Dick Allen

QUOTE (Knackattack @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 02:43 PM) I would imagine that if they trade a quality player like Coghlan for Aaron freakin Brooks they must have tried many other places and not found much interest. If Hahn had a guy like Coughlan and had to trade him for basically nothing, and his options were the Cubs or the Padres, and he picked the Cubs garbage over the Padres garbage, he would be crazy to do that. Coughlan, if he does do anything, has a far less chance to haunt Theo and the Cubs in Oakland than he does across town. Besides, we don't know what Hahn has in mind other than he does have something in mind. We should see what that is before being upset Chris Coughlan isn't a White Sox. There may be a time you should be upset he wasn't acquired for something useful, but not yet.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 02:40 PM) The trick is...I kinda buy that, but at the same time there's information here. If Fangraphs is hanging too much on the defense, then that also means the other pitchers weren't as strong as fangraphs put them either. So, if you're going to say it's all on Samardzija and he's a below-replacement player, as is said there, then Sale was a 3.3 WAR pitcher by the same standard, no where near an ace level season. I think reality remains somewhere in-between. Yes, he got rocked in August, but at the same time, if a guy is pitching for a team with a terrible offense, if he gives up 5 runs or 9 runs you lose either way. At the same time, he also got the team a fair number of wins in June and September and definitely helped keep them in the "we're still in this!!" mode that Hahn was in at the end of July last year. The defense isn't the same for every pitcher, and since a guy like Sale strikes out more guys, he isn't as defense dependent. Sale didn't have his best year either, but sometimes WAR numbers don't add up. To think that Shark's 2015 performance was really worth close to $20 million on the open market is IMO positively preposterous Batman. He went on a real hot streak before he got awful. Another problem was his 1st inning woes. It took any wind out of the sails on several occasions.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 02:29 PM) Just to note - by using the phrase "replacement level" you're indicating a stat that partially disagrees with your statement. Fangraphs clocked him at 2.7 WAR, which was exactly what he also put up in 2012 and 2013. B-R put him as worse than that I will also note - something I think is Fangraphs giving more of the credit for the terrible season to the defense and B-R saying the whole white sox pitching staff was weak last year (including Sale, FWIW). That's great, but he led the league in earned runs allowed, hits, homers and the defense was the problem has a big arrow pointing to his own defense. The fact is, the Sox defense was fine when after the All Star break, he decided to suck. It wasn't on Melky, or Avi, or anyone else. It was Shark. 14-18 in his starts which pencils out to about 71 wins in a 162 game schedule. He was awful. WAR isn't the end all. If the choice was a pitcher who gave up fewer runs or a pitcher with the higher WAR, I'll take the lower WAR every time. Replacing his 2015 performance, despite his WAR number, shouldn't be a tall task.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 02:16 PM) One of the biggest things is that no one plays pick up game anymore. That's true. I grew up across the street from a long parkway. We "made" about 4 or 5 different fields, and every summer until HS would play from 9 AM until guys started getting yelled at to come in for dinner. Then we would go back out and play until it was too dark to see anything. My sister lives pretty close to there now, and says she hasn't seen anyone playing baseball on the parkway since I stopped playing.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 01:40 PM) Then that argues teams do a much better job of targeting your hitters with weak platoon splits than I would have imagined. I don't think it really has as much to do with rotations athough I suppose if for a team like the Rangers you could skip the 5th starter who throws RH and go all lefty, maybe they do that, but I think a lot of it as to do with bullpens. Managers love L/L, R/R match ups. If a team is mostly lefthanded, they are going to see more lefty pitching, and vice versa.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 01:21 PM) This prompted me to go take a look at some truly bizarre stat lines - team stats against LHP, sorted by "total plate appearances against LHP". The Rangers somehow faced lefties more than 200 PAs more than any other team in the big leagues. They saw almost double the number of LHP of any team in the bigs - 2200 PAs for them, 1300 PAs for the Marlins. The White Sox were 20th, about 1500 PAs against LHP. Interestingly, this was not the lowest number of PAs against lefties in the AL Central - the Tigers only faced 1350 lefties. Cleveland and KC came in #2 and #3 on total PAs against LHP and I'd wager the White Sox had some to do with that. Minnesota was 8th. Detroit though, how the hell? Look at their big hitters and see if they are LH or RH. That probably has a lot to do with it. The Rangers are really lefthanded. 1 or 2 a game adds up.

