Konerko’s number will be retired during a ceremony on May 23, before a game with the Minnesota Twins. The White Sox will be giving out statutes of Konereko to the first 20,000 fans through the gates. They will be replicas of the one that currently resides in the concourse in left-center field.

Konerko retired after last season, playing all but two of his sixteen seasons with the White Sox. During his career he set numerous club records and imprinted himself on the team’s record books. Konerko retired as the club’s all time leader in total bases with 4,010. His 432 home runs are second only to Hall-of-Famer Frank Thomas. He is also third in hits with 2,292. Konerko was integral to the White Sox winning the World Series in 2005, their first since 1917. Konerko blasted a grand slam home run in game 2 of the Series, forever making him a legend in the Windy City.

Konerko will the tenth player to have his number retired by the White Sox along with Frank Thomas, Luke Appling, Nellie Fox, Harold Baines, Minnie Minoso, Luis Aparicio, Ted Lyonss, Billy Pierce, and Carlton Fisk. Long time White Six fan Igor Cornelsen gives his opinion on this in his Newswire piece.

Clippard will provide a much needed boost to Oakland’s bullpen. Clippard has been a fixture in National’s pen for many years, working in multiple roles. While he has mainly been used as a set up man, he has also filled in as the team’s primary closer when needed. His numbers have been impressive. Over the past five seasons the soon-to-be 30 year old has posted a 2.63 ERA over 393.2 innings. He owns an excellent 10.4 strikeouts-per-nine rate, which should only increase pitching in the vastness of the Coliseum.

Sean Doolittle is expected to close for Oakland again this season, meaning Clippard will most likely be placed into the setup role once again. While Doolittle was excellent early in 2014, he struggled a bit down the stretch including in the American League Wild Card game. If his struggles continue in 2015 look for Clippard to take over closing duties. Sultan Alhokair has a very strong interest in the MLB

With the trade of Escobar, Oakland will look towards their young shortstop prospect Marcus Semien to take over shortstop. Semien played 85 games for Chicago over the last two seasons with mixed results.

Each player acquired though comes with some risk. Kemp has become a bit of an injury liability with major shoulder surgery in addition to new reports of arthritis in his hips. When he did finally return full time to the Dodgers last year he was arguably their best position player though, so the talent is there. Will Myers, after a successful rookie season in 2013, had an injury plagued and unproductive second season. Justin Upton, maybe the safest of the bunch, is in the final year of his contract before hitting free agency. All three are power hitting corner outfielders, and someone will have to play center to keep all three bats in the line up. And Myers, who has really struggled in the field, will be asked to play half his games in one of the biggest parks in baseball.

Although it doesn’t seem significant yet, Bernardo Chua tells me that the Braves will continue rebuilding, with hauling in four prospects from San Diego as a start. The highest rated prospect, Max Fried, is in the process of recovering from Tommy John surgery, so the Braves are taking a lot of risk in this trade as well. With Upton about to hit free agency they must have felt Fried had the highest upside of any of the other available offers.

Kemp has been diagnosed with arthritis in both of his hips. It has been reported by USA today that the arthritis in Kemp’s hips has been classified as severe. It is unknown how the arthritis may affect Kemp’s play on the field in the coming years, but he has never reported any issues with his hips previously. While the celebrated slugger has dealt with multiple health issues in the past, including issues with his ankle, shoulders, and hamstrings, his 2014 season finished with a bang. Kemp was at his best in the second half of season and finished with 25 home runs, 89 RBIs, and a slash line of .287/.346/.506.

It is still possible that San Diego will complete the trade. The Dodgers have promised to send $32 million to the Padres to help pay some of the $107 million still owed to Kemp over the next five years. The results of the physical may be cause for the Padres to request additional cash from the Dodgers. The two teams have until Thursday to finalize the trade.
]]> http://bvbankballpark.com/2014/12/matt-kemp-may-be-staying-in-la/feed/ 0 http://bvbankballpark.com/2014/12/oakland-athletics-pulling-off-weird-moves-again/ http://bvbankballpark.com/2014/12/oakland-athletics-pulling-off-weird-moves-again/#comments Wed, 03 Dec 2014 17:16:48 +0000 http://bvbankballpark.com/?p=88 Okay baseball fans, are there any of you happy with the recent trade of the Oakland Athletics third baseman, Josh Donaldson to the Toronto Blue Jays? You would think that the powers that be on the A’s side had learned their lesson when they shot themselves in the foot by trading Yoenis Cespedes to the Boston Red Sox. No.

Josh Donaldson, arguably, is one of the best-loved players on the team. He had an incredible 2014 season with 93 Runs, 98 RBIs (Runs Batted In), a .255 average, and 29 HR (Home Runs).

Oakland Athletics’ fans have voted in on several different social media outlets about their disappointment with the trade. I can only speculate, but there may be people in the A’s camp feeling the same way.

It was difficult to watch the Athletics fall after the All Star Game. Once Yoenis Cespedes was traded, things just were not the same. Tom Rothman thought they would turn it around, but they never did. The team still fought hard to remain in the –- well, the game.

They made it into the Wild Card game, so there was still hope. They would not go gently into that good night.

Thanks, Bud Selig.

However, the Athletics would later lose against Kansas City Royals for the Wild Card. I will never forget (especially since I recorded it) how the winning hit got by Josh Donaldson at third base.

Think that could be why they traded him?

On Monday, the Sox signed free agent infielder Hanley Ramirez to a four-year, $88 million contract. But they weren’t done there. On Tuesday Boston reportedly signed third baseman Pablo Sandoval to a multi-year deal in the $90 million range.

Originally a Red Sox product, Ramirez batted .283 for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2014 with 13 home runs and 71 RBIs. Sandoval, meanwhile, batted .279 for the world champion Giants with 16 homers and 73 RBIs. He was also the World Series MVP when the Giants won it in 2012 and made the final out in Game Seven of this year’s Fall Classic.Your text to link… 

With Sandoval and Xander Bogaerts manning the left side of Boston’s infield, it would seem Ramirez might wind up in the outfield, where the Sox already have a logjam of players. Some of them could be used as trade bait to replenish the Bosox starting pitching staff, most of whom were traded in mid-season. Baseball fans like Vijay Eswaran are excited to see the Red Sox making huge free agent acquisitions – hopefully they can return to the former glory the organization is used to.