Dick Allen

QUOTE (zenryan @ Jan 16, 2013 -> 08:00 PM) Was there even a game ball???? His "girlfriend" has a pair.

This is so awesome it is happening at ND. Who gets the game ball Kelly gave to his "girlfriend".

I wonder if the ND officials realize how ridiculous they appear.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 16, 2013 -> 07:52 PM) Who was he on the phone with for 8 hours a night? His boyfriend

If he is not in on it, would ND really want it known that someone that dumb could keep himself eligible?

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Jan 16, 2013 -> 09:17 AM) That's the way it should be when a team hires a coach. No one knows if he will be good or bad. Right away people either think this is the worst move ever or He will win us a Super Bowl. Much like draft picks you have to wait 2-3 years to really know. Unless you are a University of Illinois football fan.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 16, 2013 -> 08:49 AM) Take a second and think about how limited the number of teams he fits with are. Konerko is under contract for 1 year, so the team trading for him needs to be ready to compete this year. Konerko is well paid, >$10 million, so the team needs to have money to spend. The team needs to have a hole at 1b, and it helps if the team also can move Konerko to DH for part of the time, as that helps keep him healthy. How many teams are left that this fits? Now throw in the fact that Konerko's a 10/5 player and thus has a full No Trade Clause if he wants to exercise it. Getting a significant offer for a guy usually means that you have multiple teams in the running for him who will drive the price up. I have trouble thinking of any teams that fit all of those. He's making $6.5 million this year, with $1 million a year deferred for the next 7 years. You are right, there probably are only a couple of teams that would be a fit for Konerko with his veto rights, teams ability to take on money and his position. Getting anything close to what he is worth to the White Sox is very slim.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 15, 2013 -> 10:19 PM) Did you see the crazy contract. Only 7 mil for each year of the contract but 14 mil deferred to 2018-2025. Heck of a lot better than the pension I'm going to get once the state government gets through shredding mine. Seems this was a deal to save face for Boras, who not so coincidentally has a lot of clients with the Nationals.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 15, 2013 -> 08:09 PM) Just to reinforce what someone else said, Reinsdorf bought rings for like everyone in the Sox organization. A lady who I worked with used to work there part time (shes full time now) and they even gave her a ring. She brought it in and I got to wear it, so good enough for me. Even my dope of a ticket rep got a ring. There were a couple of levels of quality. At first I thought the dope got a $20k ring.

QUOTE (SOXOBAMA @ Jan 16, 2013 -> 07:01 AM) Jerry Rice compares Trestman to Bill Walsh. It was a very nice hire for the Bears. I got to meet Trestman when he was with the 49ers, he seem like a great guy Look for the Bears to sign a guy like Mike Wallace, Trestman loves having 2 star WR's That's pretty surprising since Rice was really happy when Trestman was let go by the 49ers. He hated the 2 yard routes he was running. http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/...7/1c1rice_.html The thing that concerns me is he's from the Jimmy Johnson tree, Wanne, Norv Turner, both prety much busts as Head Coaches. He's also kind of calm like Lovie. If the Bears don't win right away, the fans are going after him.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jan 15, 2013 -> 06:10 PM) My point was more along the lines of not being afraid to act. Everyone makes mistakes. Mistakes are necessary if you want to learn anything. A GM will make mistakes but a good one will learn from those. As long as a GM is acting on good information and is doing the right things at the right times, i.e. going for it when the contention window is there, building toward a new contention window when the current one seems to have closed, etc. then as long as he's primarily signing *proven* talent and trading *unproven* prospects with speculative value which (see: Molina, Nestor) can crash abruptly, then more often than not he's going to be on the right end of things. I see Hahn as being afraid to make a move. Kenny's aggression was a wonderful quality and I miss it. While others may not want to immediately hold Rick Hahn up to KW standards, I do. As a fan I expect an excellent General Manager running things. As far as Lohse you have a point, although I am not sure he ever would have been a Hahn/Sox under anyone target, and I really doubt we're looking to add salary. However, that Floyd trade which never happened would have given us salary room, and in theory, getting something of value for Floyd and then turning around and recommitting those funds to another area makes the organization's future appear brighter since talent would have been added overall, talent also with expiration dates beyond 2013 like Floyd. But going with Lohse as an example, signing Lohse to a 3 year deal, trading Floyd for parts/prospects, and then dealing off Lohse after 1-2 seasons and dumping salary probably is a lot less riskier than losing Floyd for nothing when just about everyone needs starting pitching. I will applaud Hahn if and when he does something right. He has no leash with me since he's failed already. At least 2 of Crain/Thornton/Floyd should have been gone with at least one good young piece coming back who is ready to compete for a job in ST 2013. He's done jack. I am sure your approval is Hahn's number one goal.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jan 15, 2013 -> 12:47 PM) That will be a fun session to be at. Will Carlton Fisk be driving in?

