Dick Allen

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 05:50 PM) June 23rd seems like the definite day. The thing is getting USCF ready for what could be 1 inning seems like a waste. Does everyone just get in free? Do the vendors even bother?

They probaby could resume this game when the Sox go back to Baltimore with the Sox being the home team.

I really don't like when anyone get injured, but Owens getting hurt really was a huge break. There's a good chance Quentin would be riding pine right now getting Anderson's ABs. His success is only going to give him more confidence.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 05:17 PM) DA just creamed his pants I was working out when I saw his defensive gem that most likely saved a run in the 10th I believe, but wouldn't you believe it, I missed the homer, but when I saw it was 3-3, I had a good feeling. I blame the suspended game on Uribe.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 03:49 PM) When your boy hits above .240 wake me. No need. All I have to do is respond about Uribe. You will quickly follow.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 03:46 PM) He's clearly not, but based on those stats for his first 31 at bats, I bet we could find potential HOF guys who started off this season "not ready for the majors" based on that metric. You could find guys who had no business being in the major leagues a lot easier. Ramirez has to be freezing his ass off. For one thing he has no insulation. He probably would be cold if it was 25 degrees warmer.

QUOTE (dielac @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 03:43 PM) Still a better at bat than we would have gotten from Uribe. Wow, who could have seen this post coming?

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 03:24 PM) Huff goes yard, 1-0 O's I believe its the first homer Vazquez has allowed this season. Usually he gives up a lot of them.

If you're pitching today and don't walk anybody, you have an excellent chance of having a stellar outing.

The lights are on and fireworks just went off

QUOTE (hi8is @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 01:54 PM) whats the latest ETA for the game to start? I'm guessing it won't be for a while. I can see the stadium from my office and no lights are on.

QUOTE (almagest @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 01:30 PM) Ok, so I'm still waiting for a coherent justification as to how a hitter with a 79 career OPS+ is good. It seems all you can do is seize on somewhat extreme statements on how bad Uribe is and use them for evidence as to why he's good. Either that, or praise Uribe for hitting 20 homers and still somehow managing a slugging percentage in the low .400s or high .300s. When did I say it was good? I said it was better than his manager. I responded to a post that said Ozzie was ARod offensively compared to Uribe. He may not be good, but it is safe to say he's better than he has shown so far this year. He's also better than Ramirez.

QUOTE (TitoMB345 @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 01:12 PM) I hate Juan Uribe probably more than a lot of people here, but Ozzie was the worse hitter. No question about it. Uribe is on the list though. Its not even about saying Ozzie was a better hitter than Uribe, it was about saying he's ARod compared to him, the guy who probably will have the greatest numbers of all time, even when he winds up playing most of his career in not the most friendly park for right handed batters as I believe the new Yankee Stadium will have the exact same dimensions as the current one.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 01:07 PM) Is it lonely as the only member of the Juan Uribe fan club. Not at all. At least I'm realistic. For someone to say Uribe makes Ozzie look like ARod offensively is beyond blind. If one really believes that, it shows they would either never give Uribe a fair shake or have no idea about baseball. BTW, the Cuban missle is a huge improvement. He's an on-base machine.

QUOTE (TitoMB345 @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 12:02 PM) More: Ozzie never had a season with more walks than K's. Juan is 50 walks short of Ozzies career total in 8 less seasons. I will give it to Ozzie though, he didn't strike out much. He just sucked at everything else. I've been told time and time again on this board a strikeout is no worse than any other out. I guess that applies to everyone but Uribe.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 01:00 PM) In regards to being a better hitter overall. Ozzie may not have been a slugger, but he got his hits here and there Then explain to me how Uribe has reached base more often in his career? Did he wake up in the middle of the night and break into where they store the stats and change them?

QUOTE (SoxWS05 @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 12:57 PM) At least Ozzie could bunt and move runners along if he had to. Uribe is useless when it comes to producing those types of things. So bad he's in the top 4 or 5 in the league in sacrifices the past few years.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 11:49 AM) In comparison Juan makes Ozzie look like A-rod How? Uribe hits more homers a season than Ozzie hit in his career, and has a higher lifetime OBP. Ozzie's lifetime OBP is.287.

QUOTE (chisoxt @ Apr 27, 2008 -> 07:35 AM) After 23 games last season, the Sox were 12-11 this year, they are 13-10. More disturbing, like last year when the bullpen got off to a great start and fizzled, there is a similair pattern this season. Also, what is it with playing at home?? Last year we started with a 5-7 record and this year 6-6? Even the games that we win at home are an intensive struggle. I beleive there is better talent on this years team than last years, but some of the same red flags are starting to pop up. 13-10 is a 91-92 win pace. That's a lot higher win total than I would ever have guessed they would wind up with this year, and they have just recently struggled. A couple things are different though. The bullpen will be better. Dotel will be a good pitcher. Linebrink has a track record. The guys last year were just a bunch of guys who threw hard and had no idea where it was going. When the weather warmed up a bit, they got torched. There would have to be so many injuries to get to a point where an Andy Gonzalez equivalent leads off, so that's a big improvement. Also Konerko and Thome will hit. The question will be the starters IMO. Every one of them presents questions. Some of the answers will be good, some won't. We just have to hope most will be good.

