Dick Allen

Manny Ramirez retired from the Bears. Manny being Manny.

I think we will see a position player on the mound tonight. Will probably have a better line than Shields.

Apparently this isn't a big game.

Coop is going to tell him his top 5 Italian beefs .

QUOTE (ronkark @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 07:40 PM) Good news sox fans. Only two and half more years of watching James shields decline. Funny, it wasn't 24 hours ago you were complaining he wasn't pitching yesterday.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 06:01 PM) Yasiel Puig Alex Gordon Marcus Semien Kris Bryant Kendrys Morales Anthony Rizzo Juan Gonzalez Carlos Gomez Dan Coat SP Yordano Ventura MGR Tony LaRussa With Paulo Orlando coming off the bench. If anyone can make it happen it is Dayton Moore. Dan Coat is probably what Harry Caray would have called him in his later years.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 05:50 PM) Rollins hitting 6th vs a righty His career splits are pretty even. Last year he din't hit righties very well but hit them with a lot more power. Maybe he will run into one with someone on base.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 05:48 PM) It's on the agenda for the next meeting, but we're not calling him Big Game James. It's kind of a strange name anyway considering his 3-6 5.46 career playoff numbers.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 05:05 PM) LOL at Avi Garcia DHing and hitting 9th. Because of his "great forward speed" once he gets going. MUST.HAVE.FAST.GUY.AT.BOTTOM. Points for line-up creativity. Saladino's "hot streak" wasn't that sustainable after the Mets' series. Guess we shouldn't be surprised. Why don't you tell us what the line up should be?

I guess Oakland disbanded

If the Sox did sign Morneau, they would probably have the best 2010 roster in baseball.

QUOTE (skooch @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 02:57 PM) I'm not sure if you get the concept of negotiations and leverage. And I'm sure it is his agent talking to the teams. I'd have my agent talk to the team I hated the most if I knew I could use them as leverage. And if they were my best or only offer and I had made almost 100 MM in my life, well I might still tell them to take-a-hike. I don't think 35 year olds who haven't played much the past 5 or 6 years,coming off elbow surgery have much leverage. I don't think I would give him a major league deal until I saw him swing a bat.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 03:17 PM) Who called them that? There are 3 teams with longer playoff droughts right now that I'd certainly rank as worse franchises, and a couple of the ones who made the playoffs in 2010-2011 don't exactly impress with their current moves. That's right, you haven't been in gamethreads.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 03:01 PM) I was going to rip this move, but I'll at least admit I was surprised at how good of numbers Morneau put up in the limited time that he actually played with the Rockies the past two seasons. I just wonder what the effect of another year and elbow surgery and missing time would have on him. And unless he is resigned that all he will get is some minor league make good deal, I really don't buy the White Sox being able to stealthly sign him before word gets out that he is ready to go. There are several teams looking for bats. But you are right, he has been better than probably most realize when he was able to play the past couple of years. More of a threat from the left side than JB Shuck.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 02:19 PM) The reason to highlight the Astros is - 2 of those 3 seasons, they didn't get the thing that comes with 105 losses that is supposed to make you better - a successful #1 pick. Yeah they had a larger international signing pool but what have they gotten from that so far? Out of those 3 seasons, they got "Carlos Correa and a draft as good as the one they'd have gotten if they'd won the world series". That's why they can be called "what should be the worst case scenario". Your franchise has no excuse if it can't do better than that. Their "success" was an 86 win season, and a playoff ouster. The unsuccessful, horrible, worst franchise in baseball White Sox have had an unsuccessful 90 win season in 2006, an unsuccessful 88 win season in 2010 and an unsuccessful 85 win season in 2012.

