Dick Allen

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.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 12:40 PM) I think the big difference there is that you earn the right to have games in your stadium whereas the super bowl is supposed to be a neutral field. Exactly, and it really isn't a neutral field if the weather conditions favor one team more than the other just because they limit the opponent. No one is going to change their mind, but the Super Bowl is probably the biggest spectacle in pro sports. Up until now it hasn't needed the gimmick of snow or blizzard or mud to keep people interested. It appears a bullet will be dodged and conditions Sunday won't play a big part in the outcome of the game. But there would definitely be a huge debate if the weather was awful and ultimately that decided who took home the trophy.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 11:15 AM) The Ice Bowl and "The Greatest Game Ever Played" are two perfect examples of how awesome championship games can be in cold weather. Johnny Unitas marching his team down the field in OT. Cold and muddy field. You can't beat that. Football was a different game back then. Unitas was one of the few QBs that took to the air often. Yet, his career high in passing yards would be Peyton Mannings career low by a decent margin. Obviously they play a couple more games these days, but Manning threw for more than 2000 yards more than Unitas' career high this year. Seattle's defense should be the only thing limiting Denver's passing game. Not the weather when playing for a championship.

I prefer watching the championship determined with both teams playing in excellent playing conditions with no excuses, less of a chance for flukes to win games. It's for all the marbles. I think conditions should be to make these teams as close to 100% capacity as possible. If it is 38 degrees, and not all that windy, that's OK. But if it was like it is in Chicago today, or a blizzard, if the Bears were playing, I would be sick it they lost because something flukey happened that had nothing to do with ability. Of course, I wouldn't mind if they put a dome on every NFL stadium.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 09:41 AM) lol. I love it when you spin. This thread has been a massive fail for the Santana/Jimenez stuff, which is why you steered it this way. Honestly it needs to be closed. A new low for you. See you're wrong, try to spin it that someone else was, then close the thread.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 09:30 AM) Actually they did go to Jim Thome and asked him if he wanted to finish the season with a contender, he said OK, and they worked out the deal with the Dodgers. That year, Olney reported the White Sox sent out a memo to all teams saying their veterans were available in trade. Thome was traded at the September deadline. The White Sox had to get his permission because of a NTC. He didn't ask to be traded, and could have said no, but it was for one month to a contender. In fact, Thome wanted out so bad, he wanted to come back in 2010 for $1 million. Then Ozzie said no.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 09:00 AM) As opposed to the other two that pop up... Whether with Sox or not, Peavy wants to play for contender Peavy: 'I will go play anywhere to win' How is that asking to be traded? You stated the White Sox don't trade veterans unless they ask to be traded. Except not really. It is in the Sox MO to protect their veterans wishes. They don't trade those guys unless they want to go. That is why Peavy wasn't moved until he basically asked in public to go. Did Matt Thornton ask to be traded? Did Jim Thome ask to be traded? Did Jose Contreras ask to be traded? Did Aaron Rowand ask to be traded? Did Jon Garland ask to be traded? Except for Sale, Hahn at Soxfest, said any player with over 3 years experience could be traded. It must be a very unhappy organization if they have all asked out.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jan 27, 2014 -> 03:37 PM) But an awful, flukey, luck reliant game. Not how I prefer the most important game to be played. I prefer good football. I agree.