Dick Allen

QUOTE (Ranger @ Mar 6, 2010 -> 08:52 PM) That's not really true, just because you aren't invovled in a play doesn't mean they are just standing there doing nothing. There's definitely a difference between playing the field and not playing the field, especially when you play 130 games or more in 6 months. And all the cummulative pregame work they do is even more reason for them to catch a breather from the field every now and then. Not to mention that some guys just simply get "achy" as the weeks go on. Every little bit matters. You're helping make my point. Not having to go out to the OF and catch a couple of fly balls and throw a few balls back to the infield isn't exactly rest.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Mar 6, 2010 -> 03:27 PM) The McCaskeys cheapness means we keep lubbie and his crew of idiots around for another year instead of eating the money and starting over. You waste another year since the team will still suck ass, then you have your lockout and then you start rebuilding in '12. Spend some money in FA to appease the majority of your fanbase even though your team will still fail. Chicago Bears: The Cubbies of the NFL So if you were running the Bears, and you thought there would be no football in 2011, you would have fired everyone, paid a new staff to coach players not good enough, just so they learn the system and then sit out a year. Then a pretty big turnover, so they can get everyone on board with their system in 2012 and hopefully ready to compete in 2013? At least now if Lovie is shown the door, they have spent money on players and the team should be far better off with Lovie or another coach. BTW, Lovie is such an awful coach, he guided a team QB'd by Rex Grossman to the Super Bowl.

Not that homers off Carlos Silva on March 6th are special, but if Carlos Quentin can stay healthy, and its a big if, he's and MVP-calibur guy.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Mar 6, 2010 -> 10:55 AM) I think it's a bit too soon to say that. One of the advantages of having a deep rotation and a kid like Hudson is that it gives you the chance to take a gamble on at least one spot for the pen. IF dealing Linebrink frees up money, or brings some small improvement to the team, then you do it. Especially, if Santos' newly found control is for real. You don't want Santos on the mound if the Sox really need to get someone out when it counts, quite yet. He has some nice tools but it would be insane to take away the guy definitely could help the Sox in 2010 based on a spring training outing on March 5. If the Sox didn't think they had a legitimate chance to win in 2010, then by all means, take your lumps and put him on the roster. You have to be bad before you are good. Santos is going to struggle somewhere this year.

QUOTE (beck72 @ Mar 6, 2010 -> 10:35 AM) I know Linebrink has had good 1st halfs in recent years. And he likely will be around. But his contract could be a big albatross going forward--esp. going into 2011, with them not being able to afford both Jenks and Putz. The sox could be looking at an ineffective Linebrink and his $5 mill. and deciding between an expensive Jenks or a risky Putz. Hudson could fill Linebrink's role at a fraction of the cost this year, and the sox could then afford both Jenks and Putz next. I wouldn't part with Linebrink unless one of Hynick, Torres, or Marquez really stepped up to take the long man spot, to go along with Hudson in short relief. Santos isn't the answer and needs more time to develop as a pitcher. He's not going to get that unless he's in AAA-after being exposed to waivers. Cabrera can't solve his control problems in one spring. They obviously have money to burn this year, so its not an albatross in 2010. Maybe it will be next year, but why get rid of him now? If he's a lock to be horrible in the second half, shouldn't the data used to provide that conclusion also conclude he should be lights out the first half? And if Jenks is too expensive and Putz too risky, why would you want both on the team in 2011? Let it play out. You can never have too many relievers who can get people out. A couple of these guys will probably be ineffective or get hurt. I think Linebrink comes up pretty big this year. His arm problem is behind him and he's coming off 2 years of less workload. I think he can stay strong the entire year. If he can throw his breaking ball for strikes, he will help immensely. I don't see it being a lock Putz returns to his 2007 form, or Jenks becomes a beast again (although his new dedication with the weight and the drinking can only be encouraging). If the Sox really needed the money to make a run at someone, I could see trying to pawn him off, but they aren't in that situation.

