Dick Allen

If given the resources someone very ordinary could put together a terrific team on paper. The games aren't played on paper. The real good GMs, while always having their misses are best at projections. KW has been burned by his in recent years, at least when it comes to selecting hitters. Quentin was a home run, the rest the past 3 years, a huge swing and a miss.

QUOTE (MAX @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 10:43 PM) It is. I am just trying to say that I think it is likely that he will improve his OPS by at least .100 points and be a cheap and valuable asset to the team for the next 4 years. I hope you're right, but face it, based on last September, you would have figured he would have provided a few more extra base hits this year, and OBP was horrific. He's starting to draw some walks.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 10:41 PM) Nice thread. Did you see the postgame interview? How can you not like Juan Pierre? Total class. His 2,000th hit was a nice one for him to remember. A hard hit single. Sometimes I think people are jealous of guys like little Juan. He has no power but through hard work and getting the most out of his ability, he's had a very very nice career. I hope Oz brings him to Florida with him and he has another good year. He has no pop (though I do recall watching him blast 2 homers this year just nine less than worthless Dunn), and he's lost his ability to swipe bases like Rock Raines did as well, but you have to love the little fella. I agree with the class part. He's supposed to be a good teammate, works really hard, sets a good example for the younger guys, and I've never seen him dog it. I wish he could hit the ball a little harder, throw a little better and get on base a little more. 2000 hits is a nice accomplishment.

QUOTE (MAX @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 10:39 PM) Since you are making arbitrary stats that have little to no meaning in actual production. - here is another: Walks + HR - Ks = better career Schmidt: -56 Morel: -29 Brent wins! HOF first ballot. Best 3B all time. I'm kidding of course, but why not look at something like OPS which is more agreed upon. Brent is obviously lagging there, (.697 v .634) but not by a huge amount. Schmidt ended up with a career OPS .200 points higher than that. If brent can improve his ops by even half that, .100, while providing the plus defense he is quite capable of, he will have a very solid career. I think its more likely than it is unlikely. I think even Morel's biggest fans would think comparing Brent with Mike Schmidt is beyond ridiculous. At least Morel has been useful defensively, so the Sox can at least buy some time for development. If he had Josh Field's glove, his time may have come and gone by now.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 10:36 PM) Do you really think he'll risk $120 million again on this roster with half that in the awful 3? Even though you think es cheap you can't believe that's a good investment. Lillibridge is out for the season. He's stuck with a big payroll.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 10:36 PM) If you made a list of the top 25 Sox problems this year Morel would be about 20th. What happened to your shortchanging post when you shortchanged Mike Schmidt? That was hilarious.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 10:30 PM) A new GM and manager will not have the same trust and salary freedom that kw has had. You had to know that. The only way a new management team will compete next year is off Kennys youth. And the AL central ought to be better next year than this. ESP with the tigers having money to spend again. I disagree. Have you ever read JR's quotes about rebuilding? He isn't going to youth movement unless they are all stud can't miss prospects anytime soon. I think Minnesota is going to suck for a while. KC will suck until they show they don't. The Indians smoke and mirrors act is history. Detroit may be OK but they are far from a juggernaut and sometimes having money to spend is a curse. If Verlander ever went down, they would be screwed.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 10:25 PM) Then you need to support kw and maybe Ozzie staying, because the first thing a new GM is going to do is strip things down and start plugging in kids. Not really. The AL Central is ripe for the taking. A new GM is going to want to win. Why would he want to play KW's minor leaguers?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 10:22 PM) If you guys can't get this concept then you're going to hate rebuilding. I'm totally against rebuilding.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 10:17 PM) Just pointing out rookies don't always set the world on fire. Leave it to some of you guys to whine about a guy still learning. I'm not whining, but for every HOFer you mention that started out slow, I could name 1000 guys that started out slow and didn't get much better, and another 1000 who started better but weren't nearly as good. Robin Ventura started out pretty slowly. His offensive numbers his rookie year were quite similiar to Morel's. He was a little younger. But you can't get too excited about a 2 homer game in this situation and ignore the lack of power the other 140 games. Maybe he develops, maybe he doesn't. The odds are stacked against him having a Mike Schimidt or Robin Ventura career.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 10:16 PM) Mike Schmidt should have been benches and replaced in his 2nd year. How could you possibly count on a guy like that? I'm sold. Mike Schmidt started slow, so Morel is obviously going to have a better career than he did. The Sox are set.