What I don't understand is many used to bank on the Sox making some sort of move right before Soxfest which always occurs at the end of January. Now, for some reason, people are convinced the team's roster is set a week and a half before Soxfest even begins and more importantly, 2 1/2 months before the season starts. I guess anything to be able to complain.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jan 15, 2013 -> 11:34 AM) And this is simply incorrect. Look at all the good players we have. Who acquired them? Kenny Williams, usually by being aggressive. Now look at who else is out there that we once had down on the farm but who is now performing elsewhere.... it's Gio who he traded for several years of 1B/OF candidate Swisher, who was very talented and just got paid, and then there's injured and perennially overrated Dan Hudson who was sent out for Jackson, who was supposed to help us win during the 2010-11 massive payroll spike. Who else is out there ater that? Morse? Carter possibly if he can keep it up. Who else? One of the biggest knocks on KW is the farm system. This was NOT Kenny. Kenny, under Reinsdorf, wasn't going to abuse the system. You can blame Kenny for the personnel involved, especially the ones who picked players like Whisler, Broadway, McCulloch, etc. but that's about it. What have we seen from Hahn thaty says he's any better at evaluating talent than Kenny Williams? Nothing. If anything, I think most of the Sox personnel problems, whether it was Ozzie, Dave Wilder, the skimming scouts, etc. came from lack of proper oversight/too long of a leash being given out. This extends from the top down and in those respects no one should expect things to change much under Hahn. Think about what Kenny did after 2006 for example, after we finished 3rd in the division after running out one of, if not *the* most talented all-around team in baseball that year. In a 2 year span Kenny added multi-year pieces in Floyd, Danks, Quentin, Ramirez, and the thought was that Swisher was one too. We lost Chris Carter and Gio, big whoopie. Fans b**** about the '07 pen and laugh at the '08 Griffey deadline deal, but Kenny got a contributor in Griffey for the short bit he played, and that '07 pen was stacked with big arms who all could have gone the way Jones did last year, but didn't, because baseball is baseball and a very difficult game to predict. But after '06 Kenny had a lot less to work with than Hahn does now, and he extended out a new window by being aggressive and making the big move. Hahn has done jack. Hahn deserves no credit. Kenny set him up to do work and he's done nothing but play Halo on XBox for all anyone can tell. Well KW took over a 95 win team in 2000 and made them, (if you want to give the GM all the credit and all the blame) 83 game winners. Hahn has inherited an 85 win team. I know it is against all baseball rules to make trades and sign people after January 14th, the time that rosters must be set. Just remember your boy KW at this time last year lost Buerhle, traded Quentin and Santos for minor leaguers that didn't contribute in 2012. Other than that, less than Hahn has done this year. Before you continue to make a fool of yourself, why don't you wait until they start playing games that count to see where the team is at? If he does nothing or does something that doesn't work and the team isn't very good......fire away.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 15, 2013 -> 11:21 AM) People who rag on the fans for their support are really advocating franchise relocation. And people who search for crap to rag about need to find a new hobby.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 15, 2013 -> 08:07 AM) Thats not really the point. The point is will Prince be effective? Considering Prince has done nothing but destroy MLB pitching since the moment he stepped into the league, and has remained reasonably healthy throughout his stay, I dont see why it is a foregone conclusion that he will just fall off. Also, I sincerely doubt his dad had/sought out access to the same kind of health treatment that Prince currently does. While I doubt that Prince is a vegetarian like he says he is, I dont doubt that he keeps himself in better condition than his Dad did. His dad in slow motion was like watching the homer simpson softball episode. Prince has more girth than his dad, and whatever kind of condition he is in, eventually that weight on your joints takes a toll. I don't think its too crazy to look at his dad to try to determine when it might start going south for his son. It's not a guarantee, but it's a better tool than denial, and I would venture teams that were interested in signing him looked at it as well.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jan 15, 2013 -> 08:16 AM) I agree with that, though it's hard to imagine any of these guys turning down the Bears. An opportunity to coach a team that has won 29 games in the past three seasons does not come around often. 90% of the time the open jobs are with teams that have won something like 15 games in the past three seasons. I know that, there are tons of factors, and if you are a top candidate for a job, and every year this happens it seems the teams looking for coaches interview from the same pool, you might as well hear what everyone has to say.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 14, 2013 -> 11:31 PM) First of all you are acting like I think the Eagles are well run, Im not qualified to speak about their team, but I am pretty sure that their last NFL Championship was before 1985, so not exactly a team that I am looking to emulate. Secondly, if we want to hire people because of their "unique" story, well Bevell was a mormon and went on a mission. He also won the Rose Bowl for Wisconsin. Third, just because they are OC's doesnt mean that they are similar. That would be like saying if I had 2 DC finalists, 1 who ran 4-3 exclusively and 1 who ran 3-4 exclusively that they were similar. Sure they both coach defense, but they do it in an entirely different way. The argument was against Jake for saying that "Emery knows exactly what he wants". I dont care if he goes into the final interview with a DC, OC, ST, a NCAA HC etc. That isnt what I am saying. I am saying that Emery does not know exactly what he wants. I am not sure why you are even arguing, because you are now saying that "openness could be an asset." Well of course it could be, I never said it couldnt. I very specifically was saying that based on the interview process there is no way to logically conclude Emery knows exactly what he wants. No one is even arguing against that. I am not saying which interview process is better. It depends on the person. Which is why I used 2 examples of buying a car, because both examples are fine, but there is no way you can argue that in one of them I knew exactly what I wanted. He can know what he wants, but it's not like shopping for a car. First off, he obviously doesn't have the final say if the second interviews are with Emery's bosses. Secondly, there are other teams looking for coaches. Perhaps his #1 choice prefers to coach elsewhere or doesn't want to come to the Bears. Knowing exactly what he wants and getting it are two different things. You have to have plan B and plan C in place or you really might get smoked. One thing is guaranteed, whoever the do wind up picking, unless some negotiation goes terribly wrong and public, will be referred to as the guy who was their top choice.