QUOTE (SoxSteve @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 01:19 PM) I'm happy Fowler signed with the Cubs rather than with Baltimore. The more good players not in the American League the better and i firmly believe the Cubs and their success on doing what their doing puts more pressure on Hahn and Kenny to make moves and put a better product on the field and try to keep the Sox relevant. As much as both teams always seem to downplay it, I agree with you. If the Cubs get better, it does cause the White Sox to be a little more aggressive.(As much as the current pursuit of an additional OF seems to squash that thought) Even Hawk agreed. On the other side of the coin, the attendance trophy suddenly wasn't good enough anymore when the Sox won it all.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 12:29 PM) You keep saying s*** like this. I just like 2 hours ago in this very thread asked you to list who of any of significance the Sox have moved in trades that burned them, outside of Semien (still an unproven player that didn't fit what the Sox needed) and Gio like 10 years ago. Unsurprisingly, you didn't list any. Because there aren't any! But that wouldn't fit your narrative. Don't waste your time with him. He, even with hindsight, thinks the Sox were stupid to trade Reed, Morse, and Olivo for Freddy Garcia. Prospects are better no matter what. They don't have to be good. They just have to have prospect status.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 12:30 PM) Coghlan isn't great, but he would have easily been 4th best offensive player on the Sox last year (including Frazier) That doesn't matter. If it did, the Sox would have been a lot better last year, and no one would have a problem with LaRoche.

On the other side of the coin, if Theo is going to give Coughlan away, why would he give him to the White Sox instead of a team like Oakland? BTW, I don't think Coughlan is very good. It doesn't bother me they didn't trade for him.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 12:17 PM) Jesse Rogers ‏@ESPNChiCubs 5m5 minutes ago Press conference over. @DexterFowler says he has no idea why it was reported he signed with BaltimoreTurned down more $$ there and elsehwere Levine said he wanted an opt out in Baltimore, so if it was 3/$33 the 1/$13 is less money for sure but it's a smaller scale Heyward took less money. The Sox might have offered him 2/$20, which technically is more money, but in reality, not really if he can get more than $7 million in 2017.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 12:15 PM) He just said he turned down more money elsewhere From Baltimore. I think that line is now standard in prepping to talk to the press after you sign a free agent contract, but he definitely did.

According to Levine, Fowler wanted an opt out after 1 year from Baltimore, they said no so he went to the Cubs. And this is a 1 year $13 million deal. It's $8 million this year and mutual $9 million next year with a $5 million buyout.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 11:59 AM) Really curious as to what happened because that's a scummy thing to do by Fowler. Orioles fans are rightfully really pissed off right now. I agree. If he agreed pending a physical, then what he did was bad. Maybe the reporters jumped the gun. OTOH, the Orioles can't complain because as they have shown time after time, a deal is not a deal until they say the physical went perfectly.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 11:57 AM) Unless they are giving up a lot of other value in addition to Soler that would be an outrageously bad deal for San Diego. Soler hasn't shown he can ever stay healthy and he was horrendous defensively last year while also being a below average hitter. His bat has a lot of potential but between the terrible D and injuries I wouldn't value him particularly highly. Yes. At this point, how much better is Soler than Avi? And he gets paid a little more as well.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 11:49 AM) Could easily be rotation between Soler, Fowler and Schwarber I see that, but why sign a 1 year deal (mutual option doesn't help him at all, they are just for show) if you aren't going to be playing every day?

This means they have to be trading Soler correct, or where would he play? Would Fowler come back to play part-time? That makes zero sense.

He was a really little guy, but always seemed very friendly. RIP.

QUOTE (gosoxgo2005 @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 09:56 AM) Long time lurker, first time poster. To the guy who said the Sox are the only team going to the playoffs in Chicago this year -- is that supposed to be a troll post? If it is, I like it, because I, like many of you, hate the Cubs and would love to see them not make the playoffs. With that said, that organization is in pristine condition right now and I would be willing to wager every single dollar to my name that they make the playoffs in 2015. No team ever swept in the league championship series has ever made the playoffs the following year. So we have that.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 09:22 AM) Yes, if Avi's slugging was 85 points higher we'd all be a lot happier with him. That doesn't make a .309 OBP good, it just means he has numerous other flaws. If he only had one flaw, the OBP, I'd be a big fan. What I think you're trying to say is that based on his build, hitting for more power is an easier path to improvement for Avi than taking more walks. This makes a little more sense because we know the power is in there, he just can't apply it. In contrast, the patience might just be a lost art to him. At least they are trying something different. A different stance made all the difference in the world to Nelson Cruz, a guy who had similar issues . The odds are against it, but you never know. The Sox are due for some things like this to go their way.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 08:19 AM) Is it me, or does Tom Ricketts look similar to Ted Cruz? I have mentioned on more than one occasion you never have seen both in the same room at the same time.

QUOTE (buhbuhburrrrlz @ Feb 24, 2016 -> 06:52 PM) Thank you. I have been looking for this.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Feb 24, 2016 -> 06:38 PM) And those young players KW gave up almost never amounted to anything at all. And I couldn't be less concerned about the prospects we gave up This summer. I'm not a mediocre young player lover like you. I have never understood the constant bashing of KW for trading prospects. Blasting him for inability to develop would make sense, but an All Star team of the prospects he traded away probably couldn't win 40 games in a season.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 24, 2016 -> 06:31 PM) Colonel General Soreness? General Soreness supposedly has hamstring tendinitis.

DRose out tonight.