The question, however, becomes at what position will Fields play for the Charlotte Knights? If the Sox are unable to move Crede, and then he proves he’s fully healed from back problems and is as productive as he was in 2006, signing him to an extension might not be out of the question. If that happens, expect Fields to get work in left field. Crede is a far better defensive third baseman than Fields is anyways, but even if Fields is terrible in left field, at least the lineup now has two guys that could potentially hit 30 homers. Fields’ defense would also be less damaging in left then at third.
For the record, I like Carlos Quentin a lot as well, and when he gets healthy, adding Quentin to the mix gives the Sox another young power hitter. Fields and Quentin could potentially be the corner outfielders in 2009, or Fields could take over for Paul Konerko at first base when Konerko slides over to DH after Jim Thome retires.
Even though the Sox farm system was recently ranked dead last in the majors, they still have a lot of young talent. Fields is a monster, Jon Danks is still very young and should develop into a top of the rotation starter, add Quentin and Danny Richar to the mix and the Sox actually have a nice young nucleus.
I keep telling myself these things because I’m not as optimistic as I was earlier in the offseason. I’m planning on doing a White Sox preview podcast with Matt Olsen of Top Ten Chicago Sports soon, so I’ll save my final thoughts for then.
Note 1: Head over to Lefty Malo to read his thoughts on the Giants potentially acquiring Crede.
Note 2: My list is up at Top Ten: best Chicago sports blogs.
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Comments
This seems like an easy decision to me, but then again, you are dealing with Kenny Williams...who never thinks he's wrong.
He should have sent Konerko to the Angels when he had the chance, regardless of what the fans would think, and then he could swap Fields over to first until the Crede situation is figured out.
You'd be looking at Quintin, Swisher, Dye in the outfield with Crede, Cabrera, Uribe and Fields in the infield...then you take whoever you got for Konerko (figgins and santana) and slot figgins center, slide swisher to left until quintin is needed once Thome retires. Then, it doesn't matter if you re-sign/trade Crede because you have options everywhere. Instead, now he has too many of the same player in the same position (3b) with no players at certain positions (CF)
2008 lineup
Figgins - cf
Cabrera - ss
Swisher - lf - slides to rf
Dye - rf -slots to dh,CQ in
Thome - dh - retires
Crede - 3b -resign thru '10
Fields - 1b
Uribe/Richar - 2b
A.J./Eldred - c
That may have worked, but Konerko is pretty good. He hit 40 homers with 100 driven in the two seasons before last year, which was a down year for him, and he still hit 30 homers. He's not exactly old either. I don't know if you want to lose that.
Like i said above, the obvious thing to me would have been to have Fields learn left field this offseason and just start him there. Now you have six guys (thome, swisher, konerko, crede, dye, fields) who can easily hit 30 homers, and you just try to win games that way, which is actually an underrated way of doing so. Especially when you're #3 starter is Contreras, you are going to have to score a lot of runs anyway.
Obviously Konerko is pretty good if you're getting Figgins and Santana (at least) back in the trade. The thing is that Konerko has the most value right now out of all the players who are 'expendable'. You aren't getting that kind of package for Crede. The Sox have holes to fill and the only way to fill those holes is to get players from other organizations.
I hate Joe Crede.