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Eloy is always with us in spirit.

Seriously, with the horseshit staff Hahn had for him by the time Game 3 happened? They literally did not have a starting pitcher for Game 3, after a "grueling 60 game season". Stop trolling already, you're wrong. Admit it or slink away.

Pretty impressive for the worst Catcher of all time.

Wow some of you are the worst fans. Dude can't make the most spectacular plays in the world everytime. Mendick doesn't get within 35 feet of that ball. Hell 75% of all 2b probably don't get within 5 feet.

The fact of the matter is, if the previous guy was still here, he would be taking a lot of heat on this board after this series. The defense was bad. The bullpen certainly didn't look as good as advertised. Marshall and Ruiz getting Ls. Not good. I was laughing at Steve Stone the other night when he was jerking Tony off saying individual numbers didn't matter, it was all about the team, specifically pointing out Lance Lynn didn't get his 38th consecutive start with at least 100 pitches. He must have missed how he left Hendricks in a blowout just so he could get a save, and might have cost the Sox a game the next night.

Tony said it was one of the most impressive, courageous losses he’s ever been a part of.

Hahn was so stubborn to not give Yermin a chance last year.

This broadcast crew is really enjoyable.

Princess Diana is better at the wall than Eloy

The same scouts watching AJ Reed in the minors were also watching Yermin, and all of them were reporting to Hahn. Ditto for the rest of that group. And don't forget Delmonico. We have some problems.

Imagine 2020 with Yermin at DH. FML.

Grandal haters silent on a great defensive inning.

He will give us ten paragraphs on how their depth can survive this

3 doubles

Poppysox, did Nellie Fox have an error every other game? Asking for a friend.

as always, PM me if you're unable to watch the game in your area, I'll hook you up

wish in one hand shit in the other see which one fills faster.

Yeah, hoping for Rodon to be this team's losing streak stopper is like asking ME to try to stop Gronkowski from going across the middle. That said, I won't be able to stay up late enough to watch this, so I'll hope for good news in the morning.

1. While a substantial portion of the blame is on the players, that does not mean that none is on the manager when he makes calls that are just mistakes. "The players should have done better" does not just excuse the manager when he puts a player in position to fail and the player fails, which is exactly what happened. 2. This thread is about the manager. If you don't want to talk about the manager and want to talk about a struggling player - great, create a discussion thread on it. That does not deflect from the topic of this thread. If Hendricks comes in and blows last night's game, u think there'd be a thread on what's wrong with Hendricks and whether that signing already looks like a problem? I bet there would be. Hell I might create it! 3. It should be far easier to change the behavior of a manager than to change the behavior of a player. Nick Madrigal cannot suddenly become good at defense. Tony LaRussa can suddenly start giving his best pitchers the chance to pitch against the heart of a team's lineup. Tony LaRussa can also be replaced more easily and more cheaply than most players. 4. Tony LaRussa should absolutely get extra scrutiny. He is a first year manager, so we are also evaluating the decision making that brought him in literally a few months ago so his failures reflect directly on the people who hired him. Furthermore, we have to sit there repeatedly in games, and even in this thread already, hearing how Tony LaRussa will make better decisions in-game than Renteria and how he was the "most revolutionary manager in the game's history" (Aroid, last night). If that is the standard we have to hear about, then that is the standard we should use to evaluate him.

We will not chill out!

Ricky got lucky with an elite bullpen. Imagine TLR with the bullpen performing that well. The Sox may have been in the world series last year if TLR was manager.

He should have let Collins bat for Hamilton in the 8th. He shouldn’t have let Ruiz start the 9th. Those two things are more irritating to me than not using Liam in the 9th.

This is a real quote said by the actual manager of the baseball team I cheer for. God help us.

Nah. Shoulda pitched the 9th yesterday.

Meh, he’s just venting, blowing off some steam. No big deal.

So based on numbers you guys would bat the following 9th. All had probably very similar "stat cast" metrics to Madrigal lmao. Tony Gynn Ichiro Pete Rose

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=31189265 Great that she gets fair credit starting what is the now widespread use of Kiss Him Goodbye in sports.

TLR has already said Vaughn and Yemin are playing the next two days. So I would assume that means Vaughn is in LF next two days unless Yermin is catching one of those days.

People freely doing what they please without concern for others is what's given us 500K+ deaths and a whole lot of suffering. What individuals choose to do impacts their communities around them. Nothing, including the vaccines, is 100% effective. Vaccines seem to help stop transmission a whole hell of a lot. Masks help. Staying far apart from other people helps. It's all probability continuums. What masks and social distancing and vaccines will do is help us get the spread under control, especially as tens of millions are still unvaccinated (and tens of millions of children won't be eligible for many months to come). Outdoor baseball is not the most significant thing right now. It was funny juxtaposition highlighting public policies that are leading to rising spread. I don't think anyone was talking about stadiums in general aside from the tweet I found amusing. Hospitalizations in Illinois are rising again, fwiw. We also don't fully understand the long-term impacts in both young and old people.

You should change your username to 'The White Sox Offense'

Here’s a hot take that won’t surprise anyone...this team is better with Mendick at 2nd base. A few extra singles a week don’t offset horrible base running and choking defense. I still want to know what happened on Fowler’s hit in the 9th. If you’re going to have the same power in games as my 5 year old, you better have more range than my 5 year old.

