Dick Allen

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 28, 2012 -> 04:05 PM) Of Jeff Passan's top 25 free agents, only 4 remain unsigned. The list is not surprising. #8 Michael Bourn - Scott Boras #11 Rafael Soriano - Scott Boras #14 Adam LaRoche - inconsistent and no high demand for 1B around the league #18 Kyle Lohse - Scott Boras I also haven't noticed nearly as many players signing with Boras in recent years, though they obviously still exist. He does a great job of getting money for his clients, but he is very slow and non-deliberate when going about his process where I think guys would rather be relaxing in the offseason knowing they have a job. From what I see, you primarily see second tier players sign with Boras because he will upsell and get them the big contract or yearly contracts they desire, whereas your genuine top flight players sell themselves far more. Just thought it was interesting. Boras could never be an agent in a league with a salary cap. In those leagues the free agents sign quickly so they aren't left without a team with cap space to give them big money. If MLB could ever adopt a salary cap, Boras would have to change radically or find something else to do.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Dec 28, 2012 -> 05:17 PM) All things being equal, I'd rather have Dunn in left than create a hole in the starting rotation. All this assumes the Sox are planning on contending this year. After May 29th last year, Dunn hit.188 with a .305 OBP and a .727 OPS. If you think Viciedo is a guy you can't play and contend, what makes Dunn someone you can play out of position to contend?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 28, 2012 -> 11:00 AM) From most indications the improvement wasn't on AJ's side. It was Cooper figuring out a way to quicken guys like Floyd and Peavy to the plate to better compensate for AJ's "arm". And an infield coach that had Alexei go to second base instead of 3 feet in front of it. The ball is faster than the swipe.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Dec 28, 2012 -> 10:48 AM) Spiegel did mention this. Also said that AJ often clashed with Ventura because he did not respect him. Rozner mentioned that Cooper, Parent and the rest of the staff did not get along particularly well with AJ either. I don't know why people are surprised by this. Pierzynski is a child. Anyone who cares about which other people are on the team charter has some issues. He is a guy that needs to find something to be annoyed by. I appreciate AJ for all of the good things that he did and for being the guy that called guys out for things. He is an asshole though. Always has been. We heard less about it here because AJ was allowed to play as much as he wanted. Rozner and Spiegs mentioned how many players grew tired of AJ and that they referred to him as "Satan" in the clubhouse. Bottom line: Pierzynski will not replicate similar production on offense next year, pitchers do not like throwing to him, he is horrible defensively, and it's time to see what the Sox have with Tyler Flowers. Personally, the "As soon as it's official and AJ is gone, so we will start bashing him and telling some supposed stories out of school" routine, doesn't work for me. AJ was so hated and no one could play for him, that he signed 3 or 4 White Sox contracts. Rozner, who I really like, and Speigel, should be embarrassed they spent their show with this crap. Now, if they want to have someone actually speak on the record, that could be different.

I'm also pretty sure this wasn't for every roadtrip. There usually are only a couple of trips a year they let the wives fly with the team.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Dec 28, 2012 -> 10:20 AM) Just got an email from a pal who listened. His synopsis: Last season Robin allowed girlfriends to fly on the charter jet on road trip. Apparently wives were only allowed with Ozzie. All season long, AJ openly complained about this, sometimes in front of said gf's. This pissed a lot of the single Sox off big time. Scandalous. Sports radio must really be dying if they have to spend time talking about girlfriends on the team plane.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 27, 2012 -> 11:00 AM) The 7th highest scoring offense in baseball wasn't good enough? Those are some high standards. Did the White Sox make the playoffs? The offense wasn't good enough and faded at the end, except when they were eliminated.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Dec 27, 2012 -> 09:56 AM) I'd be willing to bet you a 6 pack of your favorite beer that Flowers out-produces AJ next year. It would depend on what you would determine to be "outproduce". Fangraphs WAR seems to be your number of choice, but I find flaws with that system. According to fangraphs, Francisco Liriano was only .3 WAR less than Mark Buehrle last year, when Buehrle had his typical season and Liriano was sent to the bullpen by 2 teams for failing as a starter. The fact is, this thread is Sox looking for a LH bat. AJ was a LH bat that produced 27 homers last season. The offense wasn't good enough. That production will have to be replaced. Perhaps its players improving. I would expect Viciedo to get better. I think Beckham got better as the year went on. Rios I worry about. Konerko I think will be more consistent now that the chip has been removed from his wrist. Adam Dunn hit .181 after May 26th and sat out the final game so he wouldn't set a strikeout record. There is reason to think there may be a problem there. Ramirez has to be better. De Aza I could see having the same type of season. Keppinger will be hard pressed to match his numbers last season, but if you combine Morel/Hudson/Youkilis, except for the power, it shouldn't take much to outproduce the sum.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 27, 2012 -> 08:37 AM) You'll never know until you give him a chance. You also changed your tone quite a bit in that post from most of the others in the thread. On top of that, I doubt they go into the season with merely Gimenez. I don't believe he is an adequate backup. You want someone who has started in the past so, at the very least, you have an insurance policy. Haven't changed my tone at all. I will defend AJ vs. all the haters. I believe he will be missed far more than his numbers would indicate. I understand not paying a 36 year old catcher a ton of money. If it were my decision, I would have brought him back on a one year if he would have taken it. Maybe they have other moves in mind. I do think most of the Tyler Flowers love will be gone this time next year.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 27, 2012 -> 08:25 AM) Except that Flowers can hit a fastball. --- f*** it. If you guys are going to be so butthurt about losing AJ that you won't even give Flowers a chance, then so be it. I'm looking forward to a change in the White Sox lineup - lord knows new blood is exciting, and beyond any of that, the Sox were never going to spend $7.5 million on AJ. If you can't look past the fact that the organization is looking to allocate funds elsewhere while trying to build towards the future while also being happy AJ ended up in a situation that is good for him both financially and professionally, then you are very short-sighted. I'm done with this stupid debate. You are taking this wrong. Losing AJ is fine, as long as he's replaced adaquately. It could be a disaster if they think Flowers/Gimenez is the answer. Flowers started 41 games last year. He had to be lifted for a pinch hitter 10 times. I know he was great in Birmingham several years ago. That doesn't make him a star. If they aren't looking for a catcher now, there's a good chance they will be in May or June.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 27, 2012 -> 08:12 AM) The one thing I can't get past is all of the above, but then that people have already written him off. This is far closer to an Alejandro De Aza situation than it is a DeWayne Wise situation. Its actually much closer to the Josh Fields situation. Many on this board were up in arms in 2008 when Crede was made the regular 3B. If you can't make contact in the minors, things tend to get a lot worse in the majors. If anything, Flowers defense has been overrated. Reading this board you would think he's some sort of defensive combination of Johnny Bench, Ivan Rodriquez and Benito Santiago.

