Dick Allen

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 24, 2009 -> 02:10 PM) It would be $4M + $1M buyout. Hence the $5M If the White Sox eat nothing, unless its a team based in NY, I don't see Dye getting traded unless its the September 1 deadline.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 24, 2009 -> 01:56 PM) Jermaine Dye will only cost a team ~$5M at the deadline, if the Sox are out of it, Dye is having a good year and there's a team out there in need of a right handed power bat (preferably as a DH) I'm sure they'd be willing to take a flier on Jermaine. It would be $5 million + $1 million buyout. Considering Abreu could only get $5 million for a full season, I really doubt teams would be willing to pay Dye that for half a season or less, unless its the Yankees. Even Boston is cutting back. I read John Henry has lost $60 % of his net worth the past several months.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Feb 24, 2009 -> 12:04 PM) A worldwide draft is more fair, but I don't think it would work out all that well. Would Daisuke Matsuzaka leave baseball in Japan to go play for the Pirates, because the posting system would be gone? And not only that, but it hurts teams like us with our Cuban connections, Seattle with their Japanese connections, New York with their Dominican connections, etc. I kind of like the international FA system as it is simply because it's a free market, and I think it would be a great balance to a rigid slotting system in the draft. If you slot the draft, then the best talent is still going to get overpaid, it's just that now the s***ty teams are going to get all those guys and they won't fall lower. I personally don't feel you should punish teams like the Yanks and Red Sox for doing the scouting, spending lots but spending wisely, and winning, while rewarding teams like Pittsburgh who run their organizations like utter s*** with the best players in the draft. Keeping international FA like it is would still allow the big market, bottom-first round teams to get high level first round talent elsewhere. Of course there's the argument that such-and-such team is winning, and such-and-such spends more money, so they can live without that type of talent falling to them, but realistically, teams like the Yankees and Red Sox need that talent, because they need to win, because half of baseball depends on them through revenue sharing. Make no mistake, if the Yankees don't win and draw, then the Pirates contract, simple as that. Players are out of jobs and parity in baseball is gone. Also, you have to consider that teams that frequent the top of the draft usually suck because they suck as an organization. Why have the Twins and A's specifically done so well over the years despite smaller payrolls? Why do the Cubs spend like the Cubs and still end up the Cubs, meanwhile St. Louis will spend just as much or less and come away the better team? The Cubs won their divisions the last two years, but it hasn't always been like that. And look at Tampa. They had the best picks for a long time but the only reason any of it is paying off now is because as an organization they are run much better. Sure BJ Upton is a stud, but it was the JP Howell, Edwin Jackson, Andy Sonnanstine, Akinori Iwamura, Grant Balfour, Dioner Navarro, Gabe Gross, take-a-chance-on-Carlos Pena, dump-Elijah Dukes-for-nothing, type of complimentary/unheralded picks and moves that made them AL Champions last year. Also, if you slot the first round in such a way that 20-30 overall picks are getting something like $2-3M in bonuses - because you know the MLBPA would want large bonuses all the way through the first round in exchange for doing away with the later round, high-bonus picks - then you end up hurting teams like the Twins, who rely on their scouting and generally spend cheaply on the draft. And of course the late round, high-bonus players couldn't work anymore. I think if the draft were to be slotted, you'd have to keep international FA the way it is, plus bring back the draft-and-follow system, plus allow for the trading of draft picks (so the #1 team doesn't have to spend $7M on a draft pick if they can't afford it, and can opt to trade down for say a #20, a #27, and a #50 instead). On top of that, you also have to come up with rules about MLB contracts, like either eliminate MLB contracts entirely or make it a rule for the first five or so picks. Because otherwise, if say you wanted to take a high school player within the first few picks but didn't want to give him an MLB contract because you're unsure if he'd be ready in four years, then either you'd be forced to trade down and take him after the MLB contract slots were gone, or select another player. I'd rather eliminate the MLB contracts because it would ensure almost every single top-5 or so pick is a college player, but this would be an issue for the MLBPA as well. And furthermore, you couldn't slot the draft without coming up with a legit FA compensation system. You'd have to know what pick and therefore what amount of money your compensation-eligible player is worth so you could then decide what he's worth to you. For this, I think the Elias system is a great start, but what I would do it take the 30 best FA's according to Elias, put each of their names into a plastic ball, and then hold a lottery. Eliminate the supplemental first round, then have a slotted second round with equal bonuses throughout (say $750K) work solely as a compensation round. You do your lottery, and however it lines up, each departing player nets his former team that pick. You don't charge the signing team with a draft pick and you don't deal in Type A/Type B designations. You make a list of all players, and the top 30 that are offered and deny arbitration and sign with new MLB teams are the ones worth picks. Teams may have several picks in this round or none. I think a system like that would work well also because it would help facilitate more deadline deals as Type A players would be worth a lot less on the open market, being worth only one pick instead of two. That was a long post. But I hope some of it made sense. I think teams like the Red Sox and Yankees can get away with spending less on scouting and have weaker scouts because of the system now. Its pretty common knowledge who are the top players in the draft. You can determine them fairly cheaply. The Yankees can just wait for them to fall because they won't sign for X amount of $. Another thing I would like to see is the ability to trade draft picks. No matter what, the system now sucks. There is no way signability should be an issue in a draft in the first round, unless its a kid who is deciding between college and starting his pro career. Maybe even make players declare for the draft.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Feb 24, 2009 -> 09:56 AM) What I'm wondering is this; Is all the attention because they treat the Scouts like royalty and line their pockets? Seems like Scouts are mining for gold in more than one way, and if this gets cleaned up, we may just see a more normal distribution. Remember, the edge is these players are not under the restrictions of the amateur draft, baseball could clean this up with one rule change. And if they would slot the draft, it would take the agents out of it, and take the draft back to what it was intended for. It also would free up a little cash for major league players.