So you're saying that Rodon's slider is going to be even better than what we saw in Arizona? That'll work.

I did. But I also put more credence into the 5+ seasons of mediocrity and injury we've been treated to by Carlos Rodon, than anything anyone does in spring training. While "hope is not a plan," I'll hope for Carlos Rodon to throw enough strikes to get through 5+ IP, to give the bullpen a chance, in order to give this team a chance to win.

Dose #2 down! A little weird feeling, body couldn't control temperature at all and had some weird muscle tightness in areas that had no reason to be sore yesterday, but I think down to mostly arm soreness today. Now that I've gotten this far, I just want to say, and this is truly from the bottom of my heart and as sincere as anything I've ever done...F*** you Greg Abbott.

Shut your mouth when your talking to me!

We haven’t proven we are a real playoff caliber team yet...neither have the Twins, for that matter. Over a full season of play outside the Central, we’ll have a much better gauge of how close they really are to being the second best team in the AL.

Hey Chicago White Sox, your lack of depth is showing.

The majority of the blame for the 1-3 start is on the players. The manager didn't make Madrigal make a bad play. LaRussa did not cause a fly ball to smack Robert in the melon. TLR was not batting when there were runners in scoring position. These are professional god damn baseball players making dumb mistakes and not executing when the damn well needed to. If this sort of play continues, it's evidence that the manager is not addressing the shortcomings and not holding the players accountable.

If Robin Ventura or Ricky Renteria were managing a White Sox team that lost 3 games in 4 days, 2 when they were leading in the 8th inning, and 1 when it was tied in the 9th, this place would be hopping with posts calling for their heads. And they managed shitty teams.

The problem is you’re right it’s not irrational- it’s just the managing style from the 2000s. Save your best reliever for innings that turn out to not come was how things were handled then. Put your best players out there in situations that are high leverage and if they can’t hold like Thursday, that’s Madrigal’s fault. Joe Maddon’s moves yesterday were confusing. He left Ohtani in when he was clearly gassed, and that turned into walks that turned into runs. But he got Iglesias into the game, and even though he gave up a run and Maddon asked a lot of him, he won the game. Managing in the 2020s just beat managing in the 2000s. Twice.

This feels too desperate for our results against a team we were supposed to be better than entering the season. We can make excuses or we can be accountable for results.

Keep carrying water for Ricky.

Dude, La Russa has Kopech, Crochet and Hendriks at his disposal, Ricky had none of these guys except Crochet for 6 innings. The Bullpen had mostly unproven rookies last year, the bullpen this year is the one touted as "elite". What does Tony care about? Winning Saving his guy for a save opportunity.

It is very hard which makes 2021 much harder when you have so many guys who haven't played 162 game seasons and with so much youth and lack of depth . People were saying we have a great bullpen. I said the potential is there to be great but fattening up stats against the likes of the Tigers and Royals wasn't a great predictor of success for the future . Your insight on that was very helpful. Many thought Vaughn would be great right out of the gate. That can still happen but people were ragging on me because I had the audacity to say he wouldn't get an extension before the season started. I said the vets would have to lead the way to get a win tonight and they didn't and we lost. I loved Mercedes but I gave up on him making the team this year or ever getting meaningful time but injuries led to the Sox needing a bat . If not for Mercedes we could've lost all 4. I also said many times that the playoffs are not a given. But I am a patient guy. The Sox are very talented but opening in California in a stadium where all that youth hadn't played before nor the vets for a while wasn't going to be easy. They aren't going to win many games if Mercedes and Eaton are their 2 best hitters in a 4 game series on the road with the umps looking like they were paid off.

The general point about managers being evaluated based on hindsight is true, and it's annoying. Baseball fans should be smarter than that. But there was very little 2nd guessing with his bullpen management tonight. I (and nearly every other person in the game thread) was against the decision to let Ruiz start the 9th inning and then to go with Foster instead of Hendriks. When TLR explained his rationale for doing so it was entirely because he wanted Hendriks to get the save. That is as antiquated of an explanation as you will ever hear from a manager.

Most conspicuously, Giolito, Kopech, Crochet, Lynn, most other relievers -- pretty much every pitcher who I expected to look good (I had low expectations for Keuchel and Cease). I actually thought Yoan looked good tonight- nice defense, reached base twice in his five PAs, and two of the other ones were 100 and 107 MPH exit velocity outs. Robert still struggles with pitch recognition, but this start is much unlike his September slump as he is still barreling up the ball and getting on base, so I can live with the swing and miss. And although these guys are working from an even smaller sample, Grandal, Mercedes, Vaughn, and Collins are all consistently having patient and/or productive ABs that I'm confident will provide success in the long run

I mean RR used literally the worst pitcher on the roster in the highest leverage inning of the season. For now, TLR hasn't done that.

They were able to contend last year with most of these same guys and black holes at DH & RF, so they should be able to again. But this is where the lack of depth hurts. No one is expecting all stars on the bench, but a reserve infielder who can play SS & 2B while not being a black hole against RHP would be a godsend right now. Instead we have to rock Leury out there while Timmy misses time. Unfortunately, when you compound that with a bunch of developing players your margin for error becomes razor thin.

The greatest bullpen manipulator in the history of baseball was managing to get his guy a save instead of actually winning the game.

Madrigal?