In Ken I Trust: A Vote in Favor of the Swisher Trade

This does not appear to be the prevailing opinion this morning here at South Side Sox, but after reading some of the stories across the web, and reviewing Ken Williams' track record, I am in favor of the Nick Swisher trade to the Yankees.

We posted about it over at Midwest Sports Fans, which you are free to view if you wish:

Analysis: Nick Swisher Traded to New York Yankees - Good Move Ken

Look, I had high hopes for Swish when we got him.  And we had to give up a really good pitcher in Gio Gonzalez to do so.  But sometimes certain players and personalities are not good fits under certain leadership styles and in certain clubhouses.

Reading a lot of the stories about Swisher becoming a malcontent during the end of the season, and not being receptive to coaching despite his horrific struggles at the plate, it appears that the relationship between the White Sox and Nick Swisher was somewhat doomed.

One thing I've always liked about Ken Williams is that he will not stubbornly hold onto a player in hopes of proving that he was right in making a move.  If Ken Williams was leading with his ego, he would try to make the Swisher deal work.  As it is, the experiment was, overall, a failure for 2008 -- and in the mind of Ken Williams, who knows the clubhouse better than any of us do, the best thing was to move Swish and get something of value in return.

Betemit is not going to knock anyone's socks off, but he does provide a valuable SS-3B utility player with a little bit of pop as we transition to Alexei at short and who knows who playing 3B.  Having a solid backup is good though. And that is what Swisher was by season's end -- just a backup utility guy.  We have enough power-hitting OFs who can't cover ground.  Why not trade him if we can fill a position of need in the process

And Jeff Marquez does have potential, though he struggled in his first stint in AAA last year.  For his minor league career, he has numbers that project him to be a decent 3rd or 4th starter.  With Buehrle-Floyd-Danks seeming to be our 1-2-3 for the foreseeable future, we need arms to fill the back end of the rotation.  Marquez was a former first round pick who, reportedly, has a mature approach and should start to come into his own as he gets to the 25-27 age range when a lot of pitchers start to hit their stride.

At the end of the day, Ken Williams is the best GM the White Sox have had since I can remember.  He hit the mark with TCQ and Alexei, but the Swish and Cabrera experiments failed.  Instead of stubbornly moving forward with those two, he seems to be cutting his losses and adding value where he can.

A true assessment can't be made until we see what Marquez becomes, but Ken Williams has earned my faith so I vote in favor of the Swisher trade.