Dick Allen

I can assure you that DRose will never be 110%. Considering he said he must be 110% to return, he obviously is planning on retiring. This is the most overblown story of the year.

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 13, 2013 -> 09:08 AM) Examples of managers under 60 years old and executives? KW could have continued being the GM if he so chose. Since we have no idea of the terms of the extension, why is it so shocking he turned it down? Perhaps it was a little short in the cash department. Perhaps Ventura doesn't need the money and doesn't want to the White Sox to be tied down to a contract. There are many, many reasons. One of them is maybe he's really not into managing, and that may be why. But there are hundreds more, and to read anything into it right now isn't worth the time, because chances are, the reasons people think he turned it down are wrong. Contracts are negotiated. The first offer someone usually gives you, isn't the best they can do.

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 13, 2013 -> 09:00 AM) I must have missed it when the Sox were celebrating on the field when they made the playoffs. The Sox weren't a winning team last year. 85 wins in the AL Central in the 2-wildcard era isn't good enough. If they stick with Dunn batting third, they won't make the postseason. Again, Ventura may be a good manager...and he may not. I have no idea. You have no idea. The results will be on the field, but competing but coming up short isn't good enough no matter who the manager is. It's just weird that we have a manager that was offered another season on his deal, and he turned it down. That's not normal. Players, managers, executives all get offered extensions all the time, and it is actually quite common they get turned down.

Projections mean nothing. They are good for conversation. I really like BP and get it every year. However, of the 3 teams they projected to finish in last place in the AL last year, 2 of them made the playoffs. Watch all the experts and all the systems pick playoff teams and MVPs and Cy Young winners. Then look at it the day after the WS ends. It will make you really wonder why anyone would possibly get riled up over said projections in the first place.

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Feb 11, 2013 -> 04:47 PM) It's not the fact that we have a ton of those kinds of players, it's the fact we have them. IIt's an indication of where overall athleticism has gone. Soon we'll have a 7 footer that moves like a guard used to. Athletes have always progressively gotten bigger, stronger, and faster. I just so happen to think with the advances in training and nutrion that have occurred the past couple decades, the gap in athleticism between the '90s and now is probably the largest gap in sports history. Not just basketball. I think the difference between the mid 70's and mid 90's was a lot larger than the difference between the 90s and today. Look how skinny everyone was in the 70s. In the 90s, they hit the weight room. I do think the NBA has become 1000 times more enjoyable vs. 8-12 years ago when many times the scores were in the 70s and 80s.

Buerhle has made around $90 million playing baseball. If he wants to be with his family 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at age 32 or 33, he has that opportunity, an opportunity most people his age do not enjoy. Obviously, since he will continue to play, the money trumps the need to be with his family that much.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Feb 12, 2013 -> 08:56 AM) You're right about the White Sox (at least I hope you are), but Cleveland now has an experienced manager who knows how to win, and an excited fanbase that will probably start showing up to the Jake in droves, which will give them more money to spend at the deadline. They have drawn 2 million twice the last 10 years. They drew what the Sox drew last year while winning 93 games and only drew 2.2 million when they won 97.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 11, 2013 -> 03:13 PM) As I said before, I have a lot of empathy for people who have little or no choice in where the work. Actually it was MBs call to sign with the Marlins. I'm sure he could have found work that paid him multiple millions in many cities I'd he so chose. While the Marlins did lie to him, It should be no surprise.

