Dick Allen

If not winning in Toronto is an excuse for Rios not to go all out, its unprofessional. He got paid a lot of money to go out and give his best. If certain conditions need to be met in order for him to do this, he's not what you're looking for. He does have a clean slate. We will see how it goes, maybe he takes off, maybe he stays the same. He's still pretty good. Just maybe not $60 million good.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Aug 16, 2009 -> 08:38 AM) Griffey gave the Sox exactly what they wanted. He was a lot better attitude wise than his reputation, but I'm sure the Sox were looking for a few more runs from his bat.

BA back in the big leagues, starting in RF for the Red Sox tonight.

Its kind of shocking. Either the Southern League has horrible catchers or Flowers has improved an unbelievable amount since spring training.

QUOTE (VAfan @ Aug 15, 2009 -> 12:49 PM) At this point, Jose is not helping the ball club. He's taking a roster spot that could be better filled, IMHO, by ANY starter the Sox have in the minors. I had some high hopes earlier this year when he was sent down to rehab. He came back strong and pitched two gems in a row. But that's been it. 6 run lead last night and he can't even get through 5 with the lead. Sure, Sox defense was pitiful behind him. But that didn't excuse the pitch he grooved to Ellis that cleared the bases. Or the two guys he let on in the 5th with a 1 run lead. If Freddy Garcia can pitch, let him take Jose's slot. Then we still need a 5th guy to fill two starts until Peavy joins us. But at least we wouldn't have the complete downer that Jose has become. He doesn't even look like he wants to win. It's the Javy Vasquez syndrome. It hurts the team. If he won't take a minor league reassignment, then cut him loose. Javy Vazquez syndrome? You must have been in a coma about 4 years ago.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Aug 15, 2009 -> 10:00 AM) That would be strongly dependent on how long he plays. In this day and age, I think that you need either 300 HRs or 200 HRs and a Mauer-like batting average to get into the Hall as a catcher. If he puts up an OPS of .800 for six or seven years and then flames out, he won't come close. The original post I replied to mention Flowers as a possible "huge" upgrade from AJP. I can't recall if defense or calling a game, (which, BTW, White Sox coaches will not do) had anything to do with it, but when you consider Fisk's .766 OPS with the Sox and AJP's .744 OPS with the Sox, a huge upgrade would be an upgrade over Carlton Fisk and he has his likeness on the OF wall. Fisk put up an OPS of 800 or higher 8 times in his career when he played at least 100 games. 2 of those came after he turned 40. Bench had an OPS when he caught at least 100 games of at least .800 9 times. Ivan Rodriquez, 8 times in the same situation. Piazza blows them all away, and he'll be a HOF, although not without suspicion.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 14, 2009 -> 07:49 PM) AJ's OPS numbers as a Sox player (full years 2005-2008): .728, .769, .712, .728 Those are pretty good for a catcher, but nothing spectacular. Being significantly better, say around .800, would be considered a pretty big upgrade, and I think that's a real possibility for Flowers in his prime years. But Flowers would have to do that consistently for 15-20 years (meaning until he was 40) to put up HOF numbers. So when comparing to AJ, who is past his prime (probably), no, you don't need to put up HOF type numbers. At all. Johnny Bench career OPS .817. Ivan Rodriquez career OPS .809. Carlton Fisk career OPS .797. Carlton Fisk White Sox OPS .766. IF Flowers puts up an OPS of .800 as a catcher, he's HOF material. Chances are, he won't. White Sox fans need to appreciate what they have in AJP. The catching situation has been pretty good with the Sox since 2005.

Poreda has been godawful as well. MacDougal like awful.

The White Sox gave Viciedo more than double the signing bonus they gave Gordon Beckham. They are also paying him more than double what they are paying Beckham this season, and will do so next year as well. Viciedo has a ton of errors at 3rd base, so he's a DH right now with a pretty unimpressive OPS in AA. He can get better, but I hope the White Sox wait until he gets better before throwing him to the wolves.

QUOTE (buckweaver @ Aug 15, 2009 -> 07:12 AM) Wise stays. By yhe time Peavy's ready, we're a few days away from Sept. 1 roster expansions...so my guess is you drop one of the younger bullpen pitchers who has options, then bring him back in September. The roles Wise plays best (late inning defense and speed) are good components to have during the last month of a playoff run. Wise is a fine guy to have on the roster in September if he's used properly. With all the slow guys, he's a nice pinch runner. With guys like Pods and Quentin and Dye in the field, although he's not the GG calibur OF a lot think because of one certain catch, he's an upgrade defensively from those guys.(Of course, I might be an upgrade defensively) Just don't put him in the line-up a couple days a week, and certainly don't have him lead off. The man cannot hit. He's proved it throughout his career. With the addition of Rios and Kotsay, there is really no way Wise should come to the plate when the at bat is crucial to the outcome of the game.

