Lofton Dealt to San Francisco

[bd811]

The White Sox traded outfielder Kenny Lofton to the San Francisco Giants today for a pair of minor leaguers.

The Sox get right-hander Felix Diaz and left-hander Ryan Meaux for Lofton, who's hitting .259 with eight homers, 42 RBIs and 22 stolen bases with the Sox this season. He's sixth in the AL in stolen bases and third in triples.

Diaz was 3-5 with a 2.70 ERA in 12 starts for Double-A Shreveport this season. Meaux was 4-3 with 16 saves and a 2.68 ERA for Class-A Hagerstown, making the South Atlantic League All-Star team.

Lofton will be expected to contribute immediately to a San Francisco outfield that was missing Barry Bonds, Reggie Sanders, Tsuyoshi Shinjo and Marvin Benard during a weekend series against Los Angeles because of injuries.

"We're glad to have Kenny, and we got him in the nick of time," Giants manager Dusty Baker said. "Not only do we want him, but we need him. He's a proven winner who will add a lot of excitement and spark the team."

Lofton also is the type of true leadoff hitter the Giants have lacked for years. Sanders leads San Francisco with 17 stolen bases, but he typically hits in the heart of the order. Only struggling veteran Tom Goodwin has more than 10 stolen bases among the rest of the roster.

Lofton did not play this weekend against Kansas City while trade rumors swirled. He's expected to join the Giants in Philadelphia on Tuesday for a three-game series against the Phillies.

The deal was the second in a week for the White Sox, who are 14 games behind Minnesota in the AL Central. Earlier in the week, the Sox sent Ray Durham to the Oakland Athletics for a minor league pitcher.
Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press

[Hurricane Floyd]

I think this is a great move by the Giants.

[bd811]

I cant believe it! Kenny Williams has finally made a deal that looks good! These 2 guys seem like they are good pitchers, both with ERAs under 3. Now the only question is, who do we bring up?:hmm: Jimenez?:barf:

[Hurricane Floyd]

Well I dont think it looks good oh well. So you didn't want Lofton? Or you just like what you got for him :confused:

[bd811]

Originally posted by Hurricane Floyd
Well I dont think it looks good oh well. So you didn't want Lofton? Or you just like what you got for him :confused:

well pretty much i like what we got for him. To understand this trade, you have to understand the situation the sox are in. They are out of the race, and lofton was going to be traded no matter what. they are now trading for the future, and compared to the durham trade, this trade looks awesome. Its not that i dont like lofton. I wish him the best in san fransisco, and ill be payin attention to him.

[Hurricane Floyd]

oh ok. BUT if you's trade Thome to the Braves I am personally going to kill YOU lol

jk :wink:

[bd811]

ummm...Thome is on the Indians Floyd:biggrin: ;)

[Hurricane Floyd]

Originally posted by bd811
ummm...Thome is on the Indians Floyd:biggrin: ;) oops my bad lol all these teams getting rid of all these players I forgot where I was hehe. I'll still kill you if that happens though jk hehe.

[bd811]

ok i just read that Joe Crede is reported to be called up. There hasnt been an anouncement(to my knowledge, anyway), but he is expected to be in the lineup tomorrow(and it will stay that way!). Either Clayton or Valentin will be benched or traded.

[Hurricane Floyd]

I like Valentin he is on my fantasty sports team. Well that might be becasue I waited to long to get a SS though lol.

[bd811]

LoL...well he hasnt done too good in the last 2 seasons, and his defense is very shaky. i think he has more value than clayton, though.

[Hurricane Floyd]

2001 was imo one of his best seasons (second place to 2000) when he hit 28 hrs

and he isn't doing that bad this year:


http://sports.yahoo.com/images/sports/mlb/players/4/4948/bat_bar.png

Sure he isnt no A'Rod or anything but still pretty good imo..

he has 957 fp
Nomar has a .964 fp

[Hurricane Floyd]

Also found this on ESPN:

Percentage Owned (Fantasty league)
MLB: 81.5%
AL Only: 100.0%
MLB Ranking
3B: #17 SS: #12

[bd811]

i know all the stats. thats all fine, but the fact is, he makes way t many errors at SS, which he hasnt been playing much this season because of it, and he hasnt been as good as he was in 2000. he has been on a steady decline since.

[Hurricane Floyd]

well like i said he isnt far behind nomar and at ss he is ranked at #12 out of them all which I think is pretty good.

[bd811]

well its pretty good. thats why i say he has the most value. but the main reason he is so close to nomar is that he didnt have that many attempts.

[Hurricane Floyd]

well it was both 3b and ss i dotn know what it is just at ss and if its less attempts its harder to get a higher rank cuz you figure if you have a ball come to you twice and you make one error your fp is .500

[bd811]

floyd, ive seen the guy play SS! I saw it every day! He is not a good SS regardless of what he did in his 23 attempts this year. and besides, a .957 or whatever FP sucks. I dont care who he is behind. all that says is nomar isnt doin so good defensively. It does NOT say that valentin is doin good.

