Dick Allen

I actually get a kick out of Rosenbloom, but to put the blame on Dunn that his team never made the playoffs is crazy.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 12:55 PM) I thought the winter two years ago was one of the worst then it got warm in March and lasted all summer. It seemed to me that winter was either dry and cold or mild temps with a lot of snow. I only really remember the blizzard of 78, a heavy snowfall in April of 82, and frigid 1983 blast. The late 70's bad winter may explain why I hated my childhood and why my parents were always in a bad mood. I thought the winter 2 years ago was the easiest of my lifetime. It seemed for every day it was cold, it would be followed up by 4 or 5 at least 40 degrees, and it hardly snowed at all. Maybe that was different if you are in the snowbelt. I live in the city and as bad as I have it, living in Northern Indiana seems like you get the same temperatures but a lot more snow.

Keenyn Walker and Michael Jordan had pretty similar stats in Birmingham.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 11:37 AM) This may be the single stupidest thing said by any pundit, ever. Maybe he saw him on a bad day, lol. Sale's slider is quickly headed to GOAT territory, and dominates righties as well as lefties. http://wapc.mlb.com/play?content_id=29663395 Glad he also dislikes the Dane, whereas Parks loves him. Law's still playing catchup with his ego. There has been speculation that many, if not most of the players Law "evaluates", he has not seen play. So you really are getting someone else's analysis that he will put his name on. I will give him credit for not dumping the bad calls on someone else, but it sure does take a lot for him to admit an obvious mistake.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 11:06 AM) The reason a lot of people didn't like Sale that high, Law included, is because they thought he was a major injury risk and they were afraid he would have platoon issues like almost every pitcher with his type of release has. No one doubted the stuff, lots doubted the risk level. It turned out as well as it possibly could have for us, but that doesn't mean it's unreasonable to have not wanted to take that risk back then. No. Possible injury did not matter to Law. It appears from his comments below, the stuff is doubted. I don’t love the arm action, but this idea that arm action guarantees injury has to die. It’s all probability, and there have been pitchers with subpar mechanics who’ve pitched in the majors for several years before getting hurt, as well as plenty of pitchers with "clean" arm actions who got hurt anyway. Back to Sale, I’m more concerned that he’s a sidearming lefty without much of a breaking ball. If you knew nothing about him but that one sentence, what would you say he was in the big leagues? In that same analysis, he rated Sale's slider as a '40' on his MLB Draft Grading Scale, with a projected future rating of '45'. A 40 on that scale translates to "Well below-average ability". A 45 is still below average and translates to "11th/12th men on a pitching staff". And here is a little snippet of Law's chat in Dec 2011 when Sale was going to be a starter AFTER a year and a half in the big leagues: Do you like Chris Sale's move to the rotation and where do you see him as a future starter? Klaw (1:35 PM) No, I don't.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 10:14 AM) Who were the other members? LHP Wayne Edwards was one, I think. Radinsky didn't play with them, did he? I don't think Stick Figure was the band he had when he was on the White Sox. The band he was in with Edwards had some guy who Black Jack played with at Stanford and I think played in the Cardinals minor league system for a while.

If Jared Mitchell becomes useful on the major league level, that would be one of the greatest comebacks from totally sucking of all time. If he wasn't a first round pick, he would probably be sitting next to Jake from State Farm right now.

