Dick Allen

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 29, 2012 -> 04:35 PM) I bet his twitter account was hacked. Yeah, right. Although I expect that to be the excuse you use to save your job.

I wonder how the Sun Times can justify keeping him around, but then again, its the Sun Times. Joe always thinks he's the funniest guy in the room. Unfortunately he is usually wrong. At the very least we are going to get an apology from him. Hopefully full of tears, saying he didn't mean it. He is beyond an idiot. I wonder if he's telling his bosses to give him what he thought the Marlins should give Ozzie, a phantom fine, a big apology and let it blow over.

I hope Thornton gets more opportunities in the 9th. He's back to being nasty

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Apr 29, 2012 -> 11:37 AM) At least we don't have to watch Beckham's pathetic attempts to hit. But without Konerko in the lineup, they probably lose again. No, you get to watch Escobar's and Lillibridge's pathetic attempts to hit.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 29, 2012 -> 11:29 AM) A little over 20k on a Saturday night vs Boston is shocking to me. That had to be lower than even the most pessimistic projections could have predicted They have a much smaller season ticket base. I cancelled myself, and its 35 degrees. I think the dynamic pricing, especially in April when people want to take a wait and see approach with the weather, hurts them. Going on ticketmaster the day of the game, unless you just don't care, the prices are insane.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 29, 2012 -> 11:20 AM) Sure, but the opposite can be said for Sale and certainly Peavy, Konerko, and A.J. Right, but Konerko still looks like a .300 30 homer guy. AJ will do what he always does. Sale is a question mark, although I think his main question is going to be fatique. Danks will certainly improve. They basically look like a .500 team. It could fall apart and they could be bad, or they could get on a role and have a shot. Unlike last season, there's still reason to pay attention from a baseball standpoint.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 29, 2012 -> 11:06 AM) Positives - Sale and Reed have exceeded expectations. - Peavy was the ace he was acquired to be. - Dunn and Rios have been solid contributors. - Konerko - In Birmingham, Mitchell might be back on track to being impact player. - Sox didn't lose division in April Negatives - Danks was worst starter after signing $65M deal in offseason - Best SP, Peavy, most assuredly won't be back in 2013. - Hitters under the age of 30 put up a composite line of .208/.256/.311. Amazingly struck out 92 times as opposed to having 97 total bases. - In Birmingham, Nestor Molina has pitched more like a middle-of-the-rotation starter than a top-of-the-rotation one. - 3-7 home record (through Saturday), soft attendance. Positive- team has 3 players hitting .250 and is one game out of first place. As much as anyone can hate Beckham and Morel, and maybe even Viciedo, there is no way they aren't going to improve their current performance.

Baron Davis tore his ACL in college yet still recovered enough to become the 3rd overall pick in the draft and have an nice 13 year career. DRose wasn't 100% all season and many who now think if he comes back at anything less will make the Bulls non contenders for a title weren't feeling that way 24 hours ago when he couldn't have been more than 80-85%. In Davis's two years at UCLA, he averaged 13.6 points and 5.1 assists for the Bruins. While coming down from a dunk during an NCAA Tournament game his freshman year, he injured his knee and tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Surprisingly, though, he made a full recovery the next season and seemed to have regained nearly all of the speed, quickness, and explosiveness he had before the injury while doing enough on the basketball court to warrant his declaring for the 1999 NBA Draft after his sophomore campaign.[3]

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Apr 29, 2012 -> 09:16 AM) The biggest problem will be if he doesn't have the same attitude on the court because he is nervous about his knee. That usually fades pretty quickly. The biggest fear I have is all the injuries he had. Why would this surgery put an end to them all? I hope he comes back and never has another one, but I would think the odds are in favor of him having numerous injuries the rest of his career. It was interesting some trainers were blaming his previous injuries on a lack of stretching. Supposedly DRose stretches very little. The interesting part to me was the trainer said he had to find a happy medium (I always thought stretching was good and never could be too stretched out). Apparently you need some stiffness for explosion.

I watched an interview with a doctor at U of Chicago. He thinks there's a good chance Rose will be back if not at the level he was at physically, close, although he did caution it would probably take about a year to get to that level. We have to remember he had 6 injuries this year and when he played he was usually pretty good, good enough that many thought the Bulls would win the title. He was nowhere near 100%. There's always fear with the surgery but guys like Edgerin James came back fine. I think Rose will too. He's young, he's strong and he's not a big guy. If he was 275 pounds it might be a different story.

