Mark Buehrle re-signs for 4/56mm. Take that, Barry Zito lovers.
The Sox very obviously need an overhaul, so it was a little strange to hear Buehrle's name being bandied about in trade rumors so often. Who do you build around on this roster beside someone like Buehrle?
Teams build around players that are 1) cheap, 2) young and 3) dependable. If you're young, then you're usually cheap. It's the rare treasure that is all three, young superstars like David Wright, Miguel Cabrera, and Brandon Webb. The sustainability of success depends a lot on those cheap, young, good players that keep the winning percentage up and the payroll down. Even big spenders like the Yankees (Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera) and the Red Sox (Dustin Pedroia, Jonathan Papelbon, Kevin Youkilis) have young players playing at a high level every day, to offset all those high salary guys.
The short list of young and/or cheap is: Danks, Jenks, Fields, Podsednik and Iguchi
The list of dependable is: Buehrle, Garland, Uribe
The last list is guys who are probably too expensive to move: Thome, Konerko, Vazquez
So, with Buehrle back in the fold, the only guys left to deal are the Rotting Corpse of Jose Contreras and the Slightly Less Rotting Corpse of Jermaine Dye, both of whom have a year left on their contracts but may still entice someone into a two month rental for mid-level prospects. Vazquez has suddenly resurrected himself, having his first good year since 2003, so he looks unlikely to move.
The only other thing is to figure out which, if any, of the chumps among Luis Terreo, Andy Gonzalez, and Jerry Owens can play (survey SAYS: no), and see if we can get some more of those cheap, young, good players, because the 2007 Sox are overloaded with old, expensive ones.
Come on, Kenny!
