Dick Allen

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 18, 2015 -> 10:23 AM) Honestly surprised how a guy with 20 homers has as low of a slugging % as davidson has, let alone his awful OBP. I was at a seminar at Soxfest and Buddy Bell was discussing Davidson. The same Buddy Bell who thought Mitchell was a major leaguer was really down on Davidson. It really surprised me. We will see what happens when they tear him apart and put him back together. These 2 years should be enough for him to realize he needs to do some things differently.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 18, 2015 -> 09:47 AM) He homered last night! Leury's OPS is actually 41 points higher than Matt Davidson's.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Aug 18, 2015 -> 09:59 AM) Unfortunately, this will somehow be used to validate keeping him next season. I am no Flowers fan, albeit a little less adamant he needs to go than others, as I think he would be fine as a back up, but if the numbers were legit, and not just a sample size issue, that would be plenty of validation to keep him.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 18, 2015 -> 09:31 AM) There's really no risk of having the QO accepted. The window to accept or reject is only a week, and there's no way he will know enough about his market value within that week to risk accepting the offer. The odds are overwhelming he will reject, but if he took it that's fine too. Maybe he gets it together next season and then goes on to a bigger contract. Just don't get fooled by a decent year next year and extend him with a team record contract. IMO, his suckage this season may be a blessing for the White Sox. They can spend the significant money they were going to spend on him the next 4 or 5 years on someone a bit better.

Hanley is already jogging around, not too interested in playing. If he was playing for a contract next season, I'd say go for it. But at this point, is a a bad attitude guy who Boston would love to dump. They would love to dump Panda too.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 18, 2015 -> 07:49 AM) If you look back through threads earlier in the season he had an .800 OPS against righties for about the first 3 months and that entire time we've been registering this same complaint because Tyler Flowers does solidly better against righties than he hits against lefties. He had a .500ish OPS against lefties when he was hitting competently. If Adam LaRoche insisted that he needed to be an everyday player and couldn't platoon then signing him was another foolish move. If Adam LaRoche was open to it and we didn't do so then that was a foolish move. And in either case, it was a problem that could easily have been seen coming. Adam LaRoche has 53 plate appearances vs. starting LH pitching. That is a whopping 23 more than the guy you thought should be in the line up vs. LHP, Bonifacio who slashed .103/.103/.172 vs. starting LHP.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Aug 18, 2015 -> 08:42 AM) Correct. Eaton appears to be a capable enough center fielder. If you have a guy who can be described that way, you let him play center. Take a bunch of things that dozens of distinct people have said, aggregate them all as if they represent the giant stupid collective opinion, somehow defend Robin in a thread that had nothing to do with him. You could give me a thousand tries and I'd never guess this was a Dick Allen post. It's the recurring theme with every thread how so and so is so bad, yet if you get in a gamethread, if Joe Maddon is managing the Sox, they might be 80 games over .500 right now.

QUOTE (staxx @ Aug 18, 2015 -> 08:19 AM) Don't forget Trayce also still have loads of potential. He was always being regarded as raw, and is still only 24. There is no reason to think he cannot improve and become an everyday starting OF with experience in the MLB. The one thing I really like about him in addition to his athletic ability is he seems to have a decent baseball IQ. I think that could make a huge difference in his development. He is actually 3 months older than Avi Garcia.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Aug 18, 2015 -> 08:33 AM) Advanced fielding stats currently take ab out three years of data before they are reliably predictive. Also, at least last year, there was significant disagreement between UZR and DRS, with the latter grading him out as above average. Right now, I think he most likely grades out as "just fine" defensively. He's not a problem out there, and he's hitting well, so we should just leave it alone. I agree. He has been prone to an occasional colossal blunder, but for the most part, defense has not been an issue in CF for the White Sox.

Eaton sucks, Avi sucks, Melky is horrible defensively, Saladino is a utility guy, Alexei should be in a retirement home, Sanchez is a utility guy on a good team, Abreu needs to be a DH, LaRoche and Flowers should be selling insurance. Why when the White Sox lose is it almost always on the coaches and manager?