I'm not buying this. If Morneau was ready to sign with teams, I would imagine his agent(s) would have the word out. Coming off elbow surgery, probably will have really diminished power this year.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 02:32 PM) Like I noted in the other thread it shouldn't take a team 20 years to rebuild even if they have an extremely weak farm system. It can take half a decade yes, but if your org can't recover in a 5-ish year period then your org is completely f***ed up and you don't get sympathy from me. The problem is you don't have 10 years, you have 4 or 5 or 6 if you are small market because once your guys get to free agency, you have to start again. You can trade them for more prospects sooner, but it's like throwing water off of a boat with a bucket. You're just buying time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 02:21 PM) While it would be a different game, I don't think there's any reason to believe it would be a game with "more competitive balance" or a "better game overall" or even a "better league for small market teams" based on the results of the last decade. For the small market teams to be successful, they generally have to be bad for a longer period of time., and their windows are probably smaller.Could you imagine Boston or the Yankees stinking it up for 20 plus years like the Pirates or Royals? Slotting and draft pools have at least made the draft pretty fair. Although many teams blow through their international allotment, a loophole I believe needs to be shut.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 02:03 PM) If the salary money isn't allocated properly, it really isn't. Part of it is the money is and has been spent on players who weren't that good. Dunn, LaRoche and Danks come to mind. How about the money paid to Jeff Keppinger a guy the Sox signed and paid with a bum shoulder? Mark Unless you are operating a shoestring budget, there is going to be a lot of dead money paid out. Some people don't like the fact the Sox will be paying James Shields $27 million to pitch the next 2 1/2 years. Theo was able to give Edwin Jackson $26 million to stink up the joint for 2 years, and another $26 million for 2 more to pitch for other teams, all the while having $150 million for Lester, $200 million for Heyward and a bunch of money to Lackey and Zobrist. I do agree with you, we are nowhere near a baseball salary cap and may never be near one, but it would be an entirely different game if there happened to be one. Andrew Freidman was pretty good with no money in TB, and many assumed it may even be unfair when he had access to all the Dodger money, but like KW, it seems he may be more shrewd the less money he gets to spend.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 01:24 PM) I really do disagree. Take a look here - the leagues with the salary caps at best have "as much" competitive balance as MLB and in many ways MLB has more. MLB has more teams with titles in the past 10 years, similar numbers of teams finishing in the top 2, top 4, and top 8 (NBA top 4 almost never turns over). Each league has 4-7 franchises that haven't had a top 8 finish in a decade. MLB's system may not be as "effective" as a salary cap, but because of the way the draft and development system works in MLB and how random it is, and how bad of an investment the FA market is, teams can get around the money if they manage their org correctly. NBA vs. MLB is totally different. NBA has and always will be more easily prognosticated than any other sport. Especially in the playoffs. The best team wins more often. In baseball, with the change in the guy on the mound, you basically feature a different most games in a series. That's why around .500 is NBA hell but not NHL or NFL or MLB hell. A break here or there and you contend. Not in the NBA.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 01:43 PM) If they don't, then they've pulled off "more incompetent than a team that blew 2 #1 picks" and that's one heckuva job. Depending on your definition of incompetent, yes. But they wouldn't have had to sit through 3 straight seasons of at least 105 losses.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 01:19 PM) What's really amazing today is that we have the example of the Astros...a team that got the top pick 3 times in a row and completely blew 2 of them, and they were able to rebuild to a playoff team within 6 years of their last winning season. A team doing literally everything possible to f*** up a rebuild managed to get it done in 6 years. They may not turn into a title contender ever, they may miss the playoffs again this year, etc, but "we blew 2 of our 3 top picks and still made the playoffs within 6 years" is a nice lesson. The level of front office incompetence that the teams that are below .500 for longer than that have to display really must be remarkable. So the Sox should make the playoffs by 2018.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 01:15 PM) It's still not as effective as leagues with a salary cap. Anyway the point was the poster was trying to make it sound like JR wanted his heirs to sell the Sox and keep the Bulls because he doesn't care about the Sox as much. Which is actually the opposite because of the huge baseball fan he is. The true reason he told them to keep the Bulls is 1. He actually owns the Bulls whereas he owns a small portion of the sox and 2. It's much easier to compete in the NBA due to the salary cap structure. It's more fool proof as well. You would really have to be the Nets owner not to make money running the Bulls. As to the White Sox, I know someone who knows JR's son pretty well. From what he told me, I wouldn't expect a sale if they still have the team when JR departs.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 01:10 PM) Stop it 61-101 66-96 Joe Maddon's first 2 years. Why did they let him continue? 69-93 66-94 81-80 50-56 78-84 Bobby Cox's first 5 seasons. Who else would ever even interview him? Loser.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 12:55 PM) All you need to know about Robin Ventura is that he never aspired to be a manager, his teams have been terrible under his tenure, and he'll never interview for a managerial job ever again, let alone manage a big league game after this season. He's in a class by himself for the only franchise that would go this way for this long. 49-68 66-96 63-99 67-95 41-62 Joe Torre's first 5 years as a manager with the Mets. He was hired the next season to manage Atlanta.