Thad Bosley

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 04:35 PM) Is Thad the gayest name ever? I propose that it is. I beg your pardon!!

QUOTE (WCSox @ Sep 30, 2011 -> 02:49 PM) If I'm Francona or LaRussa and the Sox are my only option, I'd probably sit out a year and wait for something better to come along. It's not like either will struggle to pay the bills in the meantime. Not always. The Red Sox were a championship-caliber team when they fired Grady Little and hired Francona. But even if Francona only had struggling franchises to choose from, the Cubs would probably make a lot more sense. They still haven't won a World Series in forever and they have a tremendous fan base. Francona would be a hero if he won a championship with the Cubs. I wouldn't be surprised if the Cubs hired Epstein and he brought Francona in. I just don't see why somebody like Francona or LaRussa would be attracted to the Sox. They're going to have to shed payroll soon, their farm system isn't that impressive right now, and their fan base has never been that great. They're also looking to shed salary, so paying one of those guys the top dollar that they'd command wouldn't make any sense for Reinsdorf either. It's just a bad fit. At LaRussa's age, he's not sitting out a year. Not to mention, but he probably has only three destinations left: remaining w/St. Louis, coming to the Sox, or retiring. Do you hear his name mentioned in connection with any other non-Cardinals manager-related job besides the vacancy at 35th and Shields? And this with a guy whose running on one-year contracts these days! Meanwhile, there are tweets galore out there as we speak at least talking about the Sox' supposed interest in LaRussa, so it's certainly not too far-fetched to suggest it's in the realm of possibility. Probability, perhaps not. Possibility? Yes. As for Francona, who knows - you may be right. I didn't bring his name up in the first place in this discussion - you did. But since you did bring him up, I will say this, which has been said many times already, and that is he does have a history with the White Sox organization. Now how strong his ties are to the Sox based on his tenure with the team, no one really knows. But if they are strong, then the Sox' opportunity could absolutely be appealing to him, despite any payroll cuts and attendance issues the team has.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Sep 30, 2011 -> 03:18 PM) Why would an established manager with rings (LaRussa, Francona) want to manage a team that is almost certainly going to shed a ton of payroll over the next year and go through a rebuilding process? I don't see how managing the Sox would appeal to either of these guys. My guess is that JR and KW will hire somebody with little or no managerial experience, who won't command a ton of money, looking for their first break. Like Alomar or Martinez. Well, I wasn't really talking about Francona, but as it relates to him, if he's out of a job, what are his other options? Usually it's a team on the skids that is looking for a new manager, not a championship caliber team. I don't have at my disposal here the list of managerial vacancies at the moment that look any better than the Sox', but to your point, if there is one, then Tito might give that one much greater consideration. As for LaRussa, I would be merely banking his interest on coming to the White Sox based solely on the oft-mentioned love affair between he and the Chairman. That is the foundation of very LaRussa-to-the-White-Sox rumor that is out there, of which there are many. I also think JR would make it financially worth LaRussa's time to return to Chicago, but that's just a hunch. I could be wrong on that, as well as you could be absolutely right that in reality, a guy like LaRussa might have zero interest in coming here. But if there is interest on his part, then I think it should be strongly considered for the reasons I stated in my previous post.

The 2011 White Sox were characterized by an extraordinary amount of underachievement. Tony LaRussa, like him or not, is but a handful of wins away from being the second winningest manager in the history of the game. That means he has overseen a whole lot of achieving throughout his managerial career. Now how much of that achieving can be directly attributed to him and his managerial style can obviously be debated, but his record of players coming through for him stands on its own. And I can't help but wonder, what with our more noteable underachievers seemingly tethered to this team for the next few years, if it makes more sense to bring in a guy like LaRussa with his record of achievement to try our best to get something out of these guys. Or are we really comfortable just handing this mess over to someone with no managerial experience whatsoever and hoping for the best. This is not meant to be a slam on Alomar or Martinez, who both profile as effective future managers in this game. I'm just coming at this with what might be best for our particular roster of players. (And as for LaRussa purportedly being an ass, I could care less. I wouldn't have to deal with him!)

Sort of surprised that LaRussa wasn't one of the options, since he has been rumored to be a possibility as much as anyone else.

Steve Stone, who has another three years left on his contract (IIRC), has had the rather unique opportunity of partnering with not one but two legendary Chicago broadcasters late in their respective broadcasting careers in Hawk, and then of course, the one and only, Harry Caray.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 01:41 PM) I have absolutely zero problems with this and am happy to tell anyone who does have a problem with it to leave me alone. +1

We need a paid attendance today of just slightly under 20,000 to just squeak over the two million mark for this season.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 01:13 PM) The lineup I somewhat expect to see: 1. De Aza LF 2. Alexei SS 3. Dunn DH (ugh) 4. Konerko 1B 5. Viciedo RF 6. Flowers C 7.Rios CF 8. Morel 3B 9. Beckham 2B Pitching Buehrle Peavy Sale Humber Axelrod/Stewart Pen Ohman Stewart/Axelrod Reed Santiago Frasor Santos Crain Did we not get any Major League-ready talent in exchange for Danks, Floyd, and Quentin, whom you've presumably traded in this vision you've presented?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 27, 2011 -> 09:37 PM) Supposedly he forgot the count and had to find someone to verify it Something Hawk hadn't seen in his 56,472,179 years in the game (the time it took to get it all figured out).

Vintage Mark Buehrle on display tonight.

Dunn better get a whole lotta things figured out during this offseason.

It's official: 11th consecutive season of 200+ innings pitched by one Mark Buehrle. Very nice!

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Sep 27, 2011 -> 10:30 AM) Buddy Bell took his current job because he did not want to manage. If Martinez, McEwing or Alomar get the job they better have a veteran baseball guy as a bench coach. That may be a good role for Buddy Bell. I keep seeing Jim Fregosi's name pop up in the articles speculating about who the next manager might be. I think his time for managing may have passed, but he probably wouldn't be the worst choice for a bench coach.

Perhaps Mr. Reinsdorf can say to the Marlins "Sure, you can have Guillen, but you have to take Rios with him. They come as a set." That could be one creative way to remove that albatross of a contract.

Kenny Williams

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Sep 12, 2011 -> 08:48 PM) Embrace the comedy of it. The season's long over and this is entirely meaningless baseball. Think of it as watching the Bad News Bears. Nothing funny about what's going on with this team.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Sep 12, 2011 -> 08:33 PM) Haha, I'm loving this. Not sure in my 40+ years of calling myself a White Sox fan that I've ever "loved" watching them lose a game.

Beckham joins Rios and Dunn in the 40 RBIs Club.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 11:28 PM) Damn he looks good. How many years was he in the damn minors? He's kinda old for a rookie. Francour and Melky are as old as him. Injuries have stalled his career to date.

QUOTE (sin city sox fan @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 11:24 PM) De Aza hasn't been coached long enough by Walker to ruin his swing. If we don't have a new hitting coach next season, I'd rather see him in the minors again where we can save his potential. He's 27 years old.

And Buehrle off the hook for a loss primarily due to poor defense. Meanwhile, Mr. De Aza is becoming a rather interesting entity on this ballclub!

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 10:57 PM) Applaud nothing, that was a terrible decision That little something or another about not making the 3rd out at 3rd base......

I can't help but think what difference the extra 20+ homers Dunn should have had by now would have made on this season to date.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 10:11 PM) and that, in a nutshell, is our offensive season. Just thinkin' the same thing. That inning was a microcosm of what 2011 has been all about.