QUOTE (beck72 @ Mar 6, 2010 -> 07:44 AM) I wouldn't be surprised if there were 2 open bullpen spots, if the sox could get Linebrink to waive his NTC to go to the Cubs. The Sox may not have a better chance of unloading Linebrink with the Cubs in dire need of an experienced bullpen arm with Guzman likely going down. It wouldn't have to be for much talent wise, as getting rid of the $10 mill. owed Linebrink would be well worth it. The sox can't and shouldn't count on Linebrink to give them much. Linebrink had a 2.37 ERA the first half of 2008 then got hurt. He had a 1.93 ERA the first half of 2009 then lost location and confidence. At least it wasn't physical. There is reason to believe he's not as worthless as some are making him out to be. I think he could have a big year. I wouldn't trade him just to free up money that may or may not be used or to give a guy who just became a pitcher a prominent role in the bullpen just because he struck out the side in an early spring training game. Guys like Santos who played winter ball, are going to be way ahead of everyone else early. Be careful what you wish for.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Mar 6, 2010 -> 04:42 AM) Why do some of you guys keep up this "McCaskeys are cheap" meme? Really that hasn't been true since about the 80s, maybe early 90s. Fact is Mike doesn't do much, if anything, regarding management, and Virginia doesn't do anything at all except collect dividend checks. In the last decade or so where Phillips has been running the team and Angelo has been GM, they haven't been known as bank-breakers like Jones or Snyder, but that doesn't mean anything especially seeing as how the Bears don't pull in as much revenue as those teams (and, really, Snyder is not the example you want to compare yourself to). Other than that they pretty much run the team like any other NFL team does, i.e., a business. No, the Bears don't usually go out and go after the top of the FA list every year and spend big money but how many times has there been a big name available, where the Bears had the cap space, and there was a clear position of need that management wanted to fill at the time (I will give you OL, but this is more because of a fundamental mistake on Angelo's part than a lack of willingness to spend money)? How many other teams actually do this? It's not a good way to run a team and you get saddled down with big contracts you can't get rid of. Where there has been an opportunity/need to spend money and the Bears have it, they do... see some of the FAs they've given healthy contracts to (Muhammad, Tait, Miller, Clark), also see all the massive extensions they give to guys like Urlacher, Kreutz, Harris, Briggs (not an extension but that's just a means to an end), Tillman, Vasher, Hester, Cutler... actually I thought trading for Cutler at great cost and risk to the franchise, and subsequently extending him, would've put that idea to rest for a while since it directly contradicts that statement, but I guess not. Also if I recall correctly they ate some of Benson's contract, and probably Darwin Walker's too. Sometimes they even get very close to the cap because they like to pay out their bonus money early in the deal so they can cut players later if they want to - if I'm wrong on the Benson/Walker statement this is probably why. I realize that me saying this isn't really going to have any effect, and I also realize that the signing of Peppers, like the trade for Cutler, won't change the fact that people will continue to blurt out "the Bears are cheap" when it doesn't have much basis in fact next year, as if these things never happened. I'm not really defending Bears management here, there are plenty of reasons to criticize them and there have been some bad decisions made, but not because they've passed up numerous opportunities to immediately make the Bears better and just chose not to because of the price tag. I still think Michael plays a lot bigger role than is being let on, but you really can't call them cheap anymore. Obviously with a salary cap, there were limitations with the types of players they could sign. Once the cap is lifted, which team spent the most money? They now have quite an extensive list of some very highly paid players. Briggs, Urlacher, Peppers, Cutler, Harris. I think Robbie Gould is in the top 3 or maybe even #1 for highest paid kickers. They still need a safety and another offensive lineman pretty badly. I'm sure these areas will be addressed be it in the draft or opening the checkbook again. I think Bears fans should be really excited about the prospects of 2010.

