The Larry Plan

"Summary

while i think the sox would need to significantly improve their roster to compete in 2009, that will be a difficult task given the contract situations. you really have to hope (again) that the young guys in richard, getz, and fields take steps forward and the old guys stay relatively healthy and productive. for all of you screaming “how can you not start swisher?” well, he was horseshit last season. frankly, however much i like him and think he’ll do fine in the long run, he doesn’t really deserve to, especially considering his second half non-bad luck induced suckitude. i think he’ll need to play his way back into favor with ozzie. of course, i also think there will be plenty of playing time for him to get with thome, konerko, dye, baldelli, etc. rest will be required for them, between what i view as some inevitable stints on the shelf.

i’d like to shop dye but i’m not sure what the market looks like for him. target would stopgap infield help.

baldelli should be signed to an incentive laden 2-year guaranteed deal valued initially at approximately $7-9M. incentives largely tied to games played/plate appearances. 1 or 2 option years vest automatically with plate appearance targets (similar to thome but, since he’s going into a platoon situation at least initially under my plan, targets should be lower – let’s say 550 in one year or 900 over two years) . any contract with baldelli would probably be a very creative one so these are, again, preliminary thoughts on a structure and dollar amounts. obviously, a team would be very inclined to lower the guaranteed value in exchange for higher incentive value. not sure what rocco would think of that.

i don’t think the sox will have a great deal to spend in the FA market, thus the purchases are relatively cheap. i’m sure KW will try to make a trade or three (dye predominantly and/or to acquire an outfielder or 3B or 2B). but i’m having trouble seeing matches and i’m reticent to trade anything the sox have in the minors. like the sox really have anything in the minors to trade that would bring anything back. har har.

and, yes, that’s a six man bullpen. deal with it, ozzie."

acquisitions and disposals.

goodbye: griffey, wise, h. ramirez, cabrera, macdougal, carrasco.

hello: rocco baldelli, mark grudzielanek.

time to step up

josh fields: 3B is yours. fight off uribe.

chris getz: 2B is yours. fight off grudzielanek.

clayton richard: 5th starter is yours.

Lineup

LF Quentin
CF Baldelli
RF Dye
3B Fields
SS Ramirez
2B Getz
1B Konerko
C Pierzynski
DH Thome

Bench

OF Anderson
IF/OF Swisher (“platooning” in all outfield spots and 1B – basically 4-5 starts a week, at least, to begin season).
IF Uribe
IF Grudzielanek
C Hall

Rotation

Buehrle
Danks
Floyd
Vazquez
Richard

Bullpen

Jenks
Thornton
Dotel
Linebrink
Russell
Joseph Torres

Your Intrepid Blogger's Notes

Everyone may have seen this already, but it'll help re-direct conversation back to baseball and hopefully liven up a pretty dead discussion.  Plus, it's as definitive a plan as anyone in the media the has presented thus far  As for me, I'm working on some possible trading partners and I might look at the SS/CF markets as well.  My intent was to get posts up about the relevant information and then get an off-season plan up with all of that in tow (and hopefully provide everyone else the context to do their own).  So feel free to speculate in those directions. 

I will say that I'm skeptical that Rocco will actually add a whole lot to the 2009 White Sox, but Larry admits as much in talking about the kind of signing it would be.  The point of the signing would be to add depth and upside at a low-ish cost, which is certainly what I hoped the Griffey trade would accomplish.  The nice thing about Baldelli is that there's so little downside when he's on the field that there's nothing for Ozzie to screw up.  I thought that Mark Ellis qualified similarly, which is why I made him the target of my 2B post.  So any other players that fall into that kind of category should definitely be brought up if you can think of any.