Dick Allen

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Jul 26, 2015 -> 07:56 PM) I hate to say it but this f***ing team has pulled me back in. Like Dan Hayes just RT'd, this team has been down & out 3-4 times now & yet, going into Monday, this is the closest they have been to a WC spot in a while & are playing their best ball of the year. In a couple of days, the tide may turn again, but a big series in Boston, they can be right there despite everything.

Besides Minnesota, only 2 teams in the WC hunt have fewer losses than the White Sox,and they each have one less loss. Jumping 5 teams isn't so impossible in that situation.amazingly, the White Sox are only 2 games out from having the 6th best record in the AL.

QUOTE (ventura_abreu @ Jul 26, 2015 -> 07:11 PM) Would it hurt the Sox to stand pat and not make any trades before July 31st? Teams are not necessarily going to give us the building blocks that we would want. If that should happen, why not stand pat? We have some good young pitchers and position players either on the major league team or not too far away in the minors. By standing pat, we could build up some depth of talent. Trading Samardzija or a relief pitcher would make sense if we got something in return, but we could always trade excess relief pitchers in the off-season, and we would be in a better position to re-sign Samardzija or at least get a compensation pick if we kept him. Another consideration, I get the feeling that we have 2 young second baseman who can be very good major league players. By the end of the season, we would have a better idea of who we might want to trade away out of the two. One of those two could be packaged with pitching to get an interesting young hitter. If we keep Samardzija either to the end of this season or beyond, we would not have to bring up young starting pitchers such as Eric Johnson or Francelis Montas as soon this year or Carson Fulmer next year. It would give Rodon more time to develop in the comfort of the #4 spot in the rotation too. Of course, if a team does give us the prospects we would desire for Samardzija, then it would be interesting to see what Johnson or Montas could do. As you said, it is all about the return. If you acquire a guy like Matt Davidson who will crap out in AAA, while it will appeal to some, it accomplishes nothing. Jon Adkins wasn't a good return for Ray Durham. I don't understand why some want to move guys like Patricka and Putnam now. It isn't like Nate Jones is showing the 8th inning is his, and the return for those guys who aren't making squat probably isn't going to be huge, and I doubt a contender would give up a hitter in their line up for one of them. There is no doubt in my mind if this current defense was in place all season, this team would have at least 2 or 3 more wins even with just about every player underperforming offensively. That would have made things really interesting. I think the one thing this series did is show teams the Sox don't have to trade him. I think they will, but it does IMO give them a little leverage.

QUOTE (rodh @ Jul 26, 2015 -> 04:08 PM) I watched Cooper pitch for 2 years as the Friday starter for the University of Hawaii. His fastball averaged 87-90 mph but he comes extremely over the top with his pitching motion resulting in a good downhill plane even though he is only 6' tall. It did not appear he had much more projection in his body but I hope the Sox coaches are able to coax 2-3 mph out of him. His plus pitch was a big breaking curve ball that he commands well. This is my first post. I have lived all my life in Hawaii but became a White Sox fan when Chuck Tanner was hired as their manager back in 1970. Coach Tanner had great success managing the Hawaii Islanders (PCL) which my father and I had season passes. Haha, you have to live in Hawaii.

It all depends on the returns. If you can't get anything worthwhile for Shark, there is no reason to trade him for someone who will peak in AA,so some will be happy you appear to be throwing in the towel. I hope at some point we know at least a couple of the offers.

After getting pounded by the worst team in baseball Maddon said you have to tip youe cap.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 26, 2015 -> 03:50 PM) If you draft a pitcher in the first round and he's a reliever his entire career, I guess that's now NOT A MISTAKE because of how important pitching has become in the game. Or have you forgotten when the White Sox drafted Royce Ring and Aaron Poreda...or were smart enough not to draft Addison Reed in the 1st or 2nd? Some would argue that he paid off in 2014 alone (pitching-wise), considering many first round draft picks never make it, let alone are turned into former Cy Young winners via trade. So that's actually an excellent return on investment on a pitcher not even taken in the first ten picks. Could Courtney Hawkins (similar draft positioning, actually a bit higher) be the centerpiece of a Cueto trade? I think not. It was onky a few months ago you were touting Duffy and Fiinnegan as the reason teams in the AL Central need to do nothing but rebuild. Now that he is an ex Royal, he is not good. Since you are a huge Royals fan congrats on the trade. These usually don't work out, but it is one they had to make. I just find it funny how much worse Finnegan is in your eyes now that he isn't a Royal

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 26, 2015 -> 03:24 PM) The Royals seemingly made a 1st round mistake thinking that Finnegan was going to make it as a starter (they did get a meaningful contribution from him down the stretch and in the postseason, though). Maybe the Astros will give him that opportunity. Yes, they also dealt Lamb, but you have to take into consideration they still have Zimmer, Manaea and Kris Medlen for insurance on the starting rotation. That's not a bad place to be at all. LMAO. Now Finnegan is a mistake?

QUOTE (flavum @ Jul 26, 2015 -> 03:11 PM) The Sox are chasing 85 wins. Nothing more. Nothing less. I buy this 100%.