Hawk is the mouthpiece for the organization, and you could tell he is disgusted with Alexei in the field. Not his ability, but his mental approach. He sees Alexei takes some plays off and last night non chalanted a ball to first on a routine grounder, making the play very close. Konerko has probably saved him between 5 and 10 errors on throws in the dirt. The mistakes he is making aren't due to a lack of experience at the position, but are due to not being mentally involved in the game, which for a SS, is brutal. Last year, Ramirez seemed like a real clever baseball player. Now, at least defensively, he's all flash and no substance. Hawk digs on him vaguely almost daily now. It makes me think he better pull his head out of his ass quickly if he wants to remain the White Sox SS. I'm sure they have talked with him and probably tried a lot of different things to get his head in the game on defense, but it doesn't seem to be working. Maybe his success has gone to his head.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 13, 2009 -> 10:54 AM) Flowers' bat is a huge upgrade over AJ, most likely. He raked in AA, putting up a ridiculous .302/.445/.548/.993 line. And now after 18 games in AAA, he seems to be figuring that out too - he's hitting .351 in his last 10 games, and has a .294/.333/.441/.775 line there so far in 68 AB. His High A line last year included a .921 OPS. The guy can rake. Flowers' defense has been questioned, though looking at the few numbers I can find, and listening to some folks who have seen him play, it sounds like that area of his game is improving and isn't too bad either. And its not as if AJ is a great defender. But that all said, AJ brings a lot more to the table than a bat and a glove. We don't know if Flowers will be able to provide that. But I like the idea of Flowers backing up AJ next year, hopefully to learn some of those more subtle but important aspects of catching - game calling, pitcher handling, etc. Flowers can also then take a year to adjust slowly to major league pitching as a hitter. This works well for Flowers to start in 2011. One potential wrench in the works though - I don't know how well AJ will react to, basically, training his replacement. Looking at the total package, AJ is still a darn good guy to have as your starting catcher, and he could start elsewhere. He may get pissed and want to leave, or he may just not want to be helpful with Flowers. Hopefully this is a non-issue, but let's be honest - how many of us would feel good about training our replacement when we still felt like we were good at our job? Its a good problem to have. We have one good catcher on the team, and another potentially very good one coming up. If its most like Flowers is a huge upgrade over .280 with 15 homers, they might as well start making his bust for Cooperstown. If Flowers sticks as a catcher, and that is still a big if, catching will take its toll on him. I remember when the White Sox couldn't wait to get rid of Carlton Fisk behind the plate. First Joel Skinner, who was pretty highly thought of, although IIRC, didn't do too much in the minors, the Karkovice a #1 pick who had a huge season in Birmingham as a 22 year old. I wouldn't be surprised if his season in Birmingham was better than what Flowers did this year.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 05:34 PM) I can't imagine someone throwing 86 striking out as many guys as Freddy did this past outing. Hopefully he's healthy. At 33 he's still young enough to succeed and we all know he's got plus breaking stuff. Its just a matter of having enough velocity to keep hitters honest. Whatever they say he's throwing at in Charlotte, I'm subtracting 5 MPH. The only guy I can remember who threw as hard as we were led to believe when he was called up was Jenks.

QUOTE (chisoxt @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 08:10 PM) How was this guy able to accomplish what he did in 2007? Hmmmmmmmm...... I don't think he was on the juice. He was scouted. When you don't make contact, and don't take a ton of walks, and don't get many hits other than homers, unless your in a select few, your major league career is very brief.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 08:23 PM) I remember when people insisted they could hit Gavin Floyd. If you face him anywhere but USCF, you have a chance.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 08:04 PM) For what it's worth, a friend of mine who is a Red Sox fan posted on facebook that Youkilis got owned. Definitely. He got hit, he missed on the helmet toss and was thrown to the ground.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 07:00 PM) Miguel Cabrera gets hit on the hand by a pitch in the first (totally Cabrera's fault, ball may have been over the plate) so Porcella throws at Victor Martinez in the bottom half and misses but Victor has a few words for him. Cabrera has to leave the game after his next AB because he just can't swing the bat so Porcello nails Youk in the bottom half of the inning. It seems like a misguided attempt by a rookie to protect his teammate. It might have been misguided, but his teammates will love him for it, and he didn't screw around with scrubs, he went after some big guns. It probably makes more sense, because they have a better chance of getting on base anyway.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 07:37 PM) Iamshack, I actually dont know, which is why I was posing the question. There are a lot of different angles to look at it. I do know there is a merchants exception for a store employee to detain some one for a "reasonable amount of time" so that they can ascertain whether or not merchandise was stolen. I do not believe that there is any requirement of value (ie if I steal a 5cent piece of candy I can be detained the same as if I stole a $1,000 piece of candy.), but Im not going through case law so I could be wrong there as well. The problem with saying that its not that important, is that you can be arrested for failing to pay a fare. The problem is that most people who are going to knowingly skip a fare, do not give the right address, so when they get to the location they get out of the car and run. At that point the cab driver then needs to call the police and tell them that some one skipped a fare (robbery.) Does it protect the cab driver to allow him to lock the doors and call the police if he believes that a passenger is going to skip a fare? I think the answer may be yes. Unlike the shopkeeper who is not sure whether or not the person stole (once they know they stole they can detain them while they call the police), the cab driver immediately knows whether or not the fare is going to be paid and as soon as the fare is paid the cab driver would no longer have any right whatsoever to hold the passenger. I would say there is a good argument to be made that a cab driver should be able to hold a passenger who fails to pay a fare and so they can bring them to a police station so that they can be arrested. Whether or not this is supported by the law, I dont know. I dont try and guess or use logic, because it generally ends up being wrong. Just from doing very brief research I cant really find anything, which is why Im curious. The driver admitted he locked the door and maybe that is false imprisonment and maybe why his attorney appears to be backing off.