QUOTE (103 mph screwball @ Apr 27, 2008 -> 07:14 AM) Even if he has not been horrible, Ozzie has been very reluctant to bring him in the game at important times. Until Dotel shapes up a bit, I think Ozzie will have the confidence to use Wass. I agree with the sentiment that he deserved to make the team to begin with. I suppose if it will get Ozzie to quit letting Logan pitch to RH batters its OK.

MacDougal has pitched 8.2 innings this season. Since getting lit up his first outing he's made 7 appearances with 6.2 innings with 5 hits 4 BB and 5 K and 0 runs allowed. He hasn't been as awful as people think. If his replacement puts up the same numbers, it will be considered a great move.

QUOTE (Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Apr 25, 2008 -> 08:25 PM) Pretty s***ty that they made the fans wait like that for 2+ hours to have it called. There were still some hot dogs and beer to sell.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 25, 2008 -> 01:27 PM) Yes, I thought of those other scenarios, such as "showcasing" a player, and what the Rays tried to do with Longoria this year (before Aybar got injured and forced his promotion). But these are all custom within the industry and don't usually have a huge affect on a player's paycheck. You can continue to try and point out other scenarios which are similar to this, but are not. And you can continue to state that the Blue Jays were within their rights, which I have not disputed. But the fact is, this is almost unprecedented in its ethics, and the Jays have had raised eyebrows with their treatment of other players. And as for them waiting another 300 at bats or so, I think the Jays recognized the possibility of them being competitive in that division, perhaps around late July, and seeing the disaster it would be to release a player like Frank Thomas should he be hitting near what he is capable of. There is no way they could have released him then. They had to do it now. Frank appears to be backing down some: "The situation there, they had just spent $200 million on two guys," Thomas said. "I understand it and I respect it. Maybe it wasn't a good fit there for me. I'm just happy to be back here. I wasn't forcing their hand. For them to tell me I wasn't going to play every day and I wasn't in their future plans, it really wasn't a good situation. I respect J.P. for coming out and saying that to me and we parted ways, peacefully."

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 25, 2008 -> 12:19 PM) How was Frank's option year far from customary? Who are the other "several" players who have been benched so their teams could avoid option years vesting? How many of them were first ballot Hall of Famers, Dick? What does the fact that he had a signing bonus have anything to do with it? His signing bonus was $9.12 million, but his regular salary for 07' was only $1 million. I'm not sure why this has any bearing on anything. You keep saying the Jays "paid him before he ever played a game" for them. What does that matter? The money was guaranteed. Even if he had injured himself before every playing a game for the Jays, and could NEVER play a game for them, they still would have had to pay him for 07' and 08'. That's how baseball works. This is not the NFL. You keep bringing up that Frank was not hitting, and "mired in a 4-35 slump." Give me a break. That's like a week's worth of games. You honestly believe that the Blue Jays decided to bench Frank Thomas, for baseball reasons, indefinitely, over a week's worth of at bats? If you do honestly believe that (and I don't believe you do), than you're one of the very, very few. As for Juan Uribe's situation, his option was a CLUB OPTION. Completely different from a vesting option. The Club chose not to exercise Juan's option at their discretion. It was strictly a business decision. That is not even close to analogous to a player having a vesting option or performance incentives, WHERE THE CLUB'S BUSINESS DECISIONS OVERFLOW ONTO THE FIELD AND INFLUENCE BASEBALL DECISIONS DURING THE ACTUAL SEASON. I don't know how I can say it any more clearly. Additionally, Juan Uribe had underperformed for a period of two years, not a mere 35 at bats. Wouldn't trading players at the deadline for squat, Durham, Lofton, Mackowiak, Iguchi be business decisions influencing baseball decisions during the actual season? Wouldn't keeping players in the minors to keep their arb clocks from ticking also fall under this category? The Blue Jays were within their rights. If they are as guilty as you say and really thought Frank was going to break out of it, they still have a lot more ABs to play with.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 24, 2008 -> 11:58 PM) I noticed you have not once addressed my argument in re what is "customary" in MLB. Once again, this is not a valid comparison. Trading Paulie before his 10/5 rights vest has no impact on his paycheck. Additionally, trading a player is an accepted and customary business transaction in MLB. Benching a player to prohibit him from reaching a performance incentive or having an option year vest is not. Why do you continue to struggle to see that offering a player an option year in his contract, and then making a baseball-related decision to affect that contract, as opposed to a strictly business-related decision is almost unheard of in MLB and therefore, being judged by many to be extremely unethical? Frank's contract with Toronto was far from "customary" and several players have had their playing time cut in order for options not to vest. Bengie Molina for 1, with guess who, Toronto. Frank signed the contract.Frank grabbed a $9.2 million signing bonus. He was paid before he ever played a game with the Blue Jays. Maybe I might sort of see your point if Frank was benched while actually hitting, not mired in a 4-35 slump. Or maybe I might see your point if after a week or 2 Frank wasn't getting any time, and then popped off. But he popped off immediately and compounded it by blowing off his teammates after the game. He's a diva. Juan Uribe had an option for this year. KW took money out of his pocket when he said he wasn't going to exercise it, and Uribe signed for $500k less. Its business. He wanted him on the team, but not at the original price. No one wants a 40/41 year old Frank Thomas for $10 million a year. Frank was also quoted after he received his requested release that a lot of things were going on in Toronto that he didn't like. Evidently for $10 million in 2009 he was willing to overlook them. Is that a baseball or business decision?