Kenny Williams has made it known that he plans on locking up the young core of Quentin,Danks,Floyd.  This past off-season, Kenny gave offers to both Floyd and Danks, and only one accepted.   Gavin Floyd accepted without any hesitation of complaint.  Meanwhile, John Danks did have a concern, which led to him rejecting the offer

  John Danks made it clear that he wants to stay with the Sox, but he nicely said he deserves more money than Floyd.   Now 3/4's off the 2009 season has been completed and John Danks and Gavin Floyd have very similar stats.  Let's take a look at John Danks and Gavin Floyd's 09 stats.

Gavin Floyd            Games Started            IP               H            ER               HR             BB        SO      WHIP       ERA     K/9

                                          21                     137.0         123             62                13               47        116     1.22         4.07     7.62

John Danks           Games Started            IP               H            ER               HR             BB        SO      WHIP       ERA     K/9

                                          20                     119.1         110             53               13               46        100     1.31         4.00     7.41

You take a look at these stats, and they are suprisingly similar.  I left some categories out, but just take a look at them yourself, you will be suprised how similar these two are.   Now lets take at the White Sox current payroll and the estimated amount of money coming off expiring contracts.

Current Payroll: $104,598,500(10th)

Expiring Contracts

Jermaine Dye $11,500,000

Jim Thome $13,000,000

Jose Contreas $10,000,000

Ramon Castro $2,625,000

Bartolo Colon $1,000,000

Octavio Dotel  $6,000,000

Total: $43 Million

Now you take about 15 million out of that for Peavy, and another 12 million if Jermaine Dye's option is picked up, and that leaves you with 16million dollars until you are at last year payroll, as Kenny described as being the "cieling" for his budget.  Lets look at Floyds current contract.

Pre Arb                 Year 1                       Year 2                       Year 3                             Year 4

750K                     2.75M                         5M                             7M                                     9.5M

John Danks declined the exact(or extremely similar) contract and rejected it.  He had a valid point, since his peripherals were excellent, but this year is different.  This year, Floyd and Danks have put up close to the same numbers in numerous categories.  So the big questions are, does John Danks deserve a bigger contract than Floyds?  Will Kenny Williams take this season into account and offer him a relativly similar contract as last years offer?   One thing is for sure, Danks will be in a White Sox uniform next season.  While Danks deserves a nice contract, his real bench mark is his teammate in Gavin Floyd.  If Kenny Williams speaks the truth and the Sox are bumping the payroll cieling, don't be suprised to see Danks get offered yet another contract that is similar to the last offer.  Afterall, a couple million saved could be the difference between getting John Lacky or getting good ole' Bartolo Colon.