Sox get thier man part II

Like earlier spoken about on the site by J Zang the White Sox have agreed to terms with RF Jermaine Dye with a 2yr/$10.15 million deal with a $6 million option for 2007 (with a $1.15 million buyout). He will make $4 million this year and $5 million next. Like Zang talked about earlier, Dye apparently made a verbal agreement with the Sox and went to take a physical for the team before signing the contract. On the way to the physical another team called with a better offer but Dye decided to stick to his word and make the pact with the Palehosers. At least there's still someone in professional sports with some integrity to his word.

The fact that Dye signed for this much money surprised me, and i was even more surprised that other teams were offering more, but this move makes the the Outfield for the sox very solid. Although they are not as good offensively as with Magglio Ordonez, and Dye has not lived up to the offensive numbers he had earlier in his carrer, Dye is still a very good defensive outfielder with one of the best arms in the league. Combine that with Carlos Lee's gloveword and Aaron Rowands range to cover the deficiencies of both Lee and Dye in that area, and the outfield becomes very solid. Dye can still put up solid numbers, 30 HR's, .280 avg or so, 100 RBI's, but it seems that he will never live up to the giant promise he showed as a younger player.

This move does give the White Sox a glut of Outfielders on the roster. Besides the starters they have Alex Escobar, Timo Perez, and Joe Borchard on the 40-man. It appears they might be inclined to keep Everett due to the fact that DH Frank Thomas might not be back at the beggining of next season, but any of these players could be gone by the start of next season.

- In another White Sox note, the D-backs turned down a deal proposed by Kenny Williams of a three way between the Sox, Diamondbacks, and Yankees where the White Sox would get Javier Vasquez, the D-backs get Paul Konerko and Jon Garland, and the Yankees get Randy Johnson. Money and minor leaguers would also get shifted around.

A Hillbilly in the City....

2B Jeff Kent has inked a 2yr/$17 million deal with the LA Dodgers to be thier new cleanup hitter, 2B against RHP's and 1B against LHP's for next season. Kent grew up rooting for the Dodgers and had his parents at the press conference as he nearly broke down in tears. Another interesting point of the press conference was how Kent expressed apparent regret at not taking the Red Sox offer to move to 1B for them a couple years back after watching them win the World Series this year. This move could mean that the Astros will move LF Craig Biggio back to 2B to fill that hole since they can move Jason Lane into the LF spot.

As the Glaus Turns...

The Diamondbacks signed the second best 3B on the market today, Troy Glaus, to a 4yr/$45 million contract. Glaus is getting a $4 million signing bonus with salaries of $8, $9, $10.5, and $12.5 million each season of the contract. Glaus also gets a suite for every road trip and $250,000 a year in personal business finances. On top of this Peter Gammons is reporting that a 4yr/$34 million deal is about to happen any day between the D-backs and RHP Russ Ortiz as well as a contract for free agent SS Royce Clayton. These are nice signings for the Club but they already have young position players at on the left side of the infield. Chad Tracy could get moved to 1B, but Shea Hillenbrand already has that spot so one of them will need to be traded. And where Alex Cintron plays now, i do not know.

Another major problem with this deal is that that D-backs are in heavy, heavy debt. They have over $50 million dollars of past defered contracts to pay out this season, and an $80 million dollar loan from MLB that needs to be paid. The problem lies in this, they have *supposedly* been in the red every year of thier existence and asked for MLB to forgive that loan, but now they go out and are about to spend nearly $100 million in contracts. In light of thier signings i cannot see MLB wiping the loan away - which will put the new ownership in Arizona in the same predictament that the previous ownership was, serious debt.

Cubs competition gets smaller...

A report out of Anahiem is saying that the Angels are about to sign CF Steve Finley to a 2yr deal worth around $7-8 million per season. This effectively puts the Angels out of the Carlos Beltran running and with the Yankees expressing more and more interest in going after J.D. Drew the market may get even smaller for Beltran. Here's to hoping that the Yankees go for Drew, but even if they get Beltran it does leave the Cubs door open for Drew to fill that LF spot. The Angels also appear to be hot on the trail of SS Orlando Cabrera.

- In another Cubs note they will probably lose 3 or more guys from thier roster in the rule 5 draft from these players: Andy Sisco(maybe the best guy available), Luke Hagerty, Jon Connolly, Ricky Nolasco, Jae Kuk-Ryu, Carmen Pignatiello, and Brandon Sing. All are very good pitching prospects except for OF Sing, who is a pretty decent prospect himself. Leaving all of these guys available is a very very questionable move by GM Jim Hendry. All I can say is that it really is unfathomable, especially for near major league ready guys like Connolly and Sisco.