Dick Allen

Why do they say flu like symptoms? Why not just say he has the flu?

There is an article in the Tribune stating the Bears have picked 8th five times and have yet to "strike gold". Then they go through them. Dennis Lick wasn't a bad player, but the one I don't understand was Wally Chambers. He made the Pro Bowl something like 4 out of 5 years, and then got traded to Tampa Bay for a draft pick used to select Dan Hampton. If that isn't striking gold, it's hard to imagine what is.

For one thing, he's a pretty good fielder. An excellent baserunner, and a great hitter. i don't think he will ever be a 30 homer guy, but it wouldn't surprise me if he is like another little guy, Adam Eaton, and hits 14 or 15 homers a year. To go along with everything else, that's a pretty good ballplayer. I think being a good baseball player is occassionally overlooked in the draft, in search of off the charts tools. Teams fool themselves. Baseball is a hard game. Guys can have all the power in the world, if they can't hit, it doesn't matter. This guy can hit, and he can field, and he knows what he's doing on a baseball field. He won't get picked off of second base down 5-0, and then again get picked off of second base 3 days later with 2 on and no out. From what I've read, it doesn't appear he is on the White Sox radar. I hope they are correct. If this guy was 4 inches taller and 20 lbs heavier, he's probably the favorite to go #1.

But the development staff does need to be questioned. If Mike Trout gets drafted by the Sox, is he a HOFer? Are Mitchell and Hawkins legit major leaguers if some other team drafted them? It probably all falls pretty much as it did in reality. But questioning it IMO is legitmate.

We will see with Collins. Hostetler, and it could have been just lip service, did say he would have taken him 1-1.

It also could be due to weather. Nate Jones was back up to 98-100 yesterday when the temp was about 60. He was 96 most of the time when the games were in the 40s and 30s.

I give credit to the White Sox for drafting Sale, but the fact that he was available was luck. And the guy who drafted him, has been sort of pushed aside, and no one here seems to mind.

I do think one reason they have been more successful with pitchers is volume. In drafts, they seemed to concentrate on pitching for years, thinking if you can develop that, you can trade for bats.

I think they were lucky all those teams passed on Sale. I also think they were lucky Q was basically released as a minor league free agent. I give them credit for signing him, but if they were so sure what he was, they probably would have traded for him before that. So there was luck there. The Eaton trade was genius.

Whille true, these aren't guys right now you can say are anchors for a championship contending team. Still a lot of question marks with all of them. But it is better than what they were producing. I will admit that.

And so far, not overly impressed. The White Sox were lucky they had Sale, Q, and Eaton with their contracts or this really would be a never ending nightmare. Cubs, Astros. Those are best cast scenerios. So many teams are doing this in several sports. There aren't enough good players for all of them to be successful. There are going to be more than a couple of failures. Hopefully, the White Sox advantage of having the assets they had keep them from becoming one of them, or they could have been in an abyss that might take multiple decades to get out of.

I will start "trusting" the developmental team when Sox minor leaguers not counting the guys drafted and developed by other organiztations, can be considered at least middle of the pack .

RR tossed

Upper deck closed

Anderson needs some work on baseball 101