A Swishy Situation

Our left field problems are cleared thanks to a deal that brought switch-hitting Nick Swisher to the South Side.

The 27 year-old outfielder/infielder slammed 22 home runs this past season for Oakland and drove in 78 runs. Theres a little niche on his stat sheet that bothers me and thats the 131 strike outs. Hopefully (hitting coach) Greg Walker can help him stay away from those pitches.

Swisher has played a little first base as well as in the outfield, so that ca provide Konerko with a little rest when needed.

The lineup now is getting a little... awkward, for lack of a better word. We got Quentin who will most likely platoon with Owens in center and also play a little left field. Now that we got Swisher, he may become our everyday left fielder.

How is our batting order going to stack up?

1. Owens/Quentin - CF
   
2. Cabrera or Swisher - SS or LF
   
3. Thome - DH
   
4. Konerko - 1B
   
5. Dye - RF
   
6. Pierzynski/Hall - CF
   
7. Swisher or Cabrera - LF or SS
8. Fields - 3B
9. Richar - 2B

Now, an angle I didn't take into consideration was that Swisher could possibly DH at some point whenever Thome needs to sit. So that could become a possibility.

The talent we gave up to acquire Swishy, however, did not please me. We sent over Ryan Sweeney, Gio Gonzalez and Fautino De Los Santos. Gonzalez and De Los Santos are both pitchers while Sweeney is an outfielder.

I have mentioned before that I'd love to see Gonzalez somehow make it into the starting rotation but obviously that can't happen now.

I had never heard of De Los Santos before, which makes me a bad organizational scout, so I'll give him his dues when I write about the trade on my minor league blog.

Sweeney was supposed to play all three of the outfield positions this year, which I would've loved to have seen, but now is loving the opportunity for more playing time over in California.

Will Swisher possibly wear Rowand's lucky #33?

We'll have to see when he gets introduced at some point (Cabrera still hasn't been).