Farewell Jim & Jose

[Shootdabull]

First off I would like to wish Jim & Jose well. They have been a big part of the team over the past few years and Jose came up big for us in the championship year of 2005.

The Deals:
Jim Thome to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Class A infielder Justin Fuller, 26, and dealt pitcher Jose Contreras to the Colorado Rockies for Triple-A pitcher Brandon Hynick, 24. In addition, The Sox sent cash to the Dodgers and Rockies in both deals.

The Hopefuls:
Fuller is batting .254 with four home runs and 17 RBIs for Inland Empire.
Hynick is 10-9 with a 3.83 ERA with Colorado Springs.

The pitiful finish:

Not to long ago Buehrle pitches a perfect game, we pick up Rios & Peavey. It looked like the playoffs are a realistic possibility. I get tickets for the 26th thinking it would be the crucial finish against the tigers. Now a few weeks latter the team looks like it has nothing. We have dropped 11 of 12 including another ninth inning loss yesterday. Peavey looks like next year. With the heat turned up for the finish Ozzie and the gang are just melting away. This is one of the worst stretch runs I can remember.

[nitetrain8603]

Hynick is one of the best, non "can't miss" prospects. I don't know how we swindled Colorado like that.

[Shootdabull]

On Hynick:

I thought you might like reading this excerpt from Gazette.Com (Colorado Springs). Pitching a perfect game I bet got Kenny's attention.

It sure seems like they’re mortgaging a lot for Contreras, a “37-year-old” pitcher who has an ERA of 5.23 over his last three years – including a 7.66 mark over six starts in August. I’m sure Denver’s altitude will do wonders for those numbers.

In Hynick, the Rockies had a brainy, 6-foot-3 prospect who has displayed a keen understanding of pitching at each level of his development. His strikeout numbers were never particularly impressive, but everything else about his game was. The 24-year-old former eighth-round pick walked just 119 batters in 580 minor-league innings and posted a 3.83 ERA in the hitting haven that is the Pacific Coast League.

He’ll be best remembered for throwing the first perfect game in Sky Sox history, a seven-inning masterpiece against Portland in late June.

Altitude kills some pitchers, Hynick seemed impervious (opponents were hitting .257 against him at home, .257 on the road). Even his perfect game came here in the Springs, a thousand feet above Denver.

This ability to pitch in the thin air — where breaking balls lose their bite and location is at a premium — should not be taken lightly. Jhoulys Chacin and Esmil Rogers, a pair of prospects rated higher than Hynick, have not shown a knack for retiring hitters at altitude. In 36 combined innings in Denver and Colorado Springs they are 0-6 with 34 walks and a 10.50 ERA.

So while Hynick may never set the world on fire, he seemed a perfect fit for this organization.

All that potential is now at the disposal of the White Sox organization as O’Dowd made a move that seems to go against everything that has helped him build a contender at Coors Field.

[Sebastian]

Hopefully Hynick can help shore up our pen next year.