We are a 1-15 or a 2-20 away from 7 or 8 posts telling us he can be fine as a 4th OF, but that is what he is. That he isn't a starting OF on a White Sox playoff team. He's been great so far, but he will slow down and as just about every rookie does, struggle.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 17, 2015 -> 11:49 PM) He's not a MLB caliber hitter. Great defender. Utility guy unfortunately. He's one of the worst managers in baseball, way worse than Ozzie. But hey managers don't matter. So don't worry bout it. He doesn't mouth off to the press which is what everybody wanted. He's keeping Sox off the front pages quite well. That was ball four with the bases loaded. Sure he should have swung but it was ball four. The entire lineup and its approach sucked. Too many weak pop ups to center off that soft tossing lefty. Actually the one they called him out on had the zone. A few he swung at did not.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Aug 17, 2015 -> 11:50 PM) But why is the question. Served no purpose since Avi is decent against righties . Better than LaRoche against righties for average. Maybe was hoping for a walk ? IDK then even if he walks he can't use Shuck or Sanchez to pinch run because they are the lefties left on the bench to PH . Just don't take one of your only chances for a game tying HR out of the line up. If people get on base then use LaRoche if you need to PH for Flowers or Beckham. .407 vs. .758 is your answer. RH hitters are hitting .176 with a .407 OPS vs. Joe Smith. LH hitters have fared a lot better.

Noah was on the news today as he provided back to school clothes for s bunch of kids. It could be offseason fluff, but he seemed genuinly excited about his legs feeling much stromger.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Aug 17, 2015 -> 03:35 PM) So, for the once every few years likelihood of giving up the DH, which can be backfilled with PHers anyway, you think it makes sense to give up 300+ OPS points in a 100 to 150ABs during a season??? Such is the logic that got us into this mess. There is a reason for that. Robin is not unique when it comes to not using his only other catcher as a DH. And LaRoche has 53 plate appearances vs. LH starters. 53. You would think it is around 400.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Aug 17, 2015 -> 03:12 PM) I was referring to the comparison of Eaton to LaRoche in regards to the logic and need for platooning them. My suggestion for ALaR, going back to ST, had always been Soto, if no further moves were made. That's all fine and dandy, but if a catcher gets hurt, you lose a DH, so Flowers can't get hurt and can't be pinch hit or pinch run for. and I am sure Soto has caught vs. LHP, so the DH alternative would be Flowers. Not to mention you would be stuck with Soto if they relieved with a RHP because you can't risk not having a catcher available.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Aug 17, 2015 -> 01:54 PM) These situations are so non-comparable for so many reasons that should be obvious. What is obvious? I gave you the alternatives. For some reason, I don't think Beckham or Shuck DHing instead of LaRoche vs. LHP puts this team in the playoff, and as I pointed out, Bonifacio was even worse. So to say Adam LaRoche has sucked would be very accurate. To say Adam LaRoche playing vs. LHP vs. the alternate choices is a big reason this team hasn't played up to expectations, is not.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 17, 2015 -> 01:33 PM) Just did some checking to make sure what a 5 dWAR 3b would be. Brooks Robinson had 1 season where he put up a 4.5 dWAR at third. Manny Machado did it once over there. The highest dWAR season ever recorded by Baseball Reference is Andrelton Simmons with a 5.4 dWAR season at short. Basically, if Tyler could do that for 1 season, it would rank among the top 10 defensive seasons in history regardless of position. If you are expecting him to do that every year....Brooks Robinson couldn't do that. It would be silly to think he could put up a 4 or 5 WAR defensively one year let alone make it routine. It would also be silly to think his current offensive production is his peak.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 17, 2015 -> 12:56 PM) One thing IIRC you've said before is that he's streaky so if he didn't get a chance to play regularly he'd probably never get a chance to have a good streak. I don't understand, if guys don't produce, you don't want them playing, yet for some reason, some think Bonifacio needed to play more. He was awful. .176 OBP vs. RHP fanning almost 50% of the time. He was WORSE than LaRoche. BTW, the White Sox team vs. LHP .237/.287/.343. Only 14 HR. He was/is awful vs. LHP, but the team woes vs. southpaws go far deeper than Adam LaRoche.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Aug 17, 2015 -> 12:38 PM) It was obvious in April that Emilio wasn't going to be utilized, and this happens on Aug 17 - gotta love this org. I can't imagine RH & RV are on the same page here, so that, at least, is encouraging. Emilio had to do something to be utilized. He sucked so bad from the first day of spring training until he was DFA'd. I'm sure if he started playing well, he would have received his shot, but that didn't happen.