QUOTE (Cali @ Feb 11, 2013 -> 12:43 PM) Morel can ONLY play third, Keppinger can play other positions, but you signed him to a bigger contract, so he will probably be the favorite. Besides the fact that he's a contact guy who doesn't strike out and that's the kind of player the Sox want now. Unless you're gonna trade Beckham, Morel is gonna have to hit .500 in ST and show no signs of pain to get more PT than Kepp. But if Morel proves worthy of a roster spot, you can carry him as the back up infielder and have Keppinger move around when he's in the game. IMO, Morel is battling Angel Sanchez for a roster spot. Clearly, if he beats him out, no one should shed any tears Angel Sanchez didn't make the team. Sanchez being able to play SS probably gives him an advantage, so Morel is probably going to have to be a lot better than him during the spring.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 11, 2013 -> 11:54 AM) Exactly. He went to a team that has a history of trading away all their big money guys and they don't offer no trade clauses. People on this site were predicting it would happen from day one, it should not have been a surprise to Mark or his agent. Probably not, but supposedly he was told to his face he would not be traded.

If Morel is healthy, which when talking about backs, I always find questionable at best, I don't see a reason why so many are so fast to throw him to the curb. A lot of people were excited about him last year. He clearly was injured. He couldn't even hit at AAA where he dominated earlier. I really don't think you can use last season against him. This time of year, most injured guys are either 100% healthy, in the best shape of their lives, never have felt better, or right on schedule. We will have to wait to find out, but if he's healthy and can play, he can become a bench player, and go in and play 3B with Keppinger the regular, but the guy who moves around depending on the line up. I've never been sold on Morel, but his glove is good, and he has shown flashes of being able to hit in the past.

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 10, 2013 -> 11:22 AM) Indians sign Jason Giambi and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Good times. Reminds me of when Schueler signed guys like Sabo, Kruk, Dibble and Steib.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Feb 8, 2013 -> 02:25 PM) I think the Bears should take a punter in the first round. Or long snapper. Considering past history with their first round picks, they probably would be better off. Although, I still hold out some hope for Carimi.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Feb 8, 2013 -> 02:08 PM) It was past the point of no return. Renovation would have been pretty intense I have a coffee table book with pictures from 1977. The park was in horrendous shape back then. JR definitely wasn't lying when he said they threw a ton of money into the park.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 8, 2013 -> 02:06 PM) I feel like with the renovations the Cell is actually pretty awesome - that being said it doesn't have a single trademark that you'd love to see, unless Fundamentals counts! What about the singing beer vendor?

Since the Sox usually don't sign other teams' major free agents (Dunn was the first free agent from another team they signed for more than $20 million since Albert Belle) trades or minor free agent signings are their buzz. Most of their major trades seem to occur in season. Really, big offseason buzz is not very common with the White Sox.

QUOTE (southside_hitman @ Feb 8, 2013 -> 01:42 PM) I always wondered how Terry Savarise was given the job of suggesting (and for all practical purposes, determining) what the new Comiskey Park would look like. Was he a relative of Einhorn or Reinsdorf? He certainly lacked the ability to develop a concept for a new baseball stadium that would result in a structure that would have lasting architectural beauty, like our famous buildings in Chicago. Savarise was dispatched to every major league stadium (nice summer for that kid) in order to glean what HE liked about each park. He must have been high when he went our to Los Angelos becuse he took back the robn's egg blue color for the stadium - something that was entirely inapproriate and cost an enormous amount to undo. In that process, Savarise showed a complete disregard for the the original architecture of the park, the neighborhood, or the fans. What did he take from the old park? The silly scoreboard twirly birds and the ridiculous drenching shower. The prominent and beautiful split arches which graced original Comiskey and we looked through to see our downtown skyline were simply worked into the exterior in that pinky brownish colored dryvit on the 35th street fascade. As others have said, the park was oriented to look at the ugly brown building, not the skyline. Nose bleed seats in the upper deck were and still are horrible. The overstated deep bleachers in the outfield might have worked if the stadium faced the loop, but now they are just a serious inconvenience for fans to walk back dozens of rows to get to the concessions or the washrooms. There was no attempt to work the design into the surrounding neighborhood which would not have been that difficult (as one can see with the Armor Park plan that was submitted). There was no plan for accommodating a hotel or dealing with the adjoining housing projects. I am now hyperventilating so I'll stop criticizing what was done by Savarise and the owners back then. It just galls me that our park was the last one before a series of beautiful retro parks were constructed for other teams. The Sox should have purchased all of the housing between the Ryan and the Park and maybe cut back on the original budget for bricks and mortar. Now how can that pooch be unscrewed? I'd still like to see some major renovations that will make us forget that first day at the new Comiskey where some of us dropped our jaws at how brutal the thing looked. I think it's a pretty nice place to watch a game now.

