Your Newest (And Oldest) Chicago White Sox

While reports indicate that the White Sox are close to pulling the trigger on a deal that would bring Alfonso Soriano to the defending champs, they've already made two smaller moves.

First they acquired Sandy Alomar Jr. from the Los Angeles Dodgers,

and they just added reliever Mike MacDougal from the Kansas City Royals.

In both deals the Sox gave up minor league prospects - BJ Lamura for Alomar and Tyler Lumsden/Daniel Cortes for MacDougal.

As I said earlier, I like the Alomar deal, both for he knows our pitchers and, despite limited action, he's batting .323 so far this season.

As for MacDougal, he's had a history of arm trouble - just recently returning from the DL this season - and control problems. Still, he has a 97MPH fastball and a pretty nice hook to go with it, and White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper has a history of fixing those same types of problems. One need not look past what he's done for Matt Thornton this year.

As far as Soriano, I don't know that I like the potential deal. The Sox don't really need another bat in the lineup, and having to give up Brandon McCarthy isn't an idea I like too much. Plus there's the fact that Soriano is a free agent after the season, so it's not like it's a guarantee we'd keep him. Also what would they do with Scott Podsednik? Move him to center and bench Brian Anderson? This would cause the outfield defense to suffer. Unless they were planning on moving Pods I don't think it makes any sense.

Still there is speculation that the Sox are only trying to get Soriano to keep him from the Tigers, and once they acquire him, will ship him somewhere else for pitching help. THAT idea I like.