Randy Johnson to the Sox??

And the White Sox no less, i for one cannot believe that they're competing with the Yankees in obtaining him this offseason but it apprears that Kenny Williams has made a large push according to the Arizona Republic. I'll tell you right off the bat that I am a Cub fan and a big one at that, but with tickets in such demand on the northside, aka impossible to get, if the Sox were to get RJ you can bet i would seriously consider heading to 35th and Shields every 5 days, and i would wager that plenty of Cub fans would do the same. And despite the fact that the Sox were percieved to have emptyied out thier farm system to obtain freddy garcia last season, there are still some prospects in the cupboard to offer up to the Diamondbacks, well at least more than the Yankees have to offer. It also helps to have one of the more aggresive GM's in baseball competing against the biggest empire of them all.

If they are able to pull off this trade it would definently give them a top 3 rotation in the AL of Johnson, Freddy Garcia, Mark Burhle, Jose Contreras, and Jon Garland in that order. Depending on what Boston and the Yanks do this offseason a possible move to the no.2 spot behind the Oakland Athletics is not out of the question. Johnson is obviously a legitimate ace and Garcia is a potential ace, burhle is a solid no2 pitching in the three spot, Contreras might have the best stuff among all of the pitchers, and Garland improves every year with age as control and deception oriented pitchers of his caliber do.

Combining this with what appears to be the lead in the race for omar visquel (rumored to be 2yr/$8mil) and assuming they do not wind up trading either carlos lee or paul konerko in the Johnson Deal it would give them a starting lineup (in batting order) of :
SS Vizquel
2b Uribe
LF Lee
DH Thomas
1B Konerko
RF Everett
CF Rowand
C Davis/Burke
3B Crede
(you can change out Uribe and Rowand either way)

Although the lineup is still righthand heavy you now have a guy at the top who knows how to get on base, not to mention the defensive upgrade involved. Also having a guy in Crede who can hit 25 HR's batting ninth while playing gold glove defense seems to be a pretty nice luxury as well. Looking at that lineup the only weak links seem to be catcher and RF(although Everett is decent), both at the plate and with the glove, but every team has its problems and none can be perfect, but this team would be sitting pretty with a solid lineup and very very good pitching staff. Unfortunatley there does need to be a bullpen upgrade and if these moves happen, probably very little money will be left or authorized by Sox Owner Jerry Riensdorf to be used. Shingo is good, but a upgrade could be used putting Shingo in a more effective setup role, as well as someone who can get the outs in the 7th and 8th innings between the starters and Shingo - if another closer isn't found.