Dick Allen

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 14, 2017 -> 02:16 PM) How much does the salary affect the Cubs though? Eventually it will. They were taxed in 2016. I think they can get under this year. If they keep their core together, and they are half as good as advertised, they will have an enormous payroll eventually. With just Hayward, Rizzo, Lester, and Zobrist signed, they have $68 million guaranteed in 2018.

Melky, Abreu, and Frazier all put up over 1.0 WAR last year, and only Melky was 32. Turned 32 in August. So it really doesn't apply. But teams are getting away from paying the Moss types $8 million without a doubt. If he would be willing to play for a million or two, I doubt he would have a problem finding a team.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 13, 2017 -> 09:35 AM) Last night, Hoiberg gave Paul Zipser, a rookie with 47 career minutes and a career 1-16 shooting line coming into the game, his first start matched up defensively against Carmelo Anthony. He then played him 34 minutes. he was a -16 on the game. Yes, Mirotic and Butler were out with illness. Yes there were other people who were as bad - Taj put up a -20. Yes he wanted better defense than McDermott would bring. Yes that did not decide the game. Just stand back and ask yourself whether that makes any sense to you on paper. The guy has had basically 1 D-league appearance this year and he got 34 minutes guarding Melo. More commentary He wanted McDermott to come off the bench. Yeah, it looks goofy, but it didn't change the game, and Zipster actually started out pretty well. It didn't last. There's plenty to nail Hoiberg on, but a bad roster, depleted, isn't one of them. One thing I've noticed is Wade looks a lot older the last couple of weeks from a playing standpoint than he did at the beginning of the season.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 13, 2017 -> 09:22 AM) I don't know, read how BP calculates it. For one, the main reason this became a thing was a technology update (pitch F/X) but then they've even been able to make interesting retro models for it. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article....articleid=25514 They can take it all away and use technology to call balls and strikes. MLBN had a thing where Eric Byrnes called a game, I think it was an independent league, behind the plate. They set it up and had someone watch the box on a monitor and told him in an earpiece if the pitch was a ball or a strike. Not one complaint for batter or pitcher or catcher. Seems pretty simple.

QUOTE (Boogua @ Jan 13, 2017 -> 08:52 AM) He runs a Phillips 3-4 though, which is a one gap system... They're going to be disgusting. I wonder if the citizens of LA are looking back fondly to the days where they had no NFL team.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 13, 2017 -> 08:35 AM) He picked up Wade Phillips to run his Defense today which is about as good of a defensive hire as you can make. The one thing I read that seemed like a convincing argument yesterday was a list of the four youngest coaches in NFL history (name, team, age in years-days, record). Lane Kiffin OAK 32-123 5-15 Raheem Morris TB 33-10 17-31 David Shula CIN 33-101 19-52 Josh McDaniels DEN 33-144 11-17 Yes, when a team hires a new coach the team is already starting off bad, but there's also zero cases of someone at comparable age actually turning a team around. That tells me there could darn well be something more systematic here - either ownership that doesn't trust the kid or players that don't trust the kid or coaches who get theirs too early and need to be chastened once or twice. That said, 0/4 becomes 1/5 and the trend looks a lot different. Phillips seems like a solid hire. The only problem is he's a 3-4 guy, and they were a 4-3 team so there is going to have to be an adjustment, and he is 70 years old when the season starts. Will he stick around to see it through?

I think something will happen before the season starts. Too much motivation on both sides. Q is a top of the rotation guy getting Charlie Morton money for 4 years. And the White Sox are motivated. They don't want this cloud hovering over Q during the season. Who knows how he will take it, and what it would mean to his performance. And even if it doesn't harm his performance, the daily questions about his status will get old before the first series ends. That said, the price has to be right. I think eventually it will be. I think as soon as one team blinks another one or two will follow and RH will have his choice of packages.

With the new rules, isnt this next July 2nd period a hard cap?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 12, 2017 -> 11:29 AM) I would have no complaints generally with that either. I would complain if one day Moncada is at 3b and the next day he's at 2b. That is the one thing we should never see. So you don't like the way Joe Maddon manages. He has several moving parts. Not just Baez and Zobrist. The NL MVP played 5 positions in the field.

Ultimately, you would like him to stay in one spot, but the White Sox do have a guy who can speak from experience about how moving can mess you up. KW came up a CF and was pretty good initially. Looked like he would be a really good player. They moved him to 3B, and suddenly he wasn't much of a player anymore. I do think since Moncada is an infielder, any switch if there is one won't be as dramatic as CF to 3B.

