[duncan_idaho]

So, I imagine I didn't miss much this weekend and haven't had a chance to read back through the thread yet. Spent Saturday and Sunday at home helping my dad finish the interior of my grandmother's new garage. It was a lot of tough work (sheetocking walls without a drywall lift sucks), but at least I missed the debacle Saturday.

Winning yesterday keeps the weekend series from being a complete disaster (it is just a minor one now), but the team has already talked so much about how it's a second-half squad, it had better deliver. Unless a move is made to add some punch to this offense, I hold out little hope for that.

It wouldn't shock me if Hosmer continues to hit and has a really strong second half. At this point, I'd be pretty shocked if Butler turns it around.

As for the costs on Dunn or Byrd, neither should be prohibitively expensive in acquisition cost. Dunn has one year left on his deal and is owed about $7 million over the rest of the season. I've never been a fan of his game and think the fanbase would quickly get annoyed with his 3 outcomes nature (think about how pissed people get now if a player doesn't deliver a runner from 3rd with less than two outs... that's pretty much Dunn's MO).

I can't imagine the White Sox market for Dunn is huge. He's a DH-only guy at this point, really. So you're limited to AL teams. I imagine it would be a very minor cost (something like Jason Adam, a lotto ticket who MIGHT eventually become a back-end starter).

Byrd probably makes more sense and is an easier fit for KC (as he brings more to the table than Dunn), but probably costs a little more to go get. And there's the no-trade clause issue, though he already has said he's willing to waive it to go to Seattle.

Being able to play Byrd in RF (something they should certainly be willing to live with considering they were fine with playing Ibanez RF) is a nice bonus, and his option for next year provides a little insurance for when Butler's option is not picked up. It would take more than Dunn - probably more like Adam plus another lotto ticket type -but Philly needs pieces and numbers to start its rebuild.

You could Byrd and not have to immediately cut ties with Billy Butler as part of the deal. Not really the case with Dunn.

Side note:

Kyle Zimmer is supposed to resume throwing today. We'll see how long this lasts!