Dick Allen

QUOTE(knightni @ Jan 30, 2008 -> 06:27 PM) How many quality 2B with leadoff ability are available right now? Probably none, except for maybe Roberts. I just don't see Angelos dealing him for a package of White Sox prospects and/or Richar. I think they will get a guy like Freel or Duffy or Winn or someone like that to leadoff, unless Owens goes nuts in spring training.

QUOTE(BearSox @ Jan 30, 2008 -> 06:24 PM) Swisher isn't a leadoff hitter. You don't put a power hitter, who does get on base, but hits for a low average, as your leadoff hitter. Ideally you don't put a career .321 OBP guy in the leadoff spot either.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jan 30, 2008 -> 06:16 PM) Guess that's why the Sox need Brian Roberts eh? I think another player will be acquired before the season starts that can leadoff. Probably not Roberts.

QUOTE(Soxfest @ Jan 30, 2008 -> 03:24 PM) Bart is overvaluing himself quite a bit! It looks that way. There are a lot more familiar names without contracts at this time than I can remember in the past. Most are going to have to sign for peanuts or find some other line of work.

Cabrera has a career OBP of .321, which was his post ASB OBP in 2007. He should not leadoff. If Cabrera/Swisher are the top 2, make Swisher the leadoff guy. He gets on, Cabrera can move him over. The 2 hole guy gives himself up a lot. Why have one of your biggest threats be that guy?

QUOTE(ptatc @ Jan 30, 2008 -> 03:39 PM) I disagree. The better outfielders can figure this out but not all of them. The harder the ball is hit the less hook or slice it will have. Think about a curve ball vs. a slider. The harder thrown ball (slider) will break less. In the outfield the same concept applies. The harder its hit, usually the pulled ball, the less it will move. The slicing ball will move more. There are many games where the outfielder took "the wrong route" to the ball. It happens almost every game. It's not because the didn't see it, it's because they read it wrong. This happens all of the time. when you watch games. It's alot more difficult than most people think because of how hard the ball is hit. I played the OF for several years. Usually in CF, but I did play RF and a couple in LF. Major leaguers should not have problems with that. Balls hit right at them, or knuckling, perhaps, but slices and hooks aren't difficult to judge. If they are having problems with that, I will say they shouldn't be getting paid millions of dollars to be out there, and obviously there are quite a few guys who are not good outfielders, but because the are fast they get away with it, or because they hit well, their lack of defense is tolerated. IMO, just because a ball may slice off a RH hitters bat to RF, isn't the reason its generally considered tougher to play than LF. Its the throws. OFs throw the ball to 2nd,3rd and home. The RF has it a lot harder than the LF in that department.

