Dick Allen

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Oct 3, 2011 -> 07:33 PM) Just when you thought things couldn't get weirder. Per Bill Zwecker today: That would really add insult to injury. Get rid of one classless clown (Ozzie), bring in an even more classless clown. I know North wanted to be a color commentator. But I really think that is out of the question. It may be some sort of White Sox programming on CSN. That's the only thing I can think of. I wonder how long until it would be cancelled? The guy is poison in this town. Stay away JR unless you want to alienate the rest of your fanbase.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Oct 2, 2011 -> 08:46 PM) Well Keystone is the best of the best so that makes sense. It only tastes expensive.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Oct 1, 2011 -> 04:43 PM) Anyone got details? Stone said if you can't clothe your wife making $2 million a year, its time to find a new wife. If that was a shot at anyone, it was at Ozzie's ridiculous cry for more money. And if Ozzie didn't quit, why isn't JR still paying him his guarantee for next year? I'm glad the Guillens are Miami's probem now. Ozney's tweet is showing why he really didn't want to go to college. Its amazing they let him graduate HS. Here's a scary thought, maybe Oney is the smart one.

I don't mind these guys. The pitcher throws 100. He could be Bobby Jenks, he could be Andy Sisco. The infielder had a bad year, but seems like a guy who will play in the big leagues. All that for a guy who quit. So basically for nothing. Not bad.

QUOTE (JoshPR @ Oct 2, 2011 -> 07:09 PM) He wants to play another season.. This is the link in Spanish. http://laverdad.com/detnotic.php?CodNotic=70419 I like Omar, but he's 44 or 45 years old, made a couple of million and at this point is lucky to be on a roster. I really can't fault Ozzie or the Sox for his playing time. You still should have to earn it. Who was he going to take time from? Morel? He has to play. Ramirez? Alexei is clearly a better player than Omar right now? Beckham? Beckham needs to play as well, and as bad as he hit, he still is probably a better offensive player than Omar at this point, and is probably better defensively.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 2, 2011 -> 06:43 PM) That's one heckuvan endorsement. Exactly what does anyone think Joe Maddon would say about his bench coach of the last 4 years? Lou Piniella, a pretty good manager, endorsed Mike Quade. Ozzie would give a ringing endorsement of Joey Cora. I hope Maddon's comments aren't taking as gospel. I won't be upset if KW hires him, but I hope he hires him because of what he says, not Joe Maddon.

QUOTE (Tex @ Oct 2, 2011 -> 08:23 AM) yes, Ozzie could buy a nice $150,000 in Waukegan or Ford Heights and drive a 4 year old Chevy to to the ball games and never worry about money. Guys making minimum wage think if I was just making $25,000 a year, I'd be happy. Guy making $25,000 wishes he was making $50,000. It just keeps going up from there. Some people are happy just to be able to give their kids a 10 year old Toyota to drive, but wish they could give them something a little nicer. When you are making $2 mil its remarkably easy to spend it and want to have $3 million. If you're making $2 million a year and spending it all, you deserve what's next. He wants a $2 million boat. Enough said.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Oct 1, 2011 -> 11:48 PM) That's short sighted. Some have lost it on investments, bad accountants. It's more difficult for an individual to keep track of that kind of money. Do you think they keep it in a checking account and wait for their daily email from Chase? If you make $2 million a year like Ozzie was making, you can live a pretty comforable life without going broke. There are no excuses for any of these athletes who have gone broke other than total stupidity. Steve Stone was on television the other day and he said about Ozzie and money was this, "if bringing home $2 million a year isn't enough for your wife to go shopping, its time to find a new wife".

