Dick Allen

Could this be proof that steroids aren't "performance enhancing"? Because if his performance was enhanced while on the White Sox, it would be scary to think what he'd do straight.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 01:41 PM) That has much more to do with health than it does his ability. If he's healthy, he's still going to be one of the best power hitters in the game. Exactly. When he feels OK he is just as good as he has ever been. When he's hurting, he doesn't provide much.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 01:13 PM) But here's the problem; what's the other option? To go out and spend $5 million a year over 4 years on a Linebrink or something else likie that? Pretty much every one of the available bullpen guys not named "Mariano" is going to be a "rebound" bullpen type at the best, because there's really no one on the market who's had a great season and put up a solid, consistent career. Any philosophy is going to be extremely dangerous. Every philosophy carries a high risk of failure. The job right now is to minimize that risk. It could still happen even if you make the correct decisions 100% of the time, because there may just not be solutions available. The best option is to develop them yourself, but obviously the Sox didn't have what they thought they had. Signing free agents can work out. Hermanson and Politte worked out for the Sox, even if it was for one season each. Gordon was great with the Sox for a season.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 11:54 AM) 2 points. Just because Boras requests $30 million a year doesn't mean that even the Cubs will be stupid enough to offer that. And Garland + Contreras + Uribe is about $26 million next year. Danks, Floyd, a rookie, Buehle and Vazquez isn't a rotation you can bank on winning. The White Sox have to make up more than 20 games in the standings. ARod may be the best baseball player who ever lived, but he can't do that all by himself. Getting ARod and dumping a couple of pitchers would be the exact opposite of a the move KW was lauded for on this board, the CLee move. Why weaken yourselves on the mound for a few more homeruns and put that kind of financial commitment to one player, tying your hands for the duration of his contract?

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 10:56 AM) Did you really just compare this team with that texas team? 72-90 will do that. My point is, bringing in ARod doesn't make the White Sox contenders all by itself. This team was lucky it didn't finish behind KC. Buy the KW propaganda about perfect storm BS, its coming from the same mouth that said last season was playoff fatigue and he wanted to keep the core intact because they won 90 and in his words "couldn't play any worse." That and his $30 million a year price tag would certainly mean a lot of current salary would have to go.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 10:28 AM) Why wouldnt 40+hr and 120+ RBI making this team a contender? He didnt say the favorite. Didn't he hit 50 with Texas? Didn't make them a contender. The pitching is still the key.

What about Razor Shines? Looks like he will go. Razor lost a lot of weight this season.

Since KW has taken the reigns the only teams in the AL to make fewer playoff appearances are Balt., KC, Tor., TB, and Tex. The Tigers and Mariners have both made the same amount. Maybe its unfair to say he took over a 94 win team so he should do better, but its not like he had to overlook a total rebuild. He did win with a lot of inherited pieces. The leash should be short. Very short.

I read somewhere this morning where Pods is telling teammates he wants to move on. Lets see, you are stealing money instead of bases, fans still treat you like a rockstar and you're not happy. Good luck next year Pods, look forward to your stint with the Long Island Ducks in 2009.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 06:34 PM) Right now something that KW talked about that I am really worried about is bringing Juan Uribe back. He thinks that's just because he has so much offensive potential, it's ok that his OPS has decreased over the past 3 seasons? He'd had a down year defensively, and I can't understand why you would want to pay $5M for someone with a terrible OBP and a high propensity to strike and can only hit around .230. His down year defensively still netted him second in the AL in fielding pct. at SS according to the USCF scoreboard,and he has lots of range. Uribe is going to have a big year some year offensively I just know it. The problem is I have no idea when, I was hoping 2007, and if he's just his usual self he doesn't get on base enough and if you are going to have Richar and Fields and to a certain extent Crede in the line-up, it could be really taxing on the offense. The question probably will be does the upgrade on his replacement's OBP compared to his justify the almost certain downgrade in defense, not to mention cost. I'm known as a negative on this board, but 2 guys I have always stuck with are Contreras and Uribe. Right now, I would trade Contreras if some team ate the entire contract, nothing less, and I would only cut Uribe loose if it was a true upgrade at the position. Someone like Renteria or Furcal or Tejada. No way I would replace him with Vizquel or Eckstein.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Sep 25, 2007 -> 04:09 PM) Hey Mr. Pessimism. How many career starts of Greise's have you seen? Oh less then 10? Wait, less than 3!?!? Wow, at least you know what you are talking about. As I've touted countless times before, Griese is an improvement over Grossman, as you can plainly see with his 84.5 passer rating compared to Grossman's 69.3 rating. Griese also has a career TD/INT of +24 (on some rather bad teams, fyi), while Rex is a whopping -4. To say Griese is not an upgrade is to spout uneducated post after post after post. 2 INT in the red zone, another taken back for 6. Be careful what you wish for, evidently your scouting report on Griese is a bit stale. Rex threw 5 TDs with 0 INT vs. Detroit last season. Griese is the savior. I guess it could be worse. It was only a few seasons ago I was sitting in Soldier Field listening to "we want Krenzel" chants.