Unless the Yankees want those guys, or the White Sox are willing to eat a large chunk of their contracts, Dye, Konerko and/or Thome will be White Sox until their contracts expire.

QUOTE (bschmaranz @ Feb 23, 2009 -> 04:27 PM) Anyone win the lottery to get tickets for the Milwaukee series? I didn't You're better off getting them on ebay or stubhub. They really jacked up the prices of the tickets for that series to non season ticketholders. Infield boxes are $80. They had some for $60 on stubhub I grabbed for Sunday and Friday. Saturday appears to be a problem but prices normally come down as gametime approaches.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 23, 2009 -> 07:37 PM) No matter how convincing some blurb from Cheat's blog may be I'll just go with common sense which tells me that players signed to minor league deals don't go on the 40 man roster, that's sort of the whole point of signing someone to a minor league contract; they don't take up a roster spot. And now after looking at Rotoworld I see that they confirmed 2 days after the Sox signed Nix that it was a major league deal. http://rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/p...=MLB&id=488 I'm wondering why they just didn't claim him on waivers.

Wasn't the investigation started after Wilder was caught going through customs with a bag with $40k inside? He's a scumbag's scumbag that is for sure. I'm sure KW felt like a fool for trusting him. I haven't read the articles, but was he doing this all along, or just when he started having money troubles with his club?

Chances are he will be a mediocre defensive C at best. If he hits like they hope he'll hit, it makes a lot of sense to change positions. Piazza may still be raking if he was a 1B.

I'm pretty sure HE GONE

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 21, 2009 -> 05:56 PM) Well lucky for Josh the season doesn't end in mid-September. And that .229/.283/.433/.716 line Josh had through September 14th as a 24 year old (before finishing the season with a 1.295 OPS over his final 56 PA) isn't far off from the .239/.299/.418/.717 line Crede put up as a 26 year old. Oh if only the season lasted from the beginning of June to mid September the .296/.337/.428/.765 line Brian put up over that exact same span in '06 would have earned him the starting gig in '07 and we never would have had to see Darin Erstad in a White Sox uniform. So the argument is evertime Crede came up big if he would have done something earlier it would have made his heroics mute, but Josh Fields tearing it up the final 2 weeks of Sept. 2007 in a battle for last place against the Royals is significant. In July and August 2006, BA hit over .300 combined. He had a tough Sept. and hit .257 post all star break. There was more to the BA story than performance or potential. Ozzie just didn't like him. He probably still doesn't, but at least he can tolerate him now and hopefully give him a fair shot.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 22, 2009 -> 01:49 AM) Hence the problem. The worshiping of a false idol, turning a baseball commoner into a baseball god. Some wonder why I "hate" Joe, I don't, I like him, I just can't stand it when people exaggerate a player's production/worth to this level and well, there's no other good discussion on here currently so I'm gonna make some Crede posts. You said earlier if Fields maintains his 2007 batting average (.244) and adds a little to his walk rate, he becomes a very valuable player. Crede is a lifetime .257 hitter. He has had some big moments and his glove, while you don't think its anything special, has been better than Fields. Wouldn't that make Crede a very valuable player during his White Sox career?

