Dick Allen

QUOTE (ronkark @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 06:29 PM) Love all I've read about the bat. As far as catching. Hm. Thats a tough one. We haven't had good D catcher in a long long time. No flowers was not. No one can contain run game either. So it does worry me you have him at C and Anderson at SS who is sub par defensively. Not to mention Abreu. lot of pressure on all others to be elite. BUT I love the idea of a catch who is a plus bat. That is huge. Throwing for a catcher these days isn't hat large of a concern. The stolen base is going the way of the Do do bird. If his bat is that good, you probably don't want him catching much anyways.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 06:10 PM) When it rains it pours. Now the Sox are going through injuries like Kansas City and Cleveland. We'll see if they have any kind of depth to alleviate things. Mark If you could choose a starting OF the Sox would lose for up to 6 weeks, Jackson would be the unanimous choice. Webb would be a unanimous choice for a pitcher to lose for the season, and Petricka would be close to unanimous. So while it stings, it could be a lot worse.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 06:05 PM) There's an undeniable stench of desperation coming from Hahn's office It does seem like they are shuffling the deck. Maybe something is coming. I wonder who the 6th starter is now. I know some are excited about Renaudo but he has done exactly what he is doing in AAA now before the Rangers called him up, and he made Noesi look good. Turner hasn't been impressive. Maybe Latos goes to Charlotte. It will be fun to see Anderson, but he is being put in a situation in which he has to produce right away. Maybe he takes it and runs with it, but I would expect growing pains.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 04:21 PM) I heard this guy named Ian Desmond was willing to sign for $8 million (and he would have picked the Sox over the Rangers to stay at SS), and also has the ability to play LF/RF. Gee...sounds like someone we could have used. And it would have preserved Anderson's timeframe for September, 2016 arrival. We shall see how it all works, and if Burdi makes it all worth it. Did you or did you not call for the White Sox to sign Ian Desmond if he was available after the draft?

Someone else had a hip impingement a couple of weeks ago and was lost for the year. It made me wonder about Petricka. Webb is no loss, but don't TJ guys sometimes have issues with command when they come back? He won't be able to throw a strike. As soon as Jackson got going offensively he breaks down. That is disappointing but it could be worse, if you are going to lose 3 guys in a day, this is in at least the 85 percentile of good.

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 02:23 PM) I recall seeing Kruk standing outside of the visitor's dugout at Wrigley back in the late '80s or early '90s, smoking and eating Ding-Dongs. He was a treasure. And he could hit. Dick Vitale for basketball used to have his all airport team. They were guys who where incredible physical specimens, but couldn't play a lick. They looked great at the airport. That describes some of the guys the Sox have drafted over the years.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 02:14 PM) I laughed hysterically when I saw that interview. Working in the league in the late 80's-early 90's it was true. It really changed now though. There is no question these guys are on strength and conditioning programs now. Just from the season ticketholder events where you get to go into the clubhouses you see how it's not a candy store anymore. But I want a guy who knows what he is doing on the field. It seems to me most guys who miss development time playing football or basketball at the college level, have a hard time catching up. The great thing about baseball is you don't have to necessarily be the biggest guy or strongest or fastest. Sure it can help. You can look like a normal guy and still be a great player.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 02:02 PM) Being an athlete always helps As John Kruk once said when a woman criticized him for being a professional athlete and smoking in public, lady I'm no athlete. I'm a baseball player.

QUOTE (CB2.0 @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 01:39 PM) Right! Which means that with Latos at #5 for $3M and only this year committed...was this move really necessary? No. Possibly not, but they concluded Latos wouldn't provide them with what is needed, and many here agreed. I think it is unfair to make conclusions about James Shields after 2 innings. If it continues, yes. But it's one bad game at a pretty unfortunate time.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 01:52 PM) They've really stayed with college guys though. Isn't Thompson the only high school kid on your list? Although last year they took some high school guys as I recall. Zangari and crew I believe. Hostetler supposedly is more likely to draft a HS kid than the previous regime. I just think this is the way his board went down.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 01:50 PM) No not necessarily hitting but with safe high floor college players as opposed to low floor athletic types. Hopefully, they took who they thought was the BPA not just that type of hitter because they wanted one. I think it was under Schueler, although it may have been KW, where one year they were going for mostly pitchers figuring if several panned out, they could flip them for offense. Schueler didn't draft well at all, but he was good at trades and signing vets to make good contracts.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 01:43 PM) I'm going to suggest that KW, Hahn and Hostetler have had a mutual change in philosophy. Kind of like a few years ago when they changed from High floor-low ceiling guys like Broadway and McCullough to athletic guys like Anderson and Mitchell. IIRC the pick after that change of philosophy was Poreda. He wasn't the high floor low ceiling. Turns out he was just as bad though. Lately though, everyone has to like Sale, seems a lot like Anderson, a lot like Rodon, a lot like Fulmer. Many are missing guys like Semien, and Thompson. So what is a KW draft and what is not, when all the players are different kind of confuses me.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 01:38 PM) Doesnt seem like a KW draft to me. Hostetler is presenting different types of choice than Laumann. I think it's as simple as that. You can't scout everybody. The top of his board probably looks a whole lot different that what it would have looked like if Laumann was still the director.

