Dick Allen

QUOTE (Ranger @ Dec 13, 2010 -> 12:11 PM) Define "failure". You may not like his personality, but he's on top of everything. What you have to understand is that offseason stuff is constantly fluid, even for those that are actually involved in getting deals done. They may think they have something one minute, only for it to fall apart the next. This entire post proves that your perception is off. Cowley is anything but a homer. Do you even read what he's written this offseason or see any of his tweets. He's been quite direct in regard to KW and has, a few times, taken a couple of stabs. Or at least it appears that way. And, with all due respect to Hawk, we are not even close to being the same and our jobs are not the same. If you think that, you clearly don't know what you're talking about and you certainly don't understand what a "homer" is. You've apparently failed to notice the number of times I've criticized the team. Then again, I'm fighting a losing battle, I see. Some people will always hear what they want to hear. I believe he was referring to Merkin as the homer, not Cowley. I know Joe is your buddy, but he's been very wrong all offseason. Maybe it is because things are "fluid", which appears to be the new in word. The problem is, if anyone else is off, especially if they work for any other place but the Score or the Sun Times, Cowley pounces. His crap about KW destroying Rogers is ironic. KW destroyed Cowley on Friday when he said his stuff about the Sox shopping Quentin was "a lie". Joe sent out stuff like one of KW and Ozzie has to go, and you all know which one. No Joe, I don't, tell us. Have the balls to get it out there. Either have KW destroy you the rest of the time you cover Chicago baseball by saying KW has to go, or end your bromance with Oneyt by saying Ozzie has to go. AJ was going to Toronto. No he wasn't. He was going to the Dodgers. Paulie was going to the Cubs or the Rangers. No he wasn't, he was going to the Sox or the DBacks. He jumped on a collegue's story about the potential trade of Ozzie to the Marlins. The problem was the trade part may have been accurate, but the player the Sox were supposedly asking for was not. Why is it when someone reported a story to Don Cooper and gave Cowley as the source of the information, did Cooper say, Cowley reported it? Then its a lie.

QUOTE (scenario @ Dec 13, 2010 -> 11:53 AM) In what fantasy world did Colby Rasmus become a superstar? I'm always fascinated... - how other team's young players with 'potential' are deified, and - how quickly our view of our own players goes from rockstar to dog s*** The Cardinals are going to have to pay Pujols close to $30 million a year. Why would they want to get rid of a player making next to nothing and pick up a $14 million a year pitcher, with a rotation fully stocked, signed for 1 season? Rasmus isn't a superstar, but just about every team wouldn't mind having his production and potential in their line up while making next to nothing relatively speaking. And on what planet is Matt Garza available for Carlos Quentin? I do agree with your thought though. It does seem other teams' players are much more highly thought of than White Sox players who are very comparable. Jim Thome put up a .933 OPS as a White Sox. There were a lot more people who thought not having him on the team after they traded him and last year when they didn't sign him was a lot better option than having him on the team, than there were who appreciated what he brought to the table. Now, if Adam Dunn puts up a .933 OPS, something he has done twice in a full season during his career and hasn't done since 2007, even with more strikeouts, he will be a savior. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy they signed Dunn. It will be interesting watching the people who ripped Thome defend Dunn for similar results. I know Dunn at this stage is more valuable than Thome, I am just referring to the criticism he got while putting up huge numbers.

QUOTE (shipps @ Dec 12, 2010 -> 12:29 PM) I figured everyone would tell me this is nothing. I guess I am just done with the winters of Chicago. My wife has a job offer in North Carolina but that won't even be warm enough for me. I want to get as far away from this stuff as possible. I feel your pain, and you are correct, if this bothers you that much, and I can totally understand your frustration, its time to head south. Its only going to get worse. I also agree about NC. You still have some nastiness with the winters and the summers can be just as hot as those with no snow during the winter months.