With the heat and Cubs fans, they could have had a photographer out do any people at Walmart website this past weekend at USCF.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 17, 2015 -> 12:31 PM) I thought Bonifacio was a great signing. I didn't know much about LaRoche, but, again, It's getting ridiculous to me how much our FA signings failed. During the 13/14 rebuilding, you had several lottery ticket FA signings you'd hope you could flip. No, none worked out. The one who was close (Crain) got injured right before selling. Our solid, stable veteran FA acquisitions seem to not just be off-norms, but actively having some of the worst offensive years in history. If this is just bad luck, Sox seem to be having a lot of it. More specifically, Hahn seems to be having a lot of it. But these are really adding up. One thing veteran free agent players need to keep in mind, if they get a call from the White Sox offering them a contract in the $2-5 million a year range, they might want to start thinking about their post baseball lives.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Aug 17, 2015 -> 12:24 PM) A .561 OPS against lefties (Eaton) is a lot better than a .405 (LaRoche). But mostly I agree with you - LaRoche would be a lot more palatable to people if he were still capably hitting righties. .561 is still needs to be platooned-worthy. And the alternatives were Bonifacio, Beckham, Shuck and either Soto or Flowers. Bonifacio was supposed to hit LHP, but in 35 PA .176..176/.235 with 16 strikeouts.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Aug 17, 2015 -> 12:07 PM) Garbage. 89 AB's mostly in the middle of the order is not a low number since you face lefties a lot less often than righties. It is regular AB's in a key position in the lineup . It seems as if the Sox ignored the splits both in the signing and the playing time. Don't make it seem like it was a mere 89 AB's .Abreu and Alexei don't have many more . Not hitting , playing time and his acquisition is what caused him, Ventura and Hahn to be scorned. You can make it sound like the Sox face3 95% LHP, but it is simply not true. If LaRoche was hitting RHP like normal, he wouldn't be getting booed at USCF. The fact is 80% of the time, right handed pitchers are on the mound. Look what the other Adam with the White Sox is doing in about 30 more PA vs. LHP, and leading off. Why isn't it ever mentioned how his lack of hitting vs. LHP is killing the White Sox? How about Jose Abreu's .235/.311/.370 line vs. LH starters. Should he be benched when they face lefties? Or moved to 7th or 8th? The alternatives for LaRoche vs. LHP weren't great. There is always a chance he might run into one every now and then. It hasn't happened.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 17, 2015 -> 10:38 AM) No it isn't. There was absolutely no hindsight whatsoever in saying "Adam LaRoche should not play regularly against LH Starting pitchers and we shouldn't sign him if he insists that he must". Yes he's been worse against righties, but for the first 3 months of the season his failure against lefties was a major problem too. Hell, he's still put up a .700 OPS against righties on the year, even though that's fallen off over the last month+ while he's been terrible against everyone. He put up a .405 OPS against lefties and that's not that far from what he did last year. If he wasn't willing to platoon he wasn't worth signing. He has a total of 89 PA vs. LHP. The poster was absolutely correct. Not hitting vs. RHP is what is causing the hatred.