Dick Allen

Flowers, Phegley and Nieto. Every site has the stars. Dare to be different.

This is hysterical. My friend was going for all sorts of sports related names with his son, but his wife was resisting. He sort of tricked her and they named him Francis Thomas, and call him Frank. By the time she figured it out, it was too late.

Wouldn't it be ironic if LeBron wound up back in Cleveland with Irving and Deng?

QUOTE (Real @ Jan 11, 2014 -> 05:19 AM) [uPDATE @ 2:58pm] According to a tweet by the San Francisco Chronicle's John Shea, Tanaka's top three cities are Los Angeles, New York, and Boston. I will guarantee that information didn't come out of Tanaka's camp. He might sign with one of those teams but his agent is far too smart to have something like that get out there. He already has asked each team for quiet negotiations. It seems like a made for ESPN tweet. Red Sox, Yankees and their new darlings since they opened studios on the West Coast, Dodgers.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 03:13 PM) So if these prospects do flame out and the Sox keep losing 90 games every year, is he still doing a good job? Exactly. His job description is recognizing and acquiring players that will help you win. If these guys do, he's done a tremendous job. If not, not so good.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 02:27 PM) I'd also like to point out that rankings generally don't mean too much. Remind me where Buehrle, Piazza and Pujols were drafted? Prospect rankings are a lot different than "where they were drafted". Pujols was ranked 42 and Piazza 38 at one time. Some guys will be All Stars and never ranked in the top 100. Some will be ranked #1 and be Delmon Young. The fact is, most prospects bust. You can't be sure how Hahn did until the results come in. He either hit a home run or struck out. We will know in a couple of years. Sooner if these guys can really play at the major league level. But to think the Sox haven't had prospects just as highly thought of as these through the KW regime is crazy. They just didn't develop. Hopefully the times have changed.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 02:00 PM) Borchard, Fields, Anderson, Morel (at least one time, 90% sure it was around 85-100) and Beckham were all Top 100 guys. If Flowers was, it would have been right after that AFL season when he was still with the Braves. Sweeney might have snuck in there once as well, but it would have been in the last 15-20 selections because of the concerns about him developing enough power for a corner outfield spot or possibly 1B. Morel was once #85. Flowers made it to #60. He put up big numbers for the Sox in AA, and Birmingham was a tough park to put up numbers. Prospects get a lot of love. Some with thrive, most will fall flat on their face. As I mentioned before, if all of Garcia, Eaton and Davidson are as good as we all hope, Hahn will have to be considered a top GM. I remember when Brandon Allen was traded, someone here guaranteed he would be playing in some All Star games. He did fail to mention they would be for the over 30 beer league.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 01:42 PM) Anderson never hit the way Eaton has. In AAA Anderson had a high OPS of .827 Eaton? .995 in AAA They're worlds apart. And guess what? Sweeney turned into a valuable and productive major leaguer! Anderson didn't play in Reno. BA also was once rated the #37th best prospect. Eaton hasn't sniffed that. All that really matters is how he plays in the major leagues. Hopefully he is world's apart from BA, but the fact is, prospects rated in the 70s really isn't anything new for the White Sox. Perhaps these will pan out. That would be new.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 09:44 AM) It's funny to me when people like to act like things such as graduation rate or academic performace matter. People watch college athletics for the athletics. They root for who they root for for performance on the field of play. They don't care about how their favorite player is doing in the classroom. They don't care about what he'll be doing after he leaves school. People only pretend to care when it involves another school or if it leads to sanctions against their own. Certainly, alumni want their school to be looked at in as good of a light as possible. But when fans of a school's athletic teams try to act like they actually give two s***s about academics, please. No you don't. It just makes for a convenient little narrative when the opportunity to bash another school presents itself. It reeks of sour grapes every single time. I do care about my school's academics. But I care about who they recruit. It's one thing to graduate everyone, but if that means a guy like Derrick Rose gets a degree, it, IMO, would devalue my degree from that institution. I think usually the higher graduation rate shows the coaches are actually recruiting students instead of just athletes. While I would love for Iowa to win the National Championship, I'm not so sure I would be thrilled if they did it by hiring a guy like Calipari, and having a roster full of guys who were only there to play basketball. I think your graduation rate should make a nice recruiting tool if the person actually is actually taking his academics seriously. It's not the toughest thing to graduate college if you are willing to put in the time, but if you are playing a sport, you do miss classes, and a lot of your time is taken up, but you do get more help than you would if you were a regular student. I think a record of graduating players shows the school does have interest in the student/athlete's long term future, not just how many games they win and how much money they can bring to the school.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 11:42 AM) NONE of those guys were ever ranked or touted like Garcia, Eaton and Davidson. You just think that because you're a white sox fan. If you weren't you'd have never heard of any of those guys. You should go back and check where they were ranked as prospects on their Baseball-Reference pages. You will be in for a surprise.

