Dick Allen

QUOTE (YASNY @ Apr 17, 2011 -> 12:45 AM) Just call this a gut feeling, a hunch or whatever ... but if the Sox can't turn this around quickly that there will be a new manager by May 15th. They have the talent but are not playing up to their capabilities. I've always been an Ozzie supporter, but it's the manager that falls on the sword. My guess is that they'd give Cora a shot, but I think I'd prefer Buddy Bell. It will be interesting to what kind of responses I get to this post. Bring it. Cora wouldn't really be a change in philosophy. Bell quit managing because he was sick of the travel. Maybe he is interested in getting back into it, I don't know, but his track record as a manager isn't quite stellar. Of course its not all his fault he's managed rotten teams, but the teams he has managed played a little better or about the same before he came on board and after he left than when he was making out the line up card which would indicate his impact for winning's sake is minimal if anything at all. I've never been an Ozzie guy but if those two are the choices, then I say why fire him. FWIW, Oney has stated if anything ever happened to Ozzie, Cora would never take the job. I don't buy it, but you never know.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 17, 2011 -> 01:53 AM) And I'm sure he'll get a quiet reprimand from Bob Grim, Director of Broadcasting. When all is said and done, no matter how frustrating things get, club employees (unless they are named Ozzie Guillen or KW) have to retain their cool under ALL circumstances. At the moment, he probably felt like venting back was a reasonable response, but he should know better. Dave Wills never would have done that. When he wakes up Sunday morning, instead of feeling victorious, I'm sure he'll wish that he had let it go. In the end, belittling a Sox fan isn't a winning move for the organization, whether it's true or not, lots of us complain when Ozzie insults the fanbase, and this is no different (although hardly on the same level as an Ozzie rant that eventually ends up as a headline at CNN). Hosting the pre and post game show is entirely different from being an O'Reilly or Beck or Limbaugh, Rachel Maddow or Olbermann. Those guys are paid for their opinions and are encouraged to express them. There are a lot worse things in baseball than being 7-7 after 14 games. God knows how people would be acting if we were playing like the Red Sox or Twins. I listened to the first 3 calls of the postgame before it got cut off at MLB audio. Yes, the same typical comments (about the price of going to a game, about Juan Pierre and one caller was especially aggravated with AJ Pierzynski for some reason), but I've heard a lot more inane/inebriated ones before, and there undoubtedly will be worse in the future. Technically, Rongey is not a White Sox employee. Wills was known for calling people drillrods. Rongey is as big of an optimist as anyone, but if the calls were anything near what I could image, and I've heard the show after losses plenty of times on my way home, he should have every right to fire back without reprimand, especially if the caller is getting personal. Ozzie fires back. JR will fire back, KW fires back at fans at Soxfest.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 16, 2011 -> 08:30 PM) Ending it with "Christ" suggests you are amazed and/or perturbed. I think a lot of us are not in panic mode, we're just kind of pissed that the team is .500 through 14 games with some horrendously long road trips coming up. As you and everybody else knows, winning six of 10 games on the road is good so until the stretch of road games is over, the Sox really are not going to have much of a record to speak of, which means a s***ty start to the season. No panic, just annoyance here. You were the one who said fans have a right to be in mild panic mode when the Sox were 7-6. Some food for thought, the Angels 8-5 start, which is exactly one game better than the 2011 White Sox at the same number of games, is their best start in 16 seasons. They have been playoff participants more often than most.

Palm Springs, LA, Chicago, Rockford and South Bend will get to see the game on Fox when it finally starts. The rest are SOL. 5:15 first pitch.

Did you get the invitation to the block party? Stacey King may be the best color man in all of sports.

The Pacers couldn't really have ask for anymore for 46 minutes and they are still going to lose. This is going to be a cakewalk.

