Dick Allen

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 02:01 PM) This is the dilemma, if you don't sign Cespedes you can't justify giving up a draft pick for Fowler. Not with the state of our farm system and the reality we're seeing here, which is we're not going to land these big FA with some self imposed limit on contract years. To get a player like Cespedes, we'd either have to draft him or trade for him. It's the 28th pick. There will be a great player available, but will the White Sox choose him? If you look at the actual 28th pick the last 7 years, there is one guy you wouldn't trade for Dexter Fowler, and that is Gerrit Cole who was selected with the 28th pick in 2008 by the Yankees. One problem, he didn't sign. The fact that the Sox would still have their normal draft intact makes giving up the draft pick no big deal to me, and it keep the number of his suitors and therefore price tag a little lower. $70 million is plenty of justification.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 01:50 PM) But David Robertson fits into that scenario how exactly? Sox don't sign Cespedes. Should finish in last place. Get a life man.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 01:46 PM) Mibelt Rodriguez ‏@MibeltRodriguez 35s36 seconds ago Developing: The #Nats have offered a 5 years, $100-105 MM deal to OF Yoenis Cespedes. #MLB Mibelt is on top of things.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 01:39 PM) How is this not a massive red flag to everyone? I agree.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 01:37 PM) Slit my throat for me Bob NightengaleVerified account ‏@BNightengale The biggest surprise now is if #Nats don't sign Cespedes. They appear to be the only team interested in giving him longer than 3-year deal. I wonder if other teams' fanbases are just as outraged.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 01:34 PM) Take a look at his previous three seasons. Unlike you, I don't view things in a vacuum to fit my narrative. He's all over the place. Believe me, if the Sox signed Cespedes to what Washington is supposedly offering, he would tell you how wrong it is.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 01:32 PM) Torches are lit and it appears its only a matter of time before the castle at 35th and Shields is stormed. Film at 11 ! Good news for the White Sox, their fans don't know where 35th and Shields is.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 08:51 AM) Again, I said nothing about social, cultural or economic impact. I'm talking pure basketball. On the court. 48 minutes. 94 feet. The way the Warriors constantly move, cut, pass and ultimately shoot, there's never been anyone like them. they put up a stat last night stating that the Warriors have 20 games this year with at least 30 assists as a team. there's still half the season to go. The next two highest, the spurs and hawks, have a combined 17. You mentioned box office From a box office/entertainment perspective, I don't think we've seen anything like the Warriors

From all reports, they offered Upton a better player 2 years younger than Cespedes 3 years. Now the reports say the are the frontrunners for Cespedes, and he is going to get at least 5 years. Now, unless they plan on playing Cespedes in CF, decreasing a lot of his value, this does not add up. It has to be something with the Mets.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 10:59 AM) The Nats are the new yankees though in that they have not met a high priced FA they don't like. Their owner is about as wealthy as anyone, and their payroll is well down from last season. I just don't see the fit. I am probably wrong, but I think if they really are engaged, they may be trying to get the Sox or another team to offer more years and keep him off the Mets.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 10:48 AM) For those interested in understanding the impact Harry Caray had on the Cubs franchise and why it was a terrible mistake by our current knuckleheaded owners to ever let him go, have a look at this well-written synopsis. The author is spot on as it relates to this subject. http://kentsterling.com/2013/07/15/chicago...lk-to-the-cubs/ First off he mentions, since Caray's 3rd season (1984) gee, what happened in 1984? And again, you are totally ignoring the fact that the White Sox would never have had the access of 100+ dates on the superstation through no fault of JR or EE.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 10:38 AM) OMG lol the nats are going to put him in CF? That is such a nat move. @JonHeyman Nats showed interest in Upton but at 3 years. With harper/werth, hard to see how J-Up fit at all. Nats consider everything Why would the Nats offer Upton only 3 years, but offer Cespedes more? Putting 2 and 2 together, there seems to be a lot of BS going on.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 10:16 AM) Agree. As long as they still upgrade the team from now until Spring Training. Yes, just not the "we'll see where we are at and adjust near the deadline". Get as good as you can get right now, and adjust at the deadline if needed. The other way hasn't worked.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 10:12 AM) I think the really depressing part of it is the fact that from the start the Sox were widely considered to be one of the favorites to land one of the big 3. The fans put a lot of stock in that and followed these stories extremely closely just to wind up with none of them in the end. It may wind up being a HUGE PR hit on the Sox whether its warranted or not. That would be my disappointment, but if they move on to the next tier, I'm fine with that.

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 10:08 AM) Mirosi RT'd Rosenthal's Nationals/Cespedes tweet from last night just now. Could be nothing but sure seems like the national media is starting to push this. Morosi retweets just about anything Rosenthal tweets.

