Dick Allen

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 10:04 AM) Martinez is substantially older at this point than Dunn was and has a storied injury history that includes two real bad knees from catching so long. I agree that his skillset probably ages better, but that's why it's still working five year past where Dunn began to turn into a role player -- age will still catch up and there's more of it at play than ever. I think you've got an argument that Martinez at 31 is less risky than Dunn at 31, but I can't see one that says Martinez at 37 is less risky than Dunn at 31. Martinez will turn 36 in December. You sign him for 3 years, you pay him through his age 38 season. You do HAVE to take risks. I think Martinez is a good calculated gamble. He is what you need. A switch hitter, a middle of the order bat, who makes more contact than anyone else on your team. As I have mentioned before, I think some team will probably offer him the moon, but maybe not. I would guess NL teams aren't going to be interested. Maybe the Yankees. Boston has Ortiz. Detroit has to be interested, but who know where they will be at with their payroll, and with all the injuries, it may be time Cabrera moves to DH. Maybe KC to take Butler's place. Maybe Oakland, but at least most of the big spenders will be sitting his bidding out.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 09:47 AM) You haven't been reading these threads carefully enough. I'm not the proponent of Josh Hamilton. I'll stand by hoped-for James Shields or Matt Kemp moves, though. How can they bring those guys in with their current attendance?

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 09:45 AM) You just have to fight with me!!!! Seriously you're smart enough to tell the difference between Victor Martinez and Adam Dunn as hitters. Also, admit it: you'd be excited if we went into ST with a team that was worth a s*** for once. Overall there has been little reason for excitement every season since 2011 which obviously was a bomb. The best things we were looking forward to were things like Sale as a starter, Abreu's debut, s***ty players finally being gone, etc. but over the last 3 ST there was never any reason to consider the Sox a contender for anything. It will be nice when the time finally comes where we don't have to say "if these 20 things work out", the Sox should be really good.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 09:37 AM) I still see no reason why Houston would trade Castro despite the down year. I also still don't know why so many people are trying to move Gillaspie to LF. Also, signing Victor Martinez at this point is an incredibly risky move. Regardless of giving up the draft pick, you are talking about bringing in a 36 year old who is having a career year on a multi-year deal likely worth $15 mill per year. I mean, it's been so long, I'm trying to remember the last time the Sox brought in a 30+ year old DH on a multi-year deal...I don't remember how that one panned out. Oh well, I'm sure everything would be fine. The time before that, it wound up OK. There were signs Dunn was on the downslope. He struggled the second half of 2009 and had never played in the AL or been pretty much a full time DH. There were a bunch of red flags. VMart is far less risky and a totally different hitter even if he is a little older. He isn't a swing and a miss type of guy. I think these guys age better. Harold Baines put up big numbers between ages 36 and 40.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 09:33 AM) TUC, respectfully, I just don't think Castro and Headley quite move the meter to push us into contention. (And trading Flowers and Gillaspie to get Castro and then replacing him with Chase make our team payroll go up $10-15 million but AT BEST put us around the .500 mark, and that's being EXTREMELY optimistic IMO). They're solid veteran players, but it just feels like a "place-holding" move, waiting for 2016. Same thing with a declining Andre Ethier. I would like to see a risk taken, whether it's on Shields, or Josh Hamilton, or Matt Kemp. Or even dumping John Danks, although we all know how likely that is to actually happen, being White Sox fans. Sure, Keppinger and Downs were pushed out the door, but those are different situations and nothing like the money involved with Danks. Josh Hamilton? LMAO.

JR said back of the rotation starter, so that pretty much eliminates guys like Latos and Shields.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 09:24 AM) Unless the Sox have identified a flaw in his hitting mechanics....not that they're to be trusted too much with hitters, but perhaps there's reason to have a lot more faith in Steverson than Walker or Manto, so there's that. You really need to get off the hitting coaches. The reason the Sox offense is better this year is a few new players. If they don't add Abreu and Eaton, Steverson is the new idiot. Viciedo really isn't better. Beckham really isn't better. Ramirez has been what he was previously with so called morons as hitting coaches. Gillaspie really isn't a for sure thing. De Aza wasn't better. Flowers has had his moments, but really, does anyone really think he is significantly changed?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 09:20 AM) We had Santiago, Reed and Peavy to trade last year. This year, what? Maybe Alexei Ramirez? Dayan Viciedo? John Danks? C'mon. Conor Gillaspie and Tyler Flowers? Other than Abreu/Sale/Quintana/Eaton/Ramirez and Avisail Garcia, what do we really have? A LOT of question marks. A lack of talent, other than Rodon. We're not going to get anything significant back without dealing Anderson/Montas/Danish/Hawkins...and 2 of those last 3 guys would have to be bundled together, at the very least. Rodon and Adams aren't going anywhere, so I'm not even counting them. Fathom mentioned during the game thread that Avisail Garcia would be a good candidate to shop around...we'll see if that actually materializes or not. The Sox made it known that Garcia was off limits last offseason. I don't see how that would change now, especially considering his value probably hasn't changed much.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 09:16 AM) So you would say the Rays are doing well right now...by including last season's results? That's PART of the truth, sure...but you could just as easily argue they'd be fighting for the playoffs now with Shields AND PRICE AND Wade Davis. Not to mention their attendance has been abysmal...even more abysmal than usual for them. At any rate, I made a bet with Dick Allen that Beckham would hit under .240 and he wouldn't ever mention Don Cooper again...not sure if he's going to honor that one. So a second one. I'd be more than happy to wager whatever you want that the Royals are going to make the playoffs at least this season. The Royals making the playoffs for the first time in 29 years without a single player with more than 20 homers or 100 RBI's is pretty strong evidence of the difference he's made to that team. It actually was .215 but then you changed your mind. But I really don't have to mention Don Cooper. You don't read very well and think I don't like him and blame him for pitcher's sucking. All I have ever wondered was why when hitters don't hit, the hitting coach is obviously horrible, yet when pitchers suck, it has nothing to do with the pitching coach. What are you supposed to give up if Beckham hits .240?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 09:07 AM) I am going to predict a lot of upset fans after this winter. They might be upset, but there is going to be a lot of activity. Hahn has already said he isn't quite sure how he will spend the extra money, whether it is adding a couple big contracts or spreading it around to half a dozen, and certainly some guys are going to be changed anyway. Dunn's comments earlier this week seemed to indicate that while Hahn gave a public perception that yeah, they are rebuilding but are trying to win, privately the team knew this was a year of transition. I think, at least at this point, they are in trying to win mode in 2015. How the winter transpires may change that, but there will be plenty of change, which always makes the offseason interesting, whether you like the changes or not.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 08:30 AM) I also feel like scouting would be a bit more improved today. One thing that stings about Trout was there were a lot of mock drafts that had the Sox taking him. They went, as they usually do, with the college guy.

