ChicagoSportsBlogs : Non Compete

The writers strike has me sitting at home with an empty Tivo. College football officially ended with another Big Ten whimper and I have no excuse not to spend a few minutes writing down some of my thoughts on the recent White Sox trade for Nick Swisher. I recently visited the comments section over at the Trib. It seems as if most Sox fans are not happy with this trade. Sending 3 young and highly touted prospects to Oakland for a 27 year old center fielder who hits no better than .260 is a bit of a head scratcher. I'm not saying that Swisher isn't going to be an improvement over any of the other center fielders we were going to rotate in this season. Far from it. I like Swisher. I do. I just don't understand what Kenny Williams sees in the rest of his team. This is a good addition to a team that is on the verge of winning a division, not one that barely beats the Royals out for the bottom of the AL Central. This is a pretty suspect move by Kenny. He has done nothing this offseason to actually improve our chances at being competitive. I argue that he has weakened this team for the present AND the foreseeable future. I base that on the previous move of Jon Garland. The pitching staff is weakened with his move to Angels. Who trades a young, talented, and stable inning-eating pitcher with an aging short stop? Pitching is at a premium these days. We should know. We're going into the season without Garland, and with Gavin Floyd and John Danks. Yea, not too good of a staff anymore. Especially with Garland gone.

I guess that was just a start for good ole Kenny. It wasn't enough to get rid of a proven started, and get NO ARMS in return, but we traded away 2 young arms for an average center fielder. I was just telling MJ about an article I found while goofing off at work today, courtesy of the SportsFrog.com gang. The article is written by John Walsh for The HardBall Times. In it Walsh breaks down, using pretty amazing statistical analysis who has the best outfield arm in baseball. Go read it. I was curious to see if any White Sox players would show up on the list. JD is middle of the pack in the AL, and our new center fielder is practically last. That makes this trade even more curious. Swisher isn't that great of a hitter and based on what I just read in this analysis, he isn't that great in the field too.

Overall, I have to say I am not overly happy with this offseason. I'll be more blunt. I think Kenny can't get over the fact that he made some pretty interesting moves pre-2005 that paid off with a ring. He's confusing evaluating talent with dumb luck. He is also trying to pull a rabbit out of his hat with every single move. He's predicting that Garland is going to get injured this year. He's also predicting that Cabrera is going to stay healthy. He wants to win now, but he clearly hasn't paid attention to the Tigers and the Indians. Both of those teams are head and shoulders better than the White Sox. Do we really need to compare the offseason moves? Do you want me to break down (stop laughing) the pitching staffs? I'm not even including the Twins in this rant because I'm still anticipating they're going to trade Santana to New York. The Swisher trade isn't going to get the Sox to 90 win season, and I'm thinking it's going to take at least 90 wins for the Sox to sniff the playoffs next year.

I appreciate Kenny's predicament. He has to make a strong effort to keep up the momentum we lost after winning the series in 2005. He also seems to still be pissed about being thrown under the bus by Billy Beane in MoneyBall. I can see him now, wringing his hands in his corner office on 35th and Shields. Yea, Kenny. You'll show them. You'll show them all.