He'll probably get trade to some team we haven't mentioned for prospects we haven't mentioned.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 12, 2017 -> 10:12 AM) Coats was ranked as high as 14th, and was ranked over a 2-year period (2015-2016). He just barely made it to rookie eligibility and is gone, otherwise he'd likely have been ranked in a third year this year (though not as high as 14th, with the new talent influx). Dan Black never made a list. If those are the same to you, then sure, you win. You ranked Coats 14th mid season 2016, as a 26 year old, in the White Sox system. It's not a decent prospect. It's very similar to the jump you gave Wilkins in 2014. I see you ignored that one. You're b****ing about Avi Garcia, what was Coats ranked in the White Sox system when he was Avi Garcia's age preseason 2015? He wasn't in your top 30. He was in "others receiving votes". You may not like that I put Coats in with Wilkins and Black, 2 players that got some love for their minor league numbers as older guys, but ultimately, his career will turn out the same. He will either wind up in Japan or Korea, or bounce around on waivers from team to team. Unless you are in your teens or very early 20s, being ranked outside the top 10 in the White Sox system the last decade, isn't very good.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 12, 2017 -> 09:59 AM) Heck I'm a bigger fan of Coats that most, and even I have said his ceiling is maybe, if everything goes right, a short term starter on a bottom feeding team. More likely he's a 4OF or a platoon/role player, and I do think he already is that and could even be better than average in that role. But as you sort of point out, the Sox essentially traded higher floor (Coats) for higher ceiling (Garcia), which does make sense for a rebuilding team. Since taking Avi out of the picture apparently wasn't an option, this makes some sense. Yup that was my Q&A with Dan. Here's my graf about him from that article: So even in an article meant to hype him up a bit, the best I could give him was saying that if a couple guys get hurt/traded/retire and he carried his offense over a level and quickly, this guy might maybe see the big leagues. So yeah, as I said, he was never considered a prospect at the level Coats was. I know you like to pick nits, but get it right. Black wasn't the prospect Coats was, especially as each reached the upper levels, especially AAA. In the end as you said, Coats' role with the Sox in some 2019-ish future wouldn't be much. Maybe the 4th OF, which has some value but is pretty findable elsewhere. No one is saying otherwise - I'm just saying that he's a better candidate for value now and in a couple years than Avi, What am I picking? Coats isn't much of a prospect. In the post before you want to say I am the one picking the fight (you are) you admit Coats isn't much of a prospect. Dan Black wasn't much of a prospect. Andy Wilkins wasn't much of a prospect, and Jason Coats isn't much of a prospect. You admit no big loss, yet you are the one who started the argument. You guys never had Coats rated very high on future sox with a crappy system.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 12, 2017 -> 09:10 AM) Well Dan Black was never anywhere near the prospect Coats was, and Wilkins was a pure 1B which gave him a super-steep path, so your joke doesn't really hit home. But certainly Coats leaving isn't the end of the world, I agree there. I still believe Coats provides more value than Avi Garcia, but obviously the Sox feel otherwise. Tampa likes to go with role players and Coats fits that mold well, rotating through OF slots down there. I don't know. I think this was you. http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2013/...eman-dan-black/ Seems pretty comparable. Older minor leaguers putting up big numbers but not really prospects of any significance. The bottom line is if the goal is sustained winning, losing players like this doesn't set that back.

You think they would have learned when they unceremoniously dumped Andy Wilkins and let Dan Black go to Korea. But no. Now we get to see Jason Coats beat the White Sox for the next 10 years.

Abbatacola should have given himself a radio name before he started. He probably would have made it easier on his career.

I believe framing is a real stat unlike some, but I do wonder if it gets to a point where an umpire will see a catcher always posting good framing numbers, and start to use it against him. They are human. I am sure they see these lists. If Tyler Flowers always gets balls called strikes, couldn't it eventually lead to an umpire calling what he considers borderline pitches thrown to him balls because they figured his framing has given them an illusion?

I'd see if there was any way possible to make him a LF or CF. He's running out of time. But if you could get him for nothing, it's not like he's blocking good prospects. He doesn't need a great arm. Can't see how his would be any worse than Juan Pierre, or Lance Johnson, or the future HOFer, Tim Raines. Coco Crisp has had a pretty nice career throwing flyballs back to the infield. It's a long shot, he's getting old to be a prospect, but for free or next to it, why not?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 10, 2017 -> 08:00 PM) On the one hand, I agree with what you're saying. On the other, facts clearly no longer matter so bring on the Trump piss jokes by the bucket full. I'm not saying it is true, I hope it's not, but a lot of people are saying.......

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jan 10, 2017 -> 12:59 PM) With the extra year of control, does that make the expectation on the return for Q equivalent to that of Sale, or in excess of it? Or does it not matter, and we should expect something slightly less? Can't quite gauge what this outcome ought to be. I think it will come out less in ranking. But not by much. When it's all said and done, it might turn into more.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jan 10, 2017 -> 12:55 PM) I still think all of this is just talk. He's gone before pitchers report, and probably before Soxfest. They definitely don't want the 2017 season to be all about "when will Q get traded". That is the one huge problem with waiting for the deadline.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Jan 10, 2017 -> 12:52 PM) I will say this, wouldn't be surprised if Hahn is asking for more than Sale for Q He should. You can always negotiate down. The higher the starting point, the higher the end point.

QUOTE (buhbuhburrrrlz @ Jan 10, 2017 -> 12:41 PM) NY_KnicksPR ‏@NY_KnicksPR 9m9 minutes ago Derrick Rose has rejoined the team and has been fined. He is expected to be in uniform tomorrow in Philadelphia. I'm glad he's OK. Now back to the bashing. I wonder if his fine will be more than the $260k he gets paid per game. If he truly failed to contact the team, it's a joke he isn't suspended.

You don't give teams a deadline, because they know it's totally BS. There is no reason Q has to be traded immediately. You can leak a trade is imminent and see if that doesn't get something going. When it got out that the Red Sox became the frontrunners for Sale, the Nats up their "final offer". It still wasn't enough, but you may get someone to play their entire hand. These teams know Hahn is talking to everyone. As long as they don't sense anything is really close, there is no motivation making their best offer.

Unless it's just the dishonest media being dishonest, Mexico insists it will not pay for the wall Trump is building and claiming we will be reimbursed. He may have to send them a tweet.