Dick Allen

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 12, 2009 -> 03:31 PM) I haven't heard anyone say it won't affect the bottom line. Do you have a link or something? With a zero sum operation, I am assuming that the money has to come from somewhere until proven otherwise. The zero sum operation is a myth. It is virtually imposssible to break exactly even every year. The $5 million will affect it, but they will make money of this in the long run, and they have been planning this for a few years, so chances are the money was most likely budgeted for years. JR's real edict is to not operate in the red. He doesn't care if he doesn't make anything, but just don't lose anything. That usually results in a profit, unless Forbes is way off. 2005-2007 seasons, they supposedly made a total of $70 million in profit, AFTER meeting their heightened payroll.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Feb 12, 2009 -> 03:23 PM) 1 - In 2006 we were coming off a 72-90 season. In 2007, we're coming off a 89-74 season. 2 - In ST last year, it looked for a minute like both BA and JO would be starting in our OF. That won't be happening this season. 3 - John Danks and Gavin Floyd took big steps upwards, and entering 2008 they were big question marks. Danks has put on 15 extra pounds of muscle, and I'm probably more worried about Gavin out of the 2. Still they should put up ERA's around 4 I'm thinking. 4 - We know that we have a stud player in CQ now. When healthy, he's proven over his minor and major league career that he can produce. That's the key for him, to stay healthy. 5 - Entering 2008, I thought Javier Vazquez was our best pitcher, and we were going with 2 unproven young guys in Danks and Floyd. That's not the case this season. 6 - Our bullpen looks to be a plus again, entering 2008 we didn't know how good it was going to be. Adding Poreda to the mix could give the Sox a serious weapon of the pen also. The team coming into last season didn't appear to have any hope of winning a championship. I personally don't think this team does either, but stranger things have happened.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 12, 2009 -> 03:08 PM) Why not? Its $5 million coming out of the teams budget. Where else would it come from? To begin with, there will be some accounting taking place that will make this expense a lot less than $5 million in actual cost. Do you think they don't separate expenses? Do you think if they hire another guy to print tickets at the box office, it will be that much less for player salaries? There are different budgets for different departments. While in theory, that would still mean there is less money to give to the salary budget, this is an expense that can be made up over time. Obviously, there is something that makes it worth it to them to pay the $5 million, and its not going to be at the expense of their baseball team. I am willing to bet if you asked KW and JR about it, they will tell you it has no effect. Spring training expenses will be cut down as well as revenues rising. Forbes says they make as much profit as any team in baseball, and there's really no reason not to believe them, if you believe all of their other numbers.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Feb 12, 2009 -> 02:37 PM) Well for starters I'm a lot more confident in this team right now than I was this time last season. That should tell you something about the moves KW has made. Here's the problem I have, the White Sox made the playoffs by the skin of their teeth last year. Will Quentin and Ramirez be able to maintain their performance levels or improve them? Can you reasonably ask Gavin Floyd to be as good or better than he was last year? Can you do the same with Danks? Can Colon hold up? Clayton Richard and/or Jeff Marquez better be a lot better than they were last year. Is Linebrink going to be the guy he was before his injury or the guy who should be pitching for Home Run Derby after he came back? Will Fields, Lillibridge and/or Owens perform better in the major leagues in 2009 than they did in the minor leagues in 2008? Will Dye, Thome, Konerko and Pierzynski be able to hold off father time one more season? Can you reasonably suspect Detroit to be the total trainwreck they were last year? Can you expect Cleveland to be as bad as they were in the first half last year? One or two no answers to the previous questions spell no playoffs IMO.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 12, 2009 -> 02:21 PM) So that is about a 10% decline, which isn't too far off of what the Sox have cut off of their payroll from last year to this, once extra costs such as the spring training buyout are included. Spring Training buyout should in no way effect 2009 payroll. If it means the White Sox can't add an Orlando Hudson, I'm sure White Sox fans everywhere would say they should just ride out their obligation to Tucson. They will be making more money in Phoenix.

If he suspends ARod, he must suspend every player who tested postive during that confidential test. Just because his name was leaked doesn't mean he should be subject to more penalties.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Feb 12, 2009 -> 01:09 PM) Reinsdorf said he doesn't really expect attendance to drop much because families might be canceling more expensive things like vacations but adding less expensive things for entertainment like a trip to the ball park. He also said the payroll isn't attendance driven as much as it used to be and corporate sponsorship , which will be less this year, pays for much of the salaries in baseball now. The Sox lost 2 sponsors. Pontiac and Motorola. In Crains, Brooks said if Motorola continued with their sponsorship 10 people at their company would lose their jobs. Let's just say with benefits and salary, that's $200k a year per employee X 10=$2 million. I have no idea what Pontiac paid, but the White Sox will get some sort of replacement, even if it is less financially. If the Sox draw 2.2 million and increased ticket prices $2.50 a ticket, that's an additional $5.5 million. If the difference between what Pontiac paid and what the new sponsor will pay is $3.5 million (probably much less) its a wash.