I think his best move was the Peavy trade. He paid pennies to the dollar for an ace.

KW's comments about Anorexei were interesting yesterday. He basically has given him a pass, saying he hadn't played the position for a while before this season. Coming in, he was talking about how the guy was GG calibur, and he has shown, in flashes, that he is, but he hasn't kept his head in the game for long stretches, and his baseball acumen, which seemed pretty high last season, seems below average for a SS.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 06:35 PM) Badger, I am not an attorney like you, but I did graduate from law school (hah, that sounds like saying "But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express!). I haven't reviewed case law, but my guess is, merchant or not, you can NEVER purposefully detain someone in your cab for refusing to pay. My feeling is the law would never encourage a situation which could easily turn into violence, as it did in this case. Again, this is just from my background knowledge, but it seems as though a reasonable court of law would not rule that anyone could be held against their will in a cab. Paying a fare, especially for the sums of money most likely to be involved, is never THAT important, and is an issue to be worked out between the cab company and the passenger at a later date. Allowing some sort of merchant exception which allows a cab to detain a passenger for something as miniscule as paying a fare would seem to be a ridiculous measure for the law to allow. Your thoughts? I totally understand why they may lock the doors, but if you think about it, it really is asking for trouble. The reason most would skip the fare is because they don't have the money. Locking the door isn't going to make the money appear, then what do you do? If you want to drive them back to where they came or to a cop or something, there's a good chance something a lot worse than being stiffed a fare, is going to happen.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 11:56 AM) Last I saw, the Cabbie is going to be lucky if he doesnt face charges, I dont see any payoffs in his future. He locked the doors of the cab which is unlawful imprisonment which deems any acts of self defense legal. Second he didnt even have a valid drives license which makes it unlawful for him to drive a cab or operate as a licensed cab operator, therefore his asking for a fare in the first place was illegal. I didn't know that, and my wife is a lawyer. I've been hammered in a lot of cabs in my day, and as soon as we get to my stop, I hear the locks click into place. I would never skip a fare or have an altercation over $.20, but if the story has gone from Patrick Kane with the choke hold while his cousin was beating him to Patrick Kane had nothing to do with it and alcohol was not involved, with a 20 and 21 year old out at 4 am, its pretty hard to believe there is no payment coming the driver's way. I don't know if anyone read the initial story in the Buffalo newspaper's on line edition, but the locals in Buffalo were not surprised at the charges. There was post after post how Kane and his "crew" which more than a couple of responses called them, have been causing trouble for quite a while. As usual, he's probably not the initial monster anyone would have concluded after the story first ran, and he's probably no where near as innocent as he's starting to sound right now.

QUOTE (Gregory Pratt @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 06:32 PM) I remember when people were penciling him into our starting lineup with thirty homeruns. 30? I remember the proposterous 50 predictions.

Fields isn't long for the White Sox organization, but he won't be waived. He's probably feeling sorry for himself, and you can't blame him, but he's going about getting a major league gig all wrong. Teams will wonder why a guy who has performed like he has the last 2 seasons thinks he should be handed a starting job on the major league level. He'll hang around as fodder for some team for a while, but probably won't have much of a career.

QUOTE (Jake @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 12:23 AM) "The safe route will ultimately lead to a mediocre result." -- Kenny Williams He is living that this season as he went the safe route last off season. His bold moves hopefully will start helping him now.