Dick Allen

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 10, 2016 -> 09:28 AM) And we did end up packaging/trading Santiago, just not for a 3B....it was for Eaton. They did trade Addison Reed for a 3B (just not a good one). I don't think I gave it either praise or derision, it was more of a neutral statement...and Avi Garcia as the centerpiece wasn't exactly much of a return, because the Tigers/Dombrowski know what they're doing. They managed to bring back Fulmer, Norris and Boyd in one calendar year to replenish their rotation because DD understood their situation quite clearly last year, and traded Cespedes and Price. The Tigers ended up with the far better player (defensively alone, he's worth 2.0-2.5 WAR per year) in Jose Iglesias. Good news, in the sense that it seemed they were trying to make an effort to choose some type of direction...not really due to being 100% sold on Peavy himself as a starting pitcher going forward. Neutral? Nice try. It wasn't because they resigned Peavy that they traded for Eaton. Peavy was long gone. Maybe they should have traded Q for Headley. He was the big 3B at the time. And if we really made a stretch and said it was neutral, why do you remember it now as "ill advised"? In one post ip you said they had no clear direction, now this one says they were showing a direction. LOL. Whatever you do, you should stop complaining about trading Semien. In that thread, you mentioned it was a trade that HAD to be made. The Tigers certainly know what the are doing. They are all in, the Sox at the kiddie table and it shows, a record an entire half a game better.you weren't done I. The Peavy thread. This didn't appear "neutral " It's one of those cases of selective memory with Peavy. A lot of our gripes were about his record against the Tigers, particularly the 6-0 blown game, some of his starts down the stretch where he was "so-so" or okay instead of pitching like an ace. Of course, the counter-argument is that he's no longer the 2007 version, has diminished stuff, has had to adapt and learn to be a pitcher rather than just a thrower...THAT previous Cy Young glimmering version will never return again, any more (and I see some are still holding out hope that he'll bounce back into the mid 90's with his FB again). Statistically, there's no arguing with his stats, as an overall body of work, from 2012. And there's no arguing that if he put up those same numbers the next two years, the White Sox would have made a very sound investment. And then there will always be those who appreciate his "manning up" and coming back from a first of its kind surgery as quickly as he did, instead of packing it in and collecting a paycheck. The whole team just ran out of gas (Sale, Peavy, Quintana, the rookies), we had the injuries to deal with constantly throughout the 2nd half...most of us were not as angry as Greg about the "collapse" as it was pretty predictable to those who follow both the Tigers and Sox closely. (That said, I believed we would actually take it after winning the final Tigers game and then again when Dunn hit the homer to win another one in the following days).

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 10, 2016 -> 09:22 AM) James Shields is one of the best starters in baseball if we just ignore 4-5 of his starts. Should we throw out all of his ER's because he only pitched like 3-4 innings total in them? The entire point of baseball for a pitcher is to record outs...therefore, when you don't succeed at that and keep allowing baserunners, of course the appearance/s will be limited, unless Ventura just left said pitcher in an unlimited amount of time. Do you blame Ventura, then, for those two appearances, moreso than Robertson? John Danks as well. Statistics don't lie...over the course of half a season, they paint a fairly decent picture. If we took all the blown saves away from each of those closers, wouldn't they all be close to elite? How many 1-2-3 innings has he had this year in closing situations, compared to the others? Or that's an unfair way to look at his job/responsibility as well...? 23/25 is all that really matters.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 27, 2016 -> 08:37 AM) Of course, the Peavy deal (contract extension) was not exactly met with universal praise, either. Seemed a bit ill-advised, like the club didn't have a clear direction. Same thing with the time when they extended Danks and turned around and traded their closer for scraps simultaneously. Still amazed that we got anything out of Peavy. Oh really? Here is what you had to post in the Peavy extension thread. Good news, not quite great, because you wonder about all the wear and tear that Robin and Cooper put him through, sometimes needlessly. On the other hand, it does afford us the luxury of packaging some guys like Quintana/Santiago (one of the two, probably), Thornton, Crain, Reed (possibly) to see what we can get back for 3B and possibly catcher. The biggest question marks are: 1) Does DeAza go back to CF? 90% chance, unless another starter is traded, like Rios, for a new CFer. 2) Who's the closer? 90% chance it's Reed, at least to start out. 3) AJ, Tyler or a new catcher not on the radar screen? 4) 3B

