Dick Allen

QUOTE(beautox @ Nov 17, 2006 -> 11:37 AM) Figgins is "teh sux" hes in the same boat and Podsednik and Pierre, this FA class and offseason has shown us that the price for the unknown(Matz) is HIGH and that the price for the known(Zito,Schmiditt,Garcia,ect.) is going to be even higher, wait until the dust settles for Zito and Schmidt, KW will get what he wants for one(Pelfry & Humber) possibly two of our starters. You want to give Garcia away for a speedy utility player that had an OBP of .336 and thrown in a propsect, hoping that gets the deal done. I agree. KW should wait until all the free agent dust has settled and a couple of teams have come up empty. He will be able to maximize his return IMO.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Nov 17, 2006 -> 11:25 AM) Santana is not better than Freddy and if he came to the Sox he would be even worse. Look at these splits: 2006 Home: 10-2, 3.02 ERA, 1.10 WHIP 2006 Away: 6-6, 5.95 ERA, 1.40 WHIP Career Home: 19-5. 3.09 ERA, 1.14 WHIP Career Away: 9-11, 6.46 ERA, 1.53 Just some perspective, here's Garcia's numbers at USCF 2006: 4.11 ERA, 1.26 WHIP 2005: 4.38 ERA, 1.39 WHIP 2004: 5.37 ERA, 1.40 WHIP Freddy gets a lot of flack for being "terrible" at home, but Santana's road numbers are much worse than Garcia's numbers at USCF. Just say NO to Santana. He's another one of these guys that ESPN talks up and has splits that tell another story. (See Blalock and Young.) Santana is 24 years old. Freddy's ERA was over 5.00 on the road, he also makes a ton more money. Frank Thomas couldn't hit home runs outside of US Cellular Field to save his life, but he seemed to do fine with Oakland. I'll take Santana and his numbers + $7-8 million a year to spend on other parts over Garcia at this point of his career any day. Freddy got hot at the end of the year, but I don't see where that shows he will be dominant in 2007. Seems he and the rest of the Sox staff were quite good at the end of 2005 and it translated to nothing in 2006.

I can't imagine the Angels would give up Santana and something else for Garcia. Santana's numbers are just as good if not better than Freddy's and he's a lot younger and cheaper, and will be cheaper for a few seasons. I think Deluca is full of it.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 03:41 PM) His mechanical flaw is the same mechanical flaw he has had since we picked him up from the As. The latin phrase for it is ....nonthrowusstrikustomuchus. He constantly gets behind every hitter, and then whammo. Cotts was bat in 2004, maybe the oddity was 2005 and he became Neal Cotts again. Like uncle cliffy became the same pitcher that was tossed by the bullpen retarded Blue Jays. He has been in the league for how long and hasnt learned how to throw a decent breaking pitch. I mean come on now. Aardsma seems to have the same problem. At least Cotts has shown he can be very successful at the major league level. KW was talking up Logan and Reynoso today. I'm getting worried.

I really don't think there is one starter who should be off limits. Every one of them has some issues and some huge quesion marks. Everyone of them is also capable of making you regret trading them. If it were me, Vazquez would be the guy I would want to dump, followed by Garcia, Contreras, Garland and Buerhle, but I would trade Buerhle in a heartbeat if the price was right. I wouldn't mind seeing KW trade 2 in the same deal and raid a team's minor league system, while freeing up some cash to sign a free agent.

Cotts and Buerhle were equally as bad last year. I think Cotts had a mechanical flaw making him very hittable. If Cooper is such a magician, why not keep Cotts? Aardsma's claim to fame is he is now the first player listed in the Baseball Encyclopedia. Cotts was bad in 2006, but I think he'll rebound, although maybe not as a starter. I think the Sox would have been better off holding on to him and deal him after he had a nice 2007 season.

