Dick Allen

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Aug 11, 2014 -> 02:58 PM) It's hard to appreciate the good times when over the last two he's been worth -2.6 WAR. That's worse than De Aza, worse than Flowers, worse than Beckham and worse than pretty much every player in MLB. I appreciate Paul Konerko's career. I don't appreciate that he wanted to go out "on his terms" and cost Chicago both development time for a youngster and a few games in the standings. Development time? Whose development time has he taken away ? How many games in the standings did he really cost the team, and what difference would that have made if you even are correct besides perhaps Carlos Rodon being a Cub?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 06:00 PM) I get that, but the guy on 1b also can't commit until Abreu does anything, and I don't think Gillaspie is that slow is he? Even the slowest guys score from second on a double with 2 out

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 05:20 PM) Does De Aza know what a cut off man is? Jesus Throw was bad but they had a shot with a good throw, and in that situation, hitting the cutoff man, there is no shot. Missing the cutoff man there wasn't that big of a deal, as far as dumb baseball goes.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 01:14 PM) No, they don't. Time Warner apparently is getting completely screwed on the deal with the Dodgers and so even if the Halos got a new contract it wouldn't be anywhere close to the Dodgers deal unless Time Warner somehow turns around their luck with the legal cases they're losing. The Angels are in the 3rd year of a $3 billion 20 year contract. .Not Dodgers territory, but not bad.

Ventura signed an extension that begins next season. He will be the manager unless Rozner and his buddy have a new job that hasn't been announced yet. As for the defense, this has been pretty obvious for a while but everyone wants the Sox to trade Alexei so apparently it isn't so important. I do think finding some more pitchers would help, as would finding a couple of more hitters. Hopefully, Garcia is one of those hitters.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 03:43 PM) He's 28 1/2 and he's also hitting .326/.408/.528 since Hahn gave up a really interesting pitching prospect for him. What are Danks' numbers since June 1?

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 03:34 PM) Dunn is bad against LHP. Here's my point though: Dunn is better against LHP than PK is against RHP. Konerko has 4 homers vs LHP all year. If you let Dunn hit against LHP all season, he'd have a lower batting average for sure but he'd definitely have more than 4 home runs. Konerko is offering nothing. Unless he is hitting for power he's useless because he's horrible on the bases. The White Sox offense has been fine. Konerko on the roster probably cost Jordan Danks a spot, and he was horrible when he got a chance, so you really were not right. It won't cost the Sox a playoff appearance, their DHs have one of the best OPS in the league, and Paulie gets to go out on his terms. I really can't understand the disdain some White Sox fans have with Paul Konerko. Considering at least what on message boards is perceived to be a total embarrassment, he has never been one. A class act, a team all time great, and a guy who was a huge part of a WS. This is how he wanted to go out. I wonder how many years it will be until Chris Sale and Jose Abreu are persona non grata around here. Appreciate Paulie. He has done more for the White Sox than Andy Wilkins will do in his dreams, even if he does contribute some day. If you don't want to watch him, no one is forcing you.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 08:24 PM) Sox have enough crappy bullpen guys that walk people already. He is a candidate to bounce back, but to pay him $1 million this year and then have an arb eligible player at his figure makes no sense. Someome will sign him in the offseason at a steep discount. If it is Hahn, fine.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 07:31 PM) Which is why no team is going to offer him arbitration. Which is why if you would consider him, you do so in December after he's been non-tendered. No team is going to offer him less money in arbitration. They'd lose. I don't necessarily agree with you about the arb loss. He has been awful. It all would depend on his number. I do agree it makes no sense to claim him. Just wait until he's non tendered. I don't think anyone would even give him the 20% max deduction you can give him in arb.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 06:16 PM) When are people going to realize Bruce is 100% pro Cub and anti White Sox. Everything Cubs do is wonderful and when Sox make a move it is just ok at best. When he was at ESPN 1000 the bias on his daily reports were unreal. That is why JR was giving him a hard time in that interview last week. He had no problem with Rozner asking basically the questions, and Rozner is a Cubbie boy too, but he can at least be fair when talking White Sox.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 06:27 PM) That's how arbitration generally works. The team would probably offer something close to $4.5 mil, his side would ask for $5.5, and they'd settle somewhere in the range of a 20% increase in-between. There is no way a team would offer him $4.5 million. That is almost a 20% raise by itself. Ernesto Frieri is a poor man's Addison Reed who happens to make 7 times the salary.

