Ramirez/DH
7. Pierzynski
8. Rios
9. Vizquel

knoxfire30

Pierre is getting 3 mil in 2010, and 5 mil in 2011 from the sox so the dodgers ate 10.5 mil

marshlands

Hey Jim, do you think Theo Epstein has been reading Sox Machine? I heard he’s going after Mike Cameron…

bigfun

Sadly Sox blog arch foe Dave Cameron wrote a piece a month ago comparing/contrasting Jason Bay and Cameron that seems to more directly point to Theo’s RSS feed.

marshlands

I heard Theo Epstein was going to trade Youkilis for Jose Lopez and Mark Lowe…

knoxfire30

Link and Ely as the pitchers, ok prospects but not anything top tier.

cushinglee

Juan Pierre…..ughhh….boy, this really makes me want to get season tickets. Is Kenny trying to reunite an early ’00s All-Star team?
Anybody else going to watch the Dick Allen interveiw on MLB network tonight?

stopdrop8

I like it. Pierre has a career .348 OBP, compared to .340 from pods and .331 from crisp. While he does have less power than both of them, he also hasn’t had the injuries that they’ve had the past few years. Add that to the fact that we’re only going to pay him three million dollars this year, and i think he was the best leadoff option for us out there this year.

bigfun

Those are fair points, although Pierre’s skillset is sorta redundant with Rios’ (Rios gets on base a bit less and isn’t quite as fast, but has traditionally played much better defense and has more power).

cushinglee

David Kaplan thinks the Pierre deal is “a great move”, so you know it’s going to turn out bad.

ricksch

There just didn’t seem to be too many better options out there for a lead-off man once Figgins was signed. For $3m and to give up zilch this isn’t bad. Pierre is one of the best bunters in the game, something the Sox pretty much suck at as a team. We have a much better defensive OF and at least as good an IF as we had last year, especially with Vizquel filling in. I bet KW will add a bat, once guys like Cust and Guerrero are desperate enough to take a token salary. STILL NEED TO REPLACE RANDY WILLIAMS. Guy is a has-been that never was.