I don't blame the White Sox for not throwing that kind of cash at a guy who will pitch 45 innings a year.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 10:16 PM) Joe Crede K'd what 111 times his last year in AA. Our Lord and Savior Aaron Rowand K'd also 117 times his last full season in AA. Fields k'd 15 times in 10 games in Venezuela before he quit and went home.

For someone who claimed he never had more fun than he had last season, Frank sure is fleeing Oakland in a hurry. I can't blame him for that kind of money, and I can't blame Oakland for not matching it. Geddy Lee is now going to be a Frank Thomas fan.

I may be totally wrong, but I think the Red Sox bid so much not to sign this guy, but to keep him away from the Yankees for at least a year. If he's a free agent next year and doesn't have to be posted, there probably is nothing that would stop him from being a Yankee. I just can't see where paying the posting fee plus the salary he would command could make any fiscal sense.

If the Sox do trade Anderson, I doubt it would be for a fringe prospect. They might throw him in a bigger deal that acquired someone established. I really don't think the organization is as down on him as a lot of people do. I just saw where Walker is getting a 3 year $10 million deal with the Orioles. A 35 year old LOOGY. The price to upgrade the bullpen is skyrocketing. Too bad KW didn't address it last year.

QUOTE(beautox @ Nov 14, 2006 -> 07:30 PM) Good, im glad Pierre is going to get 3/30 (i just hope its not with the sox) that makes Podsednik look even more attractive. It makes his arbitration number go up significantly. If anything, it will make teams wait for the Sox to non-tender him. If Juan Pierre gets $10 million a year, Pods is hoping he goes to arbitration.

It looks like salaries are going through the roof again. At espn.com Jerry Crasnick says a guy like Adam Eaton is going to get a 3 or 4 year deal worth at least $8 million a year, and Juan Pierre is going to get at least $30 million for 3 years. Those would be crazy contracts. When people on here said Pierre would get $8 million a year, I thought they were crazy. Turns out they were just lowballing.

QUOTE(AbeFroman @ Nov 13, 2006 -> 10:08 PM) I really think the white sox are sitting pretty. They've got what no one else has... starting pitching. Realistically they could trade two starters (including broadway) and not miss a beat next season. The sox are THE prime trading partner in this hot-stove year. We're going to see some crazy contracts in the next few weeks. That may actually help the sox. Suddenly, Freddie Garcia's contract won't seem so nutty when we start hearing about the deals happening this offseason. For a team that has starting pitching that nobody else has, they really didn't do very well finishing 3rd in their division, and it would have been nice to have 1 or 2 of them have an ERA under 4.00. White Sox starters all have question marks. Hopefully not too many that would keep their value down to other teams.

This Rowand love is ridiculous. Anderson and Rowand had similar offensive stats the season they were 24. When Rowand turned 25, he was hitting so poorly Carl Everett had to play CF. A late season surge made his numbers respectable. Rowand hit well in 2004, but has been fairly mediocre ever since. I would take Anderson any day of the week over Rowand defensively, I don't care how many times Rowand crashes into a wall. I think KW would be better served using the money on pitching.

The Sox could go after the Rocket all they want, but unless they pay him about $20 million for a full season, allow him to stay in Texas with his family when he isn't pitching, and kissing his ass any number of other ways, he won't be signing with them. Let him go to Boston or the Yankees and get lit up.

QUOTE(winninguglyin83 @ Nov 11, 2006 -> 08:22 AM) Note to ARod Fan Club: Please note which AL third baseman won the silver bat. It wasn't number 13 in pin stripesl. it was number 24 in Chicago. Keep Joe. ARod had more homers, more RBI, more SB, a higher BA a higher OBP and a higher slugging pct. than Crede in a great year for Crede and a down year for ARod. If the numbers were reversed and ARod got a Silver Slugger award this board would be full of posts about what a joke the Silver Slugger Award is. Don't get me wrong, Crede had a great year and is better defensively than ARod. But offensively it isn't a contest. Also keep in mind ARod plays half his games in a graveyard for right handed power hitters. With Crede's back and contract issues, trading him makes some sense. I just don't think Fields is the guy you want playing 3rd base in 2007 when you are trying to win a championship.