This game is ova

Give me the hot sauce Funk. Stacey King is a classic.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 16, 2011 -> 01:32 PM) The Sox currently are one game over .500 with an easy schedule and are having a blah homestand. As far as Bobby, I don't want to go there. I do want to see our current closers actually get a save and not suck just about every time they hit the mound. Yet they are above .500. Go back to the benchmark season of 2005. How did late August early September go? You don't want to go there about Bobby for obvious reasons, but blimpie got lit up last night, so I doubt he would have been the answer. The Sox, even with some problems that probably won't be problems the entire season are still right there. Panicking before taxes are due is beyond silly. I would venture to guess there hasn't been a season in White Sox history where they didn't go 7-6 in some 13 game stretch during the season. If you are panicking now, find yourself a therapist.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 15, 2011 -> 11:39 PM) Tannerfan, the team is playing bad baseball. We have a right to be in mild panic mode. We know it's early, but we also know good and bad baseball when we see it. Chicago fans are smart fans. Yes the offense should be amazing this summer, which is a positive. Really? You were in total denial about Bobby Jenks' declining performance last year. The Sox for as how terrible they have played recently, and without Dunn for half the time and Peavy for the whole time, and dropping 5 flyballs, and having their new closer 0-4 in save opps and having their defensive specialist 3B on pace for 50 errors and the guy a lot of people thought should win a GG at SS on pace for about 40 errors, are 2 games out of first place, This team should be fine, the only thing that concerns me is the total lack of fundamentals, which if you looked at it objectively, has been a trait of Ozzie Guillen led teams more often than not. Is that Ozzie's fault? I don't know Fielding in general, throwing to the wrong base, missing cutoff men, failing to get bunts down, failing to move men over, the list goes on and on. I think KW needs to tell Ozzie to make this weekend a bunt free weekend. They were 0 for 2 yesterday. Its just a waste. Ramirez goes up to try to bunt, he has no chance getting it down, its almost like he wants to get behind in the count on purpose to increase the degree of difficulty for his AB. BTW, the Sox are currently on pace to win 87 games.

QUOTE (Felix @ Apr 15, 2011 -> 09:30 PM) OPS? Why would anyone care about that? What's his batting average now? Its very apparent you are trying to get posters to personally attack you. Hopefully the correct people will see this attempt at trying to make an ugly thread and properly take care of it.

QUOTE (Felix @ Apr 15, 2011 -> 07:44 PM) I mean, I know it's still early, but this is the type of production we're getting out of the DH spot? Sure it's better than Mark Kotsay, but that's not saying much. We simply aren't going to win with this guy getting significant at-bats. Yeah, he'll hit some dingers, but his speed and inability to put the bat on the ball is going to do more damage than good. How are we supposed to score runs with him clogging the bases and striking out with runners on? That just isn't going to do our team any good. I'll admit, I was excited when we first signed him. I thought, "Hell yeah! Another Paul Konerko!" But it's clear that Dunn is just a National League player who can't lead his team to any success. Ever wonder why he hasn't played in the playoffs? He clearly doesn't have what it takes to bring his team over the hump. I know this isn't something people want to hear right now, but the sooner we admit the truth, the better the team will be in the future. pwned

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 08:27 AM) the guys at a god damn workplace. Do you start yelling f** at your work place? You guys all need to grow up. There's no comparing an NBA game with an average workplace. The players and coaches and referees swear all the time. $100k is nothing to Kobe, but its an NBA publicity stunt fining him.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 09:59 AM) Who did Ozzie throw under the bus yesterday? His failed relievers. He said when they win they are the heroes and sit and talk to the press, when the mess up Ozzie has to do it.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 10:15 PM) I understand that completely. I just happened to think that on these two occasions these games were pretty important to set a tone. I think Mark and Danks woulda breezed through the ninth. I'm not saying to do it all the time. I just think early games are important. I could be mistaken. Lillian I loved your theory. Somebody should do an article on that or ask Bill James his opinion. Awesome stuff. Can you send it to Bill James and ask what he thinks of it? I like your theory. Isn't Bill James a consultant for the Red Sox?

Sale should close. He had no business being in yesterday's afternoon game as he pitched 2 innings the night before. That was a pitiful decision by Ozzie and Cooper. They aren't going to listen to Peavy always tell them he is ready, but he will listen to a kid not a year out of college with about 30 career innings under his belt? Thornton in the 8th, Sale in the 9th will eventually bring the Sox victory. Also, has anyone else ever noticed when Ozzie tries to stick up for his players vs. fan boos or taunts, usually within 48 hours he's throwing someone under the bus? He certainly did yesterday at his press conference. The good news is the Sox are 1 game out of first place, and if they could catch a flyball with the consistency of a pony league team, they would be in first place. As long as Thornton's struggles aren't permanent, they should be OK.