At least he will be able to bring back his crazy facial hair.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 26, 2012 -> 06:40 PM) Who exactly called AJ "worthless"? See post 175

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 26, 2012 -> 06:23 PM) A guy going 0/8 when he could have taken a day off is no more useful than a starter giving up 8 runs in 2 innings because his arm is wearing out. You know, I really hate this. I liked AJ. But I get why they let him go, and so I wind up having to reply to these crazed statements about why he's irreplaceable and we're doomed now. So, I'm stuck having to point out how a guy who was key to winning us a ring wasn't God's gift to baseball, and being the negative guy on him. I' m not saying that at all,but I was responding to the AJ was always worthless posts. He was a valuable guy to have on the team. Personally, I'm not sold on Flowers at all, and I think the catcher position has been downgraded especially if they are serious about Gimenez as the back up. I do understand not throwing a lot of money at AJ, but the AJ hate is ridiculous.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 26, 2012 -> 06:11 PM) So he gets credit for going out there so often, but we can't criticize him if he should have taken more time off? Why did he need more time off? You want to criticize him foe making a decision that wasn't his to make. The fact that he could answer e bell for so many games is something to admire, like Buehrle going 200 innings every year.why didn't anyone ever post what a selfish asshole Buehle was for making his starts? It wouldn't take much for AJ to beg out of a start. He didn't do that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 26, 2012 -> 06:05 PM) Of course that raises the question...how much of that was AJ being stubborn and insisting he needed to be in the lineup even on days when he shouldn't have been? Could the Sox have benefited by his backups playing some extra games some of those years, particularly when he had good backups like Castro or the Widge? Again, must qualify that I liked AJ. But that doesn't mean every defense of him makes sense. Again AJ didn't make out the line up card. When Widger was useful, the Sox won the WS so I don't think there was an overplay there. Castro had one good year as a back up, but if he played more, chances are he would have been exposed checking out the rest of his career. He was awful his first season with the Sox and injured his last.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Dec 26, 2012 -> 05:54 PM) He managed to produce a higher WAR than AJ. WAR doesn't account for grinderism though. And fangraphs WAR is the end all. Instead of standings, they should just add up all WARs and pass out trophies. The fact is if AJ hit .215 with a .275 OBP but threw out runners just like Karkovice used to, you would say he sucked. AJ was a good player for the Sox and had an impact far beyond numbers. The fact that he kept some of his back ups off the field alone should be appreciated.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Dec 26, 2012 -> 04:56 PM) The legend of AJ knows no bounds. The other day, somebody took a shot at Flowers by calling him another Karkovice. Statistically, AJ was no Karkovice. Karkovice was basically a back up catcher. He caught 1000 innings once in his career. His entire value was his defense, and Flowers isn't anywhere near Karkovice defensively.

Bonds was probably on a HOF track before he started bulking up. I could understand his election, plus his numbers, even when giving the juice some credit were beyond amazing.

QUOTE (PtownSoxfan @ Dec 24, 2012 -> 08:29 PM) He just signed with Boston last week I believe. And regarding Soriano being rep. by Boras, two things, both of which may not matter but I'll bring it up anyway #1- there's the possibility that he wont get as much as he could have had (at least for this season) had he not opted out of his contract with NY, which can tend to sour a player on their current management #2- are there any known issues between Hahn & Boras that would put a definitive no on this? Would Kenny be okay with Hahn dealing with a Boras client? Or is it simply an organizational philosophy that goes from Jerry on down, no Boras client signings under any circumstances? I know that it HAS been the case the last decade, however with Kenny moving up (in title), im curious to know what if any effect that has on dealings with guys like Boras He turned down the qualifying offer, so not only would you have to pay him 8 figures, you would forfeit a draft pick as well. He turned down a ridiculously large option in NY. I think Boras might have finally overplayed his hand.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Dec 22, 2012 -> 09:38 AM) And Buehrle? Let's just say that I am glad he no longer wears a White Sox uniform. You must be a vendor.

Isn't Markakis an Angelos favorite? Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think the Sox could get him unless they gave up about triple what he is worth.

How dare John Lynch call out Cutler. It is never Cutler's fault if he is having a terrible game.Bears in a must win= Jay Cutler bad.

Another worthless challenge by the Bears. You can blame Lovie for it, but someone upstairs is telling him to throw the flag.

It would be nice if Hester actually tried to catch the ball more than half the time.