Cecil played until he was 34 but was breaking down before that. I would imagine the same thing might happen to Prince. I don't think there are very many teams that would take on his contract. He still should be productive for a while, but I think he has 8 more years on his contract. Of course he could always get in some sort of shape. I'm still waiting for someone to go on the DL with the gout. I do know David Wells missed starts with the gout, but wasn't DL'd.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 15, 2013 -> 07:32 AM) His dad only played until he was 34 and his last full season was when he was 32. Yeah, I mentioned this a while ago. He may have a couple of really productive seasons left, but his gene pool suggests he isn't going to be anywhere near worth his contract the last 4 or 5 years of that deal.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Jan 14, 2013 -> 07:21 PM) I approve of this message. You've gotta admit thou - this offseason has been the least active in a long long time. Last year was pretty inactive.

I know they are without 2 of their best players, but Northwestern is awful. I don't see how they are even close to a tournament team at full strength. I think this will probably be the end for Carmody.

12 years ago today, Kenny Williams awoke from his coma and traded for David Wells.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 12, 2013 -> 08:36 PM) Does it really matter whose it is? A WS ring is a WS ring. I wouldn't care if it was a beer vendor's ring. It is covered up on the ring, but their name is on it. It makes a huge difference in value. I think Babe Ruth's 1927 WS ring went for over $250k. A lesser player or coach with the same ring would fetch far less.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 13, 2013 -> 08:28 AM) They had a guy bring in a Braves title ring on PAWN STARS once, and unless it is owned by a player, they aren't worth as much as people thing. That guy asking $25,000 is off his rocker. If it is the same model the players received, it supposedly cost around $20k to make. It most likely is Moose Skowron's ring, so an extra 5k for the novelty and the name isn't that crazy. It is obviously up for negotiation, but someone with a lot of money might have to have it.