Sheffield was with Leyland and Dombrowski in Fla. He still will hit, and might not be the clubhouse cancer it seems like he would be almost anywhere else. I still think Detroit's pitching is going to take a step back next season. They weren't .500 post all star break, but then again, neither were the White Sox. The Tigers may find Rogers pitching his age next year, and one or 2 of the other guys taking a step back. I still think this is a better idea for them than trading Bonderman, but they would have been better off signing a free agent.

Guys that are constantly hurt during their prime playing years usually don't start getting and remaining healthy in their mid 30s. Roberts is better than Pods, but I doubt he'd be able to match the numbers he put up this past season if he signed with the White Sox. It would be acceptable to me if the Sox signed him and used their remaining available resources on pitching. A lot of people complained about the inconsistent offense this past season, but the White Sox scored 3 runs or less a lot fewer times than they did in 2005, and I believe scored 3 runs or less a lot less than any other team in baseball.

Keep in mind the White Sox don't have the playoff revenue to play with they had 1 year ago.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Nov 7, 2006 -> 10:34 PM) You have a problem giving $2 million to our fifth man in the bullpen yet you advocate going after a guy, represented by Boras, whose $12 million option was just declined because he had a year full of injury. Someone please remind me how many bullpen guys the White Sox currently have that are making over $1 million? Thought so. The only other teams that can say that are the D-Rays, Marlins and Royals. I don't have a problem spending the money, in fact I have been screaming about KW blowing off the bullpen last season, but at least $2 million for Riske is insane. The guy sucks. Cleveland, which can use some pitching, made Boston take him. He can't handle pressure situations. He had 0 holds in 2005, something unheard of for set-up men making $2 million a year. He's no better than the minor league crap Williams signed last season. In fact, a piece of that crap was used to acquire Riske.

QUOTE(Kenkait Sox Fan @ Nov 7, 2006 -> 08:24 PM) If talking about relievers, how about a low risk flyer on Keith Foulke if his option not picked up. If he were healthy, he would probably accept setup role and act as a potential insurance for days Jenks can't close. I think Foulke has a player option for $3.5 million. If he turns that down, he'd be looking for more. I wouldn't pay him that to set up especially with all the physical questions, and I'm a huge Keith Foulke fan. He bought me some libations in 1999.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Nov 7, 2006 -> 05:48 PM) I'd be shocked if the Pads got Sheffield back. He had a huge impact in his only year with the Pads and they still moved him onto the Marlins (albeit they got some quality in return) but there was a reason the Pads moved him and the org still has a lot of the same people around that were there than. I still remember the days when Sheff was playing 3rd. I remember when he was with the Brewers and actually stopped trying as a ploy to get them to trade him. Its a shame that kind of behavior actually gets some what they want.

That's $2 million that could be better spent. I think there is zero chance of the White Sox offering Riske arbitration, and zero chance that a team signs him before the White Sox have to make it official. He's a reliever who can't be put into tight situations. You always need guys who pitch garbage time, but pay those types around the minimum. Do you think there is any chance the White Sox go after Eric Gagne? I think Boras is his agent which would present a problem, and he probably would balk at being a set-up guy if he's even healthy enough to pitch, but for some reason I think the Sox may be interested.

Anyone else besides me find Ozzie's reaction to this exidous puzzling? He seemed not to mind it at all even though all these players needed the work, and those who were playing were really struggling. Considering the reaction they had when Owens went home last year after having a great year in AA and hitting the crap out of the ball in the Winter League you would have thought he really would be pissed at these guys walking away. He basically said they weren't ready for it. If they aren't ready to play in Venezuela, they aren't going to be ready to play in Chicago. Maybe he figures they did him a big favor. It probably won't be that hard to send any of them back to AAA even if they have a huge spring. BTW, trade Fields while someone will still give up something worthwhile for him.