If the Sox hired Martinez, do you think he'd bring in Sandberg to be the bench coach?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Oct 1, 2011 -> 03:04 PM) Lackey and Crawford (especially Lackey) contracts look terrible at the moment. But Theo's overall body of work is staggering. He's one of the best GMs in team sports and if the Cubs get him they'll be damn lucky. If Theo went to the Cubs and they won, he would have killed 2 curses, and probably would go down as one of the top GMs ever. If he's miserable working for the Red Sox, its a no brainer he takes the Cubs job if the Red Sox let him.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Oct 1, 2011 -> 12:39 PM) And that was the first you heard of it? Come on now. It is my opinion that the dislike of Cowley stems from the fact that he slapped down SoxTalk. Not really. He's just an unprofessional goof. Cowley laughs at Phil Rogers for getting scolded for calling out KW, then calls him out himself. Also remember Rogers had Ozzie going to the Marlins 15 months ago. I think that was before Cowley became BFF with Oney and started his campaign. But we will see. Joe did say several months ago, the Sox would hire a puppet. I believe Daryl Boston is who he mentioned. Looks like Joe will be wrong yet again. I may think less of KW than Cowley does. But Cowley calls KW a liar and finds excuses every time Ozzie contridicts himself. Ozzie goes on a rant about money, then the next day says his leaving is nothing about money. He mentions loyalty. The Sox gave him an extension after 2007. Picked up his extension he cried about last year, then Ozzie says he can't work under the extension. Perhaps Ozzie at one time was a good manager, but now much the same as Ditka, Ozzie is about Ozzie. I'm glad he and his doofus son are gone, now JR needs a new GM and we are back in business, although I do think getting rid of one of the two will make a huge difference. I really believe their dynamic was pulling the organization down.

Frasor does have a team option, and another thing to keep in mind, he was one of only a couple that accepted arbitration last year.

QUOTE (BamaDoc @ Oct 1, 2011 -> 08:05 AM) Per the MLB trade rumors site link, Buehrle, Pierre, and Frasor rank as type B free agents meaning if arbitration is offered and rejected by the player, if the player signs elsewhere the Sox receive a supplemental pick between the first and second round. The good news is the pick is not from a signing team so it does not keep anyone from signing them. The picks could be quite useful to restock the minor league system. The down side is if the player accepts you are stuck with them and at a arbitration price ie maybe not the price you want. Buehrle no brainer you offer so if he doesn't resign you get the pick. He will have multi year offers. Frasor tougher call. May decline in search of a multiyear (two) year deal and I think someone would do that so I say offer. Pierre toughest call. You don't want him back, unlikely to get multi year offer so highest chance of accepting, so I think despite wanting the pick you have to pass. I would however, try to get him to agree to refuse arbitration thus getting the pick. I would have a wink wink agreement that he could be a minor league instructor when his playing days are thru. Thoughts? If the Sox offered Pierre arbitration, and he accepted, the reality is without the LA money, they are looking at paying him double what they have been paying him. I don't think they offer. Frasor is a tough call., as far as picking up his option but I don't see them offering him arb if they reject his option. Buerhle obviously you offer. Another thing to consider, the Sox don't like spending a lot of money on the draft. I don't know if JR would really appreciate a bunch of supplemental picks considering their rate of panning out and the bonuses they are paid.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 30, 2011 -> 09:19 PM) I bet most managers would prefer to manage a young club than the big market clubs. How many consequences can be handed out to veterans for not wanting to play? Apparently none. See Rios, Alex.

QUOTE (toasty @ Sep 30, 2011 -> 07:16 PM) He admitted he could no longer reach the players in THAT clubhouse... there is a difference there. If he admits he can't get reach the players he knows inside and out, how would he convince JR and KW that he could reach players he doesn't know very well? Believe me, I like Francona, but I think he just gave JR an out if he has cold feet about paying managers decent cash, and I can't say I could blame him.

QUOTE (Tex @ Sep 30, 2011 -> 06:18 PM) Where was Ozzie not going to honor the contract? Did we really want him to? Ozzie quit. He said he couldn't and wouldn't work with one year left on his deal.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Sep 30, 2011 -> 05:55 PM) If the Sox are interested in changing the organizational culture, Francona doesn't sound like the right fit. I agree. He's had some huge success and he is a classy guy, but his team just had one of the biggest collapses in history. If they go 9-18 in September they make the playoffs. What's he going to do with a team with the talent level of the White Sox? I won't cry if JR hires him. I just think he'd probably be great someplace else.

