Dick Allen

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ Mar 7, 2016 -> 10:12 AM) Whitman should hire Tom Thibodeau next. My brother is a U of I alum and I jokingly mentioned this to him. Thibs obviously is all about the NBA, but if they wait a year or 2, Hoiberg may be available.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Mar 7, 2016 -> 11:02 AM) That would be retarded. I'm basis that off the last 3 years of Danks combined with Tuners pedigree and a belief that a healthy young turner is going to be more productive and add more balance to the rotation. I hope you're right, but a 6.13 ERA in 2014, and 9 total innings pitched in AA on 2015 seems to say longshot.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Mar 7, 2016 -> 10:00 AM) I also hope that Danks starts the year in the pen - with Turner and Latos getting the 4/5 slots. Are you basing this on Turner and Danks' 2 first week of spring training innings?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 7, 2016 -> 09:25 AM) It is more of a Cub love than anything else. The Cubs press release of the Maddon hiring shows Kap (who I happen to like) is a little full of it today: Rick deserved to come back for another season as Cubs manager, and we said as much when we announced that he would be returning in 2015. We met with Rick two weeks ago for a long end-of-season evaluation and discussed plans for next season. We praised Rick to the media and to our season ticket holders. These actions were made in good faith. Last Thursday, we learned that Joe Maddon—who may be as well suited as anyone in the industry to manage the challenges that lie ahead of us—had become a free agent. We confirmed the news with Major League Baseball, and it became public knowledge the next day. We saw it as a unique opportunity and faced a clear dilemma: be loyal to Rick or be loyal to the organization. In this business of trying to win a world championship for the first time in 107 years, the organization has priority over any one individual. We decided to pursue Joe. While there was no clear playbook for how to handle this type of situation, we knew we had to be transparent with Rick before engaging with Joe. Jed flew to San Diego last Friday and told Rick in person of our intention to talk to Joe about the managerial job. Subsequently, Jed and I provided updates to Rick via telephone and today informed him that we will indeed make a change. We offered Rick a choice of other positions with the Cubs, but he is of course free to leave the organization and pursue opportunities elsewhere. Armed with the experience of a successful season and all the qualities that made him our choice a year ago, Rick will no doubt make an excellent major league manager when given his next chance.

I agree with the above. Pretty amazing how he was able to stretch a buck, get a middle of the order guy in Frazier, and fill holes, with minimal impact on the pitching front. Montas may come back to bite him one day, but if Frazier is as good as advertised and the team wins, that's more than OK. Not trading Q was huge. The team still could use some more power, but if LaRoche could somehow be what they thought he would be, they could be OK there as well.

QUOTE (WhiteSoxLifer @ Mar 6, 2016 -> 06:27 PM) Thats a hoping he puts up 20+ homers not a guarantee I have a feeling HR are going to be up league wide this season. I think they are going to be using balls wound a little tighter. They already use jacked up balls for the HR derby.

So most of us thought the Sox would exercise the $10 million option on Alexei. Hahn basically traded that for Rollins, Latos, and Jackson for the option plus the $1 million buyout. It still wouldn't surprise me if they traded Avi and/or a reliever befor the season started.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Mar 6, 2016 -> 05:50 PM) Seeing Rollins over Saladino still makes me roll my eyes... I mean, I know that's what will probably happen, but I think Saladino will have a much better year It is a spring training battle. I really don't think Rollins is the Opening Day SS ISO Saladino outplays him.

So JR stretched the budget. Will people finally realize when the Sox cry poor they are about to spend some money?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Mar 6, 2016 -> 04:33 PM) Lakers givin' it to the Warriors. Biggest regular season upset in history? It probably would be. It is the first time a team with a winning pct. over .900 has played a team with a winning pct. under .200 this late in the season.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Mar 6, 2016 -> 11:22 AM) I have no idea on who the target is. I was told the Levine report was bull and they were trying to add an OFer but nothing else. Unless it is a signing that is going to be announced that day, most of Levines info seems to be his speculation rather than actual information he has received.

It would depend on how involved he was willing to become. His players seemed to love him. I think Illinois recruiting would,only get better.

QUOTE (soxfan49 @ Mar 5, 2016 -> 04:35 PM) He is actually a horrendous football coach. His OC last season is now a HC and the Bucs were still awful So,was,Harbaugh's. His DL coach became his replacement. He must be awful. All I know is Illinois can't be all that attractive of a job for most established coaches,. If they get a guy who went to a Super Bowl with Rex Grossman as his QB, they did pretty well. I am no fan of Illinois football, but to me, assuming he isn't just using this as a stepping stone, it would be a great hire.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Mar 5, 2016 -> 03:21 PM) Ryan Baker ‏@RyanBakerMedia 1m1 minute ago Chicago, IL Some credible sources are telling me Lovie Smith will be the next #Illini head football coach. @cbschicago Ryan Baker is usually solid. He was a team manager for the Flyin Illini. That would be a good move for Illinois, the only question would be if he was successful and the NFL came calling, would he leave?

