Guardado to the White Sox?
Dismayed by the Mariners’ failure to score even four runs against Joe Mays? Flabbergasted that Scott Spiezio got his third hit of the season? Superstitiously ready to suggest that Derek write about Sand Frog in the P-I every week?
Take your mind off of the desperate horrors of todays game with the soothing salve of a new trade rumor. The Daily Southtown reports that Eddie Guardado has apparently cleared waivers, and the White Sox may be looking to add him.
Standard caveats apply, but note that Bill Bavasi and Ken Williams have worked together on major trades before. Also note that Williams isn’t afraid to make a big deal, and that hungry Pale Hose fans are spoiling for their team to do all it can to win this year. After the Freddy Garcia trade, Williams offered the following explanation to Baseball America: “Two words: nineteen seventeen,†Williams said, referring to the last year the White Sox won the World Series. “How many more generations of fans are going to have to wait? I don’t want to wait.’’
To complete washing the shameful loss taste out of our collective mouth, I offer this: Chicago’s got some prospects I’d love to have, including Brandon McCarthy, who the Mariners were reportedly trying to acquire before the deadline.
There are reasons to believe that a deal could happen. While I don’t advocate trading Guardado just for the sake of doing so, a swap that included McCarthy would be well worth completing.
[Bonus grammatical pedantry inside.]
Comments
29 Responses to “Guardado to the White Sox?”
How on earth did Eddie clear waivers? I just don’t see it.
Though I agree with all of your take if he did… I must be missing something, because why would teams in need of playoff help let that happen? Just as a favor?
Guardado’s been wonderful, but I would take McCarthy for him in a second. And Cowley’s writing for the Southtown is awfully reliable. He does bad analysis, but his beat reporting and sources are usually quite good.
Since the first line of Joe Cowley’s linked piece will bother at least two readers of the blog in the same fashion it bothers me, indulge me a little.
Cowley says:
“White Sox general manager Kenny Williams is fond of “flying under the radar” when it comes to laying the groundwork for trades, and he might be doing just that.”
Our friends, the quotation marks, are used to set apart quoted material. Alternatively, they can be used to indicate that the material inside the quotation marks is doubtful. For example, someone might say “I hear Jeff is ‘smart'” while making those irritation quotation mark mimicry motions with their middle and index fingers. This would indicate an ironic use of the term.
These miracles of punctuation should never, ever, be used for emphasis, nor to surround an old cliche.
Disclaimer: I honestly don’t care much about proper grammar or punctuation in day-to-day communication (like conversation, or the comments), but I figure professional writing is fair game.
McCarthy huh? Lovin’ the K/9 and WHIP. What are the chances that they would part with him? Let’s throw in Spiezio to make it happen.
John, Eddie might have cleared waivers because of his big salary and teams having injury concerns about him.
Tons of players clear waivers this time every year, including many you wouldn’t think. Sometimes nothing comes of it, sometimes … things happen, as Beano Cook might say.
Given the states of the bullpens in places like Atlanta and Boston, I’d be pretty stunned if Guardado cleared waivers. But hey, maybe we’re back to the old boys network way of doing things.
jason
TNSTAAPP
Update: Shannon Drayer says that a source with the Mariners tells her Eddie didn’t clear waivers.
I think the conflicting anonymous sources should settle with a duel the question of who is correct and thus is allowed to remain anonymous.
TNSTAAPP
Now you’ve just made Dave angry.
jason
Would be shocking if Eddie cleared waivers.
That said perhaps the memory of Randy Meyers is fresh in some teams minds and it is no secret the status of Eddie’s arm.
It could be win win for both teams hope it happens even though I admire what Eddie has accomplished.
… and you wouldn’t like Dave when he’s angry.
Actually, I’ve never seen Dave angry, and find anyone not liking him pretty unfathomable, but the image of him going Bruce Banner all of a sudden is impossible to resist.
Oh, and I really, really like Eddie Guardado. He’s a talented pitcher that’s easy to root for. But I’d also bet on Brandon McCarthy being more valuable to this team even next year, beyond 2006 notwithstanding.
I take Shannon & Dave over some hack from the Daily Southtown any day.