QUOTE (Baron @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 10:04 AM) Seriously if they dont sign him...maybe Rick Hahn and Robin should stay away from Soxfest for their own safety. Which, while true, is silly. The meatheads will be out in full force embarrassing themselves. I'm going to Soxfest. I hope it doesn't turn into what it could turn into. I am not an autograph guy, I just go to the seminars. I really enjoyed all the fluff last year. Its the time of year you really could use some. All the idiots who complain about not being able to sit right behind the dugout after purchasing a $5 upper deck seat calling people cheap is a trip. But I just don't want to deal with it.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 09:57 AM) I bet Theo skips leg day. He was doing stretches the day I saw him.

QUOTE (Sockin @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 09:53 AM) Not legit until its at a Starbucks. That was funny that Theo was in the Starbucks. I actually had seen him at my health club that day.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 09:29 AM) Yeah Mully has just been upset with the team the past few years to the point where he's more pessimistic about the team. Same with Goff. I don't know if either Boers or Bernstein are/were Sox fans before. Mully is the one though that is totally legit. He hates the Cubs, and enjoys when the Sox are winning. The others are like WSI members, if they aren't going to win the WS, they want them to be as bad as possible, not for the draft picks, but for the complaints.

The Cubs drew more fans per game the next 14 seasons after Harry died than they ever did when he was alive.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 09:20 AM) What was pissing me off this morning was the negative talk on the radio with Mully and Hanley. It all stemmed from what Dave Cameron from fangraphs said about the Sox next year. He said that the Sox are pretty much a bad team no matter what they do with Cesepedes because the back end of the rotation "sucks", they have no shortstop and that the lower end of their roster is terrible. While he may be correct the radio guys were jumping on it and riding into their Cubs land joy. The Cubs are great at everything and the Sox are terrible and hopeless with everything. Mully is actually a huge Sox fan.

QUOTE (TheCut87 @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 09:13 AM) yeah, I agree, after a month of the "big 3" talk, I am kind of over it.....just ready for it to be over and for the season to start Yeah, it's gone from fun to a more than a little old.

One thing that really killed the Sox last year was the defense at the beginning with Gillaspie, Alexei being horrid the first couple of months, Micah, and Abreu being lost initially. Opening Day to Opening Day, it should be much better. The Sox did a great job of fixing the infield defense on the fly last year with Saladino, Sanchez and Alexei getting his head on straight, to the point where no one really could complain about the infield defense the second half of the season. It was pretty stellar.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 08:41 AM) Well this is precisely my point when I talk about the mega impact the coming together of Harry Caray and his extraordinary salesmanship and the exposure that came along with superstation WGN. It was a match made in heaven. That guy absolutely sold the Wrigley Field experience like no other. Remember, the Cubs were not the national fixation they are today before Harry arrived there. In fact, in his first season, '82, that game when Lee Elia went off the rails, there were only 3,000 fans in the stands that day. When was the last time you could say there were only 3,000 fans at Wrigley? Now granted, it took Caray a couple of years to take hold on the north side. Cubs fans had to get used to his style after decades of the Jack Brickhouse style. But in '84 he really started to take off, and the Cubs franchise has not looked back ever since. They were a terrible team for most of Harry's time there, with the exception of '84 & '89, but starting in '84, that place was packed to the rafters almost every day and has been ever since. And it's all because of Caray's years of selling Wrigley Field to the gazillions of people across the nation who got WGN in their homes. As for the Sox in the 70s, they absolutely got a bounce from his presence. In fact, that's why the Sox brought him to Chicago in the first place, hoping he would help with what was a disastrous attendance problem back in those days. The Sox drew under 500,000 in 1970, and so Harry's contract starting in 1971 included an attendance clause. The Sox improved their attendance in each of the years he was broadcasting and he received the maximum bonus as per the agreement, to the point that attendance improved so much after a few years that they simply couldn't afford to pay him that bonus any longer. And that was with no where near the exposure he got when he was on WGN. So that was his specialty, selling the experience for whichever team he was employed for. I just wish he would have continued to have done so for the Sox on WGN, like he did for the one year when he had the chance to do so. Unfortunately the owners' egos got in the way of that happening. He had the attendance clause not because he anticipated bringing people into the park, but that would mean the team had more money, so he should be paid more. Think about it, if he is so important, why did the team almost move after 1975 when they didn't even average 10k a game? The attendance was clearly tied to wins and losses. It peaked in 1977 and went down from there until Reinsdorf bought the team and they signed some free agents. The White Sox biggest problem nationally is being on the Southside, always sterotyped as a dangerous place to be. Now you get to hear about how many people get shot on the Southside, and despite it being nowhere near the park, it is still in minds.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 08:33 AM) What are the marketing department's three top talking points for today's efforts to drum up season ticket interest? Why are you so fascinated with season ticket sales? I will tell you one thing, I have a small weekend package right now and yesterday was upgrade day. There wasn't a lot of upgrades available. The people with the good seats kept them.