He will be non tendered. It is amazing how other teams' crap looks so good. If you absolutely must have him, sign him when he's non tendered. He sucks so bad now, 2 contending teams want no oart of him.

QUOTE (VAfan @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 05:30 PM) This thread is ridiculously long. I just have a question for all of those posters here who would defend Robin Ventura as the White Sox manager. What do you see as Robin Ventura's strengths as a manager? What is he bringing to the table that is helping the White Sox win ballgames? No manager is perfect. All of them have flaws. But they've got to have enough strengths to overcome those flaws. What are they in Robin's case? His players respect him. His "strategy" isn't nearly as bad as some advertise. When you don't have benefit of hindsight, the moves he was "supposed" to make don't always work out, and the "stupid" moves he makes often do work out and are called lucky. For some, he is wrong even if he is correct. And just like the made up Greg Walker philosophy of lift and pull, the lack of fire and passion Robin supposedly has is totally false. He isn't Ditka, which apparently is the model Chicagoans believe to be the best model, yet no one wants to work or play under that kind of buffoon. Robin keeps White Sox business in house. I don't always agree with every move he makes, every line-up he makes out, but you look at the talent level. At some point this year the Sox absolutely needed a new C,2B, LF, RF,DH, a totally different bench, the SS needed to be traded. The 3 positions people have been happy with 1B, 3B, and CF all spent time on the DL. Only one AL team has a higher team ERA, yet, the team is damn near .500. I cannot believe that could possibly mean the manager was horrible too.

Merkin doesn't work for the White Sox.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 11:46 AM) Sox used to have their AAA team in Vancouver. That's pretty close to parts unkown. Except for their hockey team, Vancouver is pretty sweet.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 09:04 AM) so Hub is doubting the D Line this season. Considering he didnt think the wide receivers were that good last year, i will take it as a good sign Hub also said last season anyone who thought Seattle had a good team "wasn't paying attention."

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 05:57 AM) Almost half of it was Hahn not sending Rienzo to the minors sooner. There are more than a couple of White Sox pitchers who, at best, belong in the minors.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 01:22 AM) What would you have him do, take over Hahn's job and start making more waiver claims of overpriced relief pitchers? The fact that Rienzo was left by Hahn in the bullpen for so long tells you everything you need to know about our lack of relief pitching depth in the minors right now. Taylor Thompson's the answer? Donnie Veal? Leesman? Axelrod? Surkamp? Guerra? Boggs? Paulino? Nobody believes that...especially not Hahn. They just have to take their lumps. I'm sure that Ventura will be questioned every time he uses Cleto, but watching the bullpen the last 4-6 weeks, it's become much bigger than Robin. If you want to blame anything, maybe you should look no farther than the absence of Don Cooper and the seeming effect it has had on the results of the entire pitching staff. Can you explain to me if it is because of Don Cooper, how the pitching staff had a great road trip when he was gone, taking 3 of 4 in Minneapolis and 2 of 3 in Detroit, team ERA near 3.00 on the trip,and then imploded when Copper returned? The legend of Don Cooper has taken new heights. The bullpen gives up runs because of his absense, even though they gave up just as many when he was in the dugout. Coop came back for the Minnesota series and left right before the first game against Texas. The team gave up 8,8, and 16 runs the 3 games he was back.

