White Sox Sign Konerko

Congratulations to the White Sox.

They beat us in the ALCS, which made me sad, and beat us to Konerko, which makes me happy.

As I've posted before, getting Konerko improves the team by about 1 win, and while Konerko may be better than my projection, you can see I'm not being overly optimistic on Kotchman.

If Kotch hits .259 with 14 homers and 73 RBI, that only looks good to someone who's watched too much of Erstad at first. Hopefully Erstad is going back to center for Kotchman, as he would have for Konerko, but you never know with this team.

Now, Manny Ramirez. He's overpriced for sure, but if the Angels do trade for him, he does improve the team on the field, assuming the Angels don't give up something they can't replace from their own farm system or bench. In other words, as long as they don't trade Vlad or Chone on the position player side.

Man Ram projects as +36 over replacement ( he was +50 last year, and I use a much higher replacement level than sites like Baseball Prospectus). As long as he's not allowed to wear a glove, and his playing time comes at the expense of DaVanon and Rivera, that should improve the Angels by 30 runs or 3 wins.

It remains to be seen if Ramirez is the type of personality that the Angels can put up with, if the Red Sox are desperate enough to trade him, and the Mets don't offer more. If not, no big deal. Spend the money on pitching instead, go after Burnett.

Santana was mentioned in early Manny trade rumors, I don't think Mr. Stoneman wants any part of that. Ervin should be untouchable. Replacing one starting spot this offseason may be hard enough. No need to open 2 holes.

Giles resigned with San Diego for 3/30 or 4/36. Real good bargain for the Padres, retaing the REAL best free agent hitter on the market.