Shedding Some Light

Not quite the sparkplug we were looking for

So, remember that earlier speculation about why Nick Swisher was unceremoniously dumped? It looks like the real culprit was Swisher's "attitude" towards the end of the season. Yeah, hitting .191 in the second half is a serious attitude problem.

Was he a bad influence on the clubhouse?

"You've got to ask the players about that," Guillen said. "To be honest with you, I was not happy with the way he was reacting at the end of the season. He wasn't helping me either."

"It was hard because when we brought him here, a lot of people were excited (that) he would have a great career with the White Sox," Guillen said. "But we got to the point that we went through the roster ... and we had a right fielder, left fielder, first baseman and DH. It was hard for us to find a place for him."

I was really expecting more vitriol from Ozzie, but I guess he sorta mellows out in the first months after the season ends.

In other news, a LOT of trade rumors with the Sox involving the Mets, Rays, and even the Reds. They include (but are not limited to), Jermaine Dye, Bobby Jenks, and of course, Javy Vazquez. More on this when something legit develops, but I would not be entirely surprised to see Jermaine Dye take a ticket out of town as part of a youth movement (Homer Bailey from the Reds, or Edwin Jackson from the Rays, knowing KW).

Here's hoping that rumor of Vazquez for the Mets' Pelfrey materializes.

So Long Swagger

Damn it man, I said shave those sideburns!

Well, it was a fun idea while it lasted, but it looks like Nick Swisher and his incredibly friendly contract are headed for a different monochromatic ballclub.

Yankees Get:
Swisher
Kanekoa Texeira (I was so excited when I thought I saw Konerko and Texeira mentioned in the same sentence as the word "trade")

Sox Get:
Wilson Betemit
Jeff Marquez
Jhonny Nunez

The initial reaction I have is "damn it, we got fleeced." I think that Swisher is absolutely going to rebound from last season - Walker said something about there being a glitch in his swing that would take a whole offseason to work out of his system. If it would take Walker a whole offseason, you've got to figure that a competent hitting coach could probably fix it in less than a month. Likewise, Texeira pitched well in the minors, and has a good change to come up as a reliever, or maybe even get stretched out as a starter.

In return? We get Betemit, who is Swisher Lite. Betemit is a switch hitter and a utility infielder, but is much much cheaper than Swisher - and his career stats are on par with Swisher's worst season. In addition to Betemit, we get Marquez and Nunez, two unproven players in the minors. Marquez is already 23 and looks like he'll have a shot at being Nick Massett part deux (long relief, spot starter). Nunez, though, looks to be much more interesting, with a greater propensity for keeping the ball on the ground and not sucking.

Any way that you look at it, this deal means:

#1. The Sox want to free up some money. This is not surprising - money is nice to have. It may also pave the way for a FA signing this winter that may cost a little more than Jerry and Co. would like to spend, or maybe just to save some money. Who knows - maybe we could get some more of our guys under contract.

#2. Something was wrong with Swisher. This actually seems pretty likely the more I think about it. Swisher was in Ozzie's doghouse for the second half of the season (benched in the ALCS says something, doesn't it?). Even if it's not something between Oz and Swish, I still get the impression that it's an organizational difficulty of some sort. Maybe Swish was on 'roids? I hate to say it because I like the guy. I know Jerry and Kenny don't like to have users on their team, and maybe the writing was on the wall. I suppose only next season's stats will tell.

Stay tuned for more exciting off-season baseball!

Cactus League

Buehrle needed a bigger mullet for his bigger truck.

Today is the first Cactus League Sox game (against the Rockies, at 1 PM). Here are the top 5 things that we're looking at:

#1. John Danks. Does he actually have a cutter? Is it as good as Josh Fields made us all hope it was? Please let it be a nasty pitch -- I don't expect a forkball, but something to keep your fastball looking, well, FASTER.

#2. Alexei Ramirez. Apparently takes grounders well enough to impress Guillen, but needs to show that he can pound the ball. It also doesn't hurt that Richar is still stuck in the DR.

#3. Kenny Williams. If he does this on a regular basis, he might just get more press than Ozzie. Let's hope he gets on someone else's case today.

#4. CF. Can Nick Swisher actually play CF? Will Owens be playing here after tweaking something the other day? Will Brian Anderson get a shot?

#5. Jim from Sox Machine. Bring us all the dirt that we want and can't afford to fly out to Tucson to get. Ask Jim to bring back things here.

