January 04, 2008
Criticizing Williams
Nick Pietruszkiewicz levels harsh criticism at Ken Williams over the Nick Swisher deal. It seems Williams wanted Swisher, and Oakland didn't want to trade him, so Ken kept upping the bid:
"I did not plan on paying this type of price," Williams said Thursday during a conference call in which he tried to convince everybody, perhaps even himself, that this was a move that would make this coming version of the Sox contenders. "I also did not plan on getting this type of player should we have [been forced to go] down this road, which we obviously had [to]."
"Swisher was not a player that was on the market. Billy Beane and the Oakland A's did not want to move him, so we had to make it attractive enough so that they would engage in conversation."
Williams is trying to win in 2008, and brings up attitude:
On Thursday, Williams paid for attitude - make that, paid heavily - hoping to find the lost formula of 2005.
"For us, [attitude] is almost as equal to the talent, because, in our particular market, it is such that you have to be a fighter, you have to be a tough son-of-a-gun to come in and perform at a high level.
"This guy fits in perfectly with what we're trying to do."
I quote Bill James on attitude here. Give me talent any day.
Swisher does have talent, and he comes with a relatively low price tag. If a team is going to give up that much pitching talent to win this year, however, this better be the move that puts you over the top. The White Sox are a better team for 2008 than they were before the trade, but Williams put himself in the position of making his task more difficult each winter. Where are the prospects to trade for talent to win in 2009?
Posted by David Pinto at
07:57 AM
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I am curious why Williams was so adamant about acquiring Swisher. Hes a great young chip, but when a guy like Jose Guillen was available and the team could have held onto its draft choices, the marginal statistical and monetary differences should have made that the obvious move.
Plus the White Sox still have a weak rotation and it's not like they have a top 3 lineup with Swisher in it.
For an older team giving up younger prospects, they had better win for the sake of Kenny's job. As a Twins fan, I hope this blows up in their face.
Nick Swisher = win now?!?! He's never slugged .500 is a liability on defense and can't run.
I'm not defending the trade...but the article is wrong to call Swisher a mediocre player. Swisher probably will post a .900+ OPS in that ballpark.
Talent is important, as is attitude, but what is really necessary is GRIT.
Just ask the fine fellows at firejoemorgan about David Eckstein.
"Plus the White Sox still have a weak rotation and it's not like they have a top 3 lineup with Swisher in it."
Really? In 2006 when the team was healthy and not having the worst seasons of players respective careers the team was 3rd in runs scored. While in 2006 they were helped by a lot of 'career years' and health, the 2008 version is improved (with Swisher and Cabrera) and should see a great deal of return to the mean-that is, Konerko, Dye and Pierzynski will undoubtedly improve on last years performance.
"[I]s a liability on defense"
Anything to back this up? According to BP's fielding Rate stat, Swisher has been slight under league average in CF at 91. Last year from the ChiSox main CFers, they logged the following figures: 86, 93 and 86. So at the very least Swisher is better then what the team average in CF. Lets also remember that Swisher wasn't a full time CFer. Presumably he spent more time practicing pick off players with pitchers then he did shagging fly balls in the OF.
Swisher is good, but many White Sox fan (and their FO apparently) are seriously underestimating how bad they were last year.
in short , they need a abosalute perfect storm to have any shot at the playoffs, and there's still certainly more chance of them seeing the bottom than the top.
they have no depth at ALL, most of their main players barring Swisher and to a lesser extend Thome are pretty inconsistent in their career. the health / age outlook on several key player is pretty bad... and the young kids they are counting on to pan out aren't exactly super top prospects to begin with.
Pale hose fans need to ready themself for another bad season... or 5 really.
Swisher has been slight under league average in CF at 91.
That would be a liability. I also don't believe any scout in baseball would rate him an adequate CF.