In spite of the fact that the two best commentaries on this blog have come from outside my realm, I approve of this post.…a White Sox offseason primer by Dan Sleezer
Kenny Williams made the first big offseason move yesterday for the Southsiders, trading popular yet recently unproductive outfielder/first baseman Nick Swisher to the New York Yankees for infielder Wilson Betemit and minor-league arms Jeff Marquez and Jhonny (not a typo) Nunez. This comes as a bit of a surprise as it was widely speculated the Jermaine Dye would be moved and Swisher would be starting in right next year, as Dye commands significantly higher trade value and Williams doesn’t typically ‘sell low’ on players like this.
Kenny seems to love making moves that leave fans scratching their heads in confusion, but many tend to actually turn out in his favor (see Quentin, Carlos.) However, this one is a little too much for me to fathom. His career numbers are vastly better than this past season (what we call an outlier in statistics) and his plate discipline is still excellent. Furthermore, he’s only 27 (which seems desirable for a team trying to undergo a youth movement) and his 5 year, $26 million contract is below market value. There’s no downside to retaining him for at least another year, since he couldn’t possibly play any worse. And I’m struggling to see the upside. At just over $5 million a year, the Sox aren’t clearing up that much room in the payroll department, and the players coming to Chicago are uninspiring at best. If you haven’t heard of Wilson Betemit before this, (and you probably haven’t because he was playing behind A-Rod at 3rd, Robinson Cano at 2nd, and Giambi at 1st) I can draw a very simple comparison: he’s Juan ‘Burrito Supreme’ Uribe, without a glove. He’s an unathletic utility infielder with a career .240 average and poor plate discipline (.286 OBP!), and to sweeten the pot, he can’t sling an ounce of leather either.
Now for the other guys: Jeff Marquez has spent 5 seasons in the Yankees’ farm system, and is currently rated number 14 in their top 20 prospects. The long and short on Marquez is a lack of strikeout stuff but average to above average sink. Except for when he doesn’t sink it (12 homers in 81 innings with Scranton last season.) Think Nick Masset, the guy who spent the better part of the last two seasons warming a seat in the bullpen and was subsequently used to acquire a certain 37 year old centerfielder who had zero range and a penchant for hitting scorching singles to right field. Apparently hearing the words ‘Sinker’ and ‘U.S. Cellular Field’ is enough to make Kenny ruin his shorts. As far as the last guy, well, he’s not on New York’s top 20 prospects list, and he can’t even spell his first name right, so fuck him.
We all jumped to conclusions about Quentin and Alexei Ramirez last offseason, so I’m hoping Kenny will prove us wrong again. But I just can’t see it happening. Even more depressing is a look at the transitive property surrounding the Swisher trade(s):
Ryan Sweeney (Top 3 outfield prospect), Gio Gonzalez and Fautino De Los Santos (top 5/10 pitching prospects) to get
Nick Swisher
to get
Wilson Betemit (crap), Jeff Marquez (minor league crap), and Jhonny Nunez (can’t comply with the spelling conventions of the English language minor league crap).
Posts
