South Side Hit Men

Tony providing Leury with the Game Winning bat and instructions.

$50, and they are going like hotcakes!!!

Top of the lineup for the Giants this half.

Kurt Busch threw out the first pitch today, my brother was at the game. I texted "Was he booed?"

On sale now....

Tony will send him back out in the 7th if the Sox don't score in the top half. Doesn't matter that he's at 104 pitches and on his third start of the season. Got to give him a shot at "the Win".

Don't want to keep the side pieces waiting.

Tony is faster than both.

Moncada and Grandal can only dream of finishing the season with those numbers.

Twins score two in the ninth off Baltimore's closer to win 3-2.

It feels cold there when it's 70 and Sunny. I bought a fleece in those conditions, and I'm used to cold. It's 58F with 18 MPH wind, it would feel cold anywhere in those conditions.

Menechino: "Tony, Joc's not listening to me. He keeps hitting home runs and doubles. We need more ground balls." Tony: "Don't worry, I got you buddy. Sheets in RF, Leury at DH, Pederson will ride the pine."

Yes. If guys aren't healthy enough, than it is what it is. I'd like to see Leury, Robert and Pollock/Vaughn from Right to Left in the OF, and Moncada Anderson Harrison and Abreu in the Infield for at least two of the games. I doubt we will see that lineup for any of the three games, because Platoon is the be all and end all, catching baseballs be damned.

60 games is not a "year" or season. They had one good starting pitcher available for Game 61, Keuchel in Game 62, and literally no one for Game 63. Not to mention they only played Central Division teams, all seven of which made the bogus 16 team playoffs and all seven bounced in the first round by actual quality MLB teams. And Hahn fired the Manager he just extended 63 games before, all the while taking a bow for GM of the Year for his brilliant signings of Parrot, Mazara, Keuchel and Grandal. It's stupid to put all your eggs in a basket of a half dozen overpriced players on their final contract. A team like the Sox needs to draft, acquire and develop solid cost controlled players. Pollock is a LF Hahn tried to pawn off as a RF, despite never playing in RF in his long career. Blew up in his face in Detroit. Leury's contract is a rounding error in the $100M / year pissed away by Hahn this season on the early retirees I listed.

I typically don't advocate for Leury playing a lot of OF, but given the options I would play either Leury or Heasley, or bring up someone who can actually play RF, and not play Sheets or Vaughn in RF this weekend. I expect a lot of Lynn swearing, dirty looks and steak discussions.

They have one winning full season under Hahn ever the first eight seasons. Hahn spent the 7th highest payroll, nearly $200M, and by far the largest in team history. Sadly, it's been spent on old decrepit players as is Hahn's want in life. Pollock is an unforced error the Sox are stuck with for two years, because Hahn's fragile ego had to double down to attempt to salvage his "best idea" at the trade deadline, and overworked overpriced reliever. Laughing at the focus on Leury the "bad contract" when Hahn is paying nearly $20M each for: Lynn mukbanging himself into missing the first half the year, Yasmani "120 Games" Grandal with a .531 OPS, terrible at catching beyond framing, not returning anytime soon. Paying Dallas Keuchel $18M to pitch for Arizona. Joe Kelly who has been worthless the dozen games he was actually healthy enough to pitch. Stuck paying Pollock $25M when he should have paid the $1M buyout to Kimbrel and spent it on the endless holes Hahn has harvested at 2B and RF.

This was my plan going into the offseason and it's the same plan as it is today. Dump the FO and Clubhouse staff from the White Sox organization beyond Paddy and Katz. My preference then and now was to keep Kenny as a liaison through the end of his contract and bring in Kim Ng, or another quality outside candidate to run baseball operations. Dump as many overpriced veterans signed by Hahn over the past three seasons and bring in whatever quality young players you can play now. Massively overhaul minor league scouting and staffs across the organization, spend whatever is needed to bring in quality instructors and other relevant staff to develop players consistently and properly throughout the organization, to allow the Sox a sustained window of competitiveness they have not had since Larry Himes assembled the 1990s core and was shit-canned for his efforts, because cronyism always trumps competency in a Reinsdorf organization. Would the Sox new GM/VP been able to close on all of the deals above? Likely no. Would the Sox have been a better position to target younger solid players who can contribute now, and dump whatever veterans (nearly all underperforming / injured / already DFA'd) signed by Hahn to the handful of teams willing to take on salary and players for their WS run? Hell yes.

Agreed. Looked up the game I was referencing. Fifth start of the season, Lucas threw 114 pitches by the time he was pulled, with Detroit turning a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead before Lucas was finally pulled. https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA202104270.shtml It was the disconnect with what was occurring, and also between Lucas' statements and Tony's opposite take. This was the second incident, after leaving Foster in forever in Seattle, that led me to believe Tony was out of his element far beyond my initial fears pre-season.

The problem is he can't recognize when a Starter is gassed. First evidence of this was Giolito in IIRC May of last year was gassed to start the 7th after a great six innings. Fans saw it, Lucas looked like it, everyone but Tony recognized. After the game Lucas told reporters he was gassed but gave it his all. When the reporters circled back to Tony, Tony stated paraphrasing "He still had something left, wanted to stay in.". The reporters repeated Lucas' comments and Tony said, "Oh, he said that. I didn't know.".

Likely didn't call Tony Sir or Legit Hall of Famer which earned Tony's wrath. Thanks for the memories Lenyn!

The Chicago sports lapdog media is at least inconsequential when it comes to sports, beyond the billions citizens are robbed for stadiums and the various professional and Big Ten child / young adult rape scandals over the past decade plus. Chicago media by and large is even more hands off when it comes to covering politicians or corporations.

Teams historically took stock / inventory of their strengths, weaknesses and future prospects around Memorial Day. The owner’s lockout pushed this a week or two into June, but we are entering July and there are several glaring issues with this team without feasible solutions.

Helps that the Division’s other “Italian Stallion” Rocco Baldelli, is as bad a manager as his counterpart. Pagan is Rocco’s Leury.

They were also fun to watch and cheer for. I still hope the players do well. Would also take Ricky’s bullpen management (and managing of starters) over Tony. As to the OP, disagree with Luis, he’s 24 and with Vaughn and Anderson, a top performer. He’s only at just over a full season with the owner’s 2020 lockout. Also plays a valuable defensive position, though i hoped he continued to make strides there like he did under Ricky. He seems to have taken a step backwards like many have under Tony. Grandal is just an older catcher with expected performance and health declines. A handful of catchers in the history of baseball have performed in the mid 30s at the level they are paying him. It’s why no other team came close to matching that deal in length. lt’s one of several overpays for players playing on their final substantial ML contract, typical under the Decade of Hahn.