Dick Allen

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 17, 2007 -> 09:51 PM) Wow....quite pathetic to see a shallow fly ball to CF be almost a no-throw situation. I wonder if Dye will come out and say again how this team lacks intensity on a lot of nights. They don't lack intensity. Ozzie would never let that happen. It only happens with bad managers like Jerry Manuel. Just ask Hawk. The Sox have the best manager and GM in the game, the best players, but they just haven't found their rhythm.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 17, 2007 -> 09:50 PM) Interesting stat about Contreras allowing the most unearned runs in the AL this year. When you combine that with his 6.24 ERA coming into the game.....you have yourself someone who shouldn't be in the rotation. But KW's 15 deep pitching depth can only come up with a replacement who is actually worse.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Aug 17, 2007 -> 09:24 PM) That's probably because the interest in Contreras hightened after several successfull outings. Hopefully someone will bite on the velocity increase. However, if he's still here by September 1st his ass should be in the bullpen. Floyd's success or failure is more important to the ballclub entering 2008. Even with five starts, we should generally know about Floyd with several consecutive starts. I think we are beyond the point that even if Floyd had some success, which I doubt, that there still wouldn't be a lot of doubt about him. I really think Ozzie has no use for him, but he's KW's baby. I think KW would like him in the rotation and Ozzie would like him anywhere but the White Sox roster. The bullpen seems to be a compromise. I think the bullpen may be a spot best suited for him anyway.

The Sox's signing bonuses to players in the top 10 rounds ranked 26th among the 30 major league teams. Baltimore led all major league teams by spending $7,672,500 That's per Gonzalez in the Tribune. I don't think Flash will be a happy camper.

QUOTE(joesaiditstrue @ Aug 16, 2007 -> 10:57 PM) 1. compare thome's first half last year, to his second half. I only ragged on him last year during the second half first half JT = .298 .414 .651 1.065 (30HR 77RBI) second half JT = .274 .420 .522 .942 (12HR 32RBI) basically, when we finally started closing the gap between us and the twins/tigers towards the end of the season, thome was nowhere to be found 2. if fields put up the #'s thome has since the ASB, he'd be just as terrible as thome is right now Post ASB Thome: .226 / .364 / .396 (OPS: .760) (4 HR 15 RBI) Fields : .261 / .312 / .504 (OPS: .816) (8HR 23 RBI) add in the fact that Fields is making the league minimum, is healthy, and is more productive on the base paths, AND CAN HIT LEFT HANDED PITCHERS, the comparisons are finished, Fields has been the superior hitter since the middle of the season this isn't an attempt to hate on JT, as I said he's one of my favorite players on this team, but as it stands right now: he isn't helping and it's probably due to some nagging injury (he's been hurt and on the DL this year AND last year, so you can sure as hell expect him on the DL next year too, you better hope it isn't as long of a stint as it was this year) He's streaky and he's been in a prolonged slump. You look at his numbers now and you can twist them to make it look real bad. Twist them when he gets hot. Konerko was brutal for a while, that didn't mean Uribe was a better hitter than him. Thome will be fine. He will miss games here and there. Just be careful what you wish for. In fact up until 2 weeks ago, Thome was second in the AL in OBP. Sounds washed up to me.

QUOTE(29andPoplar @ Aug 17, 2007 -> 11:10 AM) Completely incorrect. He has spoken many times to the press this year about the need for better at bats, there have been lots of articles in the papers and on the White Sox site. Further, I have heard him personally in Tucson, dozens and dozens of times, talk about being selective at the plate. I really don't know where these misconceptions come from. Its coming from the same people who actually believe Greg Walker tells the hitters to close your eyes and swing as hard as you can.

