It's July 26th. By this time the past two years, the White Sox had locked up the bulk of their "deadline deals", be it acquiring Carl Everett and Roberto Alomar in 2003, or landing the biggest name pitcher at last year's deadline in Freddy Garcia.
This year, however, it's been different. Unlike 2003 and 2004, the Sox came into the year with five competent starters.
Yet the names keep popping up.
Mark Gonzales of the Tribune speculates on the White Sox having interest on the Sox having interest in a pair of San Fransico arms, in Jason Schmidt and Scott Eyre:
The Giants had Ted Uhlaender, one of their top talent evaluators, in attendance at Monday night's Sox-Kansas City game.
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The Giants' farm system, ranked 17th in Baseball America, is pitching-heavy. The Giants have scouted the Sox's Double-A and Triple-A teams thoroughly and could be attracted by Birmingham outfielder Chris Young, who has 18 home runs in 322 at-bats.
The Cheat has been talking up Chris Young for a long time, and if you frequent the blog often, he's become the favorite amongst the Sox minor league outfielders. And if Young does get traded, it better be for a guy who's just about in his prime, and will be here for several seasons; not a one-year rental.
WSCR, The Score 670 is reporting that the Sox are also showing interest in Brewers firstbaseman Lyle Overbay and Devil Rays 1B/DH/OF Aubrey Huff. If Frank Thomas' injury is going to keep him out for a long time, the Sox are going to be in the market for a DH. Everett has filled in nicely this year for the Sox, but a .765 OPS out of the #3 spot isn't acceptable. Overbay makes sense in the short-term and the long-term; he gives the Sox a cheap yet extremely effective (127 OPS+ in 2004) for the future, as well as an extremely good bat down the stretch.