Editor’s Note: This post got broken up into two parts because it was just a bit too long.

I posted a couple of months ago that the White Sox should blow up the team. Then a month ago (right before the trading deadline) I had yet another “blow up the team” post in the queue but I didn’t get it finished before the Peavy trade. Now I realize that hindsight is 20/20, but Kenny waiting to make this move looks pretty bad now.

Let me get this out of the way, brilliant job by Kenny to get rid of Contreras. How he got anything other than a 6-pack of Coors Light back still boggles my mind. And it is nice that at the 11th (literally) hour he was able to get something for Jim Thome. Unsurprisingly no one wanted Jermaine Dye.

Dye’s numbers dropped from .302/.375/.567 pre-All Star break to .181/.276/.299 since. How bad is that? Wilson Betemit’s time with the Sox was a hair better. And no matter what my dad still thinks, Dye is a downright awful fielder at this point. According to FanGraphs, amongst the 31 qualifying outfielders in the AL, Dye has the sixth lowest with -11.9 range runs, which is “the number of runs above or below average a fielder is, determined by how the fielder is able to get to balls hit in his vicinity.” Meaning that he has basically cost the Sox 12 more runs than an average fielding outfielder would. 12 runs is surely a win or two. And his bat has likely cost the Sox a win or two the last 6 weeks.

I was clamoring for the Sox to give up on Bobby Jenks back in June and still think if they could have gotten one solid prospect they should have. Jenks hits per 9 IP and home runs per 9 IP pitch are the highest they have ever been. His strikeout percentage is the 2nd lowest of his career, behind last year. His GB/FB ratio is it’s worst since his rookie year. His .290 BAbip means his luck has been pretty average. He is also throwing his fastball with much more frequency and has his lowest ratio of curveballs for his career. That has resulted in him getting fewer swings and misses outside of the strike zone. Add it all up and it’s likely that Jenks is on the decline. Outside of the elite guys (Rivera, Hoffman, etc.) you really don’t see closers have long careers. If you need examples, see Eric Gagne (3 dominating seasons) or Danny Kolb (2.5 good seasons). And of course Jenks is going to get a huge raise this winter in arbitration.

Add Jenks’ raise to it the fact that Kenny took on two huge salaries. Again, this is something we have talked about here and here. The real problem is that a few weeks later these trades look awful. The Sox are completely out of the playoff race. Rios has hit a Jermanian .179 since we got him, managed just one HR and struck out 16 times in 58 at bats. If you are keeping score at home, that is a stellar 27.7% of the time he comes to the plate, only better than Fields and Thome, and worse than our friend Wilson Betemit. What makes me most bitter about all of this, is that I think we could have a chance at Carl Crawford this offseason. He has a team option and Tampa is going to try and trade him. And he is exactly the kind of guy we are missing. Now I presume we will stick Rios in CF and hope he can hit 3rd.

Then there is Mr. Peavy. The 28 year old Cy Young winner who hadn’t had any arm problems…until now. Of course articles like this that call Peavy a “major injury waiting to happen” would argue that we saw this coming. Now it’s likely that they will shut him down for the year (because at this point we don’t need him) and hope he gets better. Nevermind that he hasn’t thrown a quality minor league start since we got him. Or that he hasn’t pitch in the launching pad that is US Cellular Field. The good news is that we have three years to see how many home runs and DL days he can pile up.

Stay tuned for part 2 to see what this all means…

Credit: Baseball Reference, Cot’s Contracts and FanGraphs