White Sox Have Seen Better Days

With Torii Hunter now with the LA Angels and the White Sox, the supposed front-runners in the Hunter sweepstakes, are now scrambling to run in a new direction in their search for a new centerfielder. The new top option is former Sox fielder Aaron Rowand who was traded away for Jim Thome after the 2005 World Series.

If the Sox fail to pick up Rowand it will be their own fault. They were willing to offer Hunter, 32, a 5-year $70 million contract. Rowand will come cheaper and for the same amount of years, but at a younger and more reasonable age at 30 years old. Why were the Sox willing to offer Hunter, a player whose fielding prowess is arguably one of the best all-around in the game today, a contract that they are not willing do the same for Rowand but at a more reasonable price may never be known. At 30 Rowand is a career .286 hitter and averages 18 HRs and 66 RBI a season offensively, and has a career .989 fielding percentage out in Center. Hunter is more of a power hitter averaging 25 HRs a season along with 93 RBI. He has a career .991 fielding percentage in the horrid Metrodome in Minnesota where the ball is very hard to spot coming off the bat.

So why does Rowand deserve the same offer that the Sox were willing to offer Hunter? He doesn't. Rowand deserves --and is looking for --a 5-year deal in the range of $10-11 million a year. But the Sox front office is unwilling to give Rowand a five-year deal. Due to Owner Jerry Reinsdorf's phobia of committing to a player for more than four years. So why then did Hunter get such a special attention when he's two years older than Rowand and would have most likely started to decline in his performance around the third year of his contract? Hunter is a player that has power, but not enough to slide into DH position when his defensive aptitude has left him. Where Rowand is in the prime of his career hitting a career high in homeruns (27) and RBI (87) and hitting one point lower than his career high batting average of .310.

After winning the World Series in 2005 the White Sox shipped off Rowand to the Philadelphia Phillies for slugger Jim Thome to help bring power to the left side of the plate. Thome helped improve an offense that scored 738 runs en-route to a 98 win season in 2005 to scoring 868 runs in 2006 while winning 90 games and missing the playoffs. In Thome's two season with the Sox he has hit 77 HRs and driven in 205 runs while hitting .282.

But the Sox troubles in the outfield the last two seasons has not been because of Thome, but rather poor talent scouting and injuries. Brian Anderson, Rowand's heir-apparent, was supposed to be a better, younger, "grindier" version of Rowand, playing in 134 games in centerfield while achieving a .994 fielding percentage, but never was able to develop a bat to help the offense in 2006, and in 2007 was replaced by veteran free agent pick-up Darin Erstad. Anderson played in only 13 games and had 17 total at bats.

Now with free agency and the winter meetings around the corner the Sox find themselves somewhere they haven't been for almost a decade: a sub-.500 team with an two starter worthy shortstops, an unproven second baseman in Danny Richar, no left or centerfielder and a pitching staff (both starters and relievers) that has seen better days. Sox GM Kenny Williams has said that dealing away #2 pitcher Jon Garland was the start of a bigger picture he has for the upcoming 2008 season and trying to get the Sox back to the World Series.

What Williams is thinking during this offseason is lost on just about every expert out there. How they plan to win with a pitching rotation made of staff ace Mark Buehrle, Javier Vazquez, Jose Contreras, and youngsters Jon Danks and Gavin Floyd, is still unclear. But the starting rotation is not even the greatest problem in the sinking ship. The Sox have no help in the bullpen outside of closer Bobby Jenks. They picked up reliever Scott Linebrink from San Diego. Linebrink is a career 3.21 ERA pitcher.

As far as the infield goes the Sox are in a situation that could be a good thing or a bad thing. They have an overstocked left side. They have two third basemen with the incumbent starter Joe Crede coming off of back surgery and a shortened season. And the prospect Josh Fields who came replaced Crede in June and batted .244 and hit 23 HRs and hit 67 RBI just 100 but also struck out an appalling 125 times in just 373 at bats. While Fields average should improve with more playing time his fielding can be a bit erratic, and at the age of 24 he should have plenty of time to improve. But as of right now Crede should be the starter unless a deal offer comes forward that Williams just cannot say 'no' to. In 2006 Crede hit career highs in HRs (30) and drove in 94 runs while only striking out 58 times in 544 plate appearances. The Sox were planning on having Josh Fields play left field until they could dump Joe Crede in a trade, but with that experiment having failed at the end of last season the Sox are left with two options

1. Send Fields back to AAA Charlotte to work on his swing
2. Trade Crede away before the season starts
   

Now at Shortstop the Sox have two players who can field the ball extremely well but each has their problems. Orlando Cabrera (acquired in the Jon Garland trade with the Angels) is a solid #2 hitter and still has some speed in his legs at 33 years old. But his age is the problem. The Sox don't know if Cabrera, a two-time Gold Glove winner, is on the decline of his career or still in his stride. On the other hand at Short you have Juan Uribe (ooh-REE-bay) the Sox starting Shortstop since 2005 has a career .975 fielding percentage at short, only .003 points less than Cabrera. But Uribe's laziness on some plays and being overweight may have gotten him a one-way ticket out of town by the beginning of the season, despite being signed to a new one-year $4.5 million contract.

Back to finish where we started: The outfield. The Sox find themselves very thin in the outfield. There's no one to patrol left field with the release of Scott Podsednik, in center they have a weak armed speedster by the name of Jerry Owens, and in right they have an aging Jermaine Dye, the 2005 World Series MVP, could become the teams DH as soon as the beginning of the 2009 season once Jim Thome's contract expires and if the Sox choose to not resign him.

So with all these problems what can they do to fix this? First off they need to do everything it takes to get Rowand back in a Sox uniform. If that means overpaying him by giving him an extra $2 million a year, so be it. Secondly, if possible, get rid of Contreras. The guy is dead weight. And finally the Sox will need to build for the future as well. If that means trading away leaders like Paul Konerko for minor league prospects and moving Crede, Thome or Fields to First Base while developing those prospects then do it.

Here are projections for the Sox opening day lineup and batting order and Pitching rotation

Batting Order
LF- Jerry Owens
SS - Orlando Cabreara
DH - Jim Thome
1B - Paul Konerko
RF - Jermaine Dye
CF - Aaron Rowand
C - A.J. Pierzynski
3B - Joe Crede
2B - Juan Uribe

Pitching
SP Mark Buehrle
SP Javier Vazquez
SP Jose Contreras
SP John Danks
SP Gavin Floyd

RP Ehren Wasserman
RP Matt Thornton
RP Boone Logan
RP Mike MacDougal

SU Scott Linebrink

CL Bobby Jenks

Season Projection
85 - 77 2nd place in the AL Central missing the playoffs.