People need to keep in mind KW kept guys like BA, and Morel and for a little while, Fields, traded for Lillibridge and Castro and Flowers. These guys were all ranked as high or nearly as high as the Garcia, Eaton and Davidson. It all depends on how they play.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 08:24 PM) FWIW, I thought it was cute. My buddies and I have been calling him that since his playing days.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 07:08 PM) The boy wonder? Batman's sidekick.

The fact that Hahn, KW and the boy wonder were all there indicates the Sox were doing a little selling.

I don't see why LeBron would want to play for the Bulls. The winter weather is bad. DRose may or not be as good as he was, and who knows how long he can last. Seems to me, there are a few other places that would seem more logical if he wanted to flee Miami. I really don't understand why he would want to do that.

Maddux has really let himself go. Those chins are incredible.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 02:04 PM) Wasn't there an article in the last year about trying to get a succession plan together? I want to say in the Tribune, and something involving his son? Or maybe that was with the Bulls? Here you go Chicago Tribune: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-07...chael-reinsdorf

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 01:32 PM) This is pretty impossible to believe. Corporations generally have their own succession plan. IE Should the Chairman be unable to perform Vice Chair takes over until new Chairman is selected. So without looking at any documents and completely guessing I would bet based on (http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/team/front_office.jsp?c_id=cws) that: 1) Einhorn would be the acting chairman and 2) the board of directors would vote on a new chairman. I'm not making it up.

They had an article in the Tribune about the White Sox ownership several months ago. JR is the Chairman, and pretty much all of the decisions are his to make, and there really isn't anything any of the others can do about it. A couple of other partners estimated JR's current ownership at around 13%. JR said it was much higher. In fact, if he croaked tomorrow, the executor of his estate would determine who ran the White Sox.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 12:18 PM) He's an incredibly talented and efficient pitcher and some people believe he has the best splitter in the world. He's a great pitcher. Plus he is only 5 months older than Sale.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 11:31 AM) Yep its an investment group. Famously Steinbrenner rejected joining. Well for sure it was Robert Mazer but he died in October, Im not exactly sure how his stake has been split. It may be Charles Walsh now. If you look at the Board of Directors, youll get an idea: http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/team/front...ce.jsp?c_id=cws Steinbrenner was part of the group that sold the Bulls (with Michael Jordan) to Reinsdorf. No cash. They just assumed some debt. Lee Stern wrote about it. JR offered him as much of the Bulls as he wanted and he passed. Said it was the biggest business mistake he has ever made.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 11:01 AM) Well how the hell do the SOX have more money than the cubs? The cubs do have a Japanese pitcher unless he was cut. Ricketts has to spend about $300 million rehabbing his dump. If JR needs a rehab, the state does it for him. Plus Ricketts will be paying off his purchase of the team for years. And they painted themselves into a corner. They have said they don't have the funds to compete unless they get this rehab done. But if they start spending wildly before this rehab is done, it sort of makes them liars.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 10:57 AM) Then why not sign with the cubs? Because the Cubs suck, have always sucked and always will suck.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 10:52 AM) Tanaka is Japanese aha. If Tanaka wants to play in Chicago I am sure that the Cubs would offer more money than the Sox. If Tanaka wants to play where the most money is it's probably the Dodgers/Yankees/Cubs. If Tanaka wants to play where he is comfortable and closest to home it's the Dodgers or Mariners. I'm glad we are at least getting involved and I am excited for the situation to unfold. Involved wouldn't matter to me if they weren't serious. They appear serious. For some reason I don't think KW planted this story with Sneed. He might have given his blessing to run with it.

The fact that the Sox would send KW to LA gives the impression that they are prepared to make him a competitve offer if they hear the right things from him. Ichugi got a ring with the Sox when this guy was 17 years old. Maybe he was a big fan. Who knows what really appeals to the guy. Maybe being one of the big stars on a team that is supposed to be bad but is good due in large part to him is more appealing that joining a team already favored to be outstanding and just being another guy.