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 03:39 PM) There is a difference between Semien's walk/K rate in AAA this year vs. last year. His ratio at AA last year is not akin to his ratio at AAA this year. Quit acting like AA and AAA are the same thing. AA is closer to AAA than AAA is to the majors and you are totally ignoring what his rate was in the major leagues. Considering what his rate was and not much difference in AAA from when he was sent down to now, I don't see where the evidence is he has improved.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 03:14 PM) He's really not a good fielder. Range is extremely limited. Only thing he does good defensively is leverage his shortstop arm on double plays. I think the lack of range think is overplayed. I know one huge reason he is given such a long rope is his arm. Hahn is trying to assemble a staff of groundball pitchers. It's one reason why I think he would be out of his mind to trade Alexei, with Beckham out the door, unless blown away. You put a couple of rookies or near rookies up the middle, there are going to be plenty of force outs that used to be DPs that wind up turning into runs.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 03:07 PM) You know...when you hit the ball weakly, you are going to have a bad BAPIP. Simple as that. He's a bad hitter and a bad player. I still like him, and admit he's been pretty awful the past 40 games or so, but agree with the BAPIP premise. It's easy to say someone has been unlucky looking at fangraphs, andBeckham has hit some balls hard and has been a victim of weather conditions, but in this slump, and I'm his biggest fan, he pretty much is hitting what he deserves BABIP-wise. On the other hand, unless you have seen Semien's ABs, saying his low BABIP is a product of extreme unluck is speculation.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 02:49 PM) I do believe Beckham has been unlucky to some extent - he's normally a much better hitter than he's been this year, even if the normal hitter is a rather poor one. Normalizing his line based on his career BABIP, without using any actual fancy or complicated calculations, you would figure his line would be around his career average of .245/.308/.376, give or take here or there. It's not bad, but it's not good, and Beckham's about to get even more expensive. Given the very large sample size we have of Beckham and the lack of improvement over the duration of that time frame, I think it's time to get someone else a shot to see if they can stake their claim at the position. His line drive rate is down and his ground ball rate is up. Those are not things you want to see in a hitter. Beckham seems like a good guy, but I don't think he should be a full time starter any longer. That's fine, but every game thread, if Beckham makes an out it seems posters start foaming at the mouth. He's been bad. He's admitted that, but I don't see why it is necessary to bring Semien up now, and not wait a while. Anyone can say he's ready, but how can anyone really know that? It isn't like he's dominating. Let it go a few more weeks, maybe Beckham finds some luck, someone gets hurt and another team trades for him, and maybe Semien gets hot, he was good last night and comes up confident. It seems to me the reason people want Semien is based more on Beckham than Semien. I think the White Sox need to call him up based on him and not Beckham, he was on the roster because of Beckham's injury initially and was in a bit over his head, or they wind up having more problems down the road.

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 02:38 PM) Right on target, but good luck getting people to understand that. Using the same criteria, Gordon Beckham has been extremely unlucky, yet all anyone says is he sucks. You mentioned his walk/k ration. Last year he had more walks than strikeouts, yet that translated to 16 walks and a league leading at the time 57 strikeouts when he was sent back to AAA. He still fans more than he walks in AAA. I don't see how that translates to instant success. We are about 3 weeks away from roster expansion. That would be a good time to call him up. There is no reason to rush. No decision on his future is going to be decided if he got called up and was awesome or horrible the next 15 games anyway.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 12:55 PM) Lets also keep in mind they have a rookie NBA coach. Yes, he's experienced, but he's never had to plan NBA playoff basketball which is all about adjustments. That's a big factor here too (even if at the end of the day talent wins out and they have the best player on the planet). That's true, and the Love injury history which was posted earlier. The one thing as a Bulls fan that concerns me though, is LeBron's attitude. When the Heat got in trouble when Wade was Wade and they still had a roster that was viable, was when LeBron acted like a visitor in Wade's house and deferred far too much. I think that's out the window now. It will be interesting to see how his weight loss plays into his performance.

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 12:37 PM) I guess you could make the argument that there isn't anyone to replace Dunn and ADA (I disagree, but I can see the reasoning). There is no logical reason for what they are doing with Beckham/Semien. Semien didn't actually light it up when he was up earlier, and hasn't been so hot lately although he did get a couple of hits last night. Before last night he was 1 for 14 since the trade deadline against AAA pitching. I'm guessing it wouldn't be better vs. major league pitching. So unless you really like seeing Marcus Semien struggle, maybe there is a logical explanation.