Trading Mark Teahen

Full disclosure...before I starting writing this, I spend about 20 seconds deciding on a subject. This is what I came up with. It's been a relatively quiet Spring Training thus far (weird, huh?), and Peavy's recovery more or less speaks for itself. But the prospect of trading Mark Teahen is much more interesting to weirdos such as myself. Teahen's torrid Spring certainly won't hurt the cause.

There's been a lot of discussion about the last spot on the Sox' Opening Day roster, and I'm all about Milledge. He's earned it, and he has the upside. I also like De Aza, however, and I think it would be ideal to keep both on board, which can only realistically happen if we can sucker some team into taking on Teahen. Lillibridge seems like a good guy, and it's fun when he makes solid contact every couple months, but the sad reality is that he's simply not a major league caliber player. In fact, he's hardly a AAA caliber player. Sorry Lilli, you're still better at baseball than I am for what it's worth.

Anyways, who would want Teahen? The Phils, perhaps? They're contenders, for sure. But they've got questions at 3B with Polanco's health, and also with Utley. Teahen has played both positions, albeit poorly, in the past. I'm not saying we'd get anything of value from them (or anybody), but we might be able to pull a Scott Linebrink type deal with them.

So who else?

The Angels, maybe? They lost out on Beltre, and Brandon Wood hasn't exactly proven himself. They were suckered into taking on Wells' contract, so it makes them a somewhat easy target. The fact that Kendry Morales isn't likely to be ready for Opening Day (although Trumbo negates that downside considerably) only adds to their need for depth.

The other LA team could be a fit as well. They currently have an aging Casey Blake at 3B, an ineffective Loney at 1B, and Jay freaking Gibbons as half a LF platoon. Not a perfect fit, but a fit nonetheless.

I'm about done here. I'm not sure about the returns, and frankly, I don't care. If we foot most of the bill and get a player with an even mildly realistic chance of being a somewhat reliable utility player or middle reliever...I take it. Like I said, Scott Linebrink.

As many other drunk Sox fans have said before me....Get'er done, Kenny!!!!

The Post Where I'm a Debbie...

Well, I won't lie. I'm incredibly optimistic about the 2011 season. I think most of the reasons are obvious, but I've also got that feeling that this is going to be a special season. But, the White Sox fan in me knows better than to expect the best, so here's a list of my worries for 2011. Debbie Downer time, so get the Kleenex ready.

1.) Alex Rios' 2010 wasn't as good as the final numbers indicate. If you take away his outstanding May, he was pretty mediocre. He also faded defensively, in my opinion, as the season wore on. Hopefully he can replicate his 2010, and his history suggests he should. But I worry that 2009 might not be the anomaly it looks like.

2.) Matt Thornton is one of the best relievers in the game, and I worry that his forearm discomfort this past season might be a red flag going forward. Forearm soreness in a pitcher is usually what comes before something much more serious in the elbow. If he goes down, that's a major blow to what is already our team's biggest question mark.

3.) Edwin Jackson looked like he had finally come into the ace form that people expected of him when he came to the Sox last season. However, he also faced pretty light competition. I worry less with him because he doesn't need to be an ace, and I do believe in his progress. But, I'm trying my best to temper any expectations.

4.) Adam Dunn brings a ton to this team, but it's totally possible there's going to be a fairly significant adjustment period to the new league and the new position (or lack thereof). We've seen plenty of guys have trouble changing leagues, and we've seen plenty of hitters have trouble shifting to DH. Hopefully Dunn doesn't suffer from a double whammy of the two, because that could get ugly. His tendencies to strike out a lot and hit for low average already leave him susceptible to unfair scorn from a statistically traditional fanbase. Any struggles that magnify those issues could make for a terrible first impression.

5.) Chris Sale was amazing last year, and there isn't much reason to expect him to be any different this season. I do worry, however, that he won't be taking anybody by surprise this time around. Players will adjust. I have no reason to think he can't adjust back, but we don't really have a track record of him to know for sure. We saw last season with Beckham that making adjustments at the major league level isn't easy, especially for guys that hadn't really faced much adversity in the past.



Those are probably my top 5 worries.