Dick Allen

There was a quote yesterday where KW was conceding Ramirez may need a year at AAA.

I guess Ozzie is quoted as saying Garcia may not pitch at all in 2008. This probably makes his price even cheaper for 2009 and unless KW goes into a total rebuild, which is unlikely, increases the chances of a return IMO.

Can someone explain to me why Maggs wasn't mentioned in the first book?

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 25, 2008 -> 08:39 AM) Glad to see Jay is still reading Soxtalk for ideas for his articles. Either that or we confirmed that Dick Allen is indeed Jay Mariotti, which would explain a lot of what he thinks of the White Sox front office personel. Calling me Marriotti, is a personal attack. Please ban yourself. I'm glad someone likes my posts. Too bad its him.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 24, 2008 -> 02:56 PM) One interesting thought that I just was reminded of... remember when Ozzie and Maggs went at it in the press, and Ozzie at one point said Maggs should shut his mouth or else? Was this the "or else"? If it is steroids, it will definitely make the White Sox look bad considering they offerred him an extension. Knowing he's juicing and offerring him big money anyway looks like looking the other way to me. Of course this is the organization that signed Canseco, had Schoenweiss receiving junk in the clubhouse, signed Montero even though he was busted for juicing and sucked, and still cling to hope Valido, another juicer develops, all while having many of their fans believe steroids have never invaded their clubhouse.

Wouldn't Canseco's info on Maggs most likely be from his time with the White Sox in 2001? If he had this info, how come it wasn't in his first book? How come the ARod stuff wasn't in his first book. It seems to me his first book became justified, now he thinks he has credibility so he can throw a bunch of crap out there to see if it sticks, and the bigger the name, the more books sold, the more money he makes. It wouldn't surprise me if Maggs used something, but I could say that about hundreds of players. I just think Canseco blew his wad with the first book. This sequel would make me skeptical at best.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Jan 23, 2008 -> 03:41 PM) I disagree; if healthy, "proven healthy" during the spring, he has the worth of a player with one fluke year where he was still terrible at OBP and a lot of mediocre years with a great glove but that's it. There aren't that many teams looking for third base help, however, and it isn't like he'd be the last piece of the puzzle for San Francisco or Philadelphia or anything. If he were making more than $5.1 million I may agree. But where are you going to find a guy who is capable of excellent defense, maybe 30 homers, and doesn't strikeout much at his price? He's had back issues for years. Its possible he's healthier in 2008 than he's been since 2002, when he was more impressive than Hall of Famer to be Josh Fields.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Jan 23, 2008 -> 11:33 AM) Paris. Ugh. It's a great place to visit for a few days, but its very difficult to live in. Really? My brother lived there for over 10 years and loved it. I always enjoyed my visits, but that obviously was just for a week or 2 at a time. For the US I like Chicago and NY the best, but Chicago is a lot cheaper at least for housing and therefore more livable IMO. I wouldn't mind spending a couple of years in Paris or London or Amsterdam. One great place to go if you want to see beautiful women is Copenhagen. It seems almost every female there looks like a model.

QUOTE(sircaffey @ Jan 23, 2008 -> 01:25 PM) I think if you can get a player like Lowry now, you jump on it. Just because you wait longer doesn't mean Crede's value will improve. Crede could A) either get reinjured, and have absolutely no value and you are stuck absorbing his contract or B perform horribly in ST. Afterall, he's missed a ton of time. Teams don't just want to see if he is healthy. They want to see if he still has good skills. Deal him at any point you can get a quality player in return. Lowry had an equal number of walks and strikeouts last year, playing in a very watered down NL. He would have a hard time in the AL Central IMO.

I think KW should wait until spring training when Crede can show he is healthy to deal him. It would make no sense to deal him now. Keep him around, if he's healthy he's got a lot of worth, and who knows, maybe Fields gets hurt in the spring.

I agree, I wouldn't want Lowry. I also think people will appreciate Crede a little more when he is gone.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Jan 22, 2008 -> 01:27 PM) Not sure how he f'd it up, considering Cotts has been in Iowa and we still got another player in the deal...(Vasquez) Plus Cotts helped the White Sox beat the Cubs last season. It was close to a double sweep.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 22, 2008 -> 01:21 PM) which DA couldn't wait to point out again Actually, I was complementing KW on not being too stubborn, and basically admitting he was wrong. He had a higher opinion about Aaardsma than just about everybody else, and he cut bait.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 22, 2008 -> 12:25 PM) Teams don't want to waste roster spots and money on old guys who's arms are falling off. They're more than happy to waste roster spots on young, cheap guys with a small chance of turning around their careers. KW apparently wasn't, and he was the one bragging about how no one else but he saw Aaardsma turn a corner with the Cubs in 2006.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 22, 2008 -> 11:42 AM) Any team out there that has room on the 40 man would be happy to have a guy with his arm. Any team with a hole at the back end of the bullpen will be happy to give him a tryout. He's yet another relief pitcher with a good shot at coming back to bite us in the arse. But using your logic with Bartolo Colon why if the Giants didn't want him, they took Hawkins off the Cubs hands for him, if the Cubs didn't want him, they traded him straight up for Cotts when Cotts couldn't have lower market value, and the White Sox DFA him with all of their bullpen problems and pretty near maxed out financially, would anyone want him?

DFA'd. Ramirez and Dotel signings official.