Up until his recent slump, Zambrano was unhittable without Barrett catching him. Jake Peavy was having the same problem. At one point Zambrano's ERA was under 2.00 with a WHIP under 1.00 with anyone else but Barrett catching him and an ERA over 7.00 with Barrett catching him. Peavy had some of the same ridiculous numbers. 5 years and $90 million would be kind of difficult to turn down.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 16, 2007 -> 10:10 PM) Like I said, his numbers were almost guaranteed to be bad when he came up. There was just no way around it. He simply hasn't played enough baseball in his lifetime to be ready for what the big league pitching staffs were going to throw at him. The hope is that the learning curve will be very steep and will go a long way, and I think he's shown some evidence of that. I think you may be stretching it a little bit. He's 24 and has over 2000 ABs in the minor leagues. He has 800 more ABs in the minors than Josh Fields. BA coming into 2006 had about 1500 less minor league ABs than Richar had when he made his debut, and he got no slack.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 16, 2007 -> 10:01 PM) Richar is doing exactly what we should have hoped he'd do when he came up; looking like he has promise. The kid's been bloody raw at every level, he bounced around in the D-Backs lower levels for several years basically just learning the game but hung on on sheer talent, and finally started to move up in the last few years. He was bound to struggle when he first came up, but at least he's having some decent at bats and hopefully learning a few things. Actually, I was hoping for a little higher than .171 avg. and a little better than .244 slugging pct. Its still early though.

QUOTE(joesaiditstrue @ Aug 15, 2007 -> 11:04 PM) this team isn't going anywhere with jim thome in the lineup, as sad as that is to say because he's one of my favorite players on this team, easily my 2nd or 3rd favorite his OBP is extremely high figuring he never hits, like ever, and its only because when guys ahead of him get on, and steal 2nd, they just walk thome to get to a weaker hitter behind him Yet somehow he hits homeruns more often than even Josh Fields, even with his current slump. Jim Thome is probably the hitter taken for granted the most in White Sox history. He was ragged on last season and look at the numbers. When its all said and done this year, they won't be as great as last year, but they will be pretty good. He's the least of the White Sox problems. If he is the biggest problem, this team would be a lot better than 4th or 5th place which is where they will wind up.

This is really a funny place. It was just a couple of months ago that Thome supposedly walked all the time because Paulie sucked. Now Thome is done. Jim Thome is and always has been one of the streakiest hitters in baseball. Next week or so when he gets hot again it will be interesting to watch the backpedaling.

QUOTE(29andPoplar @ Aug 16, 2007 -> 04:24 PM) Article on the White Sox site: http://whitesox.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?y...sp&c_id=cws Interesting comments, many of them. One, he wants everyone to know he's evaluating players on how good their at bats are. He is preaching OBP. Not a surprise to anyone who's been around him or talked to him at length. He's not getting much info on Crede's back situation. Doesn't mention the Boras camp by name but it's obvious. Fields will stay at 3B. He will not call up players in Sept. just for the sake of calling them up, and those who don't need to be added to the 40 man yet won't be added. Good stuff. Ozzie wants a few callups, Gio and Broadway among them. I wonder who wins this one.

Yeah Thome really sucks. If Josh Fields were putting up the exact same numbers, he would be treated like God on this board.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Aug 15, 2007 -> 11:17 PM) Danks isn't exactly lighting it up, either. If the Southtown is right and we deal Garland, our staff might really suck next season. While I'm not a huge fan of Danks, I think he's run out of gas here and may be just hitting a wall. I certainly don't think he's a future #1 or #2 pitcher, but stranger things have happened. He could turn out to be quite a decent #4 or #5 starter and be reasonably priced for a while. I think McCarthy, healthy, is a better pitcher. But before we say how lucky KW was to trade McCarthy and fleece Texas, lets wait. Maybe McCarthy heals next season and Danks blows out his elbow.