QUOTE(ptatc @ Jan 30, 2008 -> 02:10 PM) While this is true, I think people get far too caught up in the arm strength and throwing runners out. The more important aspect is running down and catching the ball. RF is generally more difficult to play a ball because with more RH hitters the "slicing" ball is more difficult to judge than the more straight trajectory hit "pulling" the ball to left. There are many more chances to catch (or miss) the ball than "holding runners." While a ball slices if its hit down the line and hit a certain way, the same thing happens down the LF line with LH hitters and RH hitters the ball will hook. The reason RF is more difficult in general, obviously ballpark configuration and sun and wind can change this, is the throws. Very rarely does a LF have to throw the ball to 1B. The throw to 3rd is a lot more difficult from RF. Besides, anyone who has played the OF regularly will have figured out "slices and hooks" especially major leaguers. If that's difficult for them, they shouldn't be out there.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jan 30, 2008 -> 09:00 AM) What's C-Lee doing now adays? Enjoying $100 million.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 09:23 PM) If the Choice is between Cabrera - Swisher - Thome, Owens - Cabrera - Thome and Crisp - Cabrera - Thome I'll take the 1st option every time. At least this way you're minimizing the number of low OBP players you have to go through before you get to the real hitters. Adding another low slap hitter to the top of the lineup is going to solve nothing. If there were high OBP option out there for the leadoff spot I'd be all for it but there doesn't seem to be. Cabrera is either going to hit first or second next year, that much is apparent. Would you really be comfortable with a lineup that started with Crisp and Cabrera? That's an awful lot of hooey before the good stuff. Quentin may not be a proven commodity but his offensive upside and defensive abilities make him a better choice for an outfield spot than either of Crisp or Owens, IMO. I just have a problem with trading away any young talent for a guy like Crisp who has been a wretched offensive player for 2 full seasons now and praying that he returns to the player he was 3 years ago seems (everyone blames his s***ty play last year on a wrist injury yet there's no standard excuse for his '06 performance.) There's probably better ways to spend the $11M or so he's due over the next 2 years. I'm also wondering how many of the people who think Swisher will be a disaster in CF have actually seen him play the position. I've seen him play CF and wasn't impressed.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 08:56 PM) For what stretch in the big leagues did Anderson put up an .870 OPS and 9 home runs? I'm looking at the entire picture. I could find stretches where just about everyone played well. If you stack up Septembers you would wonder how anyone could think Cabrera is an upgrade over Uribe. Go ahead and ignore the bad, but its there. Quentin is not a sure thing, especially in 2008. I liked the Quentin trade, but to think he's suddenly going to do what he did in the minors is ridiculous. BTW, in July and August of 2006 you may be surprised to know Anderson hit over .300 with an OPS over .800

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 06:38 PM) Or you could just save the financial/personnel resources that it would take to acquire/pay a guy like crisp and go with Dye/Swisher/Quentin. This way you limit the amount of s***ty little slap hitters/low OBP guys in your lineup and maximize the number of potential impact bats while not losing a ton defensively (at least this way you're getting your best defensive corner OF on the field in Quentin.) And I wouldn't just hand Quentin the LF job . . . I'd hand him the RF job, JD can take left. While you don't like Crisp with a .330 OBP, are you advocating having Orlando Cabrera and his lifetime .321 OBP leading off? Quentin appears to be a guy who could be good, but at this stage in his major league career, his offense has been a lot like Brian Anderson's, a guy half this board would give away. Crisp's last 2 seasons haven't been stellar, but he was pretty good the years before that when he was healthy. I think Swisher in CF full time could turn into a disaster. Who knows, if Boston really wants to move Crisp, maybe the Sox could acquire him in a 3 way trade for one or 2 of their spare parts. I think he's a much better player than Owens.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 06:43 PM) And, the problem is, right now he's #5 on the OF depth chart, so unless someone gets hurt, the odds are we won't get a chance this season at all to see whether he can do so against major league pitching (He's hit AAA pitching pretty well before). I don't want to lose him that much either, but with 2 young OF's, a young cheap backup in Owens, and JD signed, it would take someone getting hurt for him to be a sensible option even for a tryout. Dye and Quentin have a history of injuries. Owens, the jury is still out on. KW put all his eggs in the BA basket in 2006. His head appears to be together now. The question remains, can you get a legitmate guy for him? If you can't why give him away? Being 5th or 6th on the OF chart hardly means you have no shot. What was Owens on the chart coming into 2007? What was Jenks on the chart of closers coming into 2005?

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 04:40 PM) In other words, it may make sense to move Anderson this season, because if he doesn't make the team at the start of 2009, then he walks for nothing. Trading a guy for a bunch of garbage because he will be out of options next year would be silly. Unless there is some way the trade will bring back someone who can help in 2008, or if its a precurser to a Coco Crisp deal or something like that, there is absolutely no reason the White Sox should trade Anderson. If the return would be like the one they received for Aardsma, gaining players who would be lucky to get past AA, it makes zero sense. The White Sox have a lot invested with Anderson. Maybe he's turned a corner.

Mets fans have to be estatic.

