I'd like to begin by calling out "Luda"

I make my triumphant return in vain today.

I'll block quote everything of interest a fellow blogger wrote recently and tear it down piece by piece. It's hard to pick out one specific thing wrong with his post but before I get into the meat of the root of the problem I'd like to point out how little I care about a stupid poll from David Kaplan.

Seriously who cares?

Unlike Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye West, I am NOT concerned with who is going to run this town tonight.

I really don't care as a White Sox fan that Chicago is not a Sox-Town. More tickets for me!

But I digress...

Let's start from the top...errr...middle of the post:

"Where are the outraged tweets about losing a starting pitcher who is 14-9 with a 2.91 earned run average in Atlanta? Or the ones about an outfielder with 27 homers and 79 ribbies? I'm not sure, but I'm still waiting for the Stone Pony to speak his "truth" via a Twitter update any minute now."

I cannot stress this fact enough: I DID NOT WANT JAVY ON THIS TEAM!

Javier Vazquez is what he always has been: A great pitcher on bad teams. He's shown time and time again that he can't perform for contenders such as the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox. Meanwhile, any fan should know that a pitcher switching leagues, particularly from the American to National League experiences a significant drop in ERA. Look no further than CC Sabathia in 2008 when he became damn near unhittable with the Milwaukee Brewers after an average first half with the Cleveland Indians.

"When the deal first happened, M.J. Hartwig noted that the White Sox sold Swisher too soon. Finding room for Dirty 30 would have been difficult, but because of his versatility, he could have been used all over the field, which would have benefited the team over the course of a 162 game season. He's seen his homers, ribbies and OPS skyrocket since joining the Yanks and a good chunk of that has to do with hitting in a ballpark that rivals the size of a little league field. But with Jermaine Dye and Jim Thome off the books starting in 2010, one would have to think the White Sox could have used Swisher somewhere in the order."

Ah, yes, our friend Dirty-30....Did the White Sox sell shockingly low on Nick Swisher? Yes. Did we have to sell? Yes.

First off, there was no room for Swisher on this club. His clown-act wore thin on the veteran core and his numbers didn't back up his complaints for playing time. Is it likely that Swisher, given the chance, would have put up the numbers he did for the Yankees? Yes. But I just didn't see how it was going to happen given his first season in Chicago. We didn't have openings and first base, designated hitter or right field. Thus, we had no place to play Swisher. Don't tell me he would fit in on the 2010 version of this team either. While I don't expect either Thome or Dye to return I have plenty of other ideas for those positions.

"As for Vazquez, he was the White Sox's version of Jason Marquis. Good, not great, but always reliable. Little Game Javy has thrown at least 200 innings in nine of his last 10 years. The one year in which he didn't reach the 200-inning plateau was in 2004 where he threw 198 innings. Vazquez has been a strikeout artist, reaching 200 punch outs in five different years, including each of the past three seasons. Has his game hit another level because he plays in the National League? Certainly. But it's not like the White Sox are going up against the 1975 Reds, 1927 Yankees or one of those vintage Colorado Rockies teams for a division crown. It's the American League Central, where the Royals and Indians battle it out for gagging rights."

Again, Javy is what he is. He's a good solid, innings eating, strikeout pitcher. But again, he had no chance to come back after getting pantsed down the stretch while making well over $10 million in 2008 and in 2009.

"Like it or not, Vazquez could have been an integral part of a winner. Proof of it is the fact that he has thrived under baseball's best manager Tony La Russa Bobby Cox."

Coulda, shoulda, woulda, but DIDN'T!

Just for fun, imagine this starting rotation in 2010:

Mark Buehrle

John Danks

Gavin Floyd

Jake Peavy

Javier Vazquez

Imagine Jake Peavy not in that rotation...Because we wouldn't have the savings from Swisher and Vazquez to spend..


Ughh...Cub fans....