Our Chuck just said this was the first series in 19 the Sox faced a team below .500.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 26, 2015 -> 03:06 PM) That was a very fun series for the Sox. To take nothing away from it, but sure seemed like the Indians have quit on the season. If this is true' why is Terry Francona and a roster not making $150 million a good manager?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 26, 2015 -> 10:47 AM) So when you go to Las Vegas, you would change your bet at the blackjack table based upon "feel" or "momentum"? I'm sure you would rather they stood pat and didn't trade Samardzija. On the other hand, I'm sure you're also waiting to defend the organization no matter who they get back in return via trade. Sure, we just scored 10 runs so things (for the moment, which lasts as long as today's starting pitcher) seem more optimistic, but the improvement of those guys doesn't take into account the fact that LaRoche and Garcia have pretty much disappeared. Are we really supposed to believe that Alexei has been psychologically affected so deeply by off field stuff and now he's miraculously back to the player he was in 2014 and will be able to sustain that for the next two months because he's been hot for a week or two? I don't even like Samardjiza, so you really have no idea what I think. But if it is for some #15 and #30 guys in some team's system, if you want to go by the math, the odds are better you hang on to him and the potential draft pick than the others panning out. LaRoche and Garcia will start hitting again. The others won't keep up this mini pace.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Jul 26, 2015 -> 09:05 AM) What are you basing that on???. Boston got Baltimore's 3rd for Andrew Miller last season for a 2 month rental. I think we get a 3-5 and a 15-20. Samardjiza is not an ace, that is the problem. But there probably are enough teams that don't want to meet the price for a Cueto or Price or Hamels, sp hopefully you are right, but IMO, for this trade to really be anything but a salary dunp in reality when it is all said and done, they are going to have to get lucky with a Montas type prospect. I think initally, the general consensus will be disappointment iwith the return, although some will have glee thet the trade apparently signals surrender this year. Who knows, maybe Johnson outpitches Shark the balance of this season.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 26, 2015 -> 08:56 AM) http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/probability.jsp Well, while it's predicting us to have a better chance to make the wild card than three teams, that still leaves 5-6 ahead of us. Toronto is the scenario here, ahead of the Twins. Despite us taking three in a row against the Indians, they still have better odds. You take those "odds" a little too seriously. They have improved the defense with Saldino and Sanchez and Alexei playing much better. If the White Sox hit like they were supposed to hit they have a shot, although slim, vut they do have enough pitching to win when scoring 2 or 3 . If they revert back to what it was before this series, they have no shot. Every season is unique.

Out of the cellar.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jul 25, 2015 -> 09:03 PM) 7 AL teams have 49 or 50 losses. The Sox are one of them. Small chance, but the question is, is it enough to stand pat until at least Thursday? They aren't going to tear anything down. I would imagine the odds being against them they trade Samardziija, but if they win tomorrow and Monday, and a couple of teams lose some games, maybe Shark gets one more start before being moved. I think, unless the offers are just poor, they trade him even if they win every game up until the deadline.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 25, 2015 -> 09:00 PM) Is there really hope for a WC? I'm all for it but ... Probably not but you never know. If the offense picks up, and thwt is the world's biggest if, this team wins games. As bad as they have played, it is amazing they are 45-50.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 25, 2015 -> 08:56 PM) Why do we care about the Yankees game? Not trying to be a dick, just wonderin?? Wild Card

Do they let that guy keep his drum at the park, or does he have to haul it to the nosebleeds each game?

Papa John isn't happy. 3 games in a row.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 10:31 PM) Tigers are considering trading Price and Cespedes. Starting to look like Rick might have overplayed his hand waiting so long to trade Shark. This Cespedes situation is strange. His contract calls for him to be released after the season, and released players cannot he signed by the team that releases them until the middle of May, so unless he agrees to an extension during the season, he is truly is a rental for the Tigers or any team that trades for him.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jul 25, 2015 -> 10:48 AM) Barcelo's arm was pretty electric before he broke. He was supposed to be the top prize in the white flag trade. I remember KW calling him a p**** because he didn't want to pitch because he said he was hurt. They had him examined and couldn't find anything. Bbut he eventually need elbow and shoulder surgery, so he was faking it.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jul 25, 2015 -> 12:09 PM) Overpaying for Todd Frazier or Cano is the last thing this team needs. Too much hero worship - way too much. And they hit 30 and start crapping 0ut. You buy one of them, you use bullets that could have covered multiple positions and you're stuck some bad contract. That's not how to build a team. The team needs solid major leaguers. That should be the goal. Once you have that, THEN find a hero if that can put you over the top. Solid major leaguers are traded - Cervelli was traded for a relief pitcher; Michael Saunders would have fit perfectly with us (I realize he got hurt) and he was acquired for a 30+ year old who is as mediocre a starter as you can get. Michael Saunders has not been solid. How would he have fit perfectly? The Sox aren't short of guys they pay millions to do nothing.

I don't think it is a young guy these days vs a young guy 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. Some guys just aren't soundbites.

Even if they don't trade Samardzija by his next start, Johnson still will now line up for the one after that, which, unless they go undefeated until then, you have to think Shark is out the door.