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Feb 21, 2009 -> 06:39 PM) This post is the rebuttal (correctly) to all of those in this thread and in the White Sox fanbase who think Joe Crede is the 2nd coming of Mr. Jesus Christ. Crede did have many big hits in big spots late in games, but just because he had a lot of 7th to 9th inning hits that drove in runs and helped win games doesn't make him any better than, say, Jim Thome. There are A LOT of baseball games that are won (and lost) by events that occur in the first three innings. That is part of what makes baseball great is it's the one sport moreso than all others where you have to watch the entire game because the events that decide who wins and loses can happen at any time, as opposed to football and basketball where the game more often than not is decided in the 4th quarter. I would bet in many of the games where Joe Crede "saved our ass" with a big hit late, he was 0 for 4 or 1 for 5 or something like that heading into the at bat. If he had been 2 for 4 or 3 for 5, maybe we wouldn't have needed that "big hit." What makes it even funnier is the assumption that everytime Crede got a big hit he basically was making up for f***ing up earlier. Let's go back to the 2005 ALCS. Game 1 he was 1-4 with a homer. The Sox lost 3-2. Joe f***ed up. The one time up he was huge, but if he would have homered 4 times the Sox would have won. Game 2 when he doubled in Ozuna for the winner he was only 2-4 with 2 doubles. In the clincher he only drove in the first run. Then he homered to tie it up in the 7th. Then he drove in the go ahead and winning run in the 8th. I suppose if he would have done something in his second AB he wouldn't have had to come up big. Joe is not a HOFer. He was drafted by the White Sox. He played hurt, didn't complain, kept his mouth shut, and helped the White Sox win. I really find it odd people have a problem with him. He earned his paycheck. That can't be said about everyone.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 21, 2009 -> 05:56 PM) Well lucky for Josh the season doesn't end in mid-September. And that .229/.283/.433/.716 line Josh had through September 14th as a 24 year old (before finishing the season with a 1.295 OPS over his final 56 PA) isn't far off from the .239/.299/.418/.717 line Crede put up as a 26 year old. Oh if only the season lasted from the beginning of June to mid September the .296/.337/.428/.765 line Brian put up over that exact same span in '06 would have earned him the starting gig in '07 and we never would have had to see Darin Erstad in a White Sox uniform. When Crede was 24 he put up some decent numbers too.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 21, 2009 -> 04:26 PM) I fear that Fields is going to get a lot of undeserved hatred this season from a LOT of fans because he took Crede's spot. He's going to have to be perfect to gain a decent following. For a guy who on Sept. 14 2007 was hitting .228 with a .289 OBP, he got a lot of love last year. Everyone wanted Crede gone. I think even Crede's biggest fans realize it was time for the White Sox to move on. I don't think Fields is better. Hopefully Viciedo is.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 21, 2009 -> 02:26 PM) Joe hit .248 last year and .239 in 2004 so if he somehow managed to get 476 AB .236 wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. We're comparing Fields to a hitter with a .306 career OBP and 5.8% (4.6% in 2006) walk rate, it shouldn't be too hard for Josh to top that. I don't know. When Fields was supposedly awesome, his OBP was .308. .303 for his career.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 21, 2009 -> 01:51 PM) Not having to play Juan Uribe or Andy Gonzalez at the position for 60+ games will be nice. Pretty much all projections have Josh Fields putting up equal or better numbers than Joe next season over more ABs, I know this means nothing to you but it is the case. Fields' PECOTA numbers has him hitting .236 with 20 homers in 476 AB. If Crede did that, he would be horrible.. We aren't even talking defense.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 21, 2009 -> 11:16 AM) As someone else said, I'm much more concerned with the possibility of the Twins acquiring Juan Cruz. With the sign and trade supposedly being available, I'm surprised KW hasn't tried to make something happen. He has been interested in Cruz before.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Feb 21, 2009 -> 10:49 AM) This is good news for the White Sox. If Josh Field needed any more motivation to perform, here it is. With the rivalries between these two teams all Fields will have to do is pick up the paper to see the inevitable Crede comparison breathing down his neck, and with the type of personality Fields has this could be exactly what he needs to get his ass in gear. If Josh Fields needs more motivation to perform, its time to look elsewhere for a 3b.

