Dick Allen

QUOTE (balfanman @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 06:50 PM) I'm not at all disputing what you say D.A.; but wouldn't Buehrles' contract come off of the books about the time that Puhols' extension would start? If it does, I could see the Cardinals wanting to take on a little more salary for a solid run next year, especially if Rasmus is the problem that LaRussa makes him out to be. By the same token, would K.W. want to add a problem child to our roster without doing some serious checking on this guy first. The Tribune also mentioned that the Cardinals would be interested in Tajeda for a stopgap at shortstop, meaning they might want a shortstop for the future. If K.W. decides that he really wants Rasmus, would something like a Escobar (fresh off a hot Arizona Fall League), Buehrle, Quentin, Harrell package, give or take a few parts or $ on either side, work for Rasmus? There's a kicker for Buehrle if he gets traded, so it would be about $15 million next season, plus Quentin will be around $5 million and Rasmus will make peanuts. No way that deal gets done.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 01:36 PM) Outside of 5 pitchers and 1 catcher....doesn't that basically describe the entire San Francisco Giants lineup? Yet when I suggested 2nd tier free agents to improve the White Sox offense instead of trading John Danks, you ripped me for the thought.

Asking for compensation for a manager with time still left on his contract really isn't unique. The Sun Times made it seem like Stanton was on the table for Ozzie, which apparently wasn't true. The Marlins according to Ozzie, were given permission to speak with him but never did. A lot of people think the Ozzie/KW feud will still end badly and one thing I read was the Marlins may be one of the parties. There's no question Ozzie would appeal to certain teams from a PR standpoint and with the Latin community in Miami, Ozzie probably could sell a lot of tickets. The bottom line is if the Sox were offered Stanton for Ozzie and they didn't put Ozzie on JR's jet to Miami, they are not too bright. It just was never available.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 12:26 PM) Who is Cardinals top pitching prosepect and how can we arrange a trade that sends Carlos, and Buehrle to the Cards for Rasmus and studs? The Cardinals need to re-sign Pujols. I don't think adding close to $20 million to their payroll is something they want to do.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 12:20 PM) I don't think there is any way he's going to be with that team in the spring. LaRussa pretty much made that clear. I could be wrong, but I'll be stunned. Maybe he won't be there, but Carlos Quentin and prospects, especially White Sox prospects, isn't going to get the job done, and I don't know that they really want to take on much money. If it comes out the Cardinals are dealing him there are going to be offers the Sox can't match or would be stupid to match.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 12:06 PM) Honestly...the Cardinals with Rasmus are in a similar boat with Quentin...because everyone knows the Cardinals want to get rid of Rasmus, so that kind of is going to depress his value a bit. I totally disagree. First, the Cards GM is on record saying he isn't going anywhere. That could be a smokescreen, but this isn't a guy who has a contract that is going to scare anyone away. There's 29 other teams that would love to have him. The Cards may trade him, something without any issues they probably wouldn't even consider, but his value isn't depressed. You aren't going to get a bargain rate for him.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 11:52 AM) Definitely wanted Uribe gone, but I loved him at the same time. It was his ability to strikeout in fantastical ways that made me wish he was gone, but something about the guy made me love him anyway. I do cop to ushering him out the door, though. Good on 'im, I've been rooting for him and Lincecum all postseason. Also, for the record, I was never a "Rowand is God!" guy, and I haven't been since he left, either. Liked him, never loved him. The shocking thing about Uribe was he really didn't strike out all that much.

Cowley tweeter earlier how the story about the potential trade Ozzie/Stanton was just another example of why the Sun Times was a superior sports section. Of course, the Marlins never considered it, if it were even brought up to them, but why let facts get in the way of a good story. I seemed to recall Cowley ripping a Soxtalk report on a potential 3 way trade last year involving Paulie and Adrian Gonzalez. Now he's reporting a potential Quentin/Rasmus trade? I am one who feels Quentin has a lot more value than most, but as the big piece for Rasmus? Never.

I seem to remember a very different opinion of Uribe when he was a White Sox.

KW made a play for Nick Johnson last offseason but the Yankees saved the day and stepped in to sign him. Another year, another injury. I'm sure KW would be interested if he were cheap, and White Sox doctors found him to be sufficiently recovered from his latest injury. The only place we know for sure where he'll be next season is the DL.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 26, 2010 -> 03:34 PM) Just because Flowers' had a bad season doesn't mean he's a non-prospect. This is the same exact kind of stuff people were saying about Viciedo last year, and then he had a good all around season. The example I used was JP Arencibia for Toronto. Had a piss-poor 2009, comes back this year, destroys AAA pitching, and he's looked at in a different light again. Flowers is still a relatively young player. This is a very important season for him, but considering him a non-prospect after his first full go around in AAA is pretty ridiculous. I agree he's not a non prospect, but to think he's anything but an average one at best is silly. He's a 25 year old who could not make contact in AAA. That's a huge problem.

