Dick Allen

QUOTE (Lillian @ Dec 21, 2015 -> 08:29 AM) I agree that Cubs fans are not suddenly going to go to Sox games, because they can't get a ticket to Wrigley. That was not my point. I'm focusing upon casual baseball fans, and potential fans, who have not yet caught baseball fever. You are absolutely correct in your assertion, it is just not relevant to mine. Not everyone is passionate about the game and a favorite team, as are we. My point being, if they do, it will be to join the Cubs bandwagon, or the White Sox, if they are winners. Not just the sport. The Cubs bandwagon and Wrigley Field is full of people that have no idea what a balk is. There are now thousands of Blackhawks "fans" that couldn't name 5 players on the team. With the renovation at Wrigley, which will actually make it nice, the White Sox have very little chance competing with that particular bandwagon. Even if they win the WS 3 times the next 5 or 6 years and the Cubs fall short, the pendulum might slow, but it won't swing the other way. Except it and move on. The Cubs do their thing, the White Sox do theirs. Capturing the entire city isn't necessary. Even in 2005', when they never where not in first place, they drew a total of 50k for a 3 game series in September vs, KC with a team that at the time was 34 games over .500 and had a 9 1/2 game lead. They had 17 home games in September 2005, and only drew 30k six times. To think they can overtake the Cubs by winning, is a nice theory, but most likely factually incorrect. Like someone said in another thread, it is a Cubs town. It doesn't mean the White Sox can't be successful, but they aren't going to be as popular.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 21, 2015 -> 08:24 AM) I have a feeling almost anyone who owns an index based mutual fund has General Electric as one of its components...certainly my Vanguard funds do. Guess who partially owns NBC Universal? I would have to check on Vivendi. Nice try though. Who is this "we" that supposedly will own 50%.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 21, 2015 -> 08:12 AM) How did the Giants winning three titles affect the A's plight? The Yankees helping or hurting the Mets, well that's hard to separate from Madoff/Wilpon. The Angels are clearly a team that expanded their fanbase in competition with the Dodgers, but there are very few owners who will spend money and exhaust resources like Arte Moreno. They really set out to compete directly at a time when the Dodgers were in chaos with the McCourts. Then Balt and Wash to a lesser extent. The White Sox absolutely need some oxygen and column inches...85% of the media attention has been focused in their direction. Without a colorful manager or the original Boy Wonder GM, it makes the challenge even more daunting, and Hahn's more likely to inspire a fiscal accounting seminar than excite the fanbase. Plus JR's health has him backing off a bit. There's the theory the Cubs selling out games and devouring sponsorship opportunities will float the White Sox boat too as those left out are forced to go with the Sox or be shut out. We shall see...will those unallocated media rights dollars flow to the Southside in 2019, and how likely is CSN to double our deal unless someone else is bidding against them? At that time, we will probably own 50% of the station, with the Blackhawks and NBC/Universal the other 25% each. Actually, I really doubt you ever own any percentage of CSN.

From a White Sox perspective, the one thing that is good about the Cubs being insanely popular again, is the profit at CSN goes higher, which theoretically gives the White Sox more money to play with.

Except for 2011-2014, there has been Cubs "fever" since 1984. If there is spillover to the White Sox, it is minimal. I think if your kid wants to go to a Cubs game, but you get them Sox tickets, the look on their face would be the same as if the wanted an IPad, and you bought them a $75 piece of crap tablet. The Cubs bandwagon keeps growing. Yes, the White Sox are going to be flying well under the radar in Chicago in 2016. That is not necessarily bad. Just win and everything will take care of itself. Make the Score talk about you. If they don't have to, they won't.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 20, 2015 -> 05:31 PM) And the good will created by Jordan and Pippen almost twenty years ago now is helping to sell how many White Sox 2016 Holiday Season Ticket packs? Probably exactly the same number and it "helped" being sold back when it happened.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Dec 20, 2015 -> 03:59 PM) Lol - please don't conflate the accomplishments, or lack thereof, of the two organizations. As you well know, only one of those championships belongs to the Reinsdorf baseball team - in 35 years of trying. So with that very poor track record, it is a legitimate comment to make on a fan message board for the baseball team that it would be interesting to see the team under a new owner with a different organizational philosophy for running things. Could the results be worse? Sure, see Chicago Cubs - Tribune Company, 1982-2008. But chances are they couldn't be much worse than what's occurred under Reinsdorf. The lack of achievement under his leadership has left quite a bit to be desired, to say the least. I see you are back to copyi and pasting your JR narrative again.They could be a lot worse, and the post I responded to included the Bulls.