QUOTE (shipps @ Dec 12, 2010 -> 10:36 AM) I know, I know...we live in Chicago. We have a sucky winter every year what else would I expect. This year it has been ridiculous in how early and harsh it has showed itself. Me and the wife are edging closer and closer to moving out of this city just because of the weather alone. Austin, TX here we come because this is a frickin joke. As someone looking to buy a second home in south Florida because of my hatred of cold and snow, this is nothing. Fairly mild Oct and Nov. I think it was the second latest in 82 years for a measurable snowfall. It will be interesting to see how it goes the rest of the day, but thus far, the predictions for this current storm were once again far more dire than reality. There's maybe an inch on the ground downtown. The wind is blowing but the streets are clear.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 12, 2010 -> 05:54 AM) I think you are very, very wrong. Teahen is an OK hitter - probably .750 OPS or so - and grades out at average to below average defensively in RF. Andruw Jones is a good power hitter, but not much more offensively, and he is great defensively in RF. Carlos Quentin is a good, though very inconsistent, hitter, and grades out at bad to horrendous defensively. I don't believe that it is wrong to believe that Teahen/Jones can outproduce Quentin; in fact, I believe strongly that Teahen and Jones can, overall, be worth 2-3 times that of Quentin. However, considering every potential circumstance, the White Sox would have to get good to great value on Quentin and they must be getting good value on Andruw Jones. Teahen and Jones worth 2 to 3 times that of Quentin? Really? Quentin mashes RHP. His OPS against RHP blows Teahen's OPS vs. RHP away, and if you saw Mark Teahen play RF, he isn't a big upgrade defensively over Quentin either, in fact, he may be worse. And don't even mention they will make approximately the same amount of money.Jones vs. LHP and defensively is obviously better at least all around, but he's also had 3 or 4 months in a row for 3 straight seasons where he did absolutely nothing.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 04:58 PM) You may be right about that. In the meantime, will someone explain to me why a guy like Pierre doesn't choke up on the bat? As long as he can't drive a ball into the gap, why not choke up and just try to make contact. He's not a bad contact hitter, but he would probably be better if his hands weren't down on the knob. I've never understood why guys with no power don't choke up. I'm old enough to remember Nellie Fox, and his hitting style would suit a lot of today's players. That's just one of the things about Pierre's game that I find frustrating. If he choked up, maybe he'd be as hard to stike out as Fox was. Nellie used to strike out only about 11 to 13 times a year!! I don't think Nellie ever struck out 20 times in any season. Those days are long gone. It used to be almost an embarrassment to strike out 100 times in a season. Now guys who have little power do it consistently. To be fair to Pierre, he is one of the toughest players to strike out in baseball.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 04:43 PM) I doubt that the Phillies would want Pierre. There wouldn't be any room for him in their outfield, with Brown, Quentin and Ibanez. I was assuming that Pierre would then be traded somewhere else for a reliever. I'm guessing you will be the happiest Sox fan on the planet once Juan Pierre's White Sox tour of duty is over.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 04:32 PM) I'm of the opinion the Sox have more money to spend than they are leading on and will do so regardless of ticket sales. KW always says he's out of money . . . You probably are correct. Most of the time they say they are out of money, they wind up spending some more. Or, It could be something similar as to what I posted yesterday. One of the Rangers co owners is supposedly personnally funding the Cliff Lee bid and if Lee signs his salary won't come out of their baseball operations budget, but this owner, who is a billionaire, will be on the hook. Perhaps JR or some of his partners some of whom are also making tons of money with the Bulls are or will be willing to do the same thing obviously on a much small scale.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 04:16 PM) They wouldn't leak this if they weren't going to go thru with it. Merkin writes for whitesox.com, right? The problem with trading for middle releivers is the real good ones who are effective year after year cost a lot in talent and money. KW is probably going to have to pay a lot of money either way unless he wants to hurt another part of his team. He may be better off to wait it out. A lot of teams have to be running out of money and there are quite a few relievers still on the board. A bargain may be had.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 04:07 PM) Do you really think Cowley is "guessing"? Things change. Would you rather he not tweet anything that contradicts previous tweets? This is exactly what twitter is for to report in "real time". He's absolutely guessing, just as he's been all offseason. This "real time" has been about 20 hours. Not much has changed except KW taking in a Bulls game and going to sleep. Cowley now says if he can't trade Quentin, maybe Viciedo or Teahan. Sorry, I could come up with these tweets without talking to anyone or getting any inside scoop. Its not like KW has a lot of guy he realistically could trade where he could get salary relief and useful players in return. Exactly what would he get for Teahen? If "Phillip from the Tribune" had Cowley's record predicting the future this offseason, Cowley would have a field day. Did you see the tweets that said KW "destroyed" Rogers? KW "destroyed" Cowley today. Its time to have a field day at his expense.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 02:05 PM) Cowley now saying Sox are looking for a "Carlos Lee-esque package" in return for Quentin. Didn't he first say they were "asking for a lot"? IIRC, Lee went with the premise being some talent coming back, but the Sox took a hit in the talent dept. for the trade to free up salary, and in essence added others because of it, so they were considered part of the trade. He's already contradicted the tweet has spent 4 or 5 tweets defending after KW told someone he was full of s***. He's bound to be correct on one of these guesses sometime, and watch his reaction when he is.