It was a lock Castro was coming back, but as a BACK UP Catcher. He's not going to start. You saw what happens when he gets more playing time. He's a fine back up, but if he's getting 400 plate appearances, his numbers will dive. Supposedly, he also was the NY Mets fans' choice to be annointed the starter.He wound up getting moved for Lance Broadway and the Mets picked up cash.

QUOTE (gatnom @ Oct 26, 2010 -> 12:21 AM) Well, that's the kind of risk you take when trading a guy when his value is at its lowest. He might end up doing what you once thought he could. I did think Swisher had a low value, and that coupled with the fact that he had an unlucky season made me think it was a bad idea to trade him, even with his contract. Swisher obviously forced KW's hand in trading him by not fitting in well in the clubhouse, but I think most people's beef with that trade lies in the fact that we gave up quite a bit of value for a very poor return, Swishers' 2008 season, while going on to actually make that poor return worse by trading him to the Yankees. Individually, the trades aren't all that bad all things considered, but when you put them together they are ugly. Not entirely sure what this has to do with Carlos Quentin or Adam Dunn, though. If you think Swisher had a lot of value but was traded when he had none, how can you not say the same thing about Quentin?

QUOTE (gatnom @ Oct 25, 2010 -> 04:30 PM) I think the point is that the potential that Quentin has to play similarly to how he did in 2008 is worth more to us than to any other team, and if he has yet another mediocre or oft-injured season, his value will be less than what he will be paid. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by your last sentence, but I really hope you aren't trying to say that since we traded away Nick Swisher he had value because we pretty much got nothing out of that trade. No what I was saying is if you think Carlos Quentin played well for 3 weeks and has no value, you should have felt the same way about Nick Swisher, and should never complain some team took his entire contract, even if they gave you garbage in return. With the Sox, Swisher was good for about 3 weeks and hit below .200 tne rest of the time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 25, 2010 -> 01:11 PM) In general I think Friday night is death for most television. In particular the 18-49 demographic tends to not be watching tv that night. Saturday gets some of the same effect as well. The problem is with this format they have Saturday, Sunday, Monday which they will have to compete with college football and the NFL. Of course its not our problem, but without truly marquee teams playing, these ratings are going to get hurt by the football.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 25, 2010 -> 12:19 PM) That's an .803 OPS over half of a season, and an .803 OPS is still way above average, and that was considered him "struggling". Quentin's .728 was his entire season outside of the 3 weeks prior to the All-Star Break. I don't understand why you are incessant about there being little difference between Quentin and Dunn when you can quite clearly see that there is a huge difference. Dunn has a mediocre season by his standards, Quentin has his second best season, Dunn's is still superior, and you try and suggest they are equal; Quentin puts up a .728 OPS outside of a 3 week period where he put up a 1.500+ OPS (which, at the end of the day, still equates an .821 OPS or whatever over the course of the full season), and Dunn puts up an .803 OPS in the second half, which is still pretty damn good especially considering that is far worse than expected out of him, and you are trying to suggest that they are on equal footing. The White Sox biggest problem last year was their lack of a powerful left handed bat. LHB put up a .272/.326/.368/.694 line against right handed pitching this year, and no matter how you slice and dice that, it's awful, and bringing in a powerful left handed bat would be good. Thome would have made a hell of a lot of sense for this club, considering he was cheap and left handed, but no matter what, the Sox need to bring in a left handed bat, and surprise surprise, Dunn is left handed, provides a sweet stroke, and gets on base quite a bit...so yes, he does solve a lot of the White Sox offensive problems. That doesn't mean that anybody here is advocating giving him $40 million. I don't understand why you've been on this Quentin/Dunn thing recently. Dunn is a superior player to Quentin, and I don't think that's really too hard to see. Because of his low contact rate, Dunn's production can fluctuate, but he still walks and hits a ton otherwise. Quentin can explode, and has in the past, but anybody counting on that next season or any time in the future is really holding on to a prayer, because he's looked like the Carlos of old for that 3 week period before the break, and hasn't otherwise. Dunn generally is superior. I'm just pointing out the worthless, horrible, must be dumped for any price Carlos Quentin has value. Sort of like Konerko last year. Cherry picking numbers is fine, I just wish the people doing the cherry picking are consistent. If you or they were, you would never mention again the Nick Swisher trade as looking at his 2008 season, except for 2 or 3 weeks, he makes the numbers being dubbed for Quentin MVP-like.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 25, 2010 -> 12:07 PM) Lovie also didn't acquire a franchise whose single-greatest asset was past his peak and hadn't had a useful draft in 5 seasons. You may want to look at the team Lovie inherited. Rex Grossman was the savior. He got hurt and Craig Krenzel was the QB. David Terrell at WR? Seriously, the Bears were pretty bad when he took over. Its one reason he got the job. If they were good Jauron never would have been canned.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 25, 2010 -> 12:08 PM) FWIW, that was a prearranged deal. Hendry never did claim him for the Cubs sake. In retrospect he should have, and obviously could have. They would never have signed Milton Bradley, so character couldn't be part of it. Of course its easy to look back at it now, but if he had the insight the front office in Cincinatti had, a lot of things would have probably been different with the Cubs. On the other hand, maybe he relapses, but its still good to stick the needle into Cubs fans, no pun intended, about how Josh Hamilton was a Cub for a few minutes.