FWIW, Gammons included Guardado on his list of players who were claimed and pulled back; and Dave has said flatly that such was the case. All things considered, that’s the story I believe (unless and until I wake up to find Every Other Day Eddie in black and silver, anyway).
Considering that Boston was willing to give up players for Eddie, just not the ones Bavasi apparantly, wanted it seems hard to believe they wouldn’t claim him
of course there were a lot of teams who could have claimed him well before it ever got to Boston…
The guy on the 20 dollar bill is allegedly notorious for getting played by executives and insiders on all teams not named the Red Sox. His information has a tendency to be far from accurate. I take his inside info with a grain of salt.
sorry — I just don’t buy that Eddie cleared. The yanks and sox have the chance to take him before the White Sox get to him, and I can’t believe that the yanks would give the sox a chance to get him.
My money says, Eddie is still wearing a M’s uni October 2.
Can Eddie swing a bat? Because from the White Sox perspective, this doesn’t make much sense. They’ve got bunch of quality arms (or at least they been quality arms this season) in the pen. I’d even go so far as to say I have confidence in 6 different bullpen arms in a tight game. Sure Eddie would be an upgrade over some of them, but not large enough to give up any prospect of worth.
Meanwhile, the Sox have been scoring just 3.08 runs per 9 for the month of August. Since Frank Thomas left the lineup, over 40% of their runs have come via the HR. They have a team OBP of .292 in August.
It’s not their pitching staff that needs help.
More bullpen support wouldn’t hurt the Sox. Right now, Hermanson is closing with smoke and mirrors. He has a 33/25 K/BB rate, and only about 5 K/9, with about 1 HR/9. It’s really tough to have long-term success with numbers like that, unless you are an extreme ground ball pitcher, and Hermanson is not. Eddie would be an upgrade on what the Sox have to close out games. Plus, if Eddie did clear waivers (which I don’t believe), it may be that no hitters of interest cleared waivers, so getting Eddie would be the best move to make.
However, my question is, why should we think anyone of McCarthy’s prospect stature would clear waivers? There are a bunch of teams in the AL that would really want to keep Chicago from adding anything significant, and I don’t think there are many teams that wouldn’t have room for McCarthy.
20, I was wondering the same thing. Doesn’t the prospect we’d get in return for Eddie also have to clear waivers? Or would Brandon McCarthy only have to clear Tampa and KC, since they are the only teams lower on the waiver-claim order than the Mariners?
Even then, why would any team pass up on a good pitching prospect like McCarthy? Or do the waiver rules only apply to major leaguers?
Doesn’t the prospect we’d get in return for Eddie also have to clear waivers? Or would Brandon McCarthy only have to clear Tampa and KC, since they are the only teams lower on the waiver-claim order than the Mariners?
Not if they’re a minor leaguer.
And no, if they did, they have to clear all teams before they can be moved.
Huh, just the other day, over here: http://ussmariner.com/?p=2889#comments
Dave was claiming that even prospects had to clear waivers, so it was hard to do an August deal that wasn’t just a salary dump. I guess he might have meant only prospects that were in the bigs, but that seems unlikely to me. I checked Rob Neyer’s Transactions Primer, and that seems to be of no help here. Not having the patience to wade through the CBA, I figured Dave knew more than I did.
I can see how it would be impractical to have a ton of minor league players out on waivers, but I also can’t remember many prospects being moved in August recently. Does anyone have a definitive answer with a source on this?
Waiver claims in this situation probably aren’t in the CBA but instead in the MLB rules, which aren’t available.
It may depend on things beside league — whether they’re on the 40m, for instance.
Times says Eddie didn’t clear waivers. TNT doesn’t specify, but says no trade is in the works.
McCarthy is 6-7, 180lbs (according to the bio on the link). Whaaaa…?
Rototimes.com
Aug. 19 The report in the Daily Southtown yesterday that Eddie Guardado (P) Sea had cleared waivers and may be traded to the White Sox apparently was incorrect. The Seattle Times reports today that Guardado actually was claimed, then pulled back off waivers, which means he can’t be traded now.
Is this article written by the same Joe Cowley who pitched for the Sox (among others), and threw a no-hitter for them in 1986?
Just to reiterate, as many of you have pointed out, the story Jeff linked to is wrong. Guardado did not clear waivers, and cannot be traded.