How much better could MJ have been? He didn't need anyone else. He would have had the chip on his shoulder if he were playing one on one vs. me.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 06:53 AM) I know. You accusing anyone of being a bandwagon fan is like a Kardashian calling someone a slut. That one was good.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 08:06 AM) According to WGN, by Saturday night O'Hare should see a total of 7 new inches of snow, by Wednesday midnight a total of 17 inches. Followed by more negative temps. Worst winter EVER? I would think if you are 30 and under it is the worst winter ever. WGN does go extreme on it's snow totals. Accuweather still has 2-4 inches in the next week. But everyone agrees the ridiculously cold is returning. Anytime you are celebrating it being 20 degrees, something is wrong.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 29, 2014 -> 01:46 PM) Gibson will draw interest btw. We won't have to dump him, he's one of the best defensive players in the game and is having a legitimately improved offensive year. I used dump just because they would have to get rid of his contract, but I agree and think Gibson is more than worth what they pay him. The big mess would be if the Bulls traded Gibson to get cap space and failed to get Melo or LeBron or eventually, Love. That would be bad.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 29, 2014 -> 01:40 PM) Melo is so much more athletic than Boozer, and I feel like is better on D than gets credit for. But, to the first point, Melo has all the tools to be better on defense and Thibs will pull those strings (and probably make him worse on offense). I'm not debated whether Melo is better than Boozer. That is obvious. But it is interesting Thibs has a man crush on Melo considering the way Melo has been known to play on the defensive end. Maybe it is one reason why the Thibs to NY rumors never seem to go away, and why even though he tries to make it look like the rumors are silly, Thibs never says it won't happen. IMO, if Gar/Pax ever even consider letting Thibs out of his contract, JR needs to rid himself of Gar/Pax.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Jan 29, 2014 -> 01:31 PM) As I said earlier, I don't put any more stock in Keith Law's scouting expertise than anyone else, I only highlight it because it's available. But if you try and discredit a guy based on "missing terribly" on a couple guys, there wouldn't be any credible scouts left. There isn't a baseball scout in the world who doesn't have a story where they thought somebody was a can't miss prospect or wrote off a future All-Star. I understand that, but to be excited because there are 3 White Sox prospects that he deems worthy of top 100 status doesn't make sense. I went back and looked at his 2010 list. Heyward was #1, Strasberg #2, but let's face it, the top guys are the easiest and most similar in every list. Mike Trout was #49. The Sox had 2 guys on there. Flowers at 58 and Mitchell at 95. The Cubs had 4 guys on there. Castro at 12, Vitters at 30, Jay Jackson at 50 and Cashner at 79. Here is his 2010 list: NO. PLAYER 1 Jason Heyward, OF, ATL 2 Stephen Strasburg, RHP, WAS 3 Carlos Santana, C, CLE 4 Buster Posey, C, SFO 5 Mike Stanton, OF, FLA 6 Desmond Jennings, OF, TAM 7 Martin Perez, LHP, TEX 8 Dustin Ackley, CF, SEA 9 Justin Smoak, 1B, TEX 10 Jesus Montero, C, NYY 11 Brian Matusz, LHP, BAL 12 Starlin Castro, SS, CHC 13 Neftali Feliz, RHP, TEX 14 Domonic Brown, RF, PHI 15 Wade Davis, RHP, TAM 16 Aroldis Chapman, LHP, CIN 17 Jeremy Hellickson, RHP, TAM 18 Casey Kelly, RHP, BOS 19 Aaron Hicks, RHP, MIN 20 Brett Wallace, 1B, TOR 21 Logan Morrison, 1B, FLA 22 Tyler Matzek, LHP, COL 23 Jenrry Mejia, RHP, NYM 24 Michael Taylor, OF, OAK 25 Zach Britton, LHP, BAL 26 Lonnie Chisenhall, 3B, CLE 27 Jaff Decker, OF, SDG 28 Madison Bumgarner, LHP, SFO 29 Tim Beckham, SS, TAM 30 Josh Vitters, 3B, CHC 31 Derek Norris, C, WAS 32 Ryan Westmoreland, OF, BOS 33 Chris Carter, 1B, OAK 34 Eric Hosmer, 1B, KAN 35 Pedro Alvarez, 3B, PIT 36 Christian Friedrich, LHP, COL 37 Jarrod Parker, RHP, ARI 38 Shelby Miller, RHP, STL 39 Dee Gordon, SS, LAD 40 Kyle Drabek, RHP, TOR 41 Wilmer Flores, 3B, NYM 42 Wilson Ramos, C, MIN 43 Arodys Vizcaino, RHP, ATL 44 Carlos Triunfel, 2B, SEA 45 Casey Crosby, LHP, DET 46 Simon Castro, RHP, SDG 47 Brett Lawrie, 2B, MIL 48 Jhoulys Chacin, LHP, COL 49 Mike Trout, OF, LAA 50 Jay Jackson, RHP, CHC 51 Hector Rondon, RHP, CLE 52 Hank Conger, C, LAA 53 Anthony Rizzo, 1B, BOS 54 Alcides Escobar, SS, MIL 55 Zach Stewart, RHP, TOR 56 Lars Anderson, 1B, BOS 57 Jose Tabata, OF, PIT 58 Tyler Flowers, C, CHW 59 Daryl Jones, OF, STL 60 Jordan Lyles, RHP, HOU 61 Josh Bell, 3B, BAL 62 Matt Dominguez, 3B, FLA 63 Julio Teheran, RHP, ATL 64 Ike Davis, 1B, NYM 65 Jason Castro, C, HOU 66 Todd Frazier, 2B, CIN 67 Freddie Freeman, 1B, ATL 68 Matt Sweeney, 3B, TAM 69 Mike Moustakas, 3B, KAN 70 Austin Jackson, OF, DET 71 Michael Brantley, OF, CLE 72 Mike Leake, RHP, CIN 73 Fernando Martinez, OF, NYM 74 Michael Saunders, OF, SEA 75 Mike Montgomery, LHP, KAN 76 Yonder Alonso, 1B, CIN 77 Trevor Reckling, LHP, LAA 78 Tanner Scheppers, RHP, TEX 79 Andrew Cashner, RHP, CHC 80 Jacob Turner, RHP, DET 81 Matt Moore, LHP, TAM 82 Tony Sanchez, C, PIT 83 Chris Withrow, RHP, LAD 84 Zack Wheeler, RHP, SFO 85 Randall Delgado, RHP, ATL 86 Ryan Kalish, OF, BOS 87 Aaron Crow, RHP, KAN 88 Chris Heisey, OF, CIN 89 Kyle Gibson, RHP, MIN 90 Jake Arrieta, RHP, BAL 91 Jose Iglesias, SS, BOS 92 Drew Storen, RHP, WAS 93 Grant Green, SS, OAK 94 Jiovanni Mier, SS, HOU 95 Jared Mitchell, OF, CHW 96 Manny Banuelos, LHP, NYY 97 Miguel Sano, SS, MIN 98 Junichi Tazawa, RHP, BOS 99 Travis d'Arnaud, C, TOR 100 Nick Hagadone, LHP, CLE