QUOTE (jeffro2525 @ Jul 10, 2016 -> 08:53 AM) I would settle for anyone who could throw some strikes. Everyone of these borderline guys mentioned above have the same problem...throwing strikes. Ynoa, Purke, Kahnle and Beck have all failed miserably getting ahead of hitters at the major league level. I concur.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 10, 2016 -> 08:32 AM) http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/pitching/_/sort/saves On this page of the top 40 saves leaders in major leagues, Robertson has a WHIP of 1.40, which really isn't that good and I hope isn't considered elite or worth one of the Top 3 salaries in baseball for a closer. He's ahead of only Ziegler, McGee, Rosenthal (deposed from closer's role), Tolleson (deposed from closer's role) and Arodys Vizcaino. Not exactly the best of company for his salary. You want to talk about WAR instead? There are 19 relievers on that same page ahead of Robertson's 0.9, which for a full year equates to less than a 2 WAR. Some of the relievers in that same category? K-Rod, Santiago Casilla, Jonathan Papelbon and Ryan Madson. Not exactly elite again. If he's not a problem, then he's certainly not one of the 3-5 best closers in baseball, which he's clearly being paid to be. Unless you want to go through this list and tell us all the closers that you would currently rank Robertson ahead of, all stats to the contrary, you'd be quite generous to put him in the top 50%. Certainly not based on output per contract dollar or ROI. His stats are out of whack because of 2 appearances covering a total of one inning. One it mattered, the other it didn't. He is one of the best closers in baseball. You have no idea what you are talking about.

Robertson was horrible vs KC and had another bad outing in a blowout loss to the Nats. Other than that 4 runs allowed in 35 innings. Reading about his demise is laughable.

Nice win. Win the series tomorrow and get some rest.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jul 9, 2016 -> 03:32 PM) we got guys unavailable the series before the break? Nah, it has to be that RV just is a f***ing moron. It's the simplest explanation. Why the f*** would Robertson or Jones not be available today? Jumping to conclusions makes you look foolish. It was rTher obvious something was going on when Albers came ion in the 8th.

I totally forgot about the trouble between Rondo and Wade. Wade supposedly injured Rondo on purpose and the next season Rondo clothselimed Wade in a game. Good luck with that Fred.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 8, 2016 -> 02:07 PM) Again, from a naked eye standpoint, the defense and defensive positioning is so much better this year. It is nice to see numbers that back that up. But advanced scouting is the worst in the business.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 8, 2016 -> 02:11 PM) Its funny that you have all of these hindsight opinions when the only thing you were worried about when he was signed was who was getting dropped from the roster. Not much about this profound lack of good baseball judgement a year ago It seemed the general consensus at the time was Rick Hahn and Soxtalk were on the same wavelength. Somehow those same moves became clear KW moves later. Now for some reason, Hahn is an idiot as well.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jul 8, 2016 -> 01:47 PM) I know the White Sox will be mentioned with Reddick, Bruce, etc in the coming weeks. If they miss out and even if they don't, Steve Pearce would be a great acquisition and probably won't cost a ton in return. He can play the OF and DH. He'd be the perfect platoon partner for Morneau. It's only 48 at-bats vs LHP but Pearce has 5 homers, a .514 wOBA, and a 233 wRC+. Overall, Pearce has a wRC+ of 153 with a .933 OPS. He'd be a great addition IMO. If there is nothing else, it wouldn't be bad, but I would be leery of a pretty big regression.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jul 8, 2016 -> 11:36 AM) How can this have "so little impact" on an organization you always *claim* operates under very limited resources? If signing Bonifacio to a 1 year $3 million contract qualifies as one of Rick Hahn's worst moves ever, he will be doing pretty good. No question the $3 million turned into a gift to the Bonifacio family, but there are far worse moves made every season. Interesting to note, when Bonifacio signed, the reaction here wasn't exactly negative.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jul 7, 2016 -> 03:23 PM) Here we go. Knew this was coming .750 OPS away from Coors field in 2016; .758 in 2015. That's Rios. Hahn set that value: Leury Garcia. (really should be less considering that Rios made 60% of Cargo's money) Paying anything more than the value of a .758 OPS earning $20 million a year is wishcasting. That's all it is. If we want a Rockie, get Blackmon But Alex Rios has a WS ring. You've hero worshipped him plenty. Don't you want another one?