QUOTE(Gbubbs @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 03:41 PM) WSCR 670 reporting Reds and Padres interested in BA. What could they give us for him? I'm thinking Peavy. Unless he's part of a bigger deal, I don't understand why the Sox would dump Andeerson now if they can't get anything worthwhile back. He still has talent. He makes very little. If he's in the best shape of his life and admits to attitude problems why not give him another chance? Its possible he still may be the best CF option in the White Sox organization the next few years.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 02:17 PM) Health, contact hitting, emergency catcher ability, already signed to en extension, a non Bora$ client. Joe Crede makes a heck of a lot more contact than Brandon Inge. If you are trading for an everyday 3rd baseman, I doubt you would want to risk throwing him behind the plate.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 01:45 PM) They would have been appreciably worse, which could have been enough to miss the playoffs. I disagree. He also happened to be hurt at about the same time the pitching went into the crapper for a bit. I don't think it had much to do with his absence.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 01:34 PM) 80-44 w/Pods in 2005 19-19 without. I got as fed up with Pods as everyone the last couple of years, but it's borderline retarded to say that he didn't have a big effect on that 2005 team. I think it would be a little more than borderline retarded to think the 2005 White Sox would have been about .500 without Pods.

Pods had more steals in 2004 with the Brewers and a much better PCT. He also had a much better offensive year in 2003. Both years the Brewers sucked. He scored 80 runs in 2005. There probably was over 100 players that scored more runs than him. The argument would be runs aren't his fault, its the guys knocking him in. Perhaps true, but if that's the problem, how can the argument be made how he was inside the head of pitchers? The White Sox team ERA was 3.61. With as bad as Pods was the last 2 seasons, I would venture to guess if the White Sox team ERA was 3.61 in 2006 or 2007, at least 1 and perhaps 2 more playoff appearances would have been in order. I will never be convinced Pods was all that valuable, nor a key to a WS. His OBP in the WS was .286, that's lower than it was in 2007, and the Sox still swept. I think his steals would have been hard to replace, but it wouldn't have been too hard to find a more productive player, ie one that scored and drove in more runs, which really is more important than your steal totals. Putting things in perspective, if you add runs and rbi and subtract homers, Pods accounted for 105 runs in 2005. Neifi Perez accounted for 104, and Neifi's OPS was only .019 lower.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 10:12 PM) Pitchers already throw 75% fastballs; I'd guess you see a little bit more with a solid basestealer on, but it's overrated.I agree its very overrated. The leadoff hitter is only guaranteed to leadoff once, but he will bat at least as much as anyone in the lineup. Its more important to get a guy who can get on base, and let the 2,3, 4 hitter do their jobs. Even when Pods was supposedly spectacular, didn't Iguchi have to give himself up a lot? You're taking pitches ,getting behind in the count so the guy can get to second.

Pods scored 80 runs in 2005 and drove in 25. He was 0 for 7 with the bases loaded with 1 RBI on a walk.Let's quit the "leading the White Sox" to a championship BS. He was much better on the 2003 Brewers, a team which scored about 20 runs less than the 2005 White Sox, and hit 4 less homers with a pitcher batting. BTW, that team lost 96 games. Pitching is what won the championship.

Its about all you could expect for Aardsma. Maybe one of these guys pans out, although it is doubtful.

Traded to Boston for 2 longshot prospects.

In Cowley's write up today he said Brian Anderson is going to be traded to an NL team. Anyone get any Soxfest insight on that?

QUOTE(Y2HH @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 08:19 AM) Wait, you have a friend who "follows" the Sox, but doesn't know who Josh Fields is? This was the first Soxfest I've missed since 2004, I wanted to go but ended up being on-call for work all week/weekend, so there was no going out for me. From what I've read about the fest, it was pretty much what I expected, and I wasn't expecting a roast KW over the coals fest, either. I think a lot of fans are/were mad about nothing and our team is shaping up better than most of us figured it would earlier in the off season. Besides, the same fans cried in 2005 because the free agents we signed were all cast off players nobody else wanted or looked at. I recall the pre 2005 Q &A with Ozzie and KW to be quite positive. There was no crying. 2004, a different story.