Dick Allen

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.

I think you are going to see Jose's HR rate drop a bit as teams are starting to stop pitching to him. I also think his HR rate is really spectacular because I don't think the drop in HRs around the league is all fewer juicers. MLB knows that these guys have way more than enough money to stay a step or more ahead of testing. I really think they have deadened the ball a little bit which will give the appearance of a cleaner (PED-wise) game, even if there are many players still juicing, which we would have to be dumber than what some think of Robin's managing not to believe. Andre Rienzo appearances aside, the ball is not jumping anywhere near it used to. I think Hawk was on to something when he used to say the ball was wound like a superball.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Aug 6, 2014 -> 09:04 PM) Do people still think Leury Garcia is worthy of a roster spot for next year? .182/.216/.236. You just can't carry that from someone who's not a pitcher. Again he has hardly played. Just 7 or 8 more hits and you would stop picking on him. They want him to bunt more and use his speed, but because of his versatility, speed defensive profile he looks like a guy who should be fine at the end of the bench. I would imagine he will play winter ball and work on his offense. It is another case of if he is the biggest problem on the 2015 roster, the White Sox should be in great shape.

QUOTE (peavy44 @ Aug 6, 2014 -> 03:28 PM) Sandy alomar jr or dave Martinez If you think Robin is quiet and doesn't get upset or doesn't show "fire", you will hate dave Martinez and Sandy alomar.

QUOTE (peavy44 @ Aug 6, 2014 -> 03:26 PM) Robin ventura is not the man for the job. Ditka.

QUOTE (peavy44 @ Aug 6, 2014 -> 03:18 PM) Robin dont have the fire or the balls to be a manager Really the only way to manage baseball or anything at all effectively is to constantly scream at people if they mess up. It makes them better.

As Wanne would say, he's got a neck.......he'll be fine.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 6, 2014 -> 02:01 PM) Why would the Rockies not give him a shot? He's out of options, but even if they picked him up and he was horrid, they could always try to send him down expose him to waivers and someone would take him off their hands. They just must think he's toast.

QUOTE (Jake @ Aug 6, 2014 -> 01:40 PM) What a weird deal. He had NO clue he was that close to the fence. I know people are going to call him reckless, etc. but I don't think he had any idea he was going to hit the fence. You could see he had just then taken a step to start a jump right as he crashed into it. He had miscalculated the distance of the fence by at least 5-8 feet. I hope he's okay. I haven't seen a play like that, where the guy is unaware of the fence, since I was playing high school baseball When I played CF in HS, we had a game where they had a snow fence as the wall. I was going back for a ball and didn't realize I was that close as there is no warning track, as I ran into the fence, I somehow hit the ball with my glove, which kept the ball in play, but I went flying over the fence. Our LF came running over to get the ball laughing his ass off. I think the batter wound up getting a homer anyway. Getting back over it was a problem. I think it was about 4 and a half feet high. I was so pissed I just stepped on it.

Here are some funny quotes from Dunn today: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...806-story.html#

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Aug 6, 2014 -> 12:12 PM) http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/adam-dunn-as-a-pitcher/ An awkwardly detailed breakdown with lots of gifs and charts, lol. The pressure is on the hitter when a guy like Dunn is in during a blowout. First off, even Pete Rose wouldn't be as dialed in with the score 15-0. Then you are facing a guy you are supposed to hammer and if he gets you out, especially if it's weak, guys will be on you for a while. So you have the double whammy of less intensity and higher expectation. The last couple of nights would make you forget, but even during BP, guys don't hit every meatball hard. I bet the guys that hit against Dunn, even the ones who did reach, would rather face a pitcher in that situation.

Watching him look at the runners was awesome.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 6, 2014 -> 10:37 AM) Thats Ozzie Guillen territory!!!! He can become the greatest manager of all time if he throws enough position players on the mound in blowouts. Each run they allow, Robin becomes smarter.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 6, 2014 -> 07:32 AM) In the last six games, the Sox are 3-3 with a run differential of -24. By your calculations, that makes him one of the greatest managers ever, to pull off a .500 record out of such a Pythagoreanly horrible team. Yes, because of being out scored 32-3 the last 2 games, the White Sox are now +2 from where they are supposed to be on the season using that formula.

Actually, the team ERA when he was gone was below 3.00 or right around it, until he came back, although I'm not sure he was there for last night's debacle. I thought I saw Thiggy on the phone in the dugout before I watched something else. They have given up 51 runs the last 43 innings.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 6, 2014 -> 09:10 AM) I don't think there's anything wrong with stating that Baez has the look of a boom or bust prospect, but he will definitely be given every chance to prove himself. I think of a guy like Chris Carter, who also put up really good numbers in the minors but had better walk and strikeout rates. He's also a 1B, but he's been incredibly mediocre as a pro. Chris Carter was also in A ball when he was Baez's age.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 08:36 PM) That comp has been around for the last two years, as they compare the bat speed. He's a different type of hitter, but his stance and swing remind me of Julio Franco a little bit.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 07:22 PM) Your strawman wasn't good enough this time. But there was no strawman. You just imagined one. Again. All I said was if Courtney Hawkins puts up Javier Baez numbers next year in AAA, the posters here would want to see him in Chicago, and no one would be saying he's a bust waiting to happen.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 10:11 AM) Because no one on Soxtalk has talked about Hawkins unsustainable K rates... What does that have to do with what I posted?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 03:23 PM) I think he actually intended on having Jones replace Reed and then using Belisario in a middle reliever/setup role. Jones got hurt and then subsequently got hurt again. I still think Jones would be a good closer, but it'll obviously be a while before we can ever find out (and we may never find out). I've always liked Jones, but was actually kind of surprised he has never recorded a save. I would have sworn he had 4 or 5.

If Hahn used FIP like has been suggested, he replaced Reed with Belisario. He replaced a 3.17 FIP with a 3.64 FIP and paid an extra $2.5 million. I'm guessing he didn't use FIP.

One thing we won't know is if an AL contender claimed him, would the Yankees have let him go?