QUOTE (PlunketChris @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 12:09 PM) I'm of the opinion that, in modern times, any beat writer who only posts information that turns out to be correct, isn't working very hard. A lot of talk happens and rumors are out there that are true and aren't true. Cowley holds everyone else up to a 100% accuracy rate. He should live it as well. He's been about as wrong as you can be this entire offseason. Any idiot with a computer could have posted what he's posted this offseason. There really is no inside knowledge coming out of anything he has written.

QUOTE (PlunketChris @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 11:58 AM) I'm no Joe Cowley apologist, but he makes solid points. His coverage of the team, as well as the media that follows the team is entertaining. You also forget the original Sun Times trade report was Ozzie for Mike Stanton. Cowley was on his high horse slamming the Tribune as the Sun Times (not Cowley) broke the story. Starting tweeting about the Little Dictator at the Tribune. As it turns out, Mike Stanton was never mentioned. Timeline from MLBTRADERUMORS: 4:47pm: Williams told MLB.com's Scott Merkin that the Sun-Times report is “false,” but declined to go into further detail because of rules forbidding executives from speaking about other teams’ players. "That's tampering," Williams said. "All I can say is the report isn't completely accurate." Merkin hears that the White Sox demanded compensation from the Marlins when they wanted to talk to Guillen. 9:56am: The Marlins did not discuss an Ozzie-Stanton trade with the White Sox, according to Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post (Twitter link). The White Sox may have discussed the possibility internally, but it seems to have been wishful thinking on Chicago’s part. As the response to our poll shows, Stanton is far more desirable. 4:56am: When Ozzie Guillen was at odds with the Chicago front office earlier this year, there was discussion of a deal that would have sent the White Sox manager to Florida for 20-year-old slugger Mike Stanton, according to Chris De Luca of the Chicago Sun-Times. De Luca reports that Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria was intent on making Guillen the Marlins’ next manager until Guillen met with White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and agreed to return in 2011. Guillen says he never spoke to the Marlins about managing the team, but he confirmed to the Sun-Times that the White Sox granted the Marlins permission to talk to him. White Sox GM Kenny Williams repeated that he is on good terms with Guillen and insisted his manager is staying put. It also is interesting he used Richard Justice as "another" source. It was probably HIS source. Hot Stove was on at 5 pm yesterday, about the same time Cowley tweeted his Quentin being shopped rumor. The guy is a joke.

