Dick Allen

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.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 11:42 AM) Avi has been on the clock for six months now. They had replaced him, but then LaRoche quit. There is no doubt in my mind the Sox are shopping hard for his replacement and have been for a while now. That's true, but it does seem like the benefit of the doubt is coming close to an end. Sitting for longer periods, batting 8th or 9th...these are things that didn't happen before. If Morneau can play, Avi is cooked vs. RHP at that point.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 11:42 AM) Would AAA do Avi any good or is he just cooked? I wouldn't see the harm if you can't get anything for him. You have to pay him anyway. But I would make sure he made some radical adjustments. I think he needs to keep his hands lower. To me it's just for show now, when the pitcher starts his wind up, the hands wind up as high as ever, and he has a hard time catching up to fastballs he can't lay off of. If he can't lay off, keep the hands lower and maybe that will give him a better chance to hit them.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 11:39 AM) Yeah I guess this could work. I didn't know Lawrie's glove got better, he was a bobbling buffoon not to long ago. One thing I do agree with Caulfield on is Avi Garcia is on the clock. I think he's next. If he isn't hitting, he's totally worthless. So a rotating DH makes sense before Morneau or another bat arrives.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 11:34 AM) Well you could DH Saladino. People don't want Avi in the line up anymore Wouldn't surprise me to see Saladino play 2B and 3B from time to time and Frazier and Lawrie DHing. And Anderson will get a day or two off a week at SS I would imagine. Can't throw him totally to the wolves.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 11:15 AM) Wonder how Latos took it He pretty much told everyone how much he sucked after the last start. I doubt he made a scene. I actually wouldn't be surprised if he accepted going to Charlotte if the Sox wanted to do that.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 11:05 AM) FIFY Because if there are two things that Sox fans are good at, its setting unrealistic expectations and blasting the players when they don't meet those expectations. Nah, it will be on Robin or Renteria or whoever is managing then for "not putting him in a position to succeed".

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 11:00 AM) I don't understand the front office's thinking here. They certainly have gone to extremes here. First they want the veteran leadership, so they bring in a guy who is clearly "washed up". Then they reverse course and bring up a kid who they admit is a little raw, and still learning. I wan't crazy about the Rollins acquisition and even less in agreement with this one. It's too soon to be calling up Anderson. He is not a "savior" for what ails this team, and they are risking damaging his confidence. If he becomes a really great player, it will very likely be in a couple of years. In the meantime, he should be getting much more experience in AAA. His skill set is not what this team needs. He has no plate patience, which means that his OBP is not likely to be anywhere near .300 in the Big Leagues. He is not an elite defensive SS, as I have stressed in prior posts. He isn't even a left handed bat, and certainly not a power hitter. So what exactly does he bring to the table, that suggests that he needs to be rushed to the Majors, in order to help right this "sinking ship"? Unfortunately left handed bat middle of the line up, gold glove SS with OBP of .450 aren't available at the present time.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 10:51 AM) Pretty exciting stuff, to say the least. I am very fearful that Anderson is not ready for this level, or at minimum we might have wasted the chance for him to develop into a more patience and higher contact hitter. If he has the talent and gets enough of an opportunity, he should be able to work through those things at this level. We'll find out. On a lesser note, I wonder whether veteran FAs will begin to look at the Sox differently after seeing us repeatedly cut guys like Rollins, Latos, and some others in the recent past. On one hand, they get their money regardless, but on the other getting released like that mid-season is a possible death knell to an aging guy's career. I wouldn't think it's a big deal. They were given opportunities, and they failed. If someone is afraid to sign a 1 year contract because they might suck and get cut, no biggie. The problem to me is, it seems just about every single guy the Sox sign to these types of contracts have the same fate. I do think the Sox did OK with Latos. They won most of the games he pitched. Rollins didn't put up numbers, but they still are in contention and perhaps his presence helped the young guys. Buehrle often spoke about how much David Wells helped him, so if these guys were paying attention, what they paid Rollins could have been well worth it in the long run.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 10:51 AM) Guess this is a move people like. If he struggles will people blame KW for bringing him up too soon as a typical KW move. Ding ding ding.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 10:45 AM) Playing time- does Saladino start more or does Anderson? Is Anderson being used more as a PH/pinch run? If Anderson isn't coming up to play almost every day, this move makes no sense.

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 10:38 AM) It's difficult to tell at this point if rushing Anderson will have a permanent, negative impact on him. Given the current mediocre state of the Sox farm system, I'd error on the side of caution. I do agree with your last sentence, and that alone makes this a dumb move, IMO. Saladino is better defensively than Anderson and I don't see any evidence that Anderson would put up the .700 or so OPS that would merit his presence in the lineup. Hopefully he will pull a Trayce Thompson.