QUOTE (sunofgold @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 10:15 PM) Yes, we are beating the Injuns. Remember their hot start to the season. They have totally gone down since then. I don't know what they are going to be like next year. Probably not that great to average. We are going to have a chance in 2012. Just hope that everybody picks the Tiggs to win the division and that will put less pressure on us. The Indians really suck and have a ton of injuries. It didn't take a baseball genius to come to the conclusion they would fall back to earth. The Sox should be dominating the AL Central. Hopefully Illich will spend some Tiger money on a couple of Adam Dunn types this coming offseason.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 10:09 PM) In Mike Schmidt 1st year as a full time 3rd baseman He had 443 plate appearances 62 walks 18 HR , 17 errors .196 BA . 56 RBI , 136 K's. Maybe Morel could have hit 18 HR if all he did was swing for the fences. So Morel should be a more disciplined Mike Schmidt. Awesome.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 09:55 PM) Our hr have declined because the cf spot and the dh spot have produced a lot less. How many did Kotsay hit last year? Ozzie and Soxtalk began hating home runs for some reason. The decline in homers probably is the reason the home record is so horrendous.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 09:53 PM) Flowers never was as good as he looked when he was hitting everything and he won't be as bad as he looks now. With a rookie... He needs legit qt bats to learn what pitchers are doing to adapt to him. His swing looks long because that's one of those mistakes you make when pitchers realize they can get you off balance at the plate. His swing looks long because it is long. It will be a problem for him forever. He reminds me of Josh Fields offensively. Although he could probably hit a 90 mph fastball right down the middle, where Josh is swinging when the catcher is throwing it back to the pitcher.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 09:49 PM) Well, I do appreciate it, and it is very nice to see Morel letting loose at the plate. If he can give the Sox 15 homers next year, that would be a huge plus. Rongey actually had a great segment tonight around 6:10pm when he mentioned the huge decline in home runs for the squad this year. Ozzieball. Home runs are bad.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 09:50 PM) In all fairness rookies never need time to learn anything and their first 30 at bats define their career. He hit a few homers last September and it didn't mean crap for this year. I'll hold off judgement on his September homers this year.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 09:47 PM) I always thought Flowers wasn't going to be anything special at the plate. I guess he Ks a lot. He might as well learn to bunt. He can hit it a mile and does draw walks. If he can make enough contact, something I wonder about, he could hit .220-.235 with a .325 OBP and hit 20+ homers with 150 ks. It really wouldn't be too bad. On the other side, if he can't make as much contact as that, its going to be hard to put him in the line up every day.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 09:46 PM) In all fairness he is far from the only one. And in fairness, Morel hasn't done much until the games became meaningless.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 09:43 PM) I'd rather Ozzie learn Flowers can't bunt now when it doesn't matter than to have him try to bunt next year when it might matter. Its too bad he doesn't know what we already know, and couldn't figure it out after the first attempt.

QUOTE (MAX @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 09:41 PM) I agree with you about his future, but you can't deny that he has some power. He is perhaps the perfect guy I wouldn't never have bunt. There was zero reason to have him bunt. If Ozzie really needed a bunt there he could have pinch hit Vizquel. He has 2 other catchers available. Flowers needs all the strikes he can get. Taking away 2 is murder.

QUOTE (MAX @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 09:34 PM) Perfect time to take the bat out of flowers hands. Flowers looks like a guy who has never bunted in his life. Its nice that Hawk pointed that out, as Ozzie is setting up for failure again. I don't know how its taking the bat out of his hands though. All those craving more Tyler Flowers in 2012 better be careful what they wish for. It looks like the league may have caught up to him.

QUOTE (God Loves The Infantry @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 07:18 PM) I hate Thome so much. Did you know Jim Thome has a higher career OBP than Tony Gwynn and Rod Carew?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 7, 2011 -> 11:55 PM) I've been talking to a lot of baseball fans outside of Chicago and ask them what their perception is of Ozzie Guillen. They all say that he is a good manager. I ask them all if they can understand why a message board I frequent wants him fired and believes he will be fired. They say, 'No.' If we finish .500, folks, Ozzie being fired will be perceived as unfair nationally. JR should consult with those people on all his moves. Do you really value opinions of those that see him 4 or 5 times a year vs. people who see him every single day? You yourself have called for his head. Wasn't national opinion that Doug Collins getting whacked was unfair? That didn't work out too badly. And why would anyone car what someone else thought? You do what's best for your team.

Garbage time started early this season.