Dick Allen

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ Oct 17, 2013 -> 07:38 PM) I'm ecstatic. Best possible fit in FA. Hopefully this works out. The stars were definitely aligned for the Sox on this one. An obvious perfect fit. A ton of money available, and most of the really big spenders already with his spot filled.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Oct 17, 2013 -> 07:39 PM) A gamble they had to take. I hope he can hit a fastball. Wait, you said they would be better off paying $30 million for an average prospect.

Hahn had a season ticket holder phone call today, and he said free agent news won't happen for a couple of weeks. It seemed weird when he said it, almost like he was saying we will have something to announce, but it will be in a couple of weeks. They might have agreed on terms or are close, but I am sure they are going to want a physical so it may be a little bit before an announcement even if everything is agreed upon.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 17, 2013 -> 01:18 PM) The Andrew Friedman regime absolutely has not spent big money in free agency. Draft, sign for a few years into free agency, trade before deal is concluded, repeat. It will be interesting when Longoria's deal gets close to being up. Eventually, that isn't going to work anymore and if they can't, at that point, throw some money at their problems, they are going to be bad again for a long time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 17, 2013 -> 01:10 PM) Nope, watched every moment. Gave up on the 2012 White Sox right around then (you might remember I took a complete posting Hiatus for a couple months right there as well, in no small part because I knew otherwise being at this website during that period would make it worse"). Didn't the Sox blow a lead of about 15 or 16 games at one point in 2005? How could people not realize they were collapsing like they could in 2012?

Hahn did say in his phone chat not to expect much news on free agents for several weeks. It appears Abreu's signing isn't imminent. At least with the Sox. They will talk to Paulie in November, and he is currently interviewing hitting coaches. Wants an organizational philosophy like they have with pitching. He said the biggest need is offense.Went from 4th to last in runs scored. Did seem to pin at least a portion of that on Manto, and did say they would make some personnel changes. Someone asked about 3rd, he said a Keppinger/Gillespie platoon could work and mentioned Semien as a 3rd baseman. So really, pretty much what everyone already knew.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 17, 2013 -> 01:08 PM) To be fair, by that point it was pretty obvious the White Sox were collapsing. I stopped watching completely right around the end of August because I could see what was about to happen and didn't want to watch it. BS. You probably did the same thing in 2005, since they were collapsing then as well. I love the argument Sox fans make, they "knew the team would collapse" that is why they didn't support them all year. Like Sox fans are far more intelligent than other fanbases. Explain to me why, if these fans are so smart and know what is going to happen ahead of time, more Sox fans watched them in person in 2007 than in 2012?

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Oct 17, 2013 -> 11:52 AM) There are a bunch of teams that need a quality IB. Maybe the cost is scaring away most teams but it seems odd only 3 teams are very interested and 2 of the 3 are desperate. I hope the Sox have done their homework. The teams that spend money, the Yankees, Dodgers, Angels, Phillies, Tigers, and Cubs, really don't have a spot for him, or have other more pressing needs. Plus, it's not like this is bargain basement shopping. All you can do is trust your scouts. To worry that so and so isn't bidding shouldn't come into play.

Send a pile of money, Sale, and whoever else it takes to LA for Puig. Problems solved.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Oct 17, 2013 -> 07:30 AM) It seems like interest in him is pretty limited. Good for White Sox but I also wonder why the big spenders are not involved. Except for Boston, all the other teams that spend big money annually, really have no spot for him, or at least have other more important priorities.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 16, 2013 -> 01:10 PM) You realize we have two Cuban players on the White Sox...their weaknesses are pretty much the same, yes? Other than a healthy Miguel Cabrera or Victor Martinez, how many Latin players have what you would consider a great approach at the plate? And what are your recommendations for improving their performance/s? If you can change both of them, as well as DeAza, maybe you should be on the White Sox coaching staff, right? We are talking about a 22 year old rookie, are we not? Who has never played in the MLB playoffs before? If I remember correctly, many superstars like Bonds and Frank Thomas and A-Rod have struggled mightily in the playoffs (in their entire 20's) and were WAY under anything Puig has accomplished already. Frank's first playoff series he had an OPS almost 1.100, and an OBP around .600.

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 16, 2013 -> 07:50 PM) We've seen this Peavy before against the Tigers in a big game True. 3 walks in an inning is unacceptable, although they should have been out of it with 1 scoring, and on the other hand, they are lucky they got the call at second.

