The White Sox Finally Deal Freddy Garcia
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by user Jeeves
We all knew it was coming, it was just a matter of when. Kenny Williams finally pulled the trigger on a deal he likes. I will admit I'm surprised by the trade, by the fact that it happened so early and by whom he got in return.
Going to the Philadelphia Phillies is Freddy Garcia, and coming to the South Side is Gavin Floyd and Gio Gonzalez.
A lot of people were speculating that the Sox would pick up one of their former players from the Phillies, namely Aaron Rowand, but I don't think anyone foresaw Gio Gonzalez coming back. If you recall, Gio was sent over with Rowand and Haigwood for Jim Thome.
I'm not going to say I'm disappointed with this trade, or all that happy with it, especially considering some of the rumors I mentioned earlier(the one with the Mets and the one with the Angels). I don't want to pass judgement on this trade, because I have the sneaking suspicion that this is just move one in a two part chain of moves for KW. Kenny made a point of saying "The White Sox are still open for business," so take that for what it's worth.
My first impression of the trade was that I wasn't blown away by it, so I did some research to try and get a better grasp of the trade as a whole.
The rap on Floyd is that he has good potential, but his mechanics are holding him back. (Cue Don Cooper). He has a good fastball reaching 95 mph on the gun, but it isn't all that special; his money pitch is his curve. He also sports a decent changeup. Looks like Coop is going to very busy this summer. After straightening out Matt Thornton and Jose Contreras before him, Coop is set to go to work on Floyd as well as Aardsma who was acquired earlier.
Gio is the more interesting of the two, personally, and not just because he used to be one of our guys. He started last year well enough, but tailed off toward the end of the year. It's possible he was injured or just plain tired. As Jim from Sox Machine proposes, Gio could very well be put in the bullpen this coming season. The Sox are in need of a LOOGY, and putting Gio there would be one effective way of filling that role, although I'd rather see him get good work done in AAA or AA.
Gio's numbers don't look all that sparkling (7-12, 4.66), but he did put up 166 K's in 154 innings. Also keep in mind he was drafted out of high-school and is only 20 years-old, that's really young, AND he's a lefty, which is always a bonus.
I'll have to mull this trade over (especially if Kenny isn't done dealing) before I decide where I stand on this trade. I will say this though, Kenny got two young arms with high ceilings, he definitely could have done much worse, especially considering the rumblings we've heard about Freddy being traded straight up for a reliever.
