Dick Allen

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 14, 2016 -> 04:13 PM) For one season with Houston. Compared to Cespedes' track record, it's not even close. How many big years did Cespedes have in the AL? 2? Fowler played,1,season in the AL and had a career high 124 wRC+. Your claim that he would have a hard time adjusting to the AL is based,on nothing and full of s***.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 14, 2016 -> 04:01 PM) I don't want to hear anymore about building for the future if they make an incremental upgrade in Fowler and lose another $10-12 million in terms of the projected short and long term value of that pick. That means you're actually dedicating $48-62 million to Fowler on a three year contract. Why not just pay the relatively small difference on Cespedes or Upton for one more year? Fowler is another one of those guys who might not necessarily translate in the AL as well...buying high on him makes less sense than buying lower on Jackson and Desmond. Jackson is younger, a better defender and more accustomed to the AL Central. I prefer Jackson but once,again you don't let facts stop your rants. Fowler has played in the AL and did quite well offensively. He was horrible on defense.

San Diego usually isn't the place to go to show teams they were wrong when they figured you can't hit anymore.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jan 14, 2016 -> 03:11 PM) Sanchez and Saladino are placeholders until Anderson gets promoted, anyway. We all hope. It will be interesting to see what Alexei received. I think most of us assumed the Sox would just give him the $10 million this offseason.

When the Sox pulled Sanchez out of Winter Ball to work on his SS skills, Alexei was a goner.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 14, 2016 -> 01:52 PM) I don't think they made the choice to move on from him until after the season. If they decided before the season ended, then shame on them for not getting Saladino more reps at SS. Saladino has played SS his entire life. Does it really matter he didn't play a few games at SS in September, when usually he isn't playing anyway?

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jan 14, 2016 -> 01:36 PM) They should have traded him during the season. They obviously knew they weren't picking up the option. And what would they have gotten before he started to get better after the deadline? .234/.260/.329 at the trade deadline. Not exactly top prospect worthy numbers.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jan 14, 2016 -> 01:20 PM) I don't know why the Sox didn't trade Alexei. I thought he was coming back for sure for the simple reason that they never got anything for him. See what he signs for. To trade him they would have had to pick up the $10 million option. That might answer the question.

If the White Sox gave up the pick, they still would have their regular entire draft. I've really never thought much about Fowler becoming a White Sox, but what are the chances that pick turns out better than Dexter Fowler? As much as signing Fowler would be a blah type move for me, the surrendering of the pick wouldn't outrage me. You basically would have traded Shark for Fowler.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jan 14, 2016 -> 12:36 PM) Continually giving up draft picks for minor upgrades isn't the way this organization will sustain success. Fowler would improve the team. Hell, it may even be enough to put this team in contention. But giving up 3 draft picks in the last 2 years with a bad farm system isn't a good recipe. It sucks actually. If the team is willing to pay a player over $10 million a year, his performance should be better than the typical late first round pick. If Fowler put up three 2 WAR seasons, that is far more than could be expected from the selection they would be forfeiting. Of course, it could also turn out to be a huge mistake.

Anorexei had a lot of ability. It's starting to fade. Made some great plays in the field. Was really good for the White Sox, but he never gave me the impression he was baseball smart.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Jan 14, 2016 -> 12:31 PM) The difference between batting 3rd and 4th in the lineup comes out to about 1 plate appearance every 2 weeks over the course of the season. If for some reason Melky is more comfortable and performs that much better in the 3 spot it might be worth Abreu losing those 15 or so plate appearances. The career numbers for specific places in the line up are a reach. The reason Melky was better in the 3 hole than 8 hole is he hit 3rd when he was really hitting well. He hit 8th when he was struggling as a youngster.

He sucks so bad.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Jan 14, 2016 -> 12:01 PM) You can doubt it all you like but Cespedes has been quoted numerous times in reference to him liking NY and the Mets team dating back to August. I'm not saying he is a sure fire bet to sign with the Mets but it seems the Mets are back in the picture, like it or not. QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jan 14, 2016 -> 12:12 PM) My post says I don't doubt that he likes the Mets and NY. For him to sign a 1 or 2 year contract in NY, has another problem. Not only will he probably drop off a bit from 2015, be a year older, perhaps have a QO attached to him (although that was basically eliminated in his last contract so you would think they would do it again) a short term payday in NY would also included getting the s*** taxed out of you . Not only is there a state tax at almost 9 %, they have a city income tax as well.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jan 14, 2016 -> 10:41 AM) Wow, so he really might end up signing a 1-year deal. I thought Upton might do it but I never expected Cespedes to be open to the idea. I would be shocked if he signed a 1 year deal. He has no QO attached to him. How is his market going to improve?

QUOTE (Charlie Haeger's Knuckles @ Jan 13, 2016 -> 03:14 PM) Todd Frazier hit .233 away from home last year. You gonna s*** on him while you are at it? Does he have over a .200 point OPS difference in his home/away splits for his career?

