MVN - Most Valuable Network

Pop Quiz

Pop Quiz-

Who is leading the White Sox in Runs and On Base Percentage, and tied for second in RBI and Stolen Bases?

Carlos Quentin.

That’s right. The guy who didn’t have a starting spot on opening day, and was expected to contribute off the bench this year.  Nobody went hog-wild when he was acquired via trade in the off-season, but now he is really starting to turn some heads.

Manager Ozzie Guillen, and radio broadcasters Steve Stone and Ed Farmer have all agreed that he doesn’t waste an at bat or a swing.  Farmer says he may be the strongest player on the team.  That is quite a compliment considering the team has burly hitters like Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, and A.J. Pierzynski.  CBSsportsline.com claims that he has .300-30-100-100 potential. 

So how in the world did the White Sox land him?

He was acquired in a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks for minor league 1B Chris Carter.  Quentin was always known as a young player with tremendous potential, but he really laid an egg last year in Arizona, and that dropped his market value.  Here are some of the reasons Kenny Williams was able to swing what now looks like a great trade:

• He suffered a small tear in the labrum of his left shoulder during spring of 2007.
• He hit .214 with five home runs and 31 RBIs in 81 games for the D-Backs last season.
• He lost his starting job in right field and was demoted to the minors in July, then recalled a few weeks later.
• He missed most of August with a strained right hamstring and was left off the playoff roster.

If his re-emergence proves to be real, the 25 year old will have a starting spot on the White Sox for years to come.  After all, he was once a top prospect:  (From yahoo.com)

• He entered 2006 ranked by Baseball America as the 20th-best prospect in pro baseball and the best defensive outfielder in Arizona’s system.
• Quentin was chosen by the Diamondbacks out of Stanford in the first round (29th overall) of the 2003 amateur draft.
• He hit .348 with four homers and 27 RBIs in 33 games with Triple-A Tucson in 2007.

Whether or not Quentin keeps up the pace for the remainder of the season remains to be seen, but it is starting to look like the Carlos Quentin trade may be another in the long list of moves that Kenny Williams has made that have turned to gold.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 7:05 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.