Dick Allen

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Mar 13, 2007 -> 05:41 PM) I wasn't speaking to that though. Whether it was a good move or not. You never know what KW could or couldn't get at the deadline. I just wanted to know how Flash knew that wasn't the best package. He sure was speaking with a lot of conviction, so I figured maybe he had bugged KW's phone and heard all the proposals for Freddy. It very well could have been the best deal at the time, but teams always need pitching and KW was holding all of the cards. He could have waited them out. He could have asked for the moon like he did with Garland.

I can't possibly see where the White Sox could come up with the conclusion that Floyd is capable of having any success in the major leagues at this point judging his past performance and his performance so far in camp. If he's the fifth starter, its because they think they would be rushing Danks, and they can't acquire anybody else.

QUOTE(scenario @ Mar 11, 2007 -> 06:32 PM) So... our defense would suffer if they kept Perez and moved Mackowiak before the season?? I'm not sure we're talking about the same player then. Mack is a DISASTER in the outfield. Not just center. He gets bad jumps on the ball and he can't judge routes. He's looked as brutal in the corners this spring as he did in center last year. He makes Alphonso Soriano look like a Gold Glover and that's saying something. In the infield? He's not the first backup option at ANY position. Ozuna will be the backup at third. Cintron will be at SS and 2nd. Erstad will be at 1st. So what is Mack's role? A backup for the backups? I like Mac but... Mack is not bad in LF. He's much better than Pods, in fact he's a better baseball player than Pods. If anyone should be traded it should be Pods, but you won't get anything for him unless he's a throw in. I think Erstad is eventually going to get hurt, and Pods is going to struggle. I think if the Sox rid themselves of Mack they would be pining for him around June15th. Its not Mack's fault Ozzie kept throwing him somewhere he should not have been. He had about as much business playing CF as Thome or Konerko.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Mar 11, 2007 -> 03:56 PM) I believe I heard Jenks struck out 3 in 1 1/3 innings; Sisco 4 in 2 innings. That's good. Hopefully Arizona didn't have its A ball roster in the game at that point.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 11, 2007 -> 03:47 PM) Every time these teams play, it's a great game. Durant's an amazing player, but I would draft Oden over him for the reason you're seeing right now: Durant's body might make it hard for him to keep his legs for the entire 82 game season. I'd take Oden too, but whoever gets Durant will get him in the weight room. They both will be stars.

Jenks pitched well in the B game. Vazquez got lit up, but they have the spin going saying he retired 8 out of the last 9.

Its pretty incredible to me how Danks is now the chosen one on this board after 6 innings of spring training pitching. I realize that Floyd probably isn't any good and apparently the White Sox have some sort of reluctance with Haeger. I think if you threw any of the 3 into the 5th spot, Haeger at the end of the year would have the best numbers, but I'm not sure if they would be good enough. Hopefully KW is working the phones for a stop gap.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 10, 2007 -> 04:06 PM) If he gets back to that speed, he'll be in much better shape than he is now. BUT...just from my memory, he had a long time last year off, then came up to pitch after getting into shape, and I don't recall his fastball being able to hit 90 then either. I think its very doubtful Prior will ever be what they thought he would be, but I think he still could be useful. I don't think he's as bad as the spring training performances make him out to be. Like fathom said, it couldn't happen to a bigger asshole.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 10, 2007 -> 03:55 PM) A drop of 8-10 mph from your fastball and like 4 straight injury-plagued seasons is, to my eyes, slightly more severe than a drop of 1 mph from your fastball and 6 straight 200+ inning seasons. When Jenks dropped off 8-10 on his fastball last spring, they said he needed time to get ready. I would imagine Prior, if he makes it without hurting himself to opening day, would be at about 90-93.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 10, 2007 -> 03:55 PM) A drop of 8-10 mph from your fastball and like 4 straight injury-plagued seasons is, to my eyes, slightly more severe than a drop of 1 mph from your fastball and 6 straight 200+ inning seasons. What about the jump in ERA? He was batting practice the second half last season, and its been more of the same this spring, although its been reported on this board he is throwing a little harder. I posted before, that last year when I was in Tucson, Buerhle was topping out at 80 on the gun. He still was pretty decent last season until he entered the Urinal, although I do recall him giving up a lot of unearned runs early on. White Sox pitchers have to do a better job of pitching over defensive mistakes this season. QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 10, 2007 -> 03:59 PM) Well, it is worth asking what Ozzie might do if he had a starting pitching staff that was struggling and a bullpen that was dominating. In 05, he had a damn good bullpen and a damn good rotation, to the point that he was usually justified in showing confidence in his starter and leaving him out there for most of the game, no matter how good his bullpen was. In 06, he had struggling starters (the same guys who had succeeded the year before), but he also had guys like Politte, Cotts, Logan, McCarthy, and so on out in the bullpen who had a ton of difficulty keeping teams shut down. If he went to his bullpen in the 6th, that meant Cotts or McCarthy were coming in until late September when callups happened, so that meant he was going to give up at least 1 run, if not more. Ozzie hasn't recently had to deal with struggling starters and a dominating bullpen. Last year, about the only pitcher who wasn't a better option than Cotts was 2nd half Buehrle. The White Sox bullpen was the least used in both 2005 and 2006 I believe. One year it was awesome, and the other, not so good, kind of like the rotation both years.

