Dick Allen

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Mar 13, 2013 -> 06:44 AM) Agree with you 100%. Anybody that doesn't think Reggie is Derrick's puppet is a fool. You can call me a fool, but Reggie and Derrick have had totally different reputations forever. It is entirely possible Reggie is taking advantage of Derrick's fame, thinking his opinion matters and spouting it to anyone who will listen to him. Derrick is the little brother. He defers to Reggie. It doesn't necessarily mean what Reggie says Derrick thinks. It seems Reggie tells Derrick what to do and say, not the other way around.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Mar 12, 2013 -> 02:19 PM) @TomPelissero BREAKING: #Vikings just released Antoine Winfield. Lot's of dudes getting released. Yes. It looks like Loadholt is going back to the Vikings.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 12, 2013 -> 01:05 PM) No it really is the same game. Its understanding the market, understanding demand, understanding players ability, etc. The part that is interesting is you think that time would hurt Boras, a time crunch would help Boras. You get the best deals when people are in a rush and panic. That is why in baseball you usually see a guy sign really quick or wait, because once the initial free for all hits, then people reassess. In football there is no time, so Boras would be able to use his tricks "Oh 49ers are offering X, if you dont offer Y we are signing now" and get the same deals. You have to remember its about the players. If Boras lands A-Rod type NFL clients, he can do what he wants. Its the best player who sets the market. I bolded a part because that has nothing to do with agents, it has everything to do with rules being in place to prevent players from getting the maximum possible salary. Even further in the NBA where you have a MAX salary, you just cant negotiate for more money, regardless of how good the agent is. In a way, but he can't stretch what they are able to pay. He can't play one team off of another as much as he can in baseball. If he makes an outrageous counteroffer, the way free agency works in the NFL, teams will just move on to the next guy. There isn't time for drawn out bidding wars. Listening to Bill Pollian and Bill Parcells on ESPN the other day discussing the salary cap was fascinating. One guy they were asked about was Revis. Both said they wouldn't trade for him until he showed he was OK to play, and both said they wouldn't give a corner the type of money he is looking for no matter how good he is. It's not like baseball where signing the right guy gets you x number more people through the turnstiles and helps you make money. I think agents impact baseball salaries far more than they impact those in the NFL. NFL teams' hands are tied. A big contract and an injury or lack of performance could mean years of dead cap space.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 12, 2013 -> 11:43 AM) Boras would be fine. Hed get the best deals first. He just uses the baseball system to his advantage. If if he was NFL, hed use their system to panic teams into offering money quick. Its the same game. Salary cap/ no salary cap....totally different game. All teams already offer the money quick. Once its gone, its gone. Boras is a master negotiator who thrives when his players become free agents. In the NFL, his tactics wouldn't work, and obviously he would change, but he really couldn't be unique. MLB would love to have the NFL-style cap and free agency and non guaranteed contracts. It takes most of guys like Boras' leverage away.

I just like the speed of the major signings. Its like musical chairs. These guys want to sign before the available money runs out. Boras would be lost as an NFL agent.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 12, 2013 -> 09:15 AM) So you see Alex Rios playing well again, Tyler Flowers matching AJ's 2012 output, Paul Konerko staying healthy, and Adam Dunn hitting 40 jacks? This offense is going to be horrific. Pretty much everything went right last year and they were still painful. Everything went right? 3B put up a .600 OPS. Konerko got hurt. Ramirez had his worst offensive season. Beckham hit .230. Viciedo is still learning. Dunn hit .204 and struck out an ungodly amount of times, and they still scored the 4th most runs in the league. Rios and AJP were definitely better than anyone could have expected, and the Sox should expect less from those positions this year, but I think there are places they can improve.

NFL free agency is awesome. No messing around. Guys sign quickly before teams run out of cap room.

QUOTE (Boogua @ Mar 12, 2013 -> 08:35 AM) They really don't have to sign Long. Especially at 11 mil per year. If they can swing it financially I obviously won't object, but he graded out slightly above Webb last year and is an injury concern. Webb wasn't nearly as bad as people think he was last year and there are really good RTs out there (Winston and Andre Smith come to mind) that could still let the Bears fill other needs. You may get your wish. Brad Biggs says the Bears want Loadholt.

How much basketball coaching is allowed by the NCAA during the offseason. I think improving is up to the player.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 03:14 PM) I honestly dont understand your point at all. Are you saying he didnt have a disappointing year considering the expectations? I think IU overall underachieved even with the regular season title. Not really. The kid also had a target on his back. His presence made the other guys better, and he came up huge yesterday. The Big Ten was as competitive as ever this year. If a team wins the Big Ten and still underachieves, Crean's recruiting is beyond off the charts, and that probably is the most important aspect of a college coach. Big Ten basketball is going to be really good for a while, and if expansion nets them UNC, it's going to be sick.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 03:07 PM) Zeller was the preseason NPOY favorite and isnt even in the conversation. I would say that he had a disappointing year for what was expected. Team wins the Big Ten, is ranked #3 nationally and because Zeller isn't going to be POY, Crean is to blame?