Great Moments in Trading

With all the hoopla surrounding Konerko's (inevitable?) departure, I thought it would be a good idea to look at some "great" trades the White Sox have made in the past. For those of you who were getting real excited for a trade, or still think that we can't possible get screwed on the Swisher deal, grab a tissue:

#3. May 16, 1978: Texas trades outfielders Claudell Washington and Rusty Torres to the Chicago White Sox for outfielder Bobby Bonds.

Bonds was nearing the end of his career, so it's not like we traded him in his prime. What we DID do, was trade a 32-year old OF with 30 HR potential (Jermaine Dye?) and 30 SB potential (nevermind). Bonds did just that with the Rangers, getting 29 HR and 37 SB the following year. The Sox? We got a speedster for a year, and a no name. When was the last time you even HEARD of these two guys? Exactly.

#2. Dec 4th, 2002: Sox acquire Billy Koch from the Oakland Athletics in a six-player trade. The White Sox also receive two minor-league players to be named later. Oakland receives relief pitcher Keith Foulke, backup catcher Mark Johnson and RP Joe Valentine. If you don't remember the Billy Cock "era," let me sum it up for you: Koch never pitched healthy, never topped 98 on the gun for us (which is kind of important when you're a one-pitch flamethrower reliever), and ultimately had a wet noodle for an arm. Foulke, who was coming off of his one bad year...ever, went on to record 30+ saves for Oakland, and then top that mark with the WS Champion Boston Red Sox. Granted, Foulke has been an injury-prone mess since 05, and we did get Neal Cotts in this trade (also good for a one year rental of WS success). Still, I'm kinda pissed.

#1. Dec 13, 2001: Sox acquire Todd Ritchie from the Pittsburgh Pirates for Kip Wells, Sean Lowe and Josh Fogg.


Dear lord kill me now. Ritchie was the worst Sox pitcher I have ever seen. Worse than Jamie Navarro, worse than David Wells. Ritchie had such a bad season with us (in which he racked up 15 losses) that we had to give him a mercy injury to put him on the DL instead of letting him break the Sox record for losses in a season. We paid him 3.5 million for a 6.06 ERA, 23 starts, and a 5-15 record. You've got to wonder how the offense managed to bail him out three times for the no-decision.

In order to get this douchebag, the Sox traded two serviceable pitchers, and one other guy. Wells went on to post great numbers his first two years with the Pirates, maintaining an ERA under 3.50 as a starter before getting hurt in 04 (he was never the same again). Fogg went on to post solid, not great, numbers for every team he's played on. Fogg has kept his ERA near or around 4 and gotten double-digit wins almost every year -- most recently with the NL Champion Colorado Rockies.

So, for those of you that just can't wait to see something go down, remember the pain from this list. Also remember that Billy Beane likes fucking us directly in the asshole; I'm not sold on Swisher just yet.

Sox Acquire Swisher

The best "I just shit myself" look. Ever.

I really don't know what to make of this:

In a move that is almost CERTAIN to screw us in the future, the Sox acquired Nick Swisher from the A's in exchange for Ryan Sweeney, Gio Gonzalez, and Fautino De Los Santos (AKA FDLS, because I'm not typing that again).

Swisher is a pretty good acquisition -- he's young (27), hits for power (22 HR in Oakland...roughly equal to 79 HR at the Cell), and is controlled through 2011. He's a patient hitter, which is always a good trait for keeping the count alive, and posted a .381 on-base percentage last year, which is better than any fielder we had last year.

The bad news, is that Gio and FDLS look REALLY promising. We already regretting trading Gio once, and had to make a second trade to get him back (deals with Garcia and Thome, respectively). He throws hard, and has lots of movement on his pitches -- even if he has only played at the AA level. FLDS also had good movement and control, and both likely would have made excellent additions to the squad in 2009-10.

As for Sweeney, he's never really produced at the major league level (mostly due to injury and not getting the chance), but he's definately ready. Let's hope that we don't have a repeat of Chris Young with this one.

I think the Sox got screwed here -- Swisher is a corner outfielder like Dye, so we're STILL starting Brian Anderson in CF (which is good, because I think he's due). Is Swisher that much of a massive upgrade over Sweeney or Quentin in LF? Well, we here at Luol's Dong don't judge you based on ability -- we judge you on your ability to get drunk and score hot chicks (see: Kyle Orton).

Let's see...chicks? Check. Booze? Check. Bad hair/cowboy hat? Check.

But what's this?

Oh Nick, you ARE a wild man.