Would Kobe have been fined 100k if he called the guy a cocksucker? I really doubt the gay community cares Kobe called someone what he called him.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 07:21 AM) Because it's generally felt around the NBA that teams with scoring first point guard's don't necessarily win in the NBA. Of course a lot of that depends on the talent surrounding him and how they are coached (and obviously Rose doesn't have to worry about those 2 points). However I'd also say in recent times, you find a lot more scoring first point guards in the NBA nowadays (which is probably why guys like CP3 are so valuable and held in such high esteem). Especially when there are so many selfish "me first" players in the NBA today. I'm not disputing that Rose isn't the best PG in the League this season. I'm just saying if Chris Paul had the same athletic ability as what Rose did (which he probably did 3-4 years ago), if I was building a team, I'd probably go with Paul. As it was felt teams with the league leading scorer couldn't win either. MJ proved them wrong 6 times, and most likely it would have been more. Rose will prove them wrong as well. Funny thing is when Rose was drafted, the knock against him was not taking it himself more often and FT shooting which was barely 70%. He's only going to get better.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 03:55 AM) Pretty much a pass first PG with an excellent A:TO ratio. For instance, Paul averages 10 ASS's and 2.5 TO's a game in his career, so that's a 4:1 A:TO ratio, while Rose has 7.8 ASS's this season and 3.5 TO's a game (so that'd be about a 2.25 to 1 ratio). I have no doubt that Rose is the best scoring point guard in the NBA, but Paul is better at the other aspects of point guard play. Why does a point guard have to be "pass first"? Is there some book that proclaims this? If Chris Paul or any other point guard considered "pass first" had Derek Rose's physical tools, I highly doubt they would be considered "pass first". Rose isn't bad at dishing the ball, but when he gets to the rim, there's no reason for him not to put it in. I guess its just like Jordan's first few years when it was pretty obvious to some he was probably the best player they will ever see. Others found fault in everything he did. Rose is the best PG in the game hands down. NO would take Rose for Paul straight up, even if their contracts were exactly the same, in about half a second. Every team in the NBA would take Rose in a swap of point guards in half a second.

Ozzie is upset with the fans for getting on Pierre and now Rios for dropping balls. The White Sox have officially dropped 5 fly balls so far this year, with another couple questionable. Maybe Ozzie is just trying to protect his players, although he throws them under a bus occassionally, but if people are charged a lot of money to watch a game and guys are paid as much as those two, I think its more than reasonable to expect them to make plays high school kids make routinely.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 12, 2011 -> 07:28 AM) On the Billy Koch gun? Its the same gun that had him at 97-98 in the middle of summer. He's throwing hard enough, he's not locating.

Put Thornton back into the 8th. He was the best in the league at that. I realize his stats closing prior to this year were impressive. I realize his defense hasn't helped him at all, but IMO its one thing to be a "spot" or temporary closer, and another to wake up every day realizing you are the closer for the White Sox. Thornton has been blowing people away for years. Whether he's too tight or something else, that isn't happening right now. I don't think I have ever seen more dropped fly balls in 2 seasons combined as I have seen the first two weeks of the season. I don't think I've even seen it in Little League.

At least knock him down. Hit him if the bases are empty and there are a couple out. Its time the White Sox sent a message to all of baseball, don't f*** with us.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Apr 9, 2011 -> 04:06 PM) I'll drop the whole questioning of fandom (and I've never claimed to be a die-hard Bulls' fan anyways) and how many games you have to watch to have your opinion matter points because that's not going to go anywhere constructive. However, the "stats lying to you" part is another story. How exactly are they lying? Does he not take 4.8 threes a game? Does he not miss two thirds of them? Exactly what part of that is incorrect? Your main point seemed to be that it helped the rest of his game because "people had to respect his shot". That may be somewhat true, and there's no question that having a solid jumper gives him a more rounded offensive game. Again, I never said he should stop shooting 3's all together at any point as you claimed twice. However, he wasn't exactly struggling to get to the basket last year when he took less than a 3-pointer a game. After a slow start to last year due to injury, he averaged 22 PPG after November while shooting a much better percentage than he is this season. It's not like taking 5 threes a game is the reason he gets to the basket, he gets to the basket because he's really f***ing athletic. He was able to attack the rim consistently and effectively long before he could hit the three (he could already hit mid-range jumpers pretty well last year). It certainly doesn't hurt that he can make an open 3 now. However, it's still a poor choice of shot for him. He doesn't have to take 5 threes a game to be able to get to the rim as he proved last year. He's at his best when he's attacking the rim and getting to the free throw line (something he's done WAY more effectively this season and a far more impactful improvement IMO). Much like with guys like Lebron, Wade and Westbrook, you'd much rather have them shooting jumpers than killing you with penetration. This isn't really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things given what the Bulls are doing. You live with it it given everything else he does for team. However, you decided to turn it into one by taking multiple shots at me on the board for some reason. Isn't making 33 percent of your 3s the equivalent to making 50 percent inside the arc? I really don't see the problem. Taking an occassional 3 instead of attacking the rim is going to help him physically over the course of a season, and does get the defender a little closer to him to blow by when he chooses, of course he's not going to go to the line and score with no attempt being charged, but you're really nitpicking.

QUOTE (jeffro2525 @ Apr 9, 2011 -> 06:52 PM) No need to wake Tampa up at this point. At 1-7 they don't need a reason to get sparked tomorrow. If giving them 5 runs in the 9th last night for the win isn't going to "wake them up", teaching Felipe Lopez a lesson isn't either.