QUOTE (Boogua @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 02:48 PM) Jordan's percentages did go up from his Freshman to Junior year. From 53.5% to 55.1% and he went from 13.5 PPG to 20.0 and 19.6 (on less minutes and better %s than the 20 PPG season). There was a pretty drastic improvement there. I don't think that's the best example. The whole thing about Crean being a better coach than other Big Ten coaches because he won the conference is silly. His roster is clearly more talented (which I know is part of being a coach) than every other roster in the B1G. Because Valpo won the horizon league in 2011-2012 does that mean Bryce Drew is a better coach than Brad Stevens? You'll probably say he was for that season, but come on, that's silly. 1.6% higher shooting percentage and 6 points a game without James Worthy around is drastic? Cody Zeller's shooting percentage went up 5.3% over last season. I really wonder how Brad Stevens would do with a historically middle of the pack Big 10 team. I think people would be dissappointed. He has a great gig at Butler. I bet Todd Lickliter wishes he never left.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 02:18 PM) Unless it's defense, improvement will generally show up in the stats. Production might dip with a better team, but you usually see it reflected elsewhere in the percentages or in reduced turnovers. Also, I never argued that none of these guys got better at all. I'm saying that outside of Oladipo, they're pretty bad examples of why a guy is a great developer of talent. Rock can easily point to Evan Turner, Lenzelle Smith, Deshaun Thomas and a bunch of other comparable players. Back when people thought Bruce Weber was good, you could point to every player on the 2005 team improving greatly over the course of their career (okay, Dee Brown not so much). Badger could probably list 20 players that sucked for Wisconsin as freshmen but turned into All-Conference players. Saying a bunch of names of players on a good team doesn't really help with evidence for great player development. The greatest player who ever lived had numbers that didn't drastically improve percentage-wise between his freshman and junior seasons. I wouldn't say Dean Smith was a horrible developer of talent. Indiana is hated. I get it. I don't like them either. But they won. They get the credit. People just sound like Cubs fans pointing out White Sox attendance when they want to discredit Crean. If I were an Indiana fan on here I would just tell all the haters, "you're right, he can't develop players and he's a horrible in game coach. Your guy is far better. Enjoy 5th place." He won the Big Ten. Just give him his due and move on. A college coach is the Coach, GM and Chairman of his team. For this season, up until now, Crean has been better than all the other Big Ten coaches if you base it on results.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 01:39 PM) Stubhub has $5 tickets for Thursday's sessions. For the rest of the weekend, it's at least $60-$75 to get in the door. doesn't Stubhub charge a minimum $5 fee per ticket, plus delivery or pick up charge?

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 02:06 PM) A lot of those are terrible examples. Oladipo okay, the rest haven't exactly made the leap. Zeller averaged about 16-7 on 62% shooting as a freshman. This year he's averaging 17-8 on 57% shooting. WOW, HUGE difference! One of the main strikes against his draft stock is that scouts don't think he improved his game much. Watford's numbers have been fairly consistent since his freshman year. Sr- 12-6, 43/82/48 shooting Jr- 13-6, 42/81/44 shooting So- 16-5, 42/84/38 shooting Fr- 12-6, 38/80/32 shooting Basically his 3-point shooting got better. Improved, but not exactly off the charts. You can do the same thing with Hulls. He got more minutes and his shooting percentage went up from his freshman to sophomore years, but other than that his numbers have been virtually identical. Sheehey, it's really hard to say how much he's improved the last few years given he's still a role player. He's solid, but doesn't strike me as a potential All-Conference guy with more PT. Ferrell, way too early to say he's made massive improvements. He's still putting up single-digit point games a lot and isn't exactly putting up 7 assists a game. I suspect he'll be very good next year, but that'll have a lot to do with an increased role. I wouldn't put those types of developments anywhere close to what Bo Ryan does on a regular basis at Wisconsin. You can't say I'm biased either, as a Northwestern fan I only hate God. Like was mentioned earlier, sometimes numbers alone won't tell you how much a player has improved or "developed". When you start playing with better players, many times individual numbers will flatten out. It seems people don't want to grade Crean on wins and losses.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 02:03 PM) And with you logic left. Where is the post questioning his recruiting talents? Clearly recruiting is what just got him a conference title, nobody can debate that at all. I think it's funny how much he is defended on this site when your own fans are skewering him on your board weekly for the exact same reasons we are being critical. I still have yet to see why you think he's one of the best player development coaches in the country. I think it's pretty safe to say recruiting gets every coach their titles. Nobody wins with crappy players.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 01:42 PM) Nice retort. Show me an example. Is Zeller better this year than last year? Hulls? Wafford? How about Yogi from the non conference to the conference season? Crean's accomplishments have come from having a top 50 all time NBA player and 2 National Player of the Year nominees on the same team. If you're seriously suggesting it's because of his ability to coach em up, you have not been paying attention. I'm not at all suggesting he can't coach - he's been a coach at two high level D1 schools, obviously he can to some degree. I'm just saying he's not known for his coaching and hasn't really shown the ability to out coach some of the other really good coaches in the league to this point. He just won the Big Ten. The Indiana roster is his responsibility. I'm no Indiana fan, and Crean has always seemed a little odd to me, but coaches that win, whether they are known to be the greatest at designing out of bounds plays or not, are doing something right. Would Marquette rather have had Crean be known as a better Xs and Os guy and not land Wade? Getting Wade is part of his job. This year he won the Big Ten. All the other stuff is nitpicking. Would you rather have a guy considered a better game coach and come in 5th? As long as he's doing it cleanly, I don't see how Crean, if he keeps landing these recruits, is not worth his weight in gold.