According to SI, Fukudome is having elbow surgery but should be healed up enough to get a 4 or 5 year contract for $15 million per. I think that means the Sox will be looking elsewhere.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Aug 13, 2007 -> 08:41 AM) Good post. I understand that Ozzie makes the final decisions... which is fine by me. He just gets s*** on whether he does a or b no matter what, because there are too many self-professed geniuses posting around here. Think about how smart he would look if he quit at the end of last year and someone else was the manager. That guy would be bashed to no end, and probably would have been canned as well. We would hear how Ozzie would never let this happen under his watch. I'm not an Ozzie fan, but I really think managers get way too much credit for wins, and probably too much blame for losses.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Aug 15, 2007 -> 10:33 AM) Good God. First of all, what a typical bull s*** ending to a loss at Oakland, figures. And DAMN I didn't see it live, but that Fields homer easily cleared that all 388 sign out there, another 415 foot or so home run. He doesn't get cheated on his bombs at all. Great job once again by the bullpen too, they are really showing some encouraging signs for 2008. How can you take what the bullpen does from here on out and possibly think that will translate to success next year? Wasn't MacDougal lights out last year? Didn't Aardsma pitch well for the Cubs the last couple of months? Didn't Masset show signs with Texas and in Mexico of being a solid contributor? In fact the one guy who was pretty bad the second half of last year now has a major league record for consecutive batters retired. Its nice that the bullpen is doing better, but its too little, too late, and as Steve Stone said, the front of the bullpen is "a mess".

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Aug 14, 2007 -> 10:10 PM) Garland sucked pretty hard his first year (69 innings) and took like half the year in the next year before settling down. He was 20 years old. Maddux sucked pretty bad too, but he won 19 when he was 23. Bonderman is 3 months older than Floyd. Comparing those guys with Floyd makes no sense.

No Bobby Jenks tonight. He's out with a minor ankle injury.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Aug 14, 2007 -> 08:52 PM) So truthfully, how quickly would you have traded off Jon Garland his career? The second year? How about a guy like Greg Maddux who got off to an awful start, or even a Jeremy Bonderman? You have 5,000,000 posts and this is the first really silly one I've ever seen.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Aug 13, 2007 -> 07:15 PM) Haeger hasn't gotten AAA hitters out this year and didn't get major league hitters out in his stint this season. As to why Floyd deserves a shot over Haeger? It's simple, really, and not very hard to understand -- Floyd is out of options beyond this season, Haeger isn't (at least that I know of). We can afford to be patient with Haeger so he can learn to get AAA hitters outdo his work. Haeger has had just as much, if not more success in the minors than Floyd and I look at Tim Wakefield when I say be patient with Haeger. The knuckleball is all cute and dandy, but I'll say it again -- there's a reason there's only been ONE successful knuckleballer over the past twenty years. Me? I see it more likely that Haeger becomes Steve Sparks than Tim Wakefield. Floyd has had his shot. How many times do you have to bang your head into a wall before you realize it hurts so you stop? That's what I think when people say he needs a chance. Seriously, what would Floyd have to do for the White Sox to say, you know what, that guy is the fifth starter next year? Aren't we really past the point of no doubt with him? Even if he was pretty good the rest of the year which is about as likely as Pratt and me buying Floyd jerseys and starting a fan club for him, you still couldn't count on him. These games are meaningless to evaluate. Its going to come down to next spring no matter what happens the rest of the year, unless he is so horrible they don't even bother with that. Put him in relief and pick his spots, maybe he'll get some confidence and will get that look that he is about to cry off his face. I doubt it, but the rotation is a waste of time. Put Contreras back in the rotation or give someone else a shot, whether its Haeger or Gio or whatever. BTW Tom Candiotti was a decent knuckleballer as was Charlie Hough.

QUOTE(Steff @ Aug 13, 2007 -> 11:07 AM) If they have a clause they they don't have to sign then they shouldn't be on the list to sign anyway. There are only 6 signing stations on kids day. I don't think the entire squad has ever been out there at once. And IIRC, 2 of them are usually for the manager and bp or bench coach. Maybe that was the solution, because a couple of years ago, the entire team or close to it was out there.

QUOTE(Steff @ Aug 13, 2007 -> 10:19 AM) I think you're right and it's not true. It is absolutely true. 2005 Kid's days from about August on, some players were exempt.

I wonder what the longest previous streak was for a relief pitcher.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Aug 13, 2007 -> 09:27 AM) Somehow, this doesn't surprise me... I'll just leave it at that. A couple of years ago they were complaining and this board supported them because they were winning. IIRC Ozzie said the starting battery didn't have to sign that day. Its total BS on the player's part. If signing a few autographs for kids is really that bothersome, maybe they should get a regular job with a regular paycheck.