White Sox Trade Rumors

The trade deadline is looming and the rumors are swirling around players on both sides of town as well as players throughout the league. Dan Haren has all ready been dealt from the D-Back to the Angels in what looks to be purely a salary dump transaction. Arizona is getting a bag of nothing in return as far as talent goes, but it does free up about $30M in the books. They got a couple of low-end prospects and Joe Saunders who had a heck of a year in 2008. He went 16-7 last year, but he was fortunate to receive the run-support that he did to acquire those wins as his ERA was 4.60 and his WHIP was 1.430. On top of that, he’s injury prone so good luck with that Arizona.

The names being mentioned around the White Sox have been Adam Dunn of the Washington Nats, Prince Fielder of the Brew Crew, and as of late Luke Scott and Miguel Tejada of the Baltimore O’s.

Adam Dunn is a younger Jim Thome. He’ll hit more homers than Big Jim and his OBP is nice and high, which I value, but he’s another base-clogger. Sure he’ll get on base, but what’s the point if he can’t score without playing station-to-station baseball. Not only that, but he’s strictly a rent-a-player. The Sox would have to give up a ton of good talent in order to acquire him from the Nats GM Rizzo just to use his services for the remainder of the year. It really depends on the talent they would have to give up to get him because the Sox could definitely use a power bat from the left side of the plate. Since he’s proven that he can hit 40+ home runs in a season (and is currently on pace to due so again) he has been given the pass to strikeout as many times as he pleases, so I don’t want to hear that side of the argument. And the less at bats Kotsay gets, is a good thing. Let’s use him for what he was brought here for, pinch hitting in later innings. His Ultimate Zone Rating per 150 games is an abysmal -98.0 and his Wins Above Replacement according to fangraphs.com is -0.8. SO he’s cost the White Sox 80% of a win and hypothetically owes THEM money, $3.1 million to be approximate.

Prince Fielder is obviously a great power bat from the left side as he has proven that he can hit 50 homers in a year (it’s very possible for him to do the same again this year). Imagine the damage he can do at White Sox park; however, the Brew Crew will be asking for the moon in order to send him to Chicago. The likes of Gordon Beckham or Carlos Quentin with Daniel Hudson thrown into the mix. Yes, Prince is an overweight fat-body, but he’s not quite the base clogger that Dunn is. His OBP is up there at a .399 clip and his OPS is .904 and I like the fact that he can score on a single from second. He doesn’t bring much to the table as far as defense goes though, so he’d be a VERY expensive DH who can spell Konerko from time to time at 1B. The other variable to remember is that he’s under contract through 2011, so the Sox would be “borrowing” him for the rest of this year and all of next. I suppose there’s always the slightest of chances that they’ll sign him in the open market after that, but it’s most unlikely because his agent Scott Boras, whom Kenny Williams is not a fan of dealing with, will be asking for Ryan Howard money.

Tune in Thursday from 7 to 9 for a special edition of Cover 3, Monday August 2nd we'll be back to regular schedule.

PREACH

By: Robert Zielinski Jr.