I laugh at the notion you are giving guys a "rest" when you are DHing them. Especially corner OFs. They may get 5 or 6 plays a game some days, some days even less. Most of these guys work with Allen Thomas and are pretty well conditioned specimens. A few innings in the field especially if its a night game and the sun isn't beating down on them in the middle of August, is nothing. Most guys will spend many times the energy they will spend playing the field working in the batting cage and during BP before the game, and a few guys exert more just swinging the weighted stuff while on deck. If "rest" is what you are after, keep them away from a bat for a day.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Mar 5, 2010 -> 05:26 PM) Not me because its gonna be the combination of Q and Adrian thats gonna get you the best chance to get to the championship, without Q all our "we need a LH power bat" will turn into a "is PK a good enough power bat" I agree. Trading Quentin kind of defeats the purpose of bringing in Gonzalez. Granted Gonzalez is probably an upgrade offensively over Carlos, as long as Quentin is healthy, he'll be an offensive force. I think he'll be over his foot problems this year. I had that same problem 5 or 6 years ago and once it finally cleared up, I've never had it again and although I'm not a professional athlete I am more active than most physically. Before his foot started bothering him, he had 8 homers in his first 70 ABs or so.

Viciedo seems a little soft in the middle.

I think there would be plenty of support for a second NFL team in Chicago. The stadium does raise an issue, but since they can charge more than most places, I think that issue isn't as big as its made out to be. I do agree with the above about the Olympic stadium in Washington Park. That would have been used to lure a team for sure.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 4, 2010 -> 07:26 AM) what? If the White Sox pitching staff lives up to expectations and White Sox hitters hit significantly fewer home runs, when the books like BP come out next season, USCF won't be thought of as the launching pad its been considered the past 7 or 8 years.

Whether Kotsay, Jones and Vizquel actually DH 100% or not, and they will obviously play the field, the bottom line is a bench-quality player will be in the line-up daily. It blows my mind White Sox fans are so opposed to guys who pretty much strickly DH and prefer older players who can't play every day anymore in the line up every day. This is a team that has employed 3 of the greatest DH only-type players in the history of the game. Another thing to consider, there's a lot of talk about Minnesota moving outdoors so they will lose their home field advantage, like the other team is playing in perfect conditions. What about the White Sox home field advantage? We have seen over the past years that they have played pretty well at home with a line up of sluggers. Will they lose their advantage? The years they hit less than 200 homers they really struggled, but of course, they were built to hit homers. One thing that will occur. In most of the publications, USCF will become a much more pitcher friendly park in 2011.

If the 2010 bullpen matches the 2005 bullpen and Danks has the year in 2010 that Garland had 18-10 3.50 ERA 220+ innings, and Floyd and Peavy can match 2005 Freddy Garcia 14-8 3.87 ERA, or 2005 Jose Contreras 15-7 3.61 ERA, then you could say the 2010 team is a frontrunner for another WS trophy. Buehrle certainly is no lock to match 16-8 3.12 ERA. I know the rotation is getting a lot of attention, but chances are those 4 aren't going to combine for 62 wins. Not all of it will be their fault. Without looking it up, I would imagine when most of those guys left with a lead in 2005 in the sixth or seventh inning, they got a win. Comparing a roster to the 2005 team is fun but meaningless.

Its way too early to take anything out of a B game, good or bad.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 28, 2010 -> 09:34 PM) We knew that months ago. When the extent of your writing ability is making fun of others, it is pretty much a guarantee that you aren't very good at your day job. His new thing is being "exclusive" and taking shots at the Tribune. Of course when he's late to the dance like the Damon story, there is none of that BS. He's just an unproffessional Marriotti wantabee who is hoping his ridiculous comments land him an ESPN gig.

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 28, 2010 -> 06:21 PM) Rotation Happenings in the last paragraph. http://blogs.suntimes.com/whitesox/2010/02...nzalez_and.html Maybe they're reading my posts about having two lefties against the Twins. Buehrle, Peavy, Floyd, Danks, Garcia is probably a likely thing. I still think Buehrle should be the #4 guy and have him get his first start against Minnesota. Cleveland usually hits him pretty well.

QUOTE (Cali @ Feb 28, 2010 -> 05:36 PM) The Beckham as a National star not just a White Sox star is laughable. I'm sorry, I love the Sox and I love Beckham, but it's NEVER gonna happen. The sad truth of it all is if he were a Cub there would be a hell of a better chance....that's just the way it is, and we all know it. Case in point, I just tuned in the '08 All Star Game, and Fukudome and Soto are STARTERS. Beckham will place 5th or 6th in All-Star voting even if he's hitting .320.... The Sox haven't had anyone this marketable since Frank Thomas in his heyday and unfortunately the strike was right in the middle of his heyday.

