Dick Allen

QUOTE(My Dixie Normus @ Jun 8, 2006 -> 10:27 PM) When BA makes an out at the plate, he screws up his own head. When Mackowiak blows a cut-off or a catch, an inning goes on for the pitcher. It screws with his (the Pitcher's) head. And for as good as our pitchers are, save Contreras, none of them shake off mistakes like that very well. Garland, Garcia and Buehrle get rattled by unearned earned runs, if you know what I mean. These plays that should be made, need to be made. These three starters even seem to get stronger after a big defensive play saves them from one of their own mistakes. BAs defense adds more than his lack of offense subracts. He needs to be in the line-up. Crazy idea. Move him up in the line up. Put him after Dye or even at #2 for a game or two. Let him see some pitches. Right now he get crap but he chases it. If you put him in a position where they have to pitch to him, he might get his stroke back. I know #2 is not going to happen but splitting him a Uribe up might be a good idea. The other thing is, Mack really is not much more of an offensive threat than Anderson against lefties.

I just got back from the game, and today's game showed once again why Mackowiak cannot play CF on a regular or even semi-regular basis. On Maggs' flyball, he didn't get in position to throw to second allowing the runner to advance. Guillen then singles and Mack throws over everyone to home where he had no chance allowing another runner into scoring position, who eventually scored from second on the infield hit. It really didn't matter because Garland was on the mound and a homer is always around the corner for him. About Garland. I went to Tucson on March20. I saw Garland pitch one of the games I saw down there, and he got lit up. I've been to every home game except 2 or 3 this year and have watched just about all of Garland's starts home and away. The thing that's alarming to me is the amount of hard hit balls against him. At least half of the outs he records are hit pretty well. This is about as bad as I have seen him pitch since he put on a White Sox uniform.

QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 8, 2006 -> 12:21 PM) Interested to see what Loaiza does tonight. He's twirled a gem through 6.

Assuming the White Sox stay healthy, Cleveland can't fall too much far behind. They have a good team, but its very doubtful they could come up with a streak like last season. Detroit has a solid team, and to me is in the same boat as Cleveland last year, except maybe a little better. If the Indians could have beat the White Sox head to head last year, the season probably would have been a different story. If Detroit was able to beat the White Sox this year, they would be running away with the division. If the Sox fix their bullpen, and health isn't an issue, they should win. If either fails, they could easily come in 3rd.

As bad as Anderson has been, the bigger problem with the White Sox is it now appears as if Montero is going to see the mound in crucial situations. He escaped yesterday with a hit and a near homer in 2/3 of an inning. McCarthy will be the primary set-up guy, but I heard Ozzie last night, and he doesn't want to use him too much.

From Ozzie's comments, it appears the White Sox have inquired about Hunter.

For his efforts, Nelson will receive approx. $350,000 (pro-rated $500,000 salary), he had a nice room at the Westin for a couple of weeks, and now probably goes back to the broadcasting in Seattle. Not bad at all for him. This exit still has me shaking my head. I still think there is more to the story than elbow damage.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 7, 2006 -> 11:39 PM) Not surprising at all....and after hearing his comments today on Grimsley, I'm glad he won't be playing in our uniform anymore. Ozzie thinks the same way as Nelson on this topic. Should he move along as well?

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jun 7, 2006 -> 03:06 PM) Last year in April, Cotts had a 3.86 ERA, and a 3.00 ERA in May. This year, Cotts was at 3.27 in April and 2.53 in May. Clearly he's been terrible. He hasn't pitched as well as last year. He has pitched a lot more. He has Marte's role. Look at Marte last April and May, and you will see numbers that were better than Neal's. Neal's strikeout rate is way down, and he's already allowed 4 times as many homers as he did all year. He hasn't been terrible, but he hasn't been very sharp. As I have stated numerous times, it would be crazy to think he could duplicate last year's numbers.

QUOTE(winninguglyin83 @ Jun 7, 2006 -> 03:38 PM) 35 walks in 62 innings for Tracey. don't get too excited. Walked 76 in 154 innings last year and 69 in 148 the year before. big league hitters will make him throw it over the plate. Walk totals tend to go up when a guy gets recalled. MLB hitters have better batting eyes, the strike zone is more consistent, umpires tend not to give rookies the benefit of the doubt on borderline pitches, and Tracey probably won't have the same confidence until he has a little success at the major league level. He really struggled in spring training when he had a great opportunity to make the team. He struggled initially when used in relief at Charlotte, but turned it around as a starter. Now he's going back to relief, where you would think he would shine, but hasn't yet. Its a crapshoot. He has great stuff, and could be a solid reliever. Its also possible if not probable he s***s the bed, but he can't be any worse than Politte, and if he fails, KW will know its time to get some help, and Tracey becomes trade bait, or a little more seasoning and he becomes a solid member of the White Sox bullpen.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jun 7, 2006 -> 01:18 PM) He made an awful dive for a ball last night where he had no chance. Luckily the ball bounced into the seats to prevent a run scoring triple. A run would have scored if the ball had stayed in the park and he didn't dive. It was very fortunate it was a ground rule double. It saved an easy run.

QUOTE(POPPY_HIDALGO @ Jun 7, 2006 -> 01:00 PM) A man is injured here. I understand that fun is fun and baseball is all about fun and winning is fun, but let's not forget the big picture here. Some fans were injured because of the velocity of balls hit from his pitching. Good riddance. I think this is another example of a "convenient" injury. They don't want to release him, but they don't want to send him to the mound.

