Can the “white flag” talk

by
September 1, 2009

From Rick Morrissey:

And while we’re asking questions, since when did Trader Kenny become Traitor Kenny?

On Monday, the news hit that Sox general manager Ken Williams had sent a memo to every team listing the players he was willing to trade. By Tuesday morning, Jim Thome, who was having a nice year at the age of 39, was gone, as was Jose Contreras. Thome was traded to the Dodgers for a 26-year-old Class A infielder. Wow, that loss must really sting for the Dodgers. The Sox sent Contreras to the Rockies for a Triple-A pitcher . . . What is it that baseball people like to say? That a 162-game season is a marathon, not a sprint? Well, the Sox just quit at about the 20-mile mark.

Oy vey. I love Jim Thome and Jose Contreras just as much as the next guy, but Thome is going to, maybe, pretend to be Mickey Stanley for a month in Los Angeles. Contreras has one good start in the entire second half and that came against the Royals. To hear Morrissey (and others) tell it, you’d think that the Sox gave up the cornerstones of the franchise.


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YankeesfanLen
14 years ago

Farnsworth to Royals via Tigers
Contreras to Rockies via White Sox
Yankees trade-in, next buyer gets a lemon, goes cash-for-clunkers route.
Francour just a bad late-model trade.

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Detroit Michael
14 years ago

So you expect that Jim Thome will play shortstop during the post-season?

The Contreras trade seems easy to defend for Kenny Williams.  He was losing his spot in the rotation anyway and the guy they got seems useful.

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Greg Simons
14 years ago

Agree with Detroit Michael on the Contreras deal.  Dumping him for a guy having a solid season in Colorado Springs was a wise move.

There’s a huge difference between calling it a season 3.5 GB on July 31 and doing so 6.0 GB on August 31.  The White Sox made the right call – this time.

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Isaac
14 years ago

Anyone that frequently reads the tribe shouldn’t be surprised by an idiotic Morrissey article. White flag deal? Gimme a break.

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Mike
14 years ago

Morrissey’s just filling white space – and poorly.
If they got a bag of balls for Contreras, they came out ahead.  Can’t wait to see how he does in Colorado.  And Thome wasn’t coming back next year so it relieves the log jam of Quentin, Rios, Dye, Konerko, Podsednik.  If anybody wants Pods, that’s OK too.

The difference between this trade and the “White Flag” trade is that anybody who thinks the White Sox can catch Cleveland this year (only 5 games behind them) isn’t crazy at all.

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Chris H.
14 years ago

This is why I am so done with newspaper columnists.  The vast majority of print sportswriters write like this: little thought or analysis, but lots of hyperbole and emotionalism.

It’s the literary equivalent of Jerry Springer or something.  (I confess, I’m not real happy with that analogy, but after I wrote, “It’s the literary equivalent of,” I froze.  Even so, Morrissey is a hack.)

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Jack Marshall
14 years ago

You meant MIKE Stanley, right, Craig?

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Craig Calcaterra
14 years ago

Nah, Jack. Mickey. As in the 1968 Tigers, who put him horribly out of position at shortstop, knowing they’d take the defnsive hit in order to cover for the awful, awful bat of Ray Oyler.

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Bedheaded
14 years ago

Morrissey is a hack. The only baseball writer that’s worth a damn in Chicago is Bruce Miles.

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Jack Marshall
14 years ago

OK..that was too clever (or strained) for me before I have a cup of coffee, and I couldn’t get the picture of MIKE Stanley trying to play first base in out of my head after they wouldn’t let him catch…it’s hard to believe Thome could be worse that THAT.

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