Dick Allen

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.

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.