Dick Allen

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 28, 2011 -> 08:47 AM) The real problem with signing a Garcia is...what do you do with him if all of your other 5 starters are healthy. If you can get him on a deal where you can option him to the minors, that's perfect, but he ought to be able to find better than that just by going to NL clubs. The other place to put him is the bullpen...but I don't think that works that great either. I noted earlier how I don't think he's a good bullpen fit with his health issues and with his history of needing a long time to warm up. Beyond that though, there are only 2 guys in the bullpen who can effectively be sent down to the minors, Sale and Infante, and frankly, I expect that both of them would outpitch Freddy as bullpen guys this year. If everyone is healthy and there is no place for him, depending on how he's doing, he can be traded or Jackson could be traded. Someone is always looking for starting pitching. If the White Sox truly don't believe Peavy will be ready before May or June, I'd be shocked if they didn't try to add a veteran stopgap, and Freddy is probably the best one out there. If not Freddy, if I were KW, I'd look at Justin Duchscherer. If he is healthy enough, he can start at the beginning of the year, and you could slide him into the bullpen when and if Peavy is ready.

QUOTE (Ranger @ Jan 27, 2011 -> 01:52 PM) But, like I said, they also need offseason sales on individual games to be good. Trust me on that. Most people don't buy individual tickets for mid-to-late season games, unless it's for the Cubs. Of course, the previous season usually helps the next. However, the first couple of weeks of the season, it's impossible to tell what kind of team it will be for the full season. That's why I'm hoping people don't wait to "see what happnes" in that first few weeks before they start buying tickets. Mainly, the call from the fans has been: spend the money, put the team on the field, and we'll show up. That will have to prove to be true early on. I understand that, but there is a reason April and May games don't get the premiere or premium tags games later in the season get hung with. Think about it. If you had a couple of kids and had a budget of 2-3 games per season, when tickets went on sale, are you going to buy tickets for a Saturday afternoon in April or a Wednesday in early May, or do you pick the June and July games? I'd be willing to bet since the strike over 16 seasons ago, the Sox haven't had many non opening day April and at least early May games with advanced sales of at least 30k except for 2006. The first few weeks of the season depend on the team playing decently and weather. If the forecast calls for it to be 35 and the Sox are 1-4 on the Friday after opening day, you're going to see a lot of green. If its 65 and the Sox are 4-1, there will be a pretty decent crowd.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 27, 2011 -> 10:37 PM) A 6 man rotation is just never a good idea. Its never a real bad idea to have too many starters. If everyone is healthy and can pitch, they are pretty easy to get rid of.

QUOTE (Ranger @ Jan 26, 2011 -> 10:20 PM) Games from June through September are the games the results on the field are responsible for getting people there. In Apr/May, southsider is right, it's up to the fans to respond to the offseason. Many of the early-season tickets are bought before the season begins. It's not accurate that fans "always" show up early on. That's not true. They show up for opening day, and there's almost always a dramatic decline in the games that follow. Sox fans have not, historically, responded quickly to success. They didn't start selling out games until late August 2005, and they were in first place by 12 games in June. April and May games have historically seen rather low attendance due to school and weather. Even the Cubs are gearing their 13 game plan trying to get people to buy April and May games. Why is some man or woman supposed to commit $200 to a game when there is a decent chance it could be 35 degrees or a delay that will get their kids home at 1 AM with school the next day. The only time the White Sox had stacked crowds throughout April and May was 2006, and we know why. Walk up sales are what can help the Sox. They not only need to play well, they need the weather to cooperate. The fans respond to the offseason with a bump in season tickets and Ozzie plans and they buy games in the summer months.

Bulls ranked #3 in the NBA in value according to Forbes at $511 million. Also according to Forbes, JR and his buddies made over $50 million in profit for at least the 4th year in a row.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 26, 2011 -> 11:38 AM) It was 7-3 Patriots in the first half. The game was up for grabs. According to you, Brady isn't able to block out an injury enough to play, OK then. If you can read what I posted, Drew Bledsoe, who prior to that season signed a $100 million contract, and who lost his job to Brady because of injury was the back. up. If the back up was someone of Todd Collins' ilk, the situations would have been similar, and it would have been interesting to see what Brady would have done. Are you even sure it was Brady's call whether to play or not?People have sat with less an injury than Cutler had, and people have played with worse.