AJP with a pretty good Peavy impression on Fox.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Oct 16, 2013 -> 02:32 PM) I think that's fair, but closers are more likely to have short shelf lives as opposed to developing so I don't think his age is as big a plus as it would be for a player at another position. What are you basing it on?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Oct 16, 2013 -> 01:00 PM) Fastball velocity regressed to a pedestrian 92.7 mph along with 83.3% save percentage. Fastball velocity was still better than Chris Sale's. Oh, no. The Sox better get rid of Sale and his pedestrian fastball. LMAO at the Red Sox. Do they really think they can win a WS with a closer who doesn't even average 90 MPH. Who cares if he strikes out 12 per 9.

Has anyone heard any update on Crain? Seems to me if his shoulder still wouldn't permit him to pitch by the end of the season, he may have a serious issue going on in there.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Oct 16, 2013 -> 09:50 AM) Come on man, I just saw something I thought was interesting related to White Sox players. It's the freakin offseason. I would have put it in a catch-all if there was one. I'm not an internet troll. Next time I'll just post again in the BASHING DE AZA thread. And this response isn't trying to rekindle trouble?

Chances are he is nothing, but the Rays got nothing, so the worst the Sox could do is break even. That's a good trade.

One reason wins aren't as important when judging starting pitchers today as they were in the past is because bullpens are used way more. It used to be the starting pitcher's game to win or lose almost every start. Still, a guy who constantly wins 12-15 games every year, is going to be a good pitcher. The other advanced numbers while maybe not every year, will overall fall right into place. I think one of the poster boys for wins vs. ERA was Jack Morris, although he had several really good years ERA-wise. But one thing Morris gave you was a ton of innings, so while his ERA was a little higher than some, he was providing a lot of value saving the bullpen, so getting those wins (and losses) while eating innings, provided value.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Oct 16, 2013 -> 06:06 AM) I've always thought that ERA and WHIP were better stats to see how a pitcher is doing compared to looking at wins. Look at Chris Sale this season for example. One thing that Steve Stone says a lot that I disagree with (and for the most part he's a smart baseball guy) is that you don't look at the ERA of a closer. You look at their saves to chances. I don't like this because even if a guy has 20 saves out of 22 chances but has an ERA of 6.00, it shows that he has the tendency to give up runs. Which means that there's a higher chance of blowing saves than if his ERA is 3.00. Yes, but if a closer gets lit up once or twice, his ERA isn't going to be pretty. As for WHIP, ironically the guy who led the AL in that category this season, also led the AL in wins.i really think this thread was started to start trouble, but I would think andy sabr guy and Hawk when listing their top 20 pitchers would have a very similar list.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 15, 2013 -> 01:08 PM) See Phil Rogers. Ozzie and Gardenhire (until recent years) always had good results in this category... If Greg775 was managing the team this year, I can't imagine they would have finished much worse. There would have been more fun and frivolity in the post-game quotes....we would have gone from Bill Self to Ozzie drinking beers in Applebee's to the death penalty. I could have been the 1st base coach and thrown in random quotations from Malcolm Gladwell books, lol. Speaking of Phil Rogers, he is no longer with the Tribune. He is with mlb.com.

QUOTE (Brian @ Oct 15, 2013 -> 06:22 PM) Thought it was just my tv Maybe it was just the broadcast. He looks a lot more pale on the mound.

I hope Leyland is OK. He is yellow. He might have jaundice.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 15, 2013 -> 01:16 PM) While this may seem logical, it's simply not how our organization (or really, most of the organizations in Chicago) behave. These guys really hate spending money on 2 coaches at once. When the Sox traded Scott Linebrink to Atlanta, they sent $1.5 million along with him. I would venture to guess, that is about what Robin is making. So whether you want to believe it or not, if the higher ups really thought Robin was the reason the team was horrible, logic indicates he would no longer have the job. If the team is an 85-90 win team without Robin as the manager and close to a 100 loss team with him as the manager, it makes no financial sense to keep him, even if it means having to pay another manager.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 15, 2013 -> 12:51 PM) He waived his hands, healed Hanley, healed Greinke, and called up Puig. And just to note...even if the Sox thought Ventura did everything he could have wrong this year...they don't like eating money on contracts unless they have to. You know that as well as I do. 99 losses because of the manager is a reason to eat what essentially is maybe half what Jeff Keppinger makes a season. If that.