KW replaces Laumann with Hostetler and tells Hostetler not to pay any attention to this KW fellow. Weren't there reports about KW personally scouting guys? You really think he won't have a huge say? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighhhhhhhhhhhhhhht. You should probably wait to see how these guys pan out. If they are great, we know KW was gagged and tied up and thrown into the closet during the draft. If they bust, we know he locked everyone out of the draft room and commandeered the phone to the league office.

QUOTE (CB2.0 @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 01:27 PM) He wasn't being paid as a #4 in San Diego, though. He was their Ace @ 66 IP, 32 ER. I knew this would happen. He isn't the White Sox ace. They need him to be a #4. He has shown this season he could be a really decent #4. He has also shown the last 2 times out he can be worse than JB Shuck. I will take my chances he pitches more like a #4 than an OF the rest of the year.

QUOTE (skooch @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 01:17 PM) Speaking of eating innings ... I didn't see the last game vs. WAS, why did Robin pull MiGo after 6 innings having thrown only 78 pitches w/ 3H, 1R, 0BB, 5K? Seems odd for a team that has been so concerned with innings consumption from their starters. What gives? Proactive. Had Harper and Murphy coming up. Went to Duke.

QUOTE (reiks12 @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 01:13 PM) So tired of the negativity. This team is at .500 with only 3.5 GB AT THE START OF JUNE! There is still months left. You would think the way you have been posting this team is 10 GB. There's still plenty of the season left. Must be brutal and depressing watching this team hoping shields is as bad or worse than shields. Me? I have been one of the most optimistic people on here.

QUOTE (CB2.0 @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 01:10 PM) Yeah, and the Padres lost all but 2 of those 10 starts while he gave up 7 HRs and 23 BBs. Not good. 6 IP 3 ER 7 IP 4 ER 7 IP 2 ER 6 IP 3 ER 7 IP 1 ER 6 IP 1 ER 6 IP 4 ER 7 IP 0 ER 6 IP 2 ER 6 IP 2 ER Actually, for a 4th starter, pretty good.

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 01:04 PM) If Hahn traded Anderson for a few months of Reddick, he should be fired. I doubt that Anderson will be traded. If Shields was getting paid Latos money, I wouldn't have a problem with him. But $30M for a 34-year-old with a ton of innings on his arm, declining velocity, and a below-average record in a pitcher's park in the NL sounds like a serious reach. Yeah, he won't be as bad as he was a couple of nights ago. But I don't see him being a significantly better option than EJ or one of our minor league pitchers at this point. Maybe Shields isn't as bad as Danks was this year, but he's probably not far away and he might be there in 2017. Like Rock pointed out, he is being paid to give you a longer outing than those guys. It obviously didn't work out last outing, but he has been going 6 or 7 with some consistency in his career, including this season. That is what they are paying for. An extra 35-50 innings saves a bullpen. In the grand scheme, what they are paying him isn't that much for what he theoretically will provide. We will see how it works out. I didn't love it, but I don't hate it. It might not be a big upgrade, but I really doubt it will turn into a downgrade, and JR has plenty of money.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 01:01 PM) Shields is supposed to eat more innings than Latos basically. Thats his job. Right an extra inning or 2 a start. Up until Seattle, he had been going 6 or 7 every start.

Just for fun, I looked at the 2011 3rd round. Most of the players who have made it were pitchers. No stars for sure. The most a position player taken in the 3rd round 5 years ago has batted is 36 times.

If Anderson is worse than Rollins and Shields worse than Latos and/or Anderson, someone is building their own grave. So I would think they are confident these are upgrades. Shields was awful, but he's not that bad. I think there is better than 50/50 shot he is better than Latos. Whether that's worth picking up the money they pay him, I don't know. If Anderson falls on his face, he'll just go back to Charlotte and Sanchez or someone else will take his place. It shouldn't be all that hard to get at least Rollins level production, but as we have seen before, sometimes that isn't as easy as it seems.

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 12:33 PM) JR would probably offer Hahn a different position within the organization (probably Kenny's) rather than fire him outright, but I don't doubt for a second that JR would strongly consider removing Hahn from the GM position this winter. JR doesn't have another 10 or 15 years to win another championship. He wants to win now, and his public irritation with this team's performance shows his lack of patience. If Hahn was so certain about his job security, he wouldn't be making desperation moves like throwing $30M at a washed-up James Shields and bringing up Tim Anderson a half-season before he's ready. Ever since last year when KW made RH have to feel uncomfortable when he said when the chairman is upset he calls Kenny, the dynamic to me, between the 3, seems a bit odd. JR won't go directly to his GM? Or won't he go because he knows everything must go through KW? Who knows. They said opposing teams really didn't know who was in charge. I think it's clear KW is RH's boss. I just don't buy RH is a puppet, or that every good move had to be Hahn, every bad one had to be KW. I also think Hahn is a lot more similar with his baseball team building philosophy to KW that most believe or want to believe. I do think Avi is an 0-4 or two away from being a Charlotte Knight. And Hahn's comment concerning Robin yesterday leads me to think he's a bad weekend away from being able to spend the rest of the summer with his family in Cali.

I think they are desperate to have the team play meaningful games. If a team starts out 23-10 falls apart this quickly, it is just going to raise the bar for what will compel the fanbase to attend games. The thing is, it remains to be seen if Anderson/Shields really is an upgrade over Rollins/Latos this season. Right now it seems they are throwing s*** against a wall and hoping it sticks, and probably will continue to do so if they don't go on a roll fairly soon.

Chances are Avi is going to be a really good hitter in Japan some day.