[Old Hoss]

From Rotoworld...

White Sox sgreed to terms with RHP Rick White, who had been with the Cardinals, on a one-year, $750,000 contract with an option for 2004... White will make $600,000 this season, and the club has a $1.3 million option with a $150,000 buyout for 2004. He can make an additional $150,000 in performance bonuses, getting $50,000 each if he pitches in 60, 65, and 70 games. This is another nice pickup for the White Sox. White wasn't all that bad during his time with the Rockies last season and had an 0.82 ERA in 20 appearances for the Cardinals. He and Damaso Marte will be very nice seventh-inning options in from of Tom Gordon and closer Billy Koch.

Looks like their making a serious run at the Twins this year. Too bad it wasn't a solid starter they were signing...

Hoss

[BC...]

With that rotatation the pen will get ALOT of work. Maybe they could bring back Larussa's 3IP rotation.

[John Hoyos]

Wow. That bullpen is starting to look fairly impressive. It would be even more so if they still had Biddle and/or Osuna.

[Old Hoss]

Rotoworld says that the White Sox only signed White when their attempts to land Juan Acevedo fell thru...

Hoss

Thinking out loud here, I was wondering who is my favorite in the AL Central going into next season (as of today). Here's some simplistic analysis:

Catcher:
A.J.: .759 OPS
Olivo: .764 OPS (based on his MLEs)

Advantage: While I think they will put up similar numbers, at this point, I think catcher is a small advantage to the Twins (due to the uncertainty of rookies - A.J. is money whereas Olivo has potential. Sandy Alomar as a back-up option is not a good thing).

1B:

Mientkiewicz: .754 OPS
Konerko: .851 OPS

Advantage: I don't care how good Doug M's defence is, advantage, Sox.

2B:

Rivas: .692 OPS
Jimenez: .677 OPS

Advantage: Push - both of them may do better than last season, neither of them is great.

SS:

Guzman: .677 OPS
valentin: .790 OPS

Advantage: Tough call. Guzman is so much better defensively than Valentin, that makes up for a big chunk of the difference on offence. Plus, if Guzman rebounds to his 2001 level (.814 OPS), they are actually similar offensive players. I'm calling this a draw.

3B:

Koskie: .808
Crede: ???

Advantage: Crede has loads of potential but I've got to call this to the Twins in 2003 (will probably change in 2004 and beyond). Koskie, even in an off year in 2002, is still an excellent third baseman. Crede is still only potential - though his MLEs show he will be a good one.

LF:

Jones: .853 OPS
Lee: .846 OPS

Advantage: based solely on offensive numbers, this is a draw. When defense is added into the mix, the advantage has to go to the Twins since Jones is a plus fielder while Lee is awful.

CF:

Hunter: .855 OPS
Borchard: ????

Advantage: Twins. I'm not a huge Borchard fan and Torii is a top 10 player in the AL.

RF:

Cuddyer: ???
Mags: .973 OPS

Advantage: Cuddyer's going to be a good one but Mags is the second best player in the AL this year. It's an insult to his greatness for me to discuss this further.

DH:

Lecroy/Kielty:
Thomas: .832 OPS

Advantage: I know many of you wil disagree with me here but I think the Twins DHs will match Thomas this year. I'm calling this a draw.

On offence we've got:

Twins: 4
Sox: 2
Draw: 3

Starters:


Mark Buehrle: 3.58 ERA, 134 Ks-66 BB, 239 IPs
Eric Milton: 4.84 ERA, 131 Ks-30 BB, 171 IPs

Advantage: While it would not surprise me if Milton had a better season than Buehrle in 2003, for the sake of this post, I think Buehrle has the advantage.

Radke: 4.72 ERA, 62 Ks-20 BB, 118 IPs
Colon: 2.93 ERA, 149 Ks-70 BB, 233 IPs

Advantage: I've mentioned here before, I think there is an EXCELLENT chance that Colon will either be (i) on the DL most of this year or (ii) pitch poorly. That having been said, clear advantage to the Sox.

Reed: 3.78 ERA, 121 Ks, 26 B 188 IP
Garland: 4.58 ERA, 112 K-83 BB, 192 IP

Advantage: Man, Reed had a really good season last year. Who knows if he'll repeat, he doesn't have to be great to be better than Garland.

Lohse/Mays/Santana
Wright/Rauch

Advantage: I'm not going to post all of the stats here. I think the Twins will find 2 starters to fill out their rotation (depending on Mays health) who will be better than anything the Sox can throw out there to round out their rotation. I hope they will end up using Santana and Lohse (I'm not a big Mays believer) but they have very good depth. I'm not a fan of Wright and rauch.

So the starters go:

Twins: 3
Sox: 2

Bullpens:

closer Eddie Guardado
closer Billy Koch

Advantage: I like Guardado more than koch but I'll call this a draw since both of them are capable (though, I think there is a better chance that Koch will have a poor season than Guardado)

setup J.C. Romero lhp
setup Damaso Marte lhp

Advantage: I really like both of them. A clear pick-em.

setup LaTroy Hawkins
setup Tom Gordon

Advantage: Both guys who could be really good who have some risk, another pick-em.


setup Juan Rincon
middle Johan Santana/Lohse/Mays
middle Jose Cabrera

setup Kelly Wunsch
middle Rick White
middle Matt Ginter

Advantage: If Santana is pitching out of the Twins pen, it gives them a huge advantage (though weakens their rotation). I am going to call this yet another draw - some quality arms as middle relief guys go.

Maybe this is a cop-out on my part but I think the two teams have very comparable pens and it will depend how guys do this season and how the managers manage the pens.

Bench:

C Tom Prince
OF Bobby Kielty
IF Chris Gomez
IF Denny Hocking
OF Dustan Mohr

C Sandy Alomar
IF Tony Graffanino
UT Willie Harris
OF Aaron Rowand
OF Armando Rios

Advantage: without spending the time to go into any depth, I think the Twins have much better depth and depending on who is playing DH/RF on any given day, they should have some very good bats to use late in games.

To sum:

Twins: 8
Sox: 4
Draw: 9

Should be an interesting race...

[Devil RayB]

Originally posted by Long John
Wow. That bullpen is starting to look fairly impressive. It would be even more so if they still had Biddle and/or Osuna.

If only they had kept the better closer and not traded Foulke, a great closer prospect, and money their bullpen would look great from top to bottom. The White Sox are going to have many new grey hairs watching Koch attempt to close out games this year.