Isn't it a very real possibility Wasserman is another Shingo, and gets lit up early and often next year? The guy has done a decent job, but when your delivery is really the biggest thing you bring to the table, you have to figure major league hitters will figure it out. I'm very worried KW is going with the attitude that all the players are going to bounce back and thinking all his young players will blossom next year. If thats the case, at least I won't have to have playoff money in by September.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Sep 29, 2007 -> 10:26 PM) Pierzynski's easily tradable like Milton Bradley. Somebody will take him, but you're not going to get much in return thanks to his post-Minnesota baggage. I don't think he's picked up much baggage since SF, and some of that was BS. He's not the best catcher in the league, but he's far from the worst, and he seems to pick up big hits as much as anyone on the roster. If the Sox had anyone you could reasonably expect to be able to catch 120 major league games without embarrasing themselves in the next year or so, I would be all for gambling, but AJ is not getting a huge bump so he is giving a discount. He should be fine, especially if a compentent back up is in place.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Sep 29, 2007 -> 09:12 PM) Why is Williams talking on the postgame conference as if they're reconsidering Podsednik for next season? If that's true and they do bring him back, the first "sports hernia" Pods gets in Tucson next spring, can everyone agree KW should be shown the door?

Its not like AJ was awful this year. His numbers aren't all that different from Ivan Rodriquez's. Its a fair price. Considering White Sox back-up catchers have 4 RBI this year, it had to be done. What better would be available? Especially for the price. Hopefully, someone can step up and let AJ take a rest against tough lefthanders. His numbers will be better with some more time off and facing pitchers he actually has a chance against.

They won the WS. If they made the playoffs but didn't win, KW would be on a very hot seat right now. Of course the whole team would look very different as revenues most likely wouldn't have been the same. Paulie would probably be with the Angels, and the White Sox would probably have been in full rebuilding mode after last season.

Kudos for Broadway for a great start, however I'm not putting any stock into one start against the KC Royals on Sept. 27th in a battle for last place. Hopefully he can keep it up and next spring and summer justify his being a first round draft pick.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Sep 27, 2007 -> 03:30 PM) Mark Buehrle: B+ Javier Vazquez: A Jose Contreras: D Jon Garland: B- Jon Danks: C- Bobby Jenks: A+ Mike MacDougal: F+ David Aardsma: F Boone Logan: B Ehren Wasserman: B Mike Myers: F Matt Thornton: D- Ryan Bukvich: D AJP: C- Paul Konerko: C Jim Thome: B Iguchi: D+ Richar: C- Juan Uribe: D- Josh Fields: B+ Scott Pods: C Erstad: D Jermaine Dye: C Jerry Owens: B Toby Hall: F Andy Gonzalez: F Alex Cintron: F Ozzie Guillen: D Kenny Williams: F The Fans: Why the heck are we grading the fans? Hawk: C- DJ: B Ed: D Chris:C+ Nancy: B- I love the F+, I don't think its used enough.

Mark Buehrle: B Javier Vazquez: A- Jose Contreras: D Jon Garland: C- Jon Danks: C Gavin Floyd: D Bobby Jenks: A Mike MacDougal: F David Aardsma: F Boone Logan: D+ Ehren Wasserman: B Mike Myers: F Matt Thornton: D AJP: C Paul Konerko: C Jim Thome: B Iguchi: D Richar: C Juan Uribe: D Josh Fields: B- Scott Pods: F Erstad: F Jermaine Dye: C- Jerry Owens: C Toby Hall: F Andy Gonzalez: D- I'm Thome's biggest fan, but you can't give him an A. He missed too many games. That's part of the grade.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Sep 27, 2007 -> 01:34 PM) I really don't know why or how anyone would give Andy Gonzalez anything less than a C. As far as I'm concerned, he stayed healthy and played a lot of positions, so he gets an A. That in itself says a lot about a guy. I mean, the guy hit like s***, but who honestly didn't expect that? He's the 32nd man on a 25 man roster, it just so happens that the White Sox are so bad that he was the 27th or 28th man. Had the team been in contention, it's an entirely different story, but seriously, kudos to Andy for health and flexibility, and thanks for busting your balls kid. I think a lot of people who have as much business being on a major league roster as Andy Gonzalez would be willing to play anywhere the manager wanted. You are right, its not his fault he sucks, but do you give a kid with a very low IQ who gets 5 out of 100 correct on a math test an A? He is not a major leaguer, and was horrible this year, maybe give him a D- for charity.

O'Reilly cracks me up. His show was on while I was working out last night. He starts going on and on about how the internet is basically destroying the world, then tells everyone about a nice conservative website to hit, then tries to hawk all his things on his own website and reads emails from viewers.

I hope the White Sox have their sights set a lot higher than Jerry Owens when they consider the 2008 starting CF.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Sep 24, 2007 -> 08:57 AM) How many do they have to get right before it has any validity? 40%? 80% 100% I think they are pretty good. I always look forward to the book coming out.

QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Sep 23, 2007 -> 06:41 PM) Chicago 85-77 Milwaukee 84-78 They're pretty right on with there predictions. In their book they said the Cubs were nothing but a .480 team.

I don't know if the negotiating is even legal with tampering rules. I don't know how it works with potential owners. It would seem to me the new owner probably won't be in place before this contract has to be signed, and I find it highly unlikely the rest of baseball's owners would find it too amusing someone they just approved signed a player to a $300 million contract. I'm calling this BS.