$2.5 million guaranteed. Up to $7 million with incentives.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Feb 21, 2009 -> 10:51 AM) I never like seeing ex-White Sox players in Twins uniforms, especially one that helped us win it all back in 05. I honestly don't see Crede being real healthy on that turf of theirs. Maybe Minnesota will get the fever the White Sox had about acquiring Cleveland Indians players past their prime, except with ex-White Sox. I still think Crede can be a very good player if his back is alright. As far as the turf, its not the hard astroturf of years gone by.

Joe Crede helped the White Sox win the WS. He also was great in 2006 until September when his back gave out on him. 2007 was a lost season. 2008, he helped the White Sox win several games in April, just losing one may have meant no playoffs as it turned out, he tried to play hurt and couldn't go on anymore. If he is healthy, and the back is not causing him problems, he will be a big asset for the Twins. It was time for him to move on. He wasn't awesome as a White Sox. He wasn't a bum either. He was a better than average thirdbaseman overall who came up huge when the White Sox really needed him.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Feb 18, 2009 -> 09:01 PM) It's just not that easy to forge documents anymore so I'd think that the proper age is on there. Jose Contreras is officially barely 37. Anything is possible.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 20, 2009 -> 11:34 PM) Which might have been nothing...of course, Cabrera could file a grievance, but it's arguable that he would win (like the Todd Walker situation I think in SD?) The fact that nobody really has come up with a realistic (at least from his POV) contract proposal would seem to offer pretty strong evidence that it wouldn't be obvious he would make the team (over Alexei Ramirez as the starting SS). If you were KW, it would be easy to make the argument that Ramirez's OPS, power, speed (Cabrera is declining in that area, Ramirez is in his prime), etc., would make him the obvious pick, despite the overhype about Cabrera's Gold Glove (supposedly) caliber defense. The only way Cabrera could make an argument through the union would be if he contended he had been offered a shot at the starting 2B position, and Getz/Lillibridge/Nix were selected over him, but even that's tenuous with so many teams going with youth/affordability over veterans. Of course, useless speculation...but I am glad the Twins didn't pick him up, I think he would have been a real thorn in our side as leader of that infield. Luckily, it's just Punto. Cabrera theoretically could have come back, but it would have virtually assured the trade of either Dye, Jenks or Konerko. Viciedo is/was essentially a replacement for Swisher's money in the 2009 budget, although he will be infinitely cheaper in 2010/11/12 than Nick. Swisher's contract has gone from a "bargain" to albatross in a short period of time. It will be interesting to see if the Braves go over Swisher, Nady or possibly Garret Anderson/Edmonds (or a the full-blown youth movement). Of all the players, Garland, Wolf, Hudson, Abreu, Cabrera and Varitek were the ones (along with Juan Cruz) who ended up suffering the most...with Raul Ibanez coming out smelling like a rose, along w/ the Yankees' triumvirate. If the White Sox released him, they still would have had to pay him either 20% or 25% of his contract, which would have been $2 million minimum. I can't remember which. Walker got released after winning arbitration. He did file a grievance that went nowhere due to the fact he hit about .100 in spring training, and signed a minor league contract with Oakland after he was released. Its pretty much a lock if OC accepted arbitration and played poorly enough the White Sox released him before the season started, he would easily get a major league contract with someone, probably, and ironically, Oakland. A grievance would have been filed, and I think, especially if OC had a similar season to 2008, he would have had an excellent chance to re-coup most, if not all of the money lost due to the release. Bottom line is if he is about the money, he screwed up. I still don't understand the entire concept of sitting out until after the draft. I can't see how that is going to open purse strings unless the Yankees need a SS or 2B. He should sign with Oakland before their offer goes to minimum. OC has supposedly dropped his price to $5.5 million. Still, no takers.

QUOTE (joesaiditstrue @ Feb 21, 2009 -> 02:11 AM) Jermaine was interviewed in the locker room yesterday Says he wants to finish his career in Chicago I hope we can sign him to DH next year, he's my favorite player on the team and he seems to be very emotionally attached to the white sox organization Hopefully we can work out a deal in the 2009-2010 offseason but I'm not holding my breath Withe the market what it is now, I'm 100% certain JD's mutual option will be passed on by the White Sox.He will get his $1 million buyout. Depending on how these guys perform, its not out of the realm of possibility he and/or Thome come back in 2010 at a very reduced rate.