Poor defense was the reasons for a poor 2006? I'm guessing horrible luck (+88 run diff) and a gawd awful bullpen had nothing to do with it?

I have no interest in Crede, especially at the extortionate price the White Sox would ask for him from a division rival.

While I have always loved Brandon Inge as a player (I'm a sucker for a flashy infield glove, esp. at 3B), he's due ~$19MM over the next 3 seasons and he doesn't hit. Pass.

Looks to me like we're going to get through another year with Blake at 3B, with the FO hoping that Marte forces their hand at some point. And if he doesn't, we'll still have options in 2009 -- bring back Blake as an FA, try Marte (again), move Peralta to 3B, or hand the job to a kid like Hodges or Mills. Point being, we absolutely don't need to panic and overpay for a "name" like Crede or Inge.

Pass.

Blake was actually good for 708 RZR last season (3rd in AL). Inge was good for a 712 RZR. They were about equal defensively.

Inge looks like the poster child for the old phrase "wrong side of 30."  It's not clear he's a better bet to perform in 2008 than Marte, let alone Blake.

I am no great fan of Casey, but prefer him over either of those two options.

I love pre-injury Crede ... but I feel he is too much of a risk for what the White Sox would want right now.

Now, if we could dump Casey (and another player) for Crede at mid-season when the White Sox are already 10 games out ... that would be great. Assuming that Crede can return to 2005 form.

 

but did a solid to very solid job last year, and certainly better than what Marte has been showing in ST so far (SSS understood.)

Hello everyone,

I understand the concerns about Blake's defense, but I think I'd rather stick with him over Inge and Crede for the following reasons (not in any particular order):

1. We already have Blake, and unless you're going to trade him away in this or a subsequent deal (unlikely,) you add the expensive payroll of either Inge or Crede.

2. Blake has comparable or better power than Inge and only a little less power than Crede (and that's presuming he's healthy - see below,) and likely would hit for a better BA than Inge and comparable to Crede, so how much of a benefit offensively would we get?  Not much.  The defense may be improved a few notches, but is that really worth acquiring either of them for the price we'll likely have to pay for either of them?

3. Being that they are division rivals, they are NOT going to give either of them cheaply to us.  As mentioned above, look at the price tag the White Sox were asking from the Giants, a team outside our division.  The price will likely be so high that any improvement we get defensively is going to be likely negated by the high price in prospects we're going to likely have to give up.  And like I said, offensively, I think the three of them (Blake/Inge/Crede) are pretty comparable for the most part (Blake can hit around 15-25 HRs a season, which is pretty much what Inge can do at best, but with a lower BA, and Crede probably won't do more than that in all likelihood, due to the questions about his back.)

4. How healthy is Crede really?  I think he had a back problem if I remember correctly.  How will that affect his power stroke?  And like Blake, he too is prone to hot and cold periods offensively, so again, I don't think he'd be that much of an upgrade offensively.  And being that we'd have to pay a very high price to get him from the White Sox, I think that would essentially negate any defensive advantages we'd gain from having Crede instead of Blake as our 3B.  Conversely, Blake has been pretty healthy for the most part, and hopefully, that will continue.

I can understand the argument about worrying the 2008 season and not worrying about future seasons in paying a high price for either Crede or Inge, but how high of a price would you go to get either of them because I can't see either team giving either to us without us paying an above-average to very high price for either of them, and I think both have enough concerns - either health-wise, consistency-wise, or both - that make me think we should just stick with Blake at 3B and hope that he can come close to duplicating what he did defensively last season.  

I know that doesn't sound very comforting, but he had, by most accounts, a pretty solid defensive season last season, and I don't see him falling totally off the map defensively one season after having a pretty solid one.  He's not THAT bad at 3B yet, and certainly not as inconsistent as Marte has been in ST (SSS understood,) so if he can give us close to what he gave us last year defensively, the Indians will probably be fine.  

I can understand the reasons for acquiring Inge/Crede, but at the high price it would likely take to get either of them from a division rival, I too would pass.

Just my 2 cents - no offense.  :-)