Dick Allen

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Aug 12, 2007 -> 09:02 PM) Well I'd guess on his stuff, the fact that not many knuckleballers have made it over the past 20 years, and his record this season in the minors. Just on Floyd, how did his curveball look in his start yesterday? From what I heard in Detroit it was really working for him. If he's missing his 1st pitch strikes as well, really sounds like the problem Jon Garland had 3-4 years ago. Its a pretty bold move to say he has no chance, but Floyd does. 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. Charlie hasn't been throwing the knuckler that long. Wakefield started out great for Pittsburgh but the next season was awful in Pittsburgh and the minor leagues, the following season struggled at AAA, got released, but has been a pretty decent pitcher for the past 13 seasons in Boston. I would say there is a far better chance of Haeger being an average pitcher than there is of Floyd matching Wakefield's career.

Gammons latest blog has some of the top rated players at every position in the minors from 2002. Pitching is hard to project. Of the top 25 rated right handed pitchers there are 3 that have done anything worthwhile in the major leagues. Bonderman who was ranked 8th or 9th, Wainwright who was ranked 5th or 6th and Aaron Cook who was 8th or 9th. Gavin Floyd was ranked #2 right behind Jesse Foppert. Joe Borchard was ranked the #4 OF.

It is amazing Jenks gets this record as a reliever. Especially one who pitches an inning at a time.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Aug 12, 2007 -> 03:14 PM) Which is just another reason why ERA by middle relief isn't really worth dilly. Honestly, why should Seattle keep trying to score runs? They're up by 6, Weaver is shutting us down, and our offense is cold. That didn't seem to stop teams from running up the score at the other garbage KW claimed was a strong bullpen.

QUOTE(Capn12 @ Aug 12, 2007 -> 02:08 PM) Shutout so far by the hapless 3-10, 6.07 ERA Jeff Freakin' Weaver... GMAFB. The Tigers must have been on suicide watch after Floyd shut them down. Even bad pitchers have decent days every now and then.

Suddenly all those who said KW fleeced Daniels in the McCarthy trade are silenced. One of the big things on this board on why McCarthy would never be any good, funny how that can be concluded already, but Gavin Floyd needs a chance, was the propencity to give up the long ball. I said maybe that total can go down, but was told no. McCarthy has allowed 8 homers this season. Danks-25.

QUOTE(GreenSox @ Aug 12, 2007 -> 09:35 AM) If he finds his form, he still isn't worth $10 mill a year, when the Sox have glaring holes at short and in the OF. Dump him for salary. The guy won 17 decisions in a row before he hurt his back. He was the ace of the Sox staff when they won it all. Explain to me how if he finds his form he's still not worth $10 million a year? He would be the 4th highest paid starter in the Sox current rotation in 2008.

QUOTE(kwolf68 @ Aug 12, 2007 -> 09:40 AM) This move is dead now from what I read. Which is wise. As much as I never have cared for Pods, unless the Cubs were offering something you just couldn't turn down, if KW traded him for garbage just to save some cash, which the Sox could benefit from in 2008, and he somehow helped the Cubs win, Houston, we have a problem.

I think they are looking at what is available as far as free agents and probably realizing its better to pay JD than to give Aaron Rowand pretty close to Garry Matthews Jr. money. The thing that is scaring me is it seems the Sox may be bringing back basically the same team again next year except subtract Pods, Iguchi, maybe Crede, add Fields, Richar, Owens. I still think that isn't good enough. I hope KW has something big up his sleeve.

QUOTE(BearSox @ Aug 12, 2007 -> 09:02 AM) We are the only team in baseball that would have Darin freaking Erstad bad 5th... No, there are a couple of American Legion teams he could bat 5th on. Against right handers. I don't mind Erstad, especially at his price, but he's a utility guy now. If he plays a lot he will get injured, and he's not a leadoff guy or a 5th place hitter at this stage. If he were used for what he is, not for what he was 7 years ago, I think he could still be a contributing player, definitely worth what he would get on the market. The problem is everyone in the White Sox organization still sees the guy who hit .350 and could run through walls. Make him the 4th OFer and back-up firstbaseman and use him as a defensive replacement or a guy to come in and get a bunt down, and now you're talking.

Sisco was only able to net Ross Gload last season. After his major league performance this year, I really doubt you would be looking at anything better than that. He has a lot more upside than that so the Sox should hang on to him unless they throw him into a bigger deal to sweeten the pot.

