Juan Pierre was acquired before the 2010 season for John Ely and Jon Link (basically nothing). So far the Sox have paid him $0 for the 2010 and $5M for this season… not bad. I'm not a huge fan of Pierre, but he's good enough value for what they've paid him. Alexei Ramirez signed in 2008. If he plays out his entire contract with the team, he'll be here for 9 years and cost about $48M… and they can opt out of the last year ($10M) for $1M. So 9 years for $48M or 8 years for $38M. Not bad for a solid hitting and gold glove fielding shortstop. Carlos Quentin was acquired before the 2008 season for Chris Carter (again…nothing). Though this season, the Sox will pay him a little more than $9M…for 4 years. Omar Vizquel is old, but he's still about as good as it gets for a 4th infielder… $3M over 2 years. He's might not admit it openly, but I'm pretty sure Kenny didn't really want Rios. But, objectively speaking, I don't think he's far from living up to his contract. Sure, he sucked when he got here in 40 games in 2009, but last year he was solid. Gold glove center field, solid bat. If he comes around this year and ends up with a typical year for him, I don't think I can call this a bad move even though it wasn't what Kenny wanted to do. Although I am a big fan of defense so I might be placing a little too much value on that, but whatever. Matt Thornton was acquired for Joe Borchard (pile of garbage). He only been one of the best left handed setup guys in baseball for 4 years. If there was a recent trade I'd like to have back, it would probably be the Edwin Jackson deal. It was pretty much even and far as production, but I'd rather have the younger, cheaper guy (Hudson). But overall I'd give this deal a "meh"…nothing lost, nothing gained. Of course there's the obvious ones like Danks (about $11M for his 5 years), Floyd (under $9M for his 4 years) signed through 2013 for $16M total for '12 and '13. Jesse Crain's a pretty high priced acquisition for a reliever. But if you're already writing off Dunn as garbage, then this has to be a absolutely great signing for just over $4M. I think Teahen blows, but $12.5M for 3 years for what should have been a stop gap average starting 3rd baseman isn't what I'd call a massive failure. Then there's Peavy. I didn't particularly care for this deal when it was done, but whatever. So far, not so good. This guy pretty must needs to be all star caliber the rest of his contract to make this a success. It might happen, it might not. But giving up "talent" that you'll never use to get a 28 year old Cy Young talent...even with the high contract (not many cheap Cy Young award winners out there), isn't something I can call stupid. Again, as of right now, this isn't a good deal. But you can't call this a failure til it's all said and done. And Dunn, I don't even see how you can already call this a failure. The guy's played 2 months. Sure, the contract is big, but it's pretty much what you pay a guy that does what he does. I don't really think he overpaid. It's a four year contract…that's pretty minimal anyway. Once again, we'll see how this one turns out but I absolutely can't call this one a failure yet. Definitely not this early. Also, there's plenty of 1 to 2 year acquisitions done to "fill out the roster" and the free agents that were on the White Sox that he didn't sign. There's good and bad there, but you'd be hard pressed to find something on that list that you can say cost the team anything of significance. To say that Kenny doesn't deal like he used to is just plain wrong. Was Peavy available 7 years ago? No, who says he wouldn't do the same deal then? He does what he thinks gives the team the best chance to win that year. Spend big when you have it because your other players are locked up for good value, or save money, whatever fits that year. He adapts. I think he's a good GM that takes his share of risks and his successes far outweigh his failures. He’s been doing it the same way for years and I expect nothing to change… which is fine with me.
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