QUOTE (heirdog @ Feb 12, 2009 -> 12:02 PM) .263 and 23 HRs in 100 games in '07 .244

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 12, 2009 -> 12:15 PM) Noah, Thabo, and PJ Brown's contract is still quite a bit more than what the Lakers gave up for him IMO. The Grizzlies' owner said the reason the Bulls didn't get Gasol was because they didn't want to get above the luxury tax threshold. Apparently with the Bulls, JR doesn't have the "break even" mentality he alledgedly operates the White Sox with. They print money at the UC. If the Bulls did get Gasol last year, they probably would have made the playoffs, and been immediately eliminated. Derek Rose would be on another team, so it worked out.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 12, 2009 -> 10:58 AM) Tyrus is not the player he has showed the last few games, but he has helped his value, which is nice. D Rose is the key to everything and if you think that Amare is better than any player you can draft or sign in the next few years, then trade the whole f***ing team for him. As long as you have Rose+Amare you are prob a playoff team anyway, or at least very close. The Suns have Nash, Amare, Shaq and a few others and right now they aren't a playoff team. The danger of the NBA is to be the perrenial 5th-8th seed. It becomes almost impossible to get better through the draft and usually you get very tight with cap space. The good thing is Rose is only going to get better. The Suns owner is also apparently making calls to trade Amare as well. I guess he's pretty desperate to shed payroll. I don't think Paxson would hesitate if he could get him for Tabo, Gooden, Simmons and Tyrus.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Feb 12, 2009 -> 10:51 AM) Well, we could replace it with "Pau Gasol" or "Kevin Garnett", there have been too many no brainer trades that the Bulls didnt jump on in the past couple years. Any time a trade doesnt happen, GMs always insist it was just speculation, but where there is smoke, there is fire Gasol would have gone to the Bulls, but the Bulls didn't want to go over the luxury tax. That's JR's decision, not Paxson. The Bulls didn't have the match-up for Garnett. Al Jefferson is a little more highly regarded than anything Paxson could have put together.

QUOTE (G&T @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 04:32 PM) I don't get what the basis of the suit is. She doesn't state that she felt forced into sex, or that she was raped, or that she has HIV. In fact, despite her claim that she's has many sexual encounters with Alomar while he had HIV, she never contracted it herself. The only issue is whether "AIDS-phobia" is an actual emotion disorder (I've never heard of it). Even if he was grossly negligent, she did not suffer any actual harm. I may be totally wrong about this, so please correct me if I'm wrong. I think the basis is he had unprotected sex with her while knowing he had AIDS. Reading the lawsuit, if he has AIDS, it appears, according to her, they found out about it at the same time. I'm telling you this is a money grab. They probably are threatening him with releasing more personal info, and would settle for much less than $15 million. She's a single mother who is used to living a very high lifestyle what with her huge home and Escalade, probably both purchased by Alomar. She runs a massage business and probably fears her lifestyle being knocked down a couple of pegs. She'll probably get something out of this just to keep skeletons out of public.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 04:33 PM) something doesn't really seem right...they had unprotected sex from 2002-2006 and she didn't contract HIV? either way this whole story is rather disturbing and unfortunate....alot of this is private stuff, especially the fact that he was raped, and really shouldn't be made public. the smokinggun is a cool website sometimes, but sometimes they really should respect the private lives of people The lawsuit would be public record. They just made it more accessible.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 03:35 PM) Adam Dunn Nick Johnson Josh Willingham Austin Kearns Elijah Dukes Lastings Milledge Willie Harris Dmitri Young Wily Mo Pena all 9 of them get to battle for 4 spots. Kearns and Young are almost certainly out, and Harris will probably move back to his 4th OF/super utility role. That still leaves 6 guys for 4 spots. I can't wait to see how this shakes out. Dunn is going to play everyday. There's no question about that.