It looks like its true per Gonzalez By Mark Gonzales, 3:02 p.m. The Chicago White Sox could announce the signing of veteran reliever Octavio Dotel to a two-year contract within the next 24 hours. "We're just working out some details," agent Dan Horwits said Monday. Dotel, 34, will further fortify a bullpen that had a 5.47 ERA last season. The Sox already signed Scott Linebrink to a four-year, $19 million contract in November, and Dotel's deal is expected to be worth around $11 million.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 21, 2008 -> 03:24 PM) So, ESPN finally has something up, and they seem to be saying that there's smoke but no fire yet. I'm starting to think it isn't official yet. Levine says it will be by the end of today.

I'm starting to wonder if KW has something up his sleeve involving Bobby Jenks. Jenks is soon to be arbitration eligible. He had a nice streak last year which would make him being sold high. His K rate has decrease each of his 3 seasons. K-Rod, a decent comparison is going to get 8 figures, I don't think KW will want to go anywhere near that with Jenks. Maybe something involving Bedard.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 21, 2008 -> 11:57 AM) IMO, signing Colon only makes this team worse. This team can hang with the others right now if Contreras, Danks, and Floyd are decent. I think that if the Mets and Royals have decided they have no interest in Colon, it's pretty bloody obvious that he's only going to downgrade even from the young guys we have. 5 years ago, no team was interested in Estaban Loaisa. Not the Mets, not the Royals, no one. KW gave him a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. He very easily could have won 25 games in 2003. 3 years ago, several teams passed on making a waiver claim for Bobby Jenks, we know how that turned out. I'm not saying Colon will do that, but explain to me why, if they can get him cheap, it makes this team worse? If he can't pitch, he won't pitch.

When I eat a meal, I eat one thing at a time, in reverse order of how much I'm looking forward to eating it. I have always been given a hard time about eating things one at a time, but I really have never told anyone I'm eating with that there definitely is an order.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 20, 2008 -> 06:33 PM) So...in addition...you can also figure that the K.C. Royals took a look at Bartolo, evaluated his health and asking price, and decided that giving $3 million to Brett Tomko would be a better decision. That's the last place team, the team that spent $55 million on Gil Meche...turning their back on Bartolo Colon, and deciding that Tomko would work better. Please just stop asking for this guy people. The ROYALS don't want him. Please keep that in mind. I think Gil Meche had an ERA about the same as Buerhle last year, and has a career ERA similar to Vazquez. Obviously, pitching in Seattle helped that, but Vazquez spent a lot of time pitching to pitchers in the NL also. If the Royals released him, and he was making little money I might agree with you, but unless you have some inside information as to why they backed away, chances are it was about guaranteed money. I haven't seen 1 post here in favor of giving him a lot of cash, just a low guarantee with incentives. There is no harm in that. Maybe he is done, maybe not. I think its worth a minor gamble.

If the offer was pulled because KW didn't think Colon could help very much in 2008, thats one thing. If KW pulled the offer because he was shopping it around, that's dumb. Its what free agents do. When you look for a job, doesn't everyone play all the other offers and current salary off to maximize dollars?

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 18, 2008 -> 03:52 PM) Simply stating that the bullpen was horrible with those guys ignores the reality of last year's bullpen. It was horrible to start the year with Sisco and Masset performing poorly while at the same time Thornton and MMac blew up or got hurt. Logan performed very well last year in his role, unless you have a problem with lefties putting up a .584 OPS against him, and if you do, then I'm sure you'll be angry with the .430 OPS that righties put up against Wasserman. Logan and Wasserman IIRC didn't even start the year in that bullpen. And the role that Linebrink is now supposed to fill didn't really have anyone in it except for the whole Prinz/Bukvich disaster once MMac got hurt. Just saying that the Sox bullpen was horrible last year ignores the fact that it did improve as the year went by, and it ignores the fact that some of the guys in it (MMac, Thornton) have performed before. You can disagree with specific issues or simply say that I'm wrong to think that last year will be the bottom for Thornton and MacDougal, but the simple fact that last year's bullpen stank proves virtually nothing about how a bullpen where 1/2 the guys weren't there to start last season will perform. It improved after about a 3 month stretch where the bullpen ERA was over 7 IIRC. Take away Jenks' streak, and who was all that impressive? Logan seems to be good against lefties, but he's not used exclusively against them. Adding another guy who won't walk everyone who comes to the plate, and actually can get someone out would be a help. Wassermann looked alright, but I have a hard time believing he could keep that up. Thornton reverted back to the Thornton the Mariners had no roster spot for. MacDougal continued to get hurt, and couldn't throw strikes, something that is not new to him. The only relievers who pitched more than 10 innings last season and had an ERA under 4.79 were Jenks and Wassermann, and Wassermann only threw 23 innings. They also were the only 2 relievers with a WHIP under 1.51. If you don't think that is horrible, I want you to be my boss in June when its time for my review.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 18, 2008 -> 03:14 PM) No matter what, we're starting from a good place in that we have right now one of the best closer's in baseball. That helps. Beyond that...we have what looks to be a pair of very young, potentially very effective LOOGY/ROOGY's in Loogyn and Wasserman. And we've got the veteran thrown in as Linebrink, who, even if he has a bad season, should still hopefully be decent. The wild card right now appears to be Thornton and MMac. If those 2 have decent seasons, then regardless of what happens in teh 7th spot then we have a very good bullpen. If those 2 struggle as they did in 07, then we'd have to really strike gold with Linebrink or with the 7th man for us to have a very good bullpen. The bullpen was horrible with all the names you mentioned minus Linebrink. The White Sox still need more pitching or some of their guys to suddenly find some magic potion that will allow them to throw strikes.