There's few baseball sports writers that I enjoy more then the Chicago Tribune's own Phil Rogers, the Peter Gammons of the midwest. Anyways, after seeing his articleon Chicagosports.com, it certainly raised my eyebrows. But here's some issues I take with getting Johnny Damon to take over in center:
1. DECLINING PRODUCTION: In the past three years, Damon's numbers have gone down in runs, hits, doubles, triples, batting avg. and OBP. Not good for a guy who will be heading into his 14th season in the majors at the age currently of 33. He still looks like he has a few years in the tank, set to make 13 million in 08' and 09'.
2. BETTER PLAYERS AVAILABLE: I would much rather see Torii Hunter or Aaron Rowand back in center then Damon. Hunter provides much more offense, and we already know what Aaron Rowand brings to the table. What makes Johnny Damon that much more different then Darin Erstad outside of durability. We've already seen the older centerfielder gig not play out so great, and I feel like repeating history will not do the Sox any justice.
I think Damon would be an upgrade over Erstad, but he's getting older, and while he did steal 27 bases last year, which has gone up for the past 3 years; I don't know how long he'll last. Also, if trading Crede to clear the way for Josh Fields is the plan, there should be more exploring to be done. I'm there are plenty of other options, and the White Sox have all winter to make moves. As long I don't Uribe back in the field come April, I have no problem..yet.
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