Wasn't Grimsley also a teammate of a certain pitcher who is very large, in his mid 40's, who recently signed a contract, and is still bringing gas ? If you look at Grimsley, you probably would have never guessed he was juicing from looking at his body or his performance. I think this goes to show there are or at least were a ton of guys juicing you wouldn't have suspected, including White Sox players.

Speaking of Pods, his average is definitely on the downswing right now. QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 7, 2006 -> 11:06 AM) I still think Mack is better than Pods for CF. I agree. Ozzie also thinks Mack is a better LF than Pods.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 7, 2006 -> 11:00 AM) I'm going to make the prediction that on Wednesday, Pods and Ozuna will be in LF/CF. Book this. fathom is Batman. He predicted an odd line-up the other day that nobody thought could happen. It happened.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 7, 2006 -> 10:55 AM) What is your reason for not bringing up Sweeney? At this point in his career, it seems likely he'd come up in the fall on the 40-man callup anyway. So the clock may not be too big an issue (maybe by a year, if you think he isn't up until 2007). If the guy can play reasonably good D in CF (at least on par with Mack, hopefully a bit better), then I think its a good idea. First off, he's left-handed. I think the Sox will face at least 7 more lefties the next 2 weeks. Plus, the Sox are probably a little too left handed now. Secondly, he just started playing CF this season, and is coming off a leg injury which has moved him back to RF. The chances of Sweeney at this point in time being any better than Mackowiak offensively or defensive, are pretty slim IMO.

The Sox aren't going to bring Sweeney up to play CF. Jerry Owens is hitting .220. He's not coming. Last I checked, the Sox don't have locks on the entire contents of their stalls in the clubhouse, so Rivera isn't coming, and they aren't going to bring a guy from AA who will be just as bad as Anderson offensively, while giving you less defense. Like someone said before, its either Mack, Ozuna, or Pods in CF or a trade, and I don't think anyone's looking to do KW any favors.

QUOTE(Sox1422 @ Jun 7, 2006 -> 10:36 AM) I don't think you realize how much BA's offense hurts this team. And it's a shame that you don't. He's hitting .083 with runners in scoring position and .095 with RISP and 2 out. With the bases loaded? He's .000 (0 for 6). I don't think Anderson's lack of offense has hurt the White Sox yet, at least not that much. Mackowiak in CF has hurt the White Sox more. I do think though, that if BA keeps getting the same offensive results, it will hurt. Thome, Dye and Konerko most likely will not combine to hit 130 homers. AJ probably won't hit .330. Crede probably won't hit.300 with 30 homers. These guys most likely will slow down at least a little offensively, and Anderson and Uribe's struggles will really start to hurt.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Jun 7, 2006 -> 10:25 AM) I just hope you guys are still happy when Mack, Pods, Gload, and Ozuna are playing CF. Obviously, KW has a lot of phone calls to make. Those 4 will not cut it. The other problem is Ozuna is the only one right handed, and I don't even want to imagine what he would be like in CF.

Showing emotion isn't wrong. Not showing emotion can sometimes be characterized as "corpseball". A term we were far too familiar with here.

QUOTE(Wedge @ Jun 7, 2006 -> 09:27 AM) So Pauly should do the Macarena at homeplate the next time he gets a HR on Zumaya? The kid did nothing wrong. After he got Konerko out he pumped his fist. Watch the pre game video at USCF, and you will see Bobby Jenks pump his fist over and over. There's nothing wrong with showing a little emotion. Jenks doesn't show up anyone with his fist pumping, and Zumaya didn't show Paulie up at all. Dennis Eckersley used to point and "shoot" guys when he struck them out and would tell them to go sit down.

QUOTE(NYSox35 @ Jun 7, 2006 -> 09:27 AM) "In an April meeting with Zumaya, Konerko took him out of the park for his first homer of the year. After that game, Zumaya said Konerko wouldn't get another one off him this season." There was my problem, not his action after this particular game. To each his own, but I just think it was sort of uncalled for. Whatever, Paulie will keep being an All Star caliber player...fine by me. Is he supposed to say Konerko is going to hit several more homers off of him?

QUOTE(NYSox35 @ Jun 7, 2006 -> 08:35 AM) Zumaya = Douche Zumaya would look pretty good in the White Sox bullpen. I like his attitude.

I am an Anderson fan. But he almost seems resigned to the fact that he's going to have a very poor at bat every time he steps to the plate. I don't know what Ozzie was thinking yesterday having Cintron bunt early in the game with guys on first and second and nobody out. Normally its the right move, but with Anderson coming up next, taking the bat out of Cintron's hands was not wise. I don't know if sending BA down to AAA will help or hurt him, but at this point, finding someone who can play CF and hit, at least a little bit, will help the White Sox. The Sox face a ton of lefties the next couple of weeks. It would probably be best they make a mover sooner rather than later.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 6, 2006 -> 09:25 AM) You take Uribe out of the equation and you put in a allstar top 5 offensive guy like Tejada and our offense doesnt just get better, it becomes sick. It would be better than anything we have ever had. Look at how improved it is after just adding Thome. You add Tejada yikes. Our pitching has been medicore, so taking one of the SPs out and putting in McCarthy into the rotation isnt going to queer the deal. So what do you think is going to happen, all of a sudden our SP is just going to flip a switch and boom they are 2005 allstar pitchers, or that they will be good to decent all year long. If we can replace Uribe with Tejada, we could live with Anderson and if he hits even .091 at the 8 or 9 hole with his awsome defense. That's all fine and dandy. The problem would be getting Baltimore to think they are getting market value for Tejada. Garland or Garcia, plus Uribe plus a minor leaguer or 2 isn't going to do it. Other teams would and will offer much more if Tejada were to become available and was playing at his earlier lofty standards.