QUOTE (fathom @ Mar 5, 2016 -> 02:03 PM) As the Vice President to President Balta's "Ventura doesn't know how to handle Spring Training" campaign, I have been very pleased with everything I've heard about how the Sox are approaching Spring Training so far. What haven't the Sox been doing in spring training that good teams do, and are there any links available proving they don't do these things or is it all speculation?

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Mar 5, 2016 -> 10:50 AM) I'd give up James Dykstra for Jay Bruce. Bruce was actually really good the first half last year, but that second half was really awful.

Base running can be taught to a certain point. And most of these guys are at the point where they have pretty much been taught most of what they can be taught. For guys that are potentially elite base stealers there is may be another technique or key that could push them, but for the most part you don't hear too much about guys becoming great base runners who used to be horrible. You see it the other way around when guys lose some speed but their brain doesn't seem to realize it. And by base running, not just stealing bases. That actually seems to be a smaller part of base running than in the past. It is about getting good jumps, checking your outfielders, knowing to let a ball get through the infield etc. Drills and actual game situations are about as different as practicing a speech in your bathroom and giving it that day in front packed auditorium. Experience helps. . Renteria was a fine hire, but the reason the sox will be better at base running this year is because they have better base runners.

Dan Hayes was on CSN, and while he didn't commit to agree with Levine, he did say he knew as a "fact" the Sox have been after CarGo all offseason but the price has been sky high.

QUOTE (shipps @ Mar 4, 2016 -> 04:43 PM) I am considering buying a house in Malibu. On the beach.

QUOTE (bmags @ Mar 3, 2016 -> 03:19 PM) Dick, I don't disagree with you that they couldn't find more money. But, they clearly were not actually able to compete in the FA marketplace as seen by the results. THey were not able to get into competitive bidding wars, and were basically only able to provide below market price contracts. If your plan to improve requires getting below market deals for top pieces on the market, you should re-think your plan. And it did REQUIRE the fa market to upgrade, as we've seen. All you need to know about Hahn's comments is this, they supposedly stretched the budget for Jimmy Rollins, who, if he sucks in spring training, they owe nothing but the same contract they just gave Loe. It's all just words. Hahn has said they were looking at and needed OF help. He will get one. Just watch, and Uncle Jer will be his competitive self and OK the "stretching of the budget". I would have loved if they signed any of the FA, including Fowler and Desmond, especially if Desmond could play the OF. But they can still upgrade.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Mar 3, 2016 -> 03:00 PM) Lol - well, at the moment they have the money. They just don't have the other OF. Laugh all you want, but this is the same story we have received since the you can't spend a dollar if you only have 50 cents routine. They aren't going to tell you they are sitting on a pile of cash. They are going to tell you they are broke. When is the last year the White Sox ever were really trying to be competitive where they didn't say this exact same thing? I know people like to complain, but the Sox crying poor and John Danks getting lit up on March 4th is really a reach.

They offered Fowler a contract. Man, some people will buy anything. When the Sox talk money, THEY ARE LYING. We get the same story every year. They try to stretch the budget, competitive Uncle Jerry says OK. The Sox have money for another OF. For the love of God, learn from the past. How many times have they cried poor only to pick up more payroll? A lot more than when they have cried poor and the payroll remained the same or went down. Besides, if the difference between Avi and another OF is a playoff team vs. a team that wins 78 games, there aren't a lot of teams that can afford that particular guy anyway.

Just when you thought Hahn was done....

QUOTE (bmags @ Mar 3, 2016 -> 10:08 AM) Honestly would liked to have seen Avi leave the bat on his shoulder for a week and see what his OBP was. I suggested that last season. Just for a game. Maybe a light would have turned on.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Mar 2, 2016 -> 04:58 PM) So was Samardzija. Sure messed up the Cubs, didn't it. And the Sox sure showed them when they bought high on Samardzija. Selling high doesn't mean you sell every good player you have. But this team with its ongoing deficiencies needs to do some high-selling to get square, imo. Can't keep throwing ML Ready prospects at every mediocre veteran available. Some they threw at Oak last year are better players than the additions they made this year. If they hadn't traded him, and he pitched for the Cubs in 2015 like he pitched for them in 2014, it might have messed up the Cubs actually. But that is apples and oranges. If Samardjiza was locked into a contract like Eaton, he wouldn't have been traded. I just don't understand your fascination with playing young players no matter how bad they are, but as soon as they show they may be decent, trade them for more young players. Rinse and repeat. Complain about the Sox record all you want. If you had your way, it would easily be far worse. You made up the term hero worship on here, and I really like it. The problem is you hero worship players that haven't been hero worshipped since high school.