Jesse Crain filling the void

The word on the street (ie. internet) is that the Sox signed Jesse Crain to a 3-year contract somewhere in the ballpark of $13MM.

The years and money seem a bit much for a setup man, but it's completely (and unfortunately) in line with the relief free agent market this offseason. Crain will presumably fill the void left by Putz, and that's a pretty big hole to fill. However, the signing of Crain does raise a couple questions.

First, if there was money to sign Crain, why let Putz go? J.J. will probably earn more per annum than Crain, but not by much, and the total guaranteed value of his contract is for less. This makes me think two things... Either the Sox don't trust Putz to stay healthy, or they tested out the trading market, didn't like what they were hearing, and decided to pony up a little bit extra.

I think the latter makes more sense. There were rumours that KW was dangling a couple players (Floyd, Quentin), but didn't like the return he was offered. It wouldn't make much sense to go "all in" with big free agent signings, and let the team fall apart because of a thin bullpen that was a relatively minor signing away from being reasonably deep.

I don't know if I like the signing, but I don't hate it either. It seems reasonable given the market, and hopefully Crain - who is still just 29 - can build on his breakout year from 2010. He was a different pitcher last year, throwing more sliders than fastballs, and it seemed to work for him. His fastball has also been gaining velocity in recent seasons, which should fit into the Sox' bullpen philosophy.

I also hope this will put an end to any Kerry Wood talk. I don't want that dud on my team.

It's on like Donkey Kong

Well, Paulie's signed. I think most of us still expected this, even with reports of talks breaking down. As soon as Reinsdorf stepped in, as was reported, I think it was foregone conclusion a deal would be reached.

The money is fair enough given what Paulie did this past season. But to be realistic, I don't think this deal is going to end well. He'll be 35 by the start of the season, and 2010 was a notch above any other season he's had, especially recently. Still, it's hard to hate seeing Paulie stay in Sox uni.

I think the best part about this deal is the nickname for the Dunn/Konerko duo. For those who don't know, Dunn's nickname is "Big Donkey". And if you don't know that Konerko regularly goes by "Kong" .... why are you here?

So...."Donkey Kong" becomes one of the cooler nicknames for a duo I've ever heard.

Putz to the desert

Well, J.J. Putz has signed with Arizona. On the plus side of things we get a sandwich pick, but on the more obvious downside of it, we lose a significant part of our bullpen.

Now, I should mention that I have no problem with KW not resigning Putz. I wouldn't have matched or topped the offer the DBacks gave him. He's simply too injury prone. Even in 2010, he was a bust in the second half of the season. I was open to bringing him back at a reasonable cost, but not with the guaranteed $10MM or so that he got.

The real question now is what steps should be taken to replace him. There's a fairly good number of decent relievers on the free agent market. However, free agent relievers are demanding some inflated salaries (thanks, Detroit), and with the White Sox finances the way they reportedly are....a free agent signing is doubtful provided we bring Paulie back.

I'm intrigued at the availability of Jonathan Broxton. He had a pretty dismal season for the Dodgers, but there's no doubting his arm. He seems like exactly the type of guy KW would target: flamethrower, big body, coming off a down year, big name.

I imagine it would take a considerable package to get Broxton, but with our "all in" philosophy, we might have the prospects to make it work. I'm dreaming big on this one, but I don't think it's totally out of the question. The most obvious problem would be that Broxton is owed $7MM for 2011. Unless we send Quentin to LA as part of the deal, it's probably not feasible. And even if we do send Quentin, we're short an outfielder.

So basically...I proved myself to be an idiot. Glad I worked this out.

What about Dayan?

Something that strikes me as interesting in the whole Dunn/Konerko celebration is the future of The Tank. I guess this is a little premature, seeing as Konerko hasn't signed yet, but most people (myself included) think it's a foregone conclusion.

So if Paulie does come back, Viciedo is basically a guy with nowhere to play. I'm high on Dayan. I think he has some serious power potential, and I think he's a victim of his own hype. I also think the Sox feel the same way I do, which complicates things. But with KW saying the Sox are "all in" I think he's basically become trade bait.