QUOTE (klaus kinski @ Feb 8, 2013 -> 01:40 PM) Nothing to create any buzz (Lars Anderson signing excluded) since message boards came about Last year's offseason was boring. Buehrle left, traded Quentin for a bust.......no buzz at all.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 8, 2013 -> 01:07 PM) In this case...it might well depend on their revenue projections. With the TV contracts coming up, it could be a helluva lot easier to afford a contract like this over the next 7 years than the last 7. With the national contract, every team is getting an extra 25 million a year starting in 2014.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 8, 2013 -> 12:17 PM) Having it in the south loop would have been pretty awesome too. Around Roosevelt and the Chicago River would have been spectacular. Open to the skyline. Could have had a party type area along the river. Red, Green, Orange line trains within walking distance. There could have been Wendella boats to take fans to and from the train stations, and it's proximitey to downtown and the people who work there make it pretty easy to think attendance would probably always be good.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Feb 8, 2013 -> 10:48 AM) Maybe extending him wasnt ludicrous, extending him for THAT much is probably the ludicrous part I don't think they will go broke with the extension, and am sure they know its an over pay, but he is the face of a franchise that has really struggled lately. It's probably worth the extra money to keep him around rather than letting him walk or trading him, if you take those things into consideration.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Feb 8, 2013 -> 08:29 AM) I didn't want to start another thread to ask this question, but I had a question about the bleacher seats. Do all or only some of the bleacher seats have backs? I saw the bleacher seats once, but I didn't take a close look. I'm looking at getting some tickets to a game this summer, and I noticed the bleacher seats are pretty reasonable. Thanks for any input. They all have backs, but it is bench seating.

He'd probably get hurt signing his contract.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 5, 2013 -> 02:03 PM) But if the distributor has a client like ARod...that client can be his trump card. The government would at least be willing to switch some of the penalties if there is a user that they can make an example of. That seems to me then he could be trying to protect himself by using a fake client. Maybe he gains some legitimacy and sales if he says ARod is a client when in fact he's not. ARod may have been a client, but he also may have not. He passed MLB's tests. If they suspend him, I'm sure he will get a few lawyers involved, unless there is some more evidence other than hand scribbled notes. Madams get busted with coded lists that supposedly include many famous names all the time, yet the johns rarely, if ever, get into legal trouble. The government wants to shut down the source. This guy distributing to hundreds is a lot more dangerous than ARod applying creams.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 5, 2013 -> 01:50 PM) Think about the other things you'd be doing at the same time though...in order to have your name unaffiliated, you'd have to have the distributor agree to it, you'd have to have a way of paying the distributor without a direct financial record being generated (which is going to start bordering on money laundering really quick), you have to find a way to have people other than the distributor deliver the injections and supplies to you...you have to involve multiple people so there's not one person always traveling to your location from the clinic... Now you're talking about a conspiracy. You're talking about a web of people who might know enough to realize...they can go to the press and get a payday by revealing what they know, and they can trade what they know for legal immunity. This distributor was one guy. He was already breaking the law. How many different people allegedly delivered stuff to ARod? I read one, the guy who claimed falsely to be a doctor and was the guy making notes. No one saw him in the office, no one else delivered anything to him. I don't think the government is really interested in chasing some random guy pretending to be ARod. ARod is hated, and people want him to be guilty. He may be guilty, I just don't think the proof is out there on this one unless they have something they are keeping secret. It wasn't like the guy was running a legitimate business. The government is more interested in busting the distributor rather than the user.