QUOTE (Gregory Pratt @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 02:56 PM) It could be that she's telling the truth. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years...091alomar1.html AP 2009-02-11

QUOTE (Gregory Pratt @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 01:13 PM) You should probably calm down. All she said is that that's what he told her -- we don't even know what the context for everything is, just what some news reports are quoting, bits and snippets. I don't know if Robby had AIDS or if he kept it from her and had unprotected sex with her while lying -- if he did, though, he is going to fork over a lot of money, and he should. But then again, I'm inclined to believe her when she says what she says about their unprotected sex and AIDS, since I can't imagine a lawyer filing this if he didn't have AIDS and if there wasn't much truth to her claims. This is too weird to be made up. She doesn't have AIDS or HIV, and she knows his history pretty well. Unless he raped her, it takes 2 people to have unprotected sex. Seems to me, they broke up, the bank closed, and now she wants some cash. Maybe he does have AIDS, but getting it out to the public with a lawsuit like this isn't right IMO. From foxsports.com Her suit does not claim that he knew he had AIDS when they were having unprotected sex — but he had reason to think he might because his doctors kept advising him to be tested. He procrastinated and told her he was disease free, the suit says. In 2004, she said, she noticed he had cold sores. The following year he was diagnosed with a blood disorder that's linked to AIDS, the suit says. Don't doctors tell just about anyone who have had unprotected sex to get tested? If a doctor tells you to get a test, you have reason to believe you have what you're being tested for? And if she knew the doctor told him to get the test, and believes that means there's a good chance he has the disease, why did she continue having unprotected sex with him? She's also 31 and runs a massage spa and: Dall, a mother of two who has run a massage spa in Queens, would not discuss the suit. "I have no comment," she said outside her lavish home in Whitestone, Queens, after getting out of a black Cadillac Escalade. A lavish home, an Escalade and just broke up with her multi-millionaire boyfriend in October. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. She claims they know he's had full blown AIDS for 3 years, but broke up in October, over 2.5 years after finding out, and now she is suing him? Why not earlier? If her suit has merit, I agree with you, he's scum and it should cost him. I just think all the arrows point to someone looking for a lot of easy money.

If he had HIV or AIDS since he was 17, it would have been almost impossible to keep it under the radar. Magic takes so much medication with his HIV and has bulked up considerably . Robby is just a little guy. I think there are a lot of holes in this woman's story.

QUOTE (joesaiditstrue @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 12:34 PM) So Dye for 12 million/1 year, and Manny 50+million/2 years, are the two last high-profile right handed sluggers on the market? Adam Dunn is still available I believe.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 10:58 AM) Nash will probably take less than the MLE to play for D'Antoni and in his home town. As this season showed, in any other system, Nash is just an above average player at best. Amare can't play with Shaq because Shaq demands the ball in the low post and the offense now revolves around him. Oden wouldn't present that problem. Oden should just concentrate on his defense, rebounding and picking up the scraps. If McMillan could motivate Stoudemire proficiently, Portland would become an instant contender with this move. I read some quotes from Stoudamire implying he couldn't use pick and rolls for easy points because Shaq was down low in the way. I've also read Portland's interest is a bunch of hot air.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 10:36 AM) Ummm wow is all I'll say to that. Steve Kerr has GOT to pull the trigger on that deal. I wonder if Portland have just soured on Aldridge or something? Maybe they think next to a great defensive center in Oden, Amare can be the offensive force and will spread the floor more for shooters like Roy and Fernandez. If Phoenix get Bayless, I also try to deal Nash for something before he bolts for the Knicks in 2010. Stoudamire supposedly can't play with Shaq because Shaq is on the block in his way. Wouldn't Oden present the same problem? I hope the Knicks waste their money on Nash in 2 years. He'll be a fossil.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 10:32 AM) per Sporting News If that's true, I don't see anyone matching an offer involving that contract, Aldridge, and Bayless. Nor should anyone try, that's way too much to give up. Many insiders do not believe Portland is serious.

QUOTE (shipps @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 10:00 AM) That is shocking and yet like the steriod news, not so much. Athletes tend to sleep around and think they are invinicible, its gonna happen. Supposedly, when Alomar spit in the umpire's face it was in response to the umpire making a comment about his sexuality. There have been rumors about Robby for years. Whether all this is true, I don't know. If he does have the disease, I pray for him. Just from reading the articles, it seems that if he knew he had the disease, she did as well. She seemed to have all his medical visits and info. Probably a money grab.

He signed with the Angels for a little more than $5 million + incentives.

Everyone is talking about what a farce it is Red Kerr isn't in the HOF. The even bigger farce is that the Bulls waited until now to honor him for all he's done for the franchise. Why is his name not up in the rafters with Krause and Jackson and the players? As for MJ's weight, he is considerably heavier than he was when he played. He occassionally works out in my health club and I've seen him a few times. If he was not famous, you wouldn't think he was heavy. He was in such premium shape when he played, he will look heavy if he's just normal.

QUOTE (Gregory Pratt @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 08:48 AM) Not true. You, as usual, are correct. He was so good at 3b, they moved him to LF for a while.