Its just funny to me that Prior is getting beat around and the board is lit up talking about how he is done. Buerhle gets lit up for a half a season and is getting lit up again this spring and everyone wants to get him signed long-term. KW better wait. There are more than a couple of scouts that think Buerhle is heading south, although unlike Prior at this point, he could get away with throwing 88 if he can get his command back.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Mar 10, 2007 -> 03:45 PM) Prior has given up four runs in two innings of work. No one can spin this. He's starting to look like Buerhle.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 10, 2007 -> 11:02 AM) There just seems to be so many excuses when it comes to why Floyd struggles/struggled in the past. I saw some highlights of his game vs Colorado, and he didn't seem to have much on his pitches. His wind-up is real ugly. Its funny he's using Arizona as an excuse for Floyd but got enamoured with him watching him in the AFL.

QUOTE(G&T @ Mar 10, 2007 -> 10:13 AM) Kenny seems to think Floyd is doing really well. Chisox.com Kenny is starting to sound like he did about Jon Adkins. Adkins came over the same way as Floyd, thought to be pretty much a non-prospect at the point of acquisition amoung most scouts. Kenny didn't agree. The majority of scouts were right. I still like the Garcia trade though even if Floyd is, as I figure, not a very good pitcher.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Mar 10, 2007 -> 06:34 AM) Looks like Philly has heard the sox-rowand rumors as well. Note the end of the peice after the Phills bullpen gave up 11 runs in the last two games, with Manuel saying the Phills still need 2-3 bullpen arms. If the Phills want quantity, a deal involving Logan, and Tracey + makes sense. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/16874400.htm I read somewhere where the Phillies plan was to trade Rowand and trade for Alex Rios. I'd rather have Rios than Rowand. KW should give Toronto a call if they don't want Anderson on the team.

Danks can't be any more impressive this spring than McCarthy was a couple of springs ago, and now if you read this board, McCarthy is one of the worst pitchers wearing a uniform in Arizona. Danks may be good one day, but when the season starts he should be in Charlotte.

Wouldn't get Rowand back pretty much guarantee another World Series?

QUOTE(BearSox @ Mar 8, 2007 -> 08:07 PM) Looking from the box score along, it looks like Floyd pitched pretty well. He did give up 6 runs, but only 2 were earned. It looked he didn't get much support from the defense (2 E's by Crede and 1 by Valido). I didn't see the game and its no indictment of Floyd, I really don't take much out of an outing on March 8th, but one thing the White Sox staff has to do a lot better this year, is pitching over defensive miscues.

The only thing that would put Ozzie on the managerial hotseat is his mouth. So in a way I agree with Phillips, Ozzie is always one outrageous comment from looking for work. It would take just too much baseball-wise to go wrong for him to get canned otherwise. That isn't going to happen.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 8, 2007 -> 05:30 PM) If Joe Crede doesn't hit his...then Pods, Konerko, Blum, and Iguchi might all have never gotten the chance either. That's true, but I'll take the one that drives in four and puts you 2 up instead of 2 down.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Mar 8, 2007 -> 03:56 PM) I know it sounds simple, but it really is that simple. Yeah, Konerko's was probably more dramatic because we were behind. That's fair. But I have a hard time calling any HR that didn't actually win us a game the biggest in team history. Of course, Pods was the one who hit it. I'm sure if Dye or Crede had hit the walk-off no one would debate it was the bigger HR. If Konerko doesn't hit his, depending on how the rest of the game would have played out, Pods may have never had his chance to be a hero.

most improved-Uribe, one year he will be unbelievable, this could be it. most dissappointing-Vazquez-Not really to me, I think he is what he is, but it appears a lot of people are expecting him to blossom. x-factor-Bullpen. I think it will either be great or horrible. Its amazing how good a guy like Aardsma supposedly is when he could even stick with the Cubs for the entire 2006 season. I wonder if Thornton will continue to grow or go back to his struggles, if MacDougal can stay healthy, if Boone Logan can get out major league hitters, if Jenks can stay in decent enough shape and healthy, if the real Sisco is the 2005 or2006 version, and if these guys are capable of throwing enough strikes.

When I was in Tucson last year, I was sitting right behind homeplate and could see the gun they had set up there. I am not kidding when I say Buerhle was topping out at 80, and this was the last week or so of spring training.

Buerhle's agent today on whitesox.com: "In terms of how we value Mark and where the market in general would value Mark ... I mean Gil Meche signed at five years [with Kansas City for $55 million], and Barry Zito signed for seven [with San Francisco for $126 million]. Mark has been one of the most durable pitchers in the last decade and that kind of speaks for itself. " I think a 4 year contract wouldn't even be considered at this point, and if it was, they would have to really jack up the price.

Jerry Owens is supposedly horrific in the outfield, although I did hear KW call him a CF. Sweeney would play CF before Owens. If Anderson fails to hit, I think Sweeney will be in Chicago at least until Pods comes back. Hopefully thats in 2020.