QUOTE (PlunketChris @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 11:48 AM) Cowley: "Great reporting by the Trib, because I thought KW would come out and say, "Yes, I am trying to trade Quentin.'' http://twitter.com/#!/cst_sox/status/13649903246905344 "Richard Justice also reported the Sox are looking to trade Quentin on MLB Network late last night. Where there's smoke, there's Morpheus ..." http://twitter.com/#!/cst_sox/status/13650465476575232 "Didn't KW also call the Sun-Times Ozzie-to-Florida trade rumors "False?'' He is protecting the shield ... that's his job." http://twitter.com/#!/cst_sox/status/13650824991342594 He's posting like an exposed desperate fraud.

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 11:15 AM) The original rumor doesn't say they were looking to trade Quentin for relief pitching. It says for "a package that includes at least 1 reliever." That's a very different wording. And KW's original quote was any trade rumor involving Carlos Quentin is false.

QUOTE (Buehrlesque @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 10:53 AM) What do you expect KW to say, "We are desperate to unload Quentin and are currently initiating lots of trade talk"? No, but to say what he is saying probably means Cowley was full of it. KW is not going to shop Quentin around to teams and then have teams read he isn't shopping him around. It kind of makes the effectiveness of stretching the truth to benefit, meaningless. Joe is wrong yet again. Just like the Konerko ship sailing. Just like AJ to Toronto. Just like Paulie to Texas or the Cubs. He's had a bad week. The Sun Times wasted money sending him to the Winter Meetings. He probably forgot to pick up some of Oney's dry cleaning, so Oney is cutting him off for a while.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 10:42 AM) Interesting how that is worded. Saying that there isn't truth to trade rumors out there is different than saying "Carlos is not available." As JR said everyone has his price except for Michael Jordan. Cowley said they were "actively shopping him", which apparently couldn't be further from the truth.

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 10:25 AM) KW shoots down CQ trade rumor. http://twitter.com/davandyck/status/13627784962248704 Cowley is wrong again? Say it ain't so Joe. Try again. One of your guesses is bound to be right someday.

QUOTE (beckham15 @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 08:36 AM) ozzie talked about him being the key to the offense last year and you saw where that got us Quentin had a higher OPS than Rios yet a lot of people want Rios to bat 3rd in 2011. You don't trade Carlos Quentin for something run of the mill. While he is brutal in the OF, at the plate even when he's having a bad year, he's better than most, and if he puts it all together we all know he's MVP-calibur.

QUOTE (since56 @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 08:16 AM) $2400 on a dog? How many families could use that for child care especially at Christmas. Priorities? Ok animal lovers initiate attack. I'm guessing you have never had a dog. Mine, like I'm sure is the same as most, is part of my family.

I heard today Ray Davis, a part of the ownership group, and a billionaire, is basically paying for the Cliff Lee extension himself if Lee decides to return to Texas. The money won't be coming out of the baseball ops budget. Also according to Kruk the same thing happened when the Phillies signed Thome. When they all met and had the figure Thome would require, the ownership group decided to pass, but one guy said he'd pay the contract himself.

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 10, 2010 -> 05:47 PM) I shudder to think of Viciedo's range in RF, though. Especially because he turned down a chance to go play winter ball and perhaps work on his outfield skills. I like Quentin and wouldn't trade him for middle relievers, but seriously, how could Viciedo be a downgrade defensively? KW loves Viciedo. Unless he shows he can play 3b, his future is in RF or LF.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Dec 10, 2010 -> 05:35 PM) I'm not going to react much to any rumor/speculation that comes from Cowley. Now if RockRaines or DocSox posts something about this being in the works maybe my interest will perk up. That's true too. We have already had reports about Philadelphia in "advanced" talks about Quentin. That didn't get much play in Chicago. Cowley has to throw something up there in which he can get some credit breaking the story.

Everyone must realize KW loves Viciedo. If Quentin gets traded, RF just opened up for Viciedo. I'd be very careful trading Carlos Quentin. Guys who have a horrible year by putting up an .821 OPS don't come around very often. We all are very aware of what he's capable of.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 01:02 PM) Cowley didn't seem to appreciate me mocking him on Twitter about him saying the Konerko ship had sailed and that Kenny was going after Plan B and Plan C. Did he call you brah?