Usually they don't skip that early, unless there is a rainout or 2 and it extends their extra day off to 2 or 3 extra days off.

I'm sure Melton does the broadcast for free. Having a guy some will like better than Hawk or Farmer would just give people something else to complain about during the regular season. It all works out. Hawk and Farmer look better and it costs nothing.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Mar 8, 2013 -> 12:01 PM) Odds are he had the medical clearance about a month ago. It's just coming out now. Just because it is medically sound doesn't mean he "feels" normal. Hopefully with it becoming public he gets a little more confident in the knee. I think he could sit out the next 2 years and the first time he plays he won't feel normal.IMO, the only way to get his knee to feel "normal" again is to play. Isn't playing real games an actual part of rehab for injuries like this?

DRose's surgeon from the Tribune: think there’s actually a lot of therapeutic benefit to starting with early minutes when it’s safe,” Cole said then. “You have to play to play. All these muscle patterns have to kick in. You can do that off the court informally. But there’s a lot of benefit to playing. Whether he has to go 40 minutes, that’s a whole different story. Just getting out there and playing when he’s able, that’s when his exponential growth is going to come. "The good news is he’s an incredible athlete. The other good news is he’s an unbelievably hard worker who wants this more than anything. We’re not going to rush him. The most important thing is all of us feel comfortable based on specific parameters that he’s ready to go as we advance him. If he’s not ready, we just delay. If he’s ready, we move him to the next stage.” Put your uniform on DRose.

QUOTE (SexiAlexei @ Mar 8, 2013 -> 11:00 AM) http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/story/_/id/...oot-source-says So it's all in his head now. He is at no more of a risk of re injuring that ACL than anyone else blowing out theirs. He needs to get out there and play. Waiting until next year to return is just delaying the mental portion of the rehab process. I agree. I've been fine with him taking his time, but if the doctor says his knee is good to go, the best way for him to get anywhere close to his 110% requirement is to play.

What I don't understand is you want to get rid of Ramirez because you don't think he's worth his salary, then put a rookie at SS, and then spend money signing Grady Sizemore, who hasn't been good or healthy in 4 years, and I'm thinking the lone reason is he is left handed. How does that improve the team in 2013? Many of these trade ideas seem to be helping other teams instead of the Sox. Sanchez might be a good player one day, but making him the everyday SS now would probably have one pining for Ramirez in a month. Not to mention, Ramirez' trade value is probably at a low right now.

QUOTE (SpainSOXfan09 @ Mar 8, 2013 -> 10:36 AM) I poached this from a Yankees site but it is relevant because the Sox have shown interest in Headley. With Hahn being aggresive I never say never. Link: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball...ticle-1.1282771 Piece of article I thought was interesting - just a rumor. We’re talking Chase Headley here. Or maybe even Giancarlo Stanton. Even though it’s spring, when GMs supposedly make only garbage-dumping deals, the word is the Padres are starting to listen to offers for Headley, their 28-year-old All-Star third baseman who led the National League with 115 RBI last year but who is a free agent after 2014 and will undoubtedly command a contract they can’t come close to affording. The Padres will be able to afford him if they choose. TV money is increasing dramatically.

QUOTE (TitoMB @ Mar 7, 2013 -> 02:10 PM) 5 years, (up to) $60 million. Sounds like a steal if the kid produces like he did last year. Hopefully he stays healthy and lives up to this deal. Especially considering they get an extra $25 million a year starting next year from the national TV contract. The price of pitching is only going to go higher.