Tackling has been like the last couple of seasons.

Is the argument that there really is no Coors effect? If it is, that is beyond silly. It isn't just that balls carry farther, there is a lot more room for balls to drop.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Dec 20, 2015 -> 02:17 PM) And you're assuming that you know which is also disingenuous isn't it? LOL. Again NO ONE knows with 100% clarity which is why you have so many Sox fans, a ton of them wondering who exactly is pulling the trigger on things. And despite what you think the media isn't totally stupid, there are a lot of sharp people in that profession. That fact that they are wondering as well speaks volumes. Based on the track record of both of JR's franchises, it's clear historically and statistically his method of front office alignments isn't working. I hope I'm still around when the Sox and Bulls are under new ownership just to see if a different organizational philosophy breeds more success. Mark Yeah only 7 championships

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Dec 20, 2015 -> 11:39 AM) When talking about the 2005 White Sox one has to understand they had something that no other Sox team in the last 15 years had offensively...balance. They could best you with a three run bomb, with a bloop into short right or a bunt down the third base line. The Sox if I remember correctly were in the top four or five in the league in the following categories: Home Runs Sacrifice Fly's Sacrifice Bunts Stolen Bases Infield Hits They didn't have to wait for the three run home run to win a game, they had other ways to do it. It wasn't a "home run or nothing..." offense. Regarding Hawk's comments about the outfield defense, he is so biased towards the organization and the players that when he says that stuff, he truly believes it. It takes a lot to change his mind. But remember his famous (infamous) quote from just a few months later, "our defense SUCKS!" Mark Re the 2005 White Sox offense. It is all fine and dandy what you said, the fact is they scored the exact same percentage of their overall runs via the home run as the supposed softball team line up of 2004. Since switching parks, if his team doesn't hit homers, they are screwed.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Dec 20, 2015 -> 09:29 AM) The Sox were also 2nd to last in OBP and 3rd to last in Doubles. Sox had 3 fewer HRs than the Royals...and 40 fewer doubles. Frazier hit 43 doubles and 35 homers, so it appears despite hero worshipping and acquiring him, he could help solve the problem.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Dec 20, 2015 -> 09:29 AM) Dude, you are beyond delusional. The 2005 White Sox had solid power or better at almost all positions and hit 200 HRs. I'm not sure how comparing those teams or players are relevant at all. I also don't get how Justin Upton can't be considered pretty consistent.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Dec 20, 2015 -> 08:49 AM) I wouldn't have an objection if the Brewers price him at the sub .650 OPS that he is. Of course you don't, you love bad players making little, until you realize he has a projected $3.2 million arb hit. Maybe for some teams it might make sense but for teams with similar players like Saladino and Sanchez and the top prospect being a SS, it isn't a fit.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 20, 2015 -> 12:02 AM) So now posters are hypocrites when they disagree with you? If Avi Garcia could also play defense in RF like Segura is capable of at the most important position on the field, then it might be a relevant comparison. Last time I checked, Avi has never come close to a 4 war season and isn't capable of averaging 30 stolen bases per year either without being thrown out 15-25 times in the process of compiling those numbers. What in Juan Uribe's Colorado numbers led you to believe he would be a key cog in their World Series team at the time of that trade? He lost it...yeah...no excuses at all when you lose a child, just shrug it off and throw some dirt on it. We used the same excuse for Sox players like Dunn and Ramirez and Contreras when they had family or off-the-field issues, why doesn't it extend to players on other teams to at least consider other issues? At one point, he was the key player coming back in a Zack Greinke deal, after all. There's still talent there. His son died in July of 2014. His OPS the second half of 2013 and first half of 2014 was below .600. He put up a full season of an OPS lower than 2015 Carlos Sanchez.He actually hit better in 2014 when he came back from bereavement. Then he was back to being bad in 2015. The fact is the Sox have Saladino and Sanchez and have no need for Segura. It would make no sense for the Brewers where they are at to give him away, and no sense for the White Sox to give up something of value for a guy who has been bad for 2 1/2 years. Besides it was a guy's Twitter "hunch" his words that said a trade could be happening, and another random person's comment mentioning Segura. Maybe the Royals can trade for him. Escobar isn't a 4 WAR SS.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Dec 19, 2015 -> 11:17 PM) This team does need a kick up its ass. Weird that it had to come from a player though. Hopefully Hoiberg learns. He does seem to be learning on the job. Jimmy is a Thibs guy. No reason for him to make those comments to the media. But Gar/Pax set themselves up for this. They leaked info to the press making it appear everyone was sick of playing for tyrant Thibs. We also know how the GM hiring his buddy tends to work out. It is a mismatch. Hoiberg could be a great coach and fun to play for, but the Bulls personnel doesn't seem to jive with what he wants to do. Maybe something will click here soon,,and they actually will look like they hav a shot. I don't think so though, and it wouldn't surprise me if Jimmy is trying to talk his way out of town.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Dec 19, 2015 -> 06:27 PM) Segura is so bad...the only thing going for him is his age. I had him on my fantasy team at one point and he did literally nothing for me the entire time I had him. Thank god I found someone to trade him to. Just to put it in perspective, he is a year older than Avi Garcia, and hasn't been able to hit major league pitching since Avi became a White Sox. If you don't think Avi can ever figure it out, or think Avi in RF in 2016 will be a team killer, you are being hypocritical if you think Segura is an answer. The guy has been a replacement level player except for the first half of 2013. Either teams adjusted and he couldn't, or he lost it.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Dec 19, 2015 -> 06:50 PM) Never even heard of him. Who is he employed by? Yahoo radio or something like that. He was in Milwaukee for years, I think Cleveland as well. Your typical windbag. Every team sucks, he knows the easy fix.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Dec 19, 2015 -> 05:31 PM) http://www.csnchicago.com/show/sportstalk-live It's the first guy seen after Garfein in this clip. I don't think they talk about Cutler in this clip, but I hate this guy and everything he says is just completely dumb. That is Peter Brown.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 19, 2015 -> 06:17 PM) Obviously you believe Saladino can put up a 4ish war at age 22/23. Segura is only 25, and plays at the very least above-average defense. I guess it depends on how much you want to believe the last two seasons (where 2015 he was clearly affected by the death of his son) are more indicative of his overall ability. If you throw out that season, you'd expect around a 2 war. Of course, he has been double that and half that but terribly inconsistent so hard to predict. Perfect change of scenery candidate. Juan Uribe was "garbage" to the Rockies before they dumped him for Aaron Miles, let's not forget. Both Segura and Uribe were Rookie of the Year type players whose careers nosedived for different reasons. Is that 2 WAR a reasonable expectation for Saladino...or is closer to 0.5-1 more likely? What a guy did 2 years ago is irrelevant. It is what he will do in 2016. He has been one of the worst hitters in the NL the Second half of 2013, and all of 2014, and 2015. If a White Sox did that and they said they were sticking with him, you would loyalty is hurting the team.. I don't think switching leagues is going to help him. Saladino has potential and a good glove. At worst, he can do what Segura has done the last 400 games on Milwaukees schedule.According to Bill James he also is the 4th fastest runner into 2nd base on SB attempts only slower than Noel, Hamilton, and Dyson. No reason to give up anything for another guy that can't hit.