I'm fine with trading him if we get full value, but I don't think we can just yet. He doesn't get the credit he deserves. He's a 21 year old kid who raked in the big leagues this year, and all anybody says about him is that he has no patience. I know pitchers will adjust to his free swinging ways, but if he can learn a little bit of patience ....we've got a slugger on our hands. I don't think it's totally unlikely he can become more patient either...he showed that in his second big league stint this year. Baby steps, people!

The same can be said of Flowers, actually. He's probably not quite MLB ready yet, but he's also not two years away. He's another guy that, if traded, we wouldn't exactly be selling high on. I like all the excitement going on right now, but I worry how we'll be looking back on this offseason a couple years from now.

I'm Psychic

Well, it took just one day after I made my last post for the Sox to sign Dunn. I love the signing, especially if his time in the field is minimal. This is where my only problem lies. If Dunn is DHing, that leaves Quentin in RF for another season. If we keep Quentin I would much prefer him to stay away from RF, but with both Dunn and Quentin on the roster, that likely won't happen. So here's my next prediction... we sign Konerko and trade Quentin to the Orioles. I predicted this before, and I think it's even more likely now. The O's have missed out on Victor Martinez, Dunn, and if we sign Konerko you can add him to the list. Fact is, guys just don't want to sign there unless they have no other options. They're going to have to suck it up and acquire someone via trade. I'm not sure what the return would be, but I predicted before it's Luke Scott so I'll stick with that (although I think something along the lines of Felix Pie and Chris Tillman is more likely).

I don't really have much more to say about the signing other than it probably happened because of my post.

Word of the Sox re-signing Pierzynski quickly followed Dunn (which was odd because he went from signing with the Jays to signing with the White Sox in the span of a couple hours) and I have no problem with this either. It's a tad boring, but hard to hate at 2Y/8MM. The Sox are only paying AJ $2MM in 2011 with hopes of having enough money to bring Paulie back, and if they're that strapped for cash in 2011, something has to give. They just traded away Linebrink in a salary dump, which frees up some money, but also depletes an already thin bullpen. We have some internal options there (Infante, Nunez, Santeliz) but nobody that can really be counted on. If the Sox re-sign Konerko, someone will need to be traded. My guess is Quentin, which I talked about already.

Anyways, nice signing. Good to finally see the ball rolling. Nobody seemed to make much of this, but Ken Rosenthal said he's heard the Sox are also involved in advanced trade discussions so there could very well be more coming soon. Like Kenny said, the Sox are "all in" for 2011.

What oh what to write about?...

This has been one hell of a boring offseason so far...for the White Sox at least.

I'm hoping this will be the quiet before the storm, but it's so hard to tell. If I had to bet, I think this will be a busy month. I don't know why, but I think Reinsdorf is going to pony up some cash this offseason. He's not a stupid man. He knows the Sox need to compete to draw, and he knows the Sox are going to need to spend to compete. He also knows they're no longer the only team in the division that can have a 9-figure payroll.

Some people are worried about the Tigers. Not me. Not yet anyways. Yes, they've spent a lot of money. But what do they have? They have the same mediocre left-side of their infield, an injury-prone setup man coming off a career year with a contract that could make Linebrink's look good, and a DH who lost a big chunk of his value when he stopped being a catcher. I mean...am I the only one that thinks that Victor Martinez contract was terrible? Adam LaRoche has a comparable career OPS and will be lucky to get 20 percent of the money Victor did. I'm by no means saying they're equals...but is Martinez really THAT much better? Is it worth THAT much more money that he can catch a couple times a week? The Tigers shed some shitty contracts and it's almost like they can't wait to replace those with new ones.

Anyways, I'm hoping KW & Co. are simply taking their time and avoiding rushing into anything stupid (see: Teahen, Mark). I wouldn't be surprised to see them make one big move (I'm hoping Dunn) and then waiting out the market for some bargains in the New Year.

Anyways, we'll have to wait and see. Longer, that is...