I will say sample size is the reason for the discrepancy over the home and road record. Overall, they are probably at where a lot of people project them, right around .500. How they handle the division will determine whether they have a shot at the postseason this year. Even in 2005, they were just .500 against the AL East and AL West during the regular season.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 09:58 PM) We're 20 games into the season! Seriously, you are incapable of having objective opinions due to some perverse love affairs up you have with random people you meet. From the guy who is giving up on Viciedo. Priceless.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 09:40 PM) Is that really all you have to do on a Saturday night? Gloat about f***ing Greg Walker? You are ridiculous. You're ridiculous. Read my posts.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 09:38 PM) A week ago, you would have been laughed at for bringing this topic up. Same thing could happen for both Walker and Manto in another month's time. A week ago, Bobby Valentine was being hounded out of Boston after blowing the 9 run lead on Saturday. I'll ask this question. How many hitting coaches have "fixed" an entire major league roster of hitters in 2 months? Are you claiming the success of all the Braves' hitters this season is entirely due to Greg Walker? REALLY? That's one thing I've learned on this board. I tried to be a voice of reason and tell people they were wrong, the way to really improve an offense is to get better hitters, but was rebuffed to the point I saw the light. A hitter's success or failure is pretty much all on the hitting coach. What Mickey Hatcher has done to Albert Pujols is criminal. You can't have it both ways. If the Sox were leading the league in runs scored right now, you would say it was proof Walker sucked and Manto is great. The Braves lead the NL in runs.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 09:29 PM) It's a game of expectations. Nobody in baseball expected anything out of Humber when we picked him up, Jenks, Santos, Loaiza, Contreras, Thornton, etc. Peavy hasn't been healthy for most of his time with the White Sox, although I guess you could blame Cooper for injuring him if you want. With Beckham, Dunn, Rios and Viciedo, a LOT was expected/predicted out of them. I'm willing to give Walker a pass on Morel, because I never considered him a sure-fire major league starter like some here. We aren't talking about Walker here. We are talking about Manto. He is the hitting coach. Walker is in ATL. He's watching the Braves hitters, they lead the NL in runs scored. Its Manto;s fault these guys aren't hitting now.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 09:25 PM) He also has to get some of the credit for Ordonez, Carlos Lee, Ray Durham...can't remember when we drafted Rowand and Crede, although KW was director of scouting/minor leagues by then, right? Drafting Buehrle where he got him so late in the draft, etc. Himes drafted Durham, but Schueler definitely provided more major league ready hitters from the minor leagues, although he really got lucky with Maggs. The scout who signed Maggs showed up like 6 hours late for his workout, but Maggs stuck around. He also left him exposed in the rule 5 and no one took him. After the strike though, Schueler was a different GM. While KW has his player as his best hitter 12 years later, every year Schueler was the GM, his best player was a Larry Himes draft pick.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 09:22 PM) And I suppose you also are going to argue that Don Cooper is overrated despite the fact that we have one of the best pitching staffs in the AL? That any random pitching coach could get a no-hitter out of Phil Humber? Why would you say that? All I said is what the majority of Soxtalk has said for years. If guys aren't hitting its the hitting coach's fault. Its time to make a change. As far as Cooper/Humber, if you're going to give Coop the credit for the perfect game, don't you have to blame him for the implosion his next outing?

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 09:18 PM) That may be the ONLY thing Schuler got right was his opinion of KW! Schueler was pretty good at the beginning. He picked up Raines, always seemed to find someone to do a decent job in RF from year to year, DJ, Burks, even Tartabull had a decent year. But he got ultra conservative, but he did have a division winner his final season.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 09:02 PM) He should play every day You wouldn't say that for long. Do you see some of the crap he swings at off of RHP?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 09:08 PM) Except Jeff Manto's had two months. Greg Walker how many years? At a certain point, it becomes an issue of either being totally lost and lack confidence psychologically (Beckham/Morel) or just not being talented enough...to the point where no hitting coach could possibly make a difference, not even Lau, Hrniak or Rudy Jaramillo. But its pretty obvious it isn't getting better. Why wait? Every time a White Sox made an out it was Greg Walker's fault. It should now be Manto. They have 10 runs their last 5 games, only 8 in regulation. Its time to make a change. He obviously isn't working out.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 09:12 PM) Ron also picked his successor. Thus, you should be supporting him. Actually Schueler wanted Danny Evans to replace him. He thought KW rubbed too many people the wrong way to be GM.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 09:12 PM) Did any of our announcers point out his lack of hustle/laziness? Hawk and Stone did. At least Dunn made it 21 in a row tonight.

One thing I have learned from Soxtalk. When the offense is this bad, its the hitting coach's fault. Fire Jeff Manto.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 06:06 PM) Honestly though, this weekend can't get much worse for me. Had another seizure, carnival I was helping plan got rained out, now this s***. Hope you're OK. As for the carnival, if you ever need a bearded lady, check out the corner of Rush and Huron.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 28, 2012 -> 06:03 PM) f*** the Heat. Patrick Ewing Theory all up in this b****. f*** Hue Hollins