The last 2 1/2 years, the guy barely has a .600 OPs. He is one of the worst hitters in baseball. No need for him unless you want him to be a back up/ PR. Just look at the second half of his breakout year 2013. A .583 OPS. 13 walks last year. If Alexei Ramirez's ABs pissed you off, this guy may send you to a hospital

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Dec 19, 2015 -> 05:54 PM) Why would the Sox even consider Segura if Anderson is the future SS? Unless one of them is willing to make a position change, I don't see a deal for him happening. Plus it isn't really an obvious upgrade over Saladino, some people just like other teams' garbage for some reason.

This market is starting to look like the market when the Sox were able to get Abreu. Boston, the Yankees, Dodgers all not really looking for OF. You have to figure the Cardinals will sign one of them. Washington needs a CF. If the Tigers and Angels are truly out, the earlier estimates of the contracts these OFs receive are going to look inflated.Very inflated.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Dec 19, 2015 -> 04:30 PM) And that's fine. That's what I'd do though. They still need a player that keeps LaRoche on the bench vs LHP and it may as well be an OF so that Melky can DH Melky struggled vs. lefties last year as well. Not like LaRoche, but not very good.

If they sign Upton or Cespedes, there is zero chance they sign Austin Jackson. Austin Jackson makes some sense if they go cheaper. He probably is a lot like Trayce Thompson defensively. His hitting is a question but he has had some good seasons. He hit well at USCF last year with the Mariners, and then was soon traded.