Final payment was less than a week ago. I think you have at least a month, probably a little more before the tickets arrive.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 03:01 PM) Another thought I had is that Cutler knows what play he got injured on, as do the Bears, but they don't want to state what play it was so as not to get the offensive lineman crucified in Chicago for that particular play. Or they want to use the injury as an excuse for him sucking pretty much the whole game. If it was at the end of the half, what was the problem the rest of the time? Aikman and Buck said he wasn't very accurate warming up, but I really don't know if that means much. Maybe he's getting loose or screwing around. The only guys I really pay much attention to before the game are kickers.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 03:28 PM) He was the starting QB on a team playing for a spot in the Super Bowl. I don't see what the difference is. The Patriots were winning when Brady left and had Drew Bledsoe as the back up. The Bears were down 14 and had Todd Collins coming in. Gigantic difference. Basically, unless something really crazy happened, when Cutler was done, so were the Bears. Guys play hurt all the time. Some guys can block it out enough to perform, some guys can't. If Cutler didn't think he could, or if he figured he couldn't, fine. Who knows, maybe going out again injured him even worse and he missed a part of next season. But it was perhaps the biggest game Cutler will ever play. Walking off the field after a 3 and out, and standing on the sidelines isn't the way most would envision a franchise QB leaving a championship game injured, especially considering the replacement. I'm not calling him a p**** or anything like that, because if he doesn't think he can go, he's going to be bad anyway. I just think some guys almost use being hurt as motivation to be even better, and somehow suck it up during play. I've seen more than a couple players limp around like they are almost crippled then find it in them to play at full strength for 5 to 7 seconds then limp around again. Jay is apparently not one of those guys. We've all had twisted ankles and such, and sometimes the pain is too great to go shovel the driveway, but if you're in high school and you have a game that night, its good to go. It was good enough for him to go out in the first series of the second half. I really just have trouble wondering why there was no chance after that, what with the game's meaning, the score of the game and the alternative.

QUOTE (ChrisLikesBaseball @ Jan 24, 2011 -> 04:21 PM) I can honestly say that I've bought in on this "All In" campaign. My future wife and I skipped Christmas presents for each other this year and we purchased the weekday 27-game ticket package, shortly after the Dunn/PK/AJ signings. Maybe our two seats in section 531 will make a difference in a mid-season move.. We've made it to 10-12 games a year over the past 3 seasons It's really become how we spend our summers, so we decided to make it official with the season ticket package and we paid the parking up front at the discounted rate. Good for you. The weekday plan has some nice opponents this year. And any woman that will forgo Christmas gifts to land Sox tickets is a keeper.