[Hurricane Floyd]

I never siad that it meant he was doing good just that he is not really that bad. But looking at past years he doesnt look that good

[Hurricane Floyd]

MINNEAPOLIS -- The White Sox have put the squeeze play on and it'll be up to Royce Clayton and Jose Valentin to see if they can execute it.
The arrival of third base prospect Joe Crede at long last has more than just appeased restless Sox fans, it will also force Clayton and Valentin to share time at shortstop.

At least for the next 24 hours.

"If the deadline passes and I'm still here, man, it's going to be a rough two months," Clayton said. "I want to play. I love playing baseball and I feel like I've been unjustly put in a situation where I haven't done anything not to merit to play every day and I'm sure Jose Valentin feels the same way."

Clayton's days in a White Sox uniform are numbered whether or not he is dealt before the end of the season. There will be no interest from the Sox to bring him back with a year still remaining on Valentin's contract.

White Sox manager Jerry Manuel revealed his plan at shortstop before Tuesday's game at Minnesota, saying Valentin will play mainly against right-handers and Clayton against left-handers. Valentin started Tuesday night’s game at the Metrodome against Twins right-hander Kyle Lohse.

However, Manuel said the split would not be equal, and since Valentin is a switch-hitter he might also play against left-handers. Manuel met with Clayton before the game to inform him of the plan.

"They're not going to have me on the bench not playing every day making $5 million a year," Valentin said.

The problem is Clayton also makes nearly that much. In the recent trades of veterans Ray Durham, Kenny Lofton and Sandy Alomar, Jr. the Sox agreed to cover at least a portion of their remaining salaries.

The Sox had youngsters Willie Harris, Aaron Rowand and Josh Paul whom they wanted to try, so they made a baseball decision to eat some salary in order to move veterans that were now in the way.

It will be nearly impossible for the Sox to convince another team to take Clayton off their hands and assume the remaining $1 million he is owed.

That has Clayton absolutely puzzled. He is hitting .238 this season but over his last 31 games is 33-for-108 (.306) and has only made four errors this season. Last year he hit .263 after an awful start and set a Sox record for shortstops with a .988 fielding percentage.

"I don't know what I've done that's been so terribly wrong here," Clayton said. "I've come in here and I set a record for fielding. I drove in 60 runs last year. I'm on pace to have another good year because I know this is my time of year as far as I start to make my move offensively."

Valentin may get the most playing time but that doesn't mean the Sox aren't trying to move him. The Sox acquired Clayton to begin with because they felt they couldn't live with Valentin’s defense at shortstop. They are also high on Triple-A Charlotte shortstop D'Angelo Jimenez, who was acquired earlier this month and has Major League experience.

But Jimenez probably wouldn't play every day unless both Valentin and Clayton are moved, which is not out of the question.

"You would hope, for their sake, that something could happen just to appease them and get them an opportunity to play on a regular basis," Manuel said.

[Turnin 2 SS 2b]

PHILADELPHIA -- In a game of debuts, Kenny Lofton got the better of Brett Myers.
Lofton homered on the second pitch from Myers -- who was making his Veterans Stadium debut -- and the Giants went on to a 10-3 romp over the Phillies.

The center fielder was acquired Sunday night for two minor league pitchers and was making his first at-bat since returning to the National League. The poke was his 24th career leadoff homer and his fourth this season.

The Giants scored an unearned run later that inning when Marlon Anderson made an error on an infield hit by Jeff Kent. That allowed Tom Goodwin, who had singled, reach third. He then scored on a sacrifice fly by J.T. Snow.

The Giants added three more runs in the fourth off Myers (1-1), when they loaded the bases with no outs on a double, a hit batsman and a single. Reggie "knocked in" the inning's first run when Myers plunked him in the rib cage. He then gave up a two-run single to Yorvit Torrealba.

Manager Larry Bowa yanked his 21-year-old rookie at that point and went to David Coggin, who allowed one of his inherited runners to before escaping the inning. Coggin threw two scoreless innings, extending his scoreless innings streak to 18.

Myers, who allowed one run on two hits in eight innings during his Major League debut Wednesday against the Cubs, allowed six runs -- five earned -- on six hits in three innings. He walked one and struck out none.

Kirk Rueter (9-6) allowed two runs on seven hits and no walks in six innings, with four strikeouts. Manny Aybar, recalled over the weekend from Triple-A Fresno, made his Giants debut by allowing a run on three hits in the ninth inning.

Placido Polanco, who started at third in his first game since being traded for Scott Rolen, was perfect in all seven chances in the field, and went 1-for-4 when David Bell couldn't come up with a high bouncer in the sixth. The only ball to elude him was a Jeff Kent double down the line.

Mike Timlin, the other new Phillie, didn't appear in the game.

[bd811]

thanks for the articles guys. i hope we can deal clayton or valentin within the next few hours. maybe we can even pull off a waiver deal if we have to(that is, if someone wants them.)