QUOTE(3E8 @ Aug 12, 2007 -> 02:46 AM) Did you watch the start in Detroit? He dominated a good-hitting Tigers club and showed stuff that you would expect from a number four overall pick, Floyd indeed 'had it'. Hawk considers it the best stuff we've seen from any of our starters this season, and Steve Stone has mentioned multiple times this past week how impressed he was. I think those of us who back Gavin realize what a coup this could be for the Sox, if he can work things out and be a just semblance of the pitcher we saw in Detroit. It would give us a solid back-of-the-rotation starter for the next two seasons at a total of no more than $800k. That adds a lot of flexibility to our team. From my perspective it feels like you have an axe to grind. Are you just rooting against him just to back up something you posted on a message board before the season started? I don't know how you feel about these guys, but there are other young players who have gotten a chance recently to prove themselves (Anderson, Masset, Owens) more than Floyd has and haven't been great, and I do not know that had they worked out it would bring the same upside to our team. Floyd at this point hasn't had more than two consecutive starts still. So my thinking is, we're clearly out of contention, put Gavin in the rotation the rest of the year which will be about 6 or 7 starts. That way we'll know for certain if he can work with Coop and make strides to actually harness his talent with some sort of consistency, or if he is just mentally/physically incapable of being a successful pitcher at the major league level. For a guy with supposedly great "stuff", Floyd certainly gets whacked around a lot. His walk rate is actually not bad so far this year, much better than its been in previous big league tries, but 10 homers in 24 innings, including 7 in 11 innings at USCF, and a .361 BAA indicates to me he isn't worthy of more starts. He has had a great start each of the seasons he has pitched in the big leagues, yet always snaps back to what he is. He did pitch well against Detroit, but he certainly caught them at the right time, as they were struggling and Rodriquez and Sheffield were out of the line-up. They lit him up previously. I just have a hard time understanding why he is deserving of an extended look, but others need more time or aren't worthy. I understand Floyd is going to be out of options, but we are seeing why he is out of options.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Aug 11, 2007 -> 11:28 PM) I''ll only say this once....Paul Konerko gets full days off, he wasn't going to pinch hit (ozzie wanted to give him a rest and a full rest in baseball means you don't play at all in the game...even a pinch hit appearance). For guys that sit more often he's happy to pinch hit, but in Paulie's case you will rarely if ever see it because he takes a day off so rarely. Hell I'm surprised Ozzie's even managing at this point, if I were running the team the only thing I'd be managing is the development of the team and whatever served me best for 2008 (and I actually think Ozzie has done a good job with that). He just had a couple of days off a week or 2 ago. I wonder if he's fully healthy.

QUOTE(dasox24 @ Aug 11, 2007 -> 06:22 PM) Damnit I believe the word you're looking for is dadgummit.

Brutal. He's a tease. He looked like a Cy Young contender against Detroit, but he's just not very good.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Aug 11, 2007 -> 04:02 AM) I'd rather have a 3rd of the payroll placed on like 4 other players rather than spending $30 mill a year on Arod. I love ARod to death, but that's ridiculous to have on the roster. Boras is pricing ARod at around $36 million a year. ARod is great, but you are right, you can't spend that much on one guy.

Rooney is not coming back. Maybe if the Score and White Sox think the Sox fans miss Rooney so much, they will hire Wayne Hagin. Didn't they let him go many years ago and replace him with Farmer because he sounded too much like Rooney? The Score can hire him and everyone can pretend. I've always enjoyed listening to Stone, and could be wrong, but I really don't think he'd be interested in being a White Sox broadcaster at least for the long haul. A year or 2 tops. I think he's hoping either Brenly gets a job in a dugout or the new owners of the Cubs have a front office position for him.

QUOTE(SoxPride56 @ Aug 8, 2007 -> 10:36 AM) I am with you man! His act is getting pretty old. But there is nothing like the solo home run. Thome is second in the AL in OBP and he hits with power. Yeah, his act is getting really old. They need to bring in someone who never gets on base.

Anyone still think Rowand's only getting $7 mill. a year?

As long as we are going with what ifs, what if the Sox swept the Cubs at USCF instead of the other way around? The team that allegedly is WS bound and the team playing out the string would have the same record. I sure am glad those games don't mean anything.

Contreras is/was available for nothing except the balance of his contract. Nobody bit. The only way the Sox get rid of him is if they take on an equally unappealing contract or pick up most of whats left on Contreras' deal. If its the latter, they are much better off keeping him.

Ozzie said that everyone would be impressed with the names on KW's "list". He also hinted at difficulty getting the players. I just don't want to hear about the "crazy market". They should be prepared for it.

SS who can leadoff are few and far between and cost a lot of money and the clincher, most likely aren't available.

The bullpen is the key. Rip Uribe all you want. The only 2 SS in the AL with more RBI than him since the beginning of 2004 are Tejada and Jeter, and Uribe is solid defensively. I'm as frustrated as anyone by his lack of OBP, but its proven that the Sox can win with him at SS. Its also been proven that the Sox won when they had a great bullpen. The bullpen has to be strong, except if they play the Angels in the ALCS.