I'm for the AL although I do have affection for Uribe. Its funny a huge Jim Hendry blunder is really never noted, when he claimed Josh Hamilton in the rule 5 and sold him to Cincinatti.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Oct 25, 2010 -> 09:53 AM) Another game that people want to blame the coaching, but it should be directed at the GM. Again, you can't run any type of system without an offensive line. I don't care who the coordinator is. I don't really think many are blaming coaching on yesterday's debacle. Lovie's challenges always have been pretty pathetic. I don't blame him for that because someone needs to be informing him when to challenge, and apparently the Bears either don't have anyone doing that or someone who might not have access to replays. Outside the first quarter, the line wasn't that bad yesterday, certainly good enough to score more points. I also agree, this is all on Angelo. I'm not a Cutler guy, although I admire the talent, but I can't see where he wouldn't be at least slightly shellshocked right now, and it has to be contributing to his struggles. He drops back into the pocket and drops his head like he's going to get hit a lot of times before the rush is really that close. Ron Turner of course, was the Bears' version of Greg Walker, and he finally took the bullet. But if you recall last season, when people were complaining the game plan was too simple,(ironic because now its supposedly too complicated) he basically stated Bears' personnel was unable to grasp anything but the basic stuff. He basically said they weren't intelligent enough to use his entire offense. Now you have Martz, and it appears Turner was correct in his analysis.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 25, 2010 -> 09:47 AM) Well, option A is an impossibility with this squad, and option B is more likely with every loss. Angelo and Lovie need to go, and bring me Bill Cowher and put him in charge of everything. He'll have us in the Super Bowl in 5 years. It didn't take Lovie 5 years to get the Bears to the Super Bowl.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 25, 2010 -> 07:58 AM) Lovie challenges plays that are 100% clearly correct and challenges plays where, even if he wins the challenge, it doesn't actually change anything. Why he decided to not challenge such a high-impact play is simply baffling. Its definitely baffling but I would love to know exactly how the process works with that team. Lovie isn't going to be able to see what Cutler did with the ball from where he's standing. I go to a few Bears games a year and even the replays are sometimes hard to see in noon starts. There is a lot of glare on the board. Even those watching at home didn't see the ball perhaps go over the goal line until a second or third round of replays. Someone needs to be in a booth looking this stuff over. If its Lovie's call to make the decisions on these from the sidelines, then that's on him, but really if its not in the Bears budget or they just didn't think of it, not paying someone peanuts who only has the responsibility to look at plays that could be challenged is jsut regrettable.

Lovie is horrid on challenges, but don't the Bears have someone looking at that stuff above telling him to challenge or not? The challenge lost was silly as it was pretty clear it wasn't going to be changed from the beginning, but considering the Bears are 0-10 scoring a TD their last 10 snaps from the 1 yard line, perhaps it was warranted. I don't know if they would have given Cutler the TD or not, but not challenging that was ridiculous. But really, and not trying to be a Lovie apologist, Lovie has the worst view of almost all to make the challenge call. If the Bears don't have someone telling Lovie when to challenge, they are even more inept than previously thought.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 24, 2010 -> 05:14 PM) .228/.322/.406/.728 outside of those two weeks Adam Dunn was .223/.337/.466/.803 with 91 strikeouts in 238 AB the second half of the season. Yet, if he signed for 3 years and $40 million some would consider the problems, and considering they were ranked in the top half of almost every offensive category in the AL last year solved.

QUOTE (MexSoxFan#1 @ Oct 24, 2010 -> 03:04 PM) Cutler has the physical talent to be top tier but let's face it, he's a moron, there was no reason for that throw, we are only down 3 pts, a FG ties it you idiot!!! He's Jeff George II. I think its Ron Turner's fault.