Waving the White Flag

Not to sound too fatalistic or pessimistic, but it appears that the White Sox are throwing in the proverbial towel as of today. A memo was sent to numerous team indicating that certain veterans were on the market before Monday's midnight deadline (by which players must be added in order to qualify for the postseason roster). The most likely people to be moved are Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome, and Scott Linebrink. Dye is essentially a goner anyway due to the pickup of Alex Rios off waivers a few weeks back. This makes me pretty sad because he has been a guy who just goes out there and works hard everyday. Unfortunately, Dye is in his 14th major league season with his best days behind him. His last 4 years have looked like this statistically (BA/HR/RBI):
2006 - .315/44/120
2007 - .254/28/78
2008 - .292/34/96
2009 - .262/25 /72
I personally really like the guy. His is an uber-professional who goes out and plays the game hard. And in spite of all the media attention brought on by the city of Chicago, he doesn't go shooting his mouth off like so many other players out there (e.g. Milton Bradley). As a fan, I will really miss the guy but definitely understand the importance of bringing in other young talent (Rios is only 28) to go with Beckham, Ramirez, Getz, etc.

I have also been a really big fan of Thome throughout his career (even while with the Tribe) because, again, he is a professional. Further, he looks like Mr. Incredible. He was brought in for his power which has slowly decline (2006-2009 HRs: 42/35/34/23), not surprising with the fact that the guy is in his 19th major league season. He's obviously a future Hall of Fame-er but he was definitely a guy that needed to go (we can't have our DH hitting in the .240's or /.250's if he isnt hitting 40 HRs).

Linebrink, the final guy considered on the block, has never been one of my favorites. He's just never really impressed me with his stuff, which has never really been the same since he left San Diego in 2006. His K:BB ratio this year is barely over 2 and he is giving up, on average, over a hit per inning. I'm really hoping that he gets taken by someone since he's technically on the payroll until 2011 and it'd be nice to get his $10.5 million remaining off the books.

By losing these 3 guys, the White Sox wipe off $35 million off the books. Combine this with the $10 million that they won't be paying Jose Contreras, that leaves a lot of money that Kenny Williams can hopefully use to find an everyday CF for the top of the order and hopefully another guy for in the bullpen. Also, they'll need that money to try and keep Danks, Dotel, and Beckham here for a while.

The White Sox have currently lost 4 in a row and 8 of their last 9 games. While, I agree that it is looking grim as they stand 6 games back of Detroit, there is still 5 more weeks of baseball. They have a tough stretch ahead with 4 against the Red Sox and 3 against they Mariners and Angels. But they also have 6 more games against Detroit, 5 more against Minnesota, and 3 against the Indians and Royals. I feel like it might have been a little too early to bow out of the race now, but clearly Kenny Williams is looking towards the future and sees high hopes. It sucks to watch it end like this when they had some really good runs during the year. Hopefully, they can at least finish a respectable .500 for the season and re-gear for next year.