QUOTE (YASNY @ Feb 28, 2010 -> 01:11 PM) There's a lot of over the top Gordon Beckham love going on a few pages back. Beckham's a hell of a ballplayer but he's not baseball's version of Michael Jordon. Wait .... Michael Jordon was baseball's version of Michael Jordon. Bad analogy. Ok, he's not baseball's version of Tiger Woods. Ummm ... Tiger Woods. Slayer. Hmmm. Well, I think you can catch my drift. He's the White Sox version of Derek Jeter or Ryne Sandberg. He's the type of guy who is going to give the White Sox national attention for a long time. He's a guy the beleaguered minor league guys can hang their collective hats on even if they had very little to do with his development. Trading him for a guy who may only be around 2 seasons or less wouldn't be wise.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 28, 2010 -> 11:02 AM) If you're not willing to give him Tex money...then he's a 1.5 year rental for you. That's why you cannot give up Beckham. Everyone else, yes. Getting him for 2 years almost guarantees 2 White Sox playoff appearances if the team stays relatively healthy. The rental is worth the price of any and all of the White Sox current minor leaguers.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Feb 28, 2010 -> 09:22 AM) I wonder if KW pulled the Damon offer because there was potential between a deal with SD for AGon? Hmm.... I doubt it. The offer technically wasn't "pulled".

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Feb 27, 2010 -> 08:27 PM) i thought itd be cool to foolow ozzie on twitter and get them through my phone, but yea, he tweets a bit too much lol might be taking that off pretty soon I just don't understand the appeal of being informed Ozzie is about to go to dinner. If he gave you some White Sox stuff, that would be different. These guys are always talking about their privacy, in fact, Ozzie said himself the TV show will not be allowed to film at his home, yet throw crap like this out there only to fuel the flames of the people wanting more. He's going to wind up with probably over 100k followers, and probably at least 15k will actually think Ozzie is their buddy. I predict he grows tired of the whole thing and bags it at some point during the season.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 28, 2010 -> 07:44 AM) It depends on what his scouts have told him. If they're unanimously saying that in 2012, Hudson it in your 2nd starter spot...that's a hugely useful piece. I wouldn't deal that for AGon unless I expected a big revenue boost before then, and we've already won our world series to get that. If KW didn't trade for Gonzalez and it was because Dan Hudson was the sticking piece, he would need to be replaced. When you are as offensively challenged and seemingly always monetarily handcuffed like the White Sox, you don't stop a trade for a 40 homer .400 OBP GG firstbaseman making $5 million a year because a guy might be a #2 starter in a few years. Gonzalez only will make $5 million a year the next 2 seasons. It would make the White Sox far and away the best team on paper and probably on the field in the AL Central. Far greater prospects than Dan Hudson have been traded for far less than the entire package Gonzalez brings, and a good portion of those have been busts. Maybe Hudson is a #2 starter in 2012, but its not like he's the right handed Sandy Koufax. KW would trade him in a heartbeat and not even think twice about it.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 28, 2010 -> 07:52 AM) I hear ya on that, but look at the defensive side. JD would be worth something to this team if it had a solid LH hitting backup OF who could play some defense. Damon and JD instead of Jones and Kotsay would have been a solid, if much more expensive construction. I come not to bury JD's bat, only to bury JD's defense. Unfortunately, the White Sox waited a year or two too long to bury his defense. I still think he would be a tremendous DH if he would accept the fact he has no business playing the OF.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 28, 2010 -> 07:45 AM) Jermaine Dye really adds nothing to this team right now. If he's better than Jones with the bat (which, after the 2nd half of last year, I'm not sure), While we bury JD for his bad second half last year as ample proof he's total worthless, take a look at Andruw Jones' 2008 season and look at his stellar .185 average the second half of 2009. If he's primed for a comeback, JD is a possible MVP candidate.