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 29, 2014 -> 01:11 PM) It is also worth pointing out that pretty much everyone is scared of Chris Sale blowing up his arm because of his delivery. But oddly that was not the reason Law undervalued him. He thought he couldn't start because hehad an average breaking ball and wouldn't be able to repeat his delivery. As for him not ranking Abreu, that makes sense because he will not be a White Sox minor leaguer. He did however say when Abreu signed that the White Sox signing him made no sense, because in his opinion, by the time the White Sox are good enough to where he will matter, he will be in decline. And it would be one thing if he missed on Sale during the draft. He was still missing after Sale had been in the major leagues a year and a half. If Keith Law were half as good as he and some of his followers think he is, a team would be paying him a real nice wage to actually evaluate for real, where missing terribly can't be simply brushed away.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 29, 2014 -> 12:33 PM) i dont think Melo would come to chicago if it pissed Rose off La La said he is staying in NY anyway. Thibs loves Melo even though Melo plays D like Boozer. For the Bulls to be able to offer a max contract, they will have to amnesty Boozer and dump Gibson on someone.

QUOTE (Knuckles @ Jan 29, 2014 -> 12:31 PM) Read somewhere on Twitter that Law still ranks Sox system low.. 27th amognst MLB teams. Would you say that's accurate given 3 TOP 300 prospects? 30 teams 100 prospects, 3 is still about average, and it's not like he ranks any in the top 50. I doubt Hahn's sleep patterns are affected either positively or negatively when it comes to Law's rankings. If you hit on some longshots, you can miss over and over again on obvious picks and still be considered a genius when it comes to evaluating prospects as long as you aren't actually working for a team.