Vinnie Goodwill at CSN is the coolest Bulls beat guy. When they asked him about the Bulls plane being pushed back, he just laughed, but he acknowledged beforehand that if the Bulls and Miami had similar offers to Wade, he would take the Bulls offer because he will have felt disrespected by Miami. Looking at it from his angle, he obviously always wanted to play for the Bulls. He knows unless he joins Lebron or goes to GS on a minimum, he isn't winning anything no matter where he goes, so now is the time to get paid to play out the string. I don't know how much he has left. I would guess not a lot or someone would give him 3 years. The whole he will attract a max guy or two seems farfetched to me (of course I thought he becoming a Bull was farfetched). First off, why would Rondo recruit someone who is supposed to recruit someone to take Rondo's place? And if you want to play with DWade, you get to play with him when he's 36 and on the last year of his deal and the last leg of his career. Doesn't make much sense. They are going to be too good to be a bottom 3 or 4 team, so I hope they at least make the playoffs.

The home/road splits have to be a concern, but when it's 90 degrees at USCF, it's a hitters paradise.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 7, 2016 -> 12:07 PM) An entirely valid question in reply though is whether he would have been more successful developing that 3rd pitch in AA and AAA for the last season+. Right now he has to pitch to win games because the White Sox are trying to win games and he's the #3 starter on a team that tells itself they're a contender. He cannot afford to give up a home run on his worst pitch, or walk the bases loaded because he is working on that 3rd pitch. No one cares if Charlotte or Birmingham lose a game because he throws too many changeups. It is certainly possible to develop a 3rd pitch at the big league level in the offseason or throwing sessions, but that may not work for everyone. So far it has not worked for Rodon, and the organization seems to have bet that it would. They tell themselves they are a contender because they are a contender. With Rodon taking the ball every 5 days. Check the standings.

Apparently back in 2010 Wade told Pax he was coming and shook his hand and said he had to go back to the owner of the Heat and tell him face to face. Pax asked him to sign something cementing his commitment. He wouldn't do it. Pax knew he wouldn't be back. I really don't understand this move. How is Wade going to get a max guy to sign? He's 100 in NBA years.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 6, 2016 -> 09:59 PM) Yes, I am THE ONLY person on this board concerned with that position on the team, lol... What next, you're going to go all Aaron Burr/Alexander Hamilton and challenge people to duels w/ English pistols? Why don't you find a project of going through ALL the game threads of finding who has posted negative comments about Avi Garcia vs. positive ones...? Pretty sure we spent the entire offseason and JR's money coming up with literally 100-150 different replacements for him. So...in your idea...we should praise him for how many games now, since his key single tonight? 5? 10? We should waive Morneau and not even bother trying to improve the position because of his many detractors aren't being "fair" to him? This is the best you can come up with? Because it's about as entertaining as StrangeSox and Jenks arguing if Trump is for or against chemical weapons and genocide. Then don't contradict yourself.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 6, 2016 -> 09:50 PM) Does any other fanbase in the country have this exact conversation going on right now? I'd hope Mariners fans are more excited about beating the Astros than their 39 years of ineptitude. You aren't. You first checked out after ripping Avi's OPS for the 2000th time, then he gave them the lead., and haven't had any game comment since.

QUOTE (harkness @ Jul 6, 2016 -> 09:37 PM) Go back and look at all the threads is all I can say... It's probably not worth your time - but you would see it. 541 posts in the game against Boston. WGN games would be the same. You are wrong. James Sheilds on a weekday WGN game got over 400.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jul 6, 2016 -> 09:18 PM) Not to mention that it was another year post shoulder surgery. He has always had a good arm. He would just occasionally hold on to it a little long thus it looks like he is hunting rattlesnakes.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jul 6, 2016 -> 09:18 PM) Reflecting where the Sox are in the grand scheme of things once again this summer. In the playoff hunt about to win their 5th series in a row. Just horrible.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jul 6, 2016 -> 09:10 PM) Bitter much? There was double the interest in the Sox 9-0 loss yesterday.

Co worker of mine flew from Chicago to NYC this morning . It probably wasn't weather related. Maybe an equipment problem or maybe they are playing a game.