"We met this morning to look back on the 2011 season and to consider the future of the Boston Red Sox, including my involvement with the club," Francona said in a statement released by the club. "I passed along my frustrations at my inability to effectively reach the players. After many conversations and much consideration, I ultimately felt that, out of respect to this team, it was time for me to move on." He admits he can't reach the players. The Sox have a couple of very pricey veterans who need to be "reached". You can cross Francona off the list.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 30, 2011 -> 09:29 AM) Loyalty like getting a contract extension during a losing season in 2007, or getting an option exercised after a failed 2010 season? Funny how Ozzie had to have that option exercised, it gets exercised and he doesn't honor it, and HE pops off about loyalty. Maybe he should re think that. If JR doesn't let him out of his contract, its very debatable whether he ever gets offered what he signed for ever again.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 09:48 PM) Not to use a college basketball analogy but Roy Williams at Kansas had a winning "culture" to the tune of about an .820 win percentage. Virtually all of his assistant coaches were huge flops when they became head coaches including Matt Doherty who just about killed Carolina's program he was so bad. Coach K's guys haven't done all that well either, but who knows? If the Sox have good players, no matter who they hire, will be considered a good manager. If they have bad players, they will wind up getting waxed. Joe Torre was an idiot when he had bad players and a HOF manager when he had great ones. There are probably a lot of guys like him.

Hawk pisses me off sometimes, but I do love him. I love that I know what he's going to say before he says it. My buddy and I have the game on and we say what he's going to say seconds before he says it and our wives freak out. His umpire criticism bothers me, his looking the other way bothers me. He was quite critical when he was a Red Sox announcer, but he loves the Sox. Would anyone really prefer a guy like Len Kasper? I'm glad he's going to be here, but it really wasn't news. He'll announce the Sox as long as he's physically capable doing it. He's stated it many times and they aren't going to fire him.

How come Daryl Boston isn't getting mentioned? I thought Cowley said he'd be KW's puppet. I did get a laugh when Ozzie told the Miami media his situation wasn't about money. I guess he forgot what he said a couple days before.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 08:48 PM) I never said anything of the sort. Evan Longoria is a monster player, and most-likely would be regardless of who had the pleasure of drafting him. What I said was that Martinez has been part of a culture that has handled several young players extraordinarily well. This probably occurred as a matter of necessity more than anything, but the fact is that Tampa managed to make the playoffs in a division where the two biggest superpowers in baseball reside with an abundance of young players coming through their system. Maybe JR should have his eye on some of their development people. One White Sox problem is it seems a lot of the guys called up in recent years looked like they started playing baseball 2 weeks before they came up. Throwing to wrong bases, missing cutoff men, getting picked off, horrid baserunning............Maybe that's why De Aza looked good, he was developed by someone else. It may be reason to be at least slightly excited about the 2 they received for Ozzie. As for the teacher/mentor thing, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Maddon is a very unique guy. I doubt Martinez has his intellect, and while he can learn from Maddon, when he gets a manager gig, he's got to be himself, not try to be Joe Maddon, but as I said, if the Sox hired him I wouldn't be upset. I think the end of the KW/Ozzie daily garbage just made this team better, and I think they will hire a good guy.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 08:33 PM) If it didn't happen every single time I get involved in a discussion on here it wouldn't piss me off but it's constant and it serves no one, just kills good dialogue. How does being signifcanlty more experienced not make Dave Martinez better qualified? That's pretty huge. There's a ton of responsibility that comes along with being a manager, Dave Martinez has basically lived it for the past 4 years while Sandy has merely viewed it, I imagine there's going to be a lot more growing pains with Alomar. What were Martinez's responsibilities?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 08:22 PM) Well, the whole point is not who has worked with more young players. It's who has managed to actually be successful with more young players... There is more evidence of that in TB than in Cleveland. At least with the Sox everyone blamed the hitting coach or praised the pitching coach. Now you're saying the reason Evan Longoria is a great player is because of the bench coach? We have no idea the effect Martinez or Alomar has had on young players. None.