Keith, what are your thoughts on Chris Sale? Klaw(1:25 PM) I ranked him 47th. The White Sox took him 13th. You do the math. Why is his opinion any better than any random "scout"? People always rag on ESPN, but if ESPN hires someone, he is considered some sort of genius guru in that field. The evidence shows Keith Law's opinions tend to be just as wrong as most everyone else. Even after the 2011 season, Law couldn't or wouldn't rank Sale in the top 50 players under 25.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Jan 29, 2014 -> 10:43 AM) Isn't it possible that De Aza opens the season as the starting CF? The Sox could get Eaton warmed up in Charlotte while showcasing De Aza for a trade in June. It keeps Eaton's service time down and allows the Sox to market their assets in the outfield. Plus you get your young core of Semien, Eaton, Davidson, and Sanchez playing together everyday. I think Eaton would have to be hurt or just awful in spring training not to be starting on Opening Day. He and Abreu are locks for Chicago. The others could all wind up in Charlotte. My opinion of course.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 29, 2014 -> 12:11 AM) For an Iowa fan whose BB team has gone 8 seasons without an NCAA appearance, nothing is guaranteed this year until they get to 10 Big 10 conference wins. Missed free throws have killed Iowa in their losses. Except for Michigan, the other losses easily could be wins. Free throw shooting was supposed to be a strength, but a couple of guys have really gagged at the line down the stretch.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 02:49 PM) Because it is predetermined and more people can plan for the date and location as opposed to a random city on an unspecified date. New York City has organized events every day this week. This can be completed because they know 500,000 will show up for he event. This is the same thing as to why the Kentucky Derby, Indy 500, and Daytona 500 are party atmospheres while Game 6 of the NBA finals is not...because there may or may not be a game 7 and then if there is a game 7 it is a little too late to organize the party. That is why the Super Bowl is held at neutral site. It has nothing to do with the game itself and one of these times it will be a home game for someone. I was watching something last week with a couple of ex players who played in Super Bowls. They both said, because a lot of the crowd has no rooting interest in the game, it is the most quiet game they have ever played.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 02:52 PM) Yea, but tornadoes and lightning are a little different, more random. You know damn well before you leave the house that it is going to be sub zero. You couldnt possibly predict that a tornado is going to blow through or lightning will strike your seat, although you will know the weather will not be pleasant. I would be willing to bet there have been more people hospitalized by exposure attending NFL games than getting hit by lightning or injured from a tornado attending an NFL game before they started stopping them for the latter. I think they are more concerned with massive amount of casualties at once.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 02:34 PM) Isn't that only because they finally stop play when there's lightning? Yes. Lightning, tornadoes in the area. Supposedly it is for fan safety. But is it really any safer for fans to sit 3 1/4-4 hours in temperatures potentially subzero? Or other typical cold weather winter conditions? It appears that will be avoided, but it another reason I don't understand actually wanting to play a game, especially with this much on the line, in bad weather. I wonder how the attendance at all the extra Super Bowl week stuff compares between when the game is held somewhere warm and when it's held in a cold weather city with a dome. Really, if it weren't obvious schedule problems and no time to make up games, I think games would be delayed and postponed like they are in baseball for extreme conditions. Even here, they have a contingency plan to play the game another day if the weather is too rough. I think it shows the NFL doesn't want the game's outcome to be tainted by weather.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 02:31 PM) Can they seriously compete with Detroit as they're built right now? I can't see how management would think so. If Dunn could bring a solid prospect in return for a year of his services then I'd be up for it. If Dunn could bring a beer vendor than only worked Wednesday afternoons, Hahn would take it if it meant riding himself of the $15 million owed.

Funny thing is these days bad weather holds up NFL games more frequently than ever.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 12:39 PM) And if no team needs him as an injury replacement, then you are stuck with him & Konerko wasting an extra roster spot. If that is the biggest problem the White Sox have in 2014, a lot of people are going to winning awards with the organization.