Those bastards!

The White Sox traded OF-L Kenny Lofton and cash considerations to the Giants for RHP Felix Diaz and LHP Ryan Meaux on Sunday. The South Park parody doesn't really apply here, as trading Lofton was the correct move for Chicago. However, they should have dealt him in May when he likely would have netted a much nicer package. Luckily, he picked up his play the last week following a couple of months when several minor injuries slowed him.

Before the deal could go through, the parties had to come to an agreement regarding the incentives in Lofton's contract tied to the White Sox attendance. Some reports have Lofton accepting less money to facilitate his move to a contender, but I suspect that merely means he waived the attendance incentives, which he wouldn't have reached if he stayed with the White Sox. Chicago will still pick up a sizeable portion of his salary for the remainder of the season.

The Giants signed Diaz as a nondrafted free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 1998. He played for San Francisco's team in the Dominican Summer League in 1998 and 1999 before the Giants assigned him to their Rookie-level Arizona League team for the 2000 season. Diaz also spent a brief time in the Short-Season Northwest League in 2000. Last year, San Francisco promoted him to A Hagerstown in the South Atlantic League. At AA Shreveport in the Texas League this season, he has allowed 54 H and 1 HR in 60 IP with a 48:23 K:BB. His control has dropped off somewhat with the jump past A+ directly to AA but his other skills remain solid. Diaz finished a number of games early in Spring Training for the Giants, so the 22-year-old might eventually move to relief, though he has been starting at AA.

San Francisco drafted Meaux out of Lamar Colorado Community College in the 25th round of the 2001 draft. After he signed, the Giants assigned the 22-year-old lefty to the Short-Season Northwest League, where he worked primarily in relief. This season in the Sally League, he has a 44:12 K:BB in 54.2 IP with 41 H and 1 HR allowed over 44 appearances.

He's been closing in A-ball, but I see little value in that fact. Minor league closers rarely carry their roles to the majors and even less often make the transition successfully. Additionally, teams infrequently select left-handers as their closers, preferring to use the southpaws in specialist roles or at least to have more flexibility to use them whenever they want during the later innings. Meaux could make it through the upper levels and become a useful reliever for Chicago in a couple seasons, but the White Sox were likely overly attracted to his saves and his appearance on the Sally League All-Star team.

Due to their ill-advised decision to wait to trade Lofton, the White Sox only received a couple of moderate-risk, moderate upside prospects. He's a very good acquisition for the Giants, as they were receiving little production from centerfield even before they began losing players to injury. Lofton's injury history is the one thing that concerns me about the deal from San Francisco's perspective. However, they were able to acquire him at a cost that makes the risk acceptable.

The White Sox continued to discard their pending free agents today, trading C-R Sandy Alomar, Jr. and cash to Colorado for RHP Enemencio Pacheco. Colorado made a good move with this deal considering they don't want to distract Ben Petrick with catching. Bobby Estalella is out for the season following rotator cuff surgery, leaving them with Gary Bennett and Walt McKeel as their catchers. While they aren't contending in an NL West division almost as packed as the AL West, the Rockies had to give up very little to add a player that should improve the quality of their on-field product this season as long as Alomar avoids the DL.

Pacheco signed with the Rockies out of the Dominican Republic as a nondrafted free agent in 1997. After spending only one season with their Dominican Summer League team, the 23-year-old advanced to the Rookie-level Arizona League in 1998 with a brief stint in the A Sally League. He spent most of the next two seasons in the Sally League, along with some time the Northwest League, before the Giants promoted him to A+ Salem in the Carolina League in 2001. This season he's back at Salem and has a 31:26 K:BB in 51.1 IP with 52 H and 1 HR allowed. Perhaps he could salvage his career with a move to relief, but he struggles with his control with every level he advances and has poor dominance.

Chicago GM Kenny Williams inherited a franchise that likely had the best minor league pitching in the game in both the quality and quantity of arms. Through poor decisions, he substantially depleted that system, and now when he has a chance to replace some of the talent his foolishness has cost the team, he's acquiring minor league filler. He hasn't even been able to get the other clubs to cover the salaries of the players he's giving away. Perhaps in October of 2000 Owner Jerry Reinsdorf should have promoted the dramatically more qualified Dan Evans, then a White Sox employee of nineteen years, rather than letting Evans go to the Cubs and then Dodgers, sacrificing the White Sox's best chance at winning in a misguided attempt to follow Selig's minority hiring directive.