I just wonder if Cutler felt exactly the same, but was having a little more success, would he have come out?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 24, 2011 -> 05:43 PM) He and Urlacher don't even really get along on a personal level and Urlacher was pretty pissed off, offended even, that it was even a topic. Kreutz is pretty much the leader of the offense and he said people were being "f***ing stupid." No one associated with the Bears is even going to give the slightest hint of it being even remotely questionable Cutler could play.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 24, 2011 -> 05:41 PM) pretty much my whole Facebook friends list that was watching the game between about 4:30 and 7 pm EST did this. I believe they were questioning whether he was hurt enough to sit rather than just hurt. It was pretty obvious he had something going on. The guys I was with thought it was a concussion. Earlier he was hit on an incomplete pass and the cameras showed him appearing like he was trying to shake off the cobwebs.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 24, 2011 -> 05:28 PM) People are just predisposed to not liking Cutler. So many people were just waiting for something like this to happen so they can unload. Reading comments, my Facebook news feed, etc. really convinced me of that. I did start to notice the tide moving in the other direction when it started to come out that he was really hurt, though. I don't think many people really questioned whether or not he was hurt, and since I have never sprained my MCL, I couldn't tell you the pain level. But you have to admit, there are many QBs over the years in that same situation that wouldn't have come out of the game, and if Lovie insisted they still would have put up a big fight considering the magnitude of the game etc. It may be the biggest game Jay Cutler ever plays in. If he can't go he can't go. He didn't exactly looked handicapped his last series. But you are right, if Peyton Manning sat out under the same circumstance, no one would question him, but in a way Cutler has only himself to blame for being a guy who would be questioned. Being a douchebag sometimes costs you.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 23, 2011 -> 04:05 PM) In other words, be a bandwagoner? No, but don't be sheep. We laugh at Cubs fans for filling their dump year after year. April and May games are hard for the Sox. The weather is usually a huge question mark, kids are in school but history has shown they draw better in those months if they are playing well. I don't see why 2011 would be different. Unless they win a WS, most of those games aren't going to be near sellouts, but every bit helps.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jan 23, 2011 -> 06:57 PM) I hope Cutler tore something because guys making $7 million playing to go to the Super Bowl should not come out because of pain. If he tore it, I will understand, but if it just hurt too much that is ridiculous. Most likely he tore the labia of his vagina. IMO, whether its fair or not, If he doesn't require surgery, his taking a seat will be the defining moment of his career unless he wins a Super Bowl.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 23, 2011 -> 06:41 PM) You do have a point. But hypothetically say that Cutler feels better in the 4th and can come back. Then what Lovie did with Hanie would have looked pretty bad. Sure, the move didn't cost them the game or anything, but it's something you expect an NFL coach to know and utilize. They had to get Collins out of there, and the way it was going who is to say even if they were just handoffs, he wouldn't have fumbled or done something else, and the odds of Cutler feeling better while standing out in the cold doing nothing is about the same as Joe Buck being named Soxtalk's most popular broadcaster.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 23, 2011 -> 06:29 PM) No, that's not what I'm saying at all. Had he put kept Collins in for two more plays, and put Hanie in in the 4th, he could have had a backup to Hanie in case he got hurt. It's bad coaching when you forget about a rule like that. Especially when all they did was run the ball two times with Hanie in there for the 3rd anyways. So if Lovie would have waited 2 more plays and Hanie eventually got hurt, he could have put Collins back into the game instead of running a wildcat or having Earl Bennett QB. Seeing what I've seen of Collins, the latter was the better option.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Jan 23, 2011 -> 05:25 PM) Bingo. Seriously not a bad call. Bears need a better oline field conditions and receivers Aikman thought it was going to be a pass to Clark. Its not a conservative call. If it doesn't work, you will get slammed from all sides. If it worked and he picked up 15 yards, everyone would be wonder what team Martz would be the head coach of next season.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 23, 2011 -> 05:22 PM) Which means neither FG kicker could hit s*** in the pregame warm ups because of either the field conditions or the winds. Exactly. Lovie knows Gould's range better than any of us.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 23, 2011 -> 05:22 PM) You just know there will be idiots advocating Hanie over Cutler. The only thing this game proved was that Hanie is the real backup caliber QB. Not Todd Collins. I don't think so. I think most people realize had the Packers not been up 2 scores, that second TD drive probably wouldn't have gone like it went.

Considering the magnitude of the game, you would have to wonder about Cutler's intestinal fortitude. I can think of a lot of players that would have been out there until they couldn't stand.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 23, 2011 -> 05:14 PM) WTF kind of call was that on 3rd and 3? Are you F'N serious? What a joke! And if it worked it would have been genius. What if he called for a pass and Heine got sacked or intercepted?

According to Scott Gregor, Daily Herald White Sox beat writer, his inside sources say Chris Sale is a lock to be the White Sox closer in 2011.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 22, 2011 -> 05:39 PM) I expect him to absolutely murder the baseball this year. I expect in the event you are correct, Manny will become upset about his salary,and will start jaking it with non hustle and taking himself out of the line up with mysterious ailments.