The Cubs did pick right before the Sox 2 years in a row when the Sox had to rebuild in the 80s. They took Mike Harkey, the Sox had to settle for Jack McDowell (This was luck, as I read an article about Al Goldis several years ago, and the Sox really did want Harkey. The next year, they drafted The Ty Griffin. The Sox had to settle for The Boy Wonder, Robin Ventura. This isn't the NBA. You still needs a lot more luck in the MLB draft, even when drafting high, and you can always make your allocation work out.

Hawk mentioning Kip Wells being impressive his first 7 starts. He must have forgot his 3rd start when he gave up 8 earned in 3 2/3 innings.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 08:42 PM) How? You find out that he's overmatched and see if he can make the needed adjustments. If he continues to flail away like this, it crosses another option off the list and forces his hand a bit more in terms of either trading for another bat or signing a FA. Personally, I'd much rather see Mitchell out there than Danks, because we already know exactly what Jordan is capable of doing. Mitchell would be awful, but i do agree, if this stint actually harms Wilkins, he isn't going to be someone you can use anyway.

Soxfest sounds good again.

Wilkins has his k rate back up to 50%.

Good guy Ray who only made this one mistake, spit on his fiancé twice before he knocked her out. http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/115...h-lines-reports

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 01:24 PM) He lost Jeffrey. That's it. He still had Forte, Bennett and an 80% Marshall. Missing Jeffrey didn't cause the moronic interception that lost the game. The O-line replacements were more than adequate. And I won't even start on the Conte nonsense. I agree. People are giving it to Conte and I sure he's a bit embarrassed about that last play, but when he started getting pushed around, Jackson was already in chip shot FG range.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Sep 9, 2014 -> 03:29 PM) Murder and battery are not equivalent. If Ray Rice murdered his fiance, Im pretty sure they wouldnt have entered him into a domestic violence program So lets make a legitimate comparison. You are out one night with your friends drinking. One of your friends gets annoying and you tell him to stop. He keeps going. Youre drunk and not thinking straight, you knock him out. The police come. Your friend is like "Hey its not really his fault, we were both drunk and acting stupid, 1 time incident." Should you go to jail? You knocked a human out, are you a menace? A bad person? Youre entitled to your opinion. I have no problem if Rice is terminated, suspended, whatever. I think its sad that most people actually dont care about the victim and care more about patting themselves on the back about how much they stand against domestic violence, but that will never change. And I dont think Ive once supported Ray Rice. Ive merely challenged people to look at the situation rationally instead of like a lynch mob. You can always take your time to review/investigate and then make an informed decision to execute. You just cant execute and take it back. So he knocked her unconscious, she hit her head on the way down and "oh it was a one time mistake". However, if that same fall resulted in a head injury that caused her death, HIS action is totally different in your mind. And if you knock your friend out in public, yes you should be locked up. What "good person" knocks their friends unconscious? Ray Rice is scum. He ultimately got what he at minimum deserved. I think most people do care about the victim. They are very worried she is in a dangerous place. The people not worried about the victim are the ones saying, well she still married him. That is not what a woman who is thinking clearly would have done. I really doubt we have seen the last of Ray Rice and police.

There was a Pirates scout at the game tonight. I really don't know why, it could be for Oakland, but maybe they are looking at acquiring Sox players. I hope he wasn't looking at Semien tonight.White Sox batters averages in the 9th tonight: .178 .188 .056 Dunn could have mowed them down.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Sep 9, 2014 -> 04:46 PM) I have seen a few people (namely the BFFs SS2K and Dick Allen) refer to what Hahn said the other day. Where did he speak and can I find it online? I get mine from chicagotribune .com . Right before game time, they usually have fresh videos with Robin maybe a player and occassionally Hahn.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 9, 2014 -> 08:41 PM) How in God's name do you make 4 errors in half a game? Not even Jackie Robinson West did that...they were better coached and exemplified better fundamentals IMO. OK

I am at the game sitting right behind Ozney and Oney. They are checking the Twins scores hoping for a last place White Sox finish and I don't think it is for the draft picks.

Interesting that Hawk said if you want to win you have to spend money the other day.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 9, 2014 -> 06:41 PM) Tyler Flowers = John Buck To me Flowers is Kelly Shoppock. He will put up really nice numbers one year and get about 8 major league seasons out of it.