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jan 13, 2016 -> 03:07 PM) OK, I don't know Hawk's exact time commitments before and after games, but assuming that a game ends at 10:15, he's not getting away from USCF before 11:00 and that puts him home no earlier than 1am [ignoring the time change for now]. For a 1:10pm game the next day I figure he has to be at the park by Noon so he's leaving home no later than 10am. So that gives him at most 9 hours at home and I really doubt it's that much. And he's old. He's insane if he does that. I get that he lives where he lives because grandkids, but there's no time to see them or anybody else so why not get a hotel room? He's usually out of there 15 minutes after the game. I've seen him in the parking lot before. But I do agree. I would think a day game after a night game he has to hotel it. He's there at least a couple of hours before the game anyway. The whole thing seems crazy to me. He gets home at 1 AM sleeps a little while, probably leaves for the ballpark around 3 or 4 his local time. How much time does that really leave seeing his grandchildren? Of course, he may be doing it for his wife. The way he is doing it now probably got the Sox a better broadcaster. I would imagine the job of doing all road games wouldn't be as attractive as working all home games.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jan 13, 2016 -> 02:57 PM) Yes, but can Benetti take the mantle from Swirsky and weave an everlasting devotion to the greatness of Steve Stone into the broadcast? In fairness to the Swirsk, it's not like he had a lot of experience of his own to fall back on. He recognized his weaknesses, maybe a little too much, but he first filled in on almost zero notice.

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Jan 13, 2016 -> 02:47 PM) I think the disconnect between us seems to be that I think more suitors will come as the price goes down. As far as the money issue, that was more of a separate thought & just a suspicion of mine, although talking with raBBit, he brought up a few good points that throw that thought away. I still think that as the price drops, more suitors will jump in because the demands are that much lower & easier for other teams to meet. I think most of the teams that would spend that kind of money either don't have room or are spending their cash on other needs. The price will go down, but not all that drastically. He's still going to probably get at least $20 million a year for 3 years. How many teams are looking for corner OF help who could add that right now without being up against a roster crunch or luxury tax complications? I'd offer him 3 with an opt out after 2. I think that could be better for him if he performs than a 4 year deal. And better for the Sox. They get a totally motivated player. One whose performance increased tremendously when he was playing for a contract, and in 2 years, they will have some guys potentially off the books if they wish to re-sign him, or let someone else pay him for his decline.

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Jan 13, 2016 -> 02:39 PM) I don't see how my statement doesn't make sense to you. I THINK payroll could be an issue, just my thought. I also said the longer it takes the less likely it is to happen BECAUSE the price will go down & more suitors will jump in. The reason I think their chances are lower as time passes & prices drop because I don't think they are as attractive as other potential FA suitors. I would say that all plays pretty much hand in hand with each other. It doesn't make sense because you say money is an issue, yet if the price goes down it's less likely to happen. What I don't understand is where are you and everyone else getting all these additional suitors if the price goes down? Considering he hasn't signed yet, then why would any team be considered a suitor at this point? No matter what, there just aren't a lot of teams that will commit $20 million a year even for 3 years to an OF at this point. Most of the "new" teams would need something a lot lower than that. The one problem I do see is you have to make sure you get something done at some point, and not be left holding the bag. If they want to take this to February, it will make some team or teams go on to the next idea. Whether or not the Sox have even made Cespedes an offer at this point is also unknown. Yet the reports say they were interested. They knew the price tag. It wasn't going to $7 million a year.

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Jan 13, 2016 -> 02:26 PM) Everyone has their own theory but mine all along has been the same. The longer they wait, the lower the price. Which is fine but more teams will jump into the race & IMHO, I don't think the Sox are that attractive of a team to be competing for a top FA. Overall, I don't think it's a good thing. I'll gladly be proven wrong but I've already moved on from Upton as a whole & have little hope for Cespedes. Best case at this point may be either a trade or Fowler. Then you aren't making sense. On one hand you say there is a payroll issue so it won't happen. You have said the longer it takes the less likely it will happen. Then you say the longer it takes the lower the price. So why did you ever entertain it happening? They are playing this correctly. There will be more teams mentioned, but that is more smoke than anything. Like Chris Davis and the Rangers. Yeah, they will spend $150 million on another LH bat. It's all fun to mention but the reality is for most of the new teams mentioned, it is entirely BS. Cespedes isn't going to Atlanta. He isn't going back to the Mets. Granted, all it takes is one team to step up, but that has been the case all along. Maybe it's a longshot Cespedes wears a White Sox uniform, but IMO, the longer this goes on the better the chance. His price isn't going up.

QUOTE (3GamesToLove @ Jan 13, 2016 -> 01:54 PM) He may well be a good human being for all I know. That has no bearing on the fact that he's bad at his job. That's your opinion. I prefer non cookie cutter announcers.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Jan 13, 2016 -> 01:45 PM) It's no fun to be in what I assume is the minority amongst Sox fans. I like Farmio. When we had tickets on club level we took the elevator with him several times. He's a really nice guy.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 13, 2016 -> 11:05 AM) I really don't care about announcers bringing in advanced analytics. That does mean they need to wax poetic about RBI production, but I have to say, any time someone verbally talks about a players wRC+ it sounds really dumb. Use the graphics for it, but stuff like "This guys fWAR is through the ROOF" makes it sound like they are trying too hard. It's why Len Kasper is the worst announcer in the game and so terrible and awful. Looking forward to this guy. It does seem when advanced stats are thrown out during a broadcast, the broadcaster throwing them out there seems to be trying to hard. Use them, just don't overdue it. A guy's wRC+ really isn't going to determine if he gets a hit or not. The biggest thing that bothers me about Kasper is he sounds just like Kermit the Frog.

I like that he grew up a Sox fan. He will have an enthusiasm others won't. Sounds good. It will be weird without Hawk. I just hope he isn't a Len Kasper clone.