Leaderboard

People that use the term woke and talk about cancel culture are undoubtedly the biggest cry babies of them all. Archaic thinkers fearful of change and accountability. I'm heading out on vacation but I will miss my favorite sox talk historians who fight tooth and nail to maintain the status quo to preserve their way of life.

Yes, I too stan for the exploitation of minor leaguers - many of whom have made less than minimum wage and some of whom are IN the red after having to pay for their own living arrangements - because it's "how it works." Just because one is allowed to act in a demeaning way without repercussions does not mean they should.

He was fighting for those who don't want to hustle. Have some respect.

All those praising Kopech for his candor and honesty on mental health issues need to view Yermin through the same lens. This has been brewing for a long time and is more than just "drama" or "immaturity". Yermin a good dude.

As many people have mentioned, this is just a very bad take. He signed a contract with the White Sox. They are thus far the only organization to give him a shot at the ML level. He gave them an incredible start to the season, and the White Sox did plenty to help turn him into a star. The LaRussa stuff happened and I've made my thoughts very clear on that. However, Yermin going back down to AAA was all on Yermin. If anything, the Sox gave him more rope than normal seeing as he really can't play a position and if he's only paid to hit, batting .140 or whatever he did from May on probably isn't going to keep you on a lot of ML rosters. But most importantly...handle yourself like a professional. Ask the team for a trade. I'd be shocked if Hahn and Co. wouldn't try and seek that out for him. Don't bail and "retire" because you're unhappy, then have your family members take to social media to explain the situation. Because this doesn't seem like a mental thing at this point, it seems like a "I'm not a AAA ball player anymore, this is bullshit, I want to play somewhere else and since I haven't gotten my way, I'm going to take my ball and go home." type situation, which I just can't get behind.

I get it. Its unfortunate for Yermin. But he's the guy who's production fell of a cliff, and he's the guy that cannot play a position well enough to be anything other than a beer league softball player defensively. These are things he can improve on, and if so, he has a role on an mlb club. Maybe that isn't with the Sox, but if he kept raking in AAA instead of throwing a public temper tantrum and quitting, he would have gotten an opportunity somewhere at some point even if he never improved defensively. I like Yermin. I hope he cools off, has a chance of heart and the Sox grant him another opportunity down in AAA. But the Sox aren't the bad guys here man. I know you have strong feelings about labor laws in mlb, and that is fine. I don't disagree with some of what you're saying - but this is all stuff they agreed to in their contracts, and the upside for them in quite literally financial freedom for life and their children's lives. Expecting the Sox to just willy nilly grant releases to disgruntled player is asinine.

What an impressive number of mental health experts on this board

When Grandal went down, Yermin thought he should go up. Didn't happen. Zavalo got the call, and Yermin is obviously the better hitter. So he came apart. That's my simple analysis. He can still recover and come back somewhere next year. Of course, he should have stayed and just continued mashing.

I can't stand Tony LaRussa and would like to blame him for everything that I think is wrong in the world, but at some point .150/.220/.196 in 118 plate appearances is on the player. If that one incident, where I think LaRussa couldn't have been more wrong, caused that, Yermin isn't mentally capable of being a major leaguer.

Yermin Mercedes leaving the stadium last night:

This literally just puts them in a better position to compete with us. Anyway, trying to keep a guy away from a team where he is a better fit is not a good strategy unless you have a ton of resources to trade, which we don’t. Our job is to fill 2b and get bullpen help.

FWIW, if Yermin was having a really bad mental health time yesterday and hit some sort of breaking point, and the White Sox were able to get in touch with him today and either give an assist or start a process of working through things for him, then the organization should be complimented on getting that done.

Jesus christ. Yermin has Yermin'd his way into a conversation about Civil Rights? That's enough Soxtalk for July.

No, that's not actually how the world works. One size does not in fact fit all. And teams can release any minor leaguer they want whenever they want - the players have zero protections in the minors. Yet people here are claiming the player should have to play it out. I hope all these same posters are up in arms when the teams release minor leaguers mid-season. But they aren't because hypocrisy runs deep in the world of athletic contracts. Players are supposed to be selfless teammates sacrificing for the greater good while ownership are ruthless and selfish treating players as assets first and only.

Yeah, gonna disagree here. The Sox don't owe Yermin shit. Some people dislike it, but these dudes are assets owned by an organization. Yermin 24 hours ago likely had some value, especially with 6 years of control. I wouldn't give that away if I were the Sox either. Now? He has none. So maybe he gets his way eventually and the Sox release him. But I can promise you he eliminated most if not all of his potential employers in the process.

What is he recruiting Lebron James?

I'm a TLR defender now. This shit is ridiculous.

I love how triggered old folks get when a younger person does literally anything ❄️

Bye.

I am surprised they haven't released him. You would think Jerry, Rick & Tony wouldn't put up with this stuff, you know how triggered old folks get when a younger person does literally anything.

People getting on Tony for the HR incident are brutal. Stop embarrassing yourselves.

I hope another team trades for Yermin and he gets a chance to reset his career. Hopefully he'll go to a team with a manager that appreciates his talents and has his back. Maybe a manager who won't talk about "spanking" him like he's some kind of a fucking child...

True. During college I was a server. Those were def my glory days. I was surrounded by talent and was able to take advantage of my opportunities. Now I'm just a dad bod without the kids 30 something on Bumble begging for some tatted up mom of 2 to buy me a coffee.

What have you contributed outside of trying to inject your shitty political takes into baseball discussion?

But, he is Woke and immune to the rules about verbalizing political theories on SoxTalk.

Thomas Paine, Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks & Yermin Mercedes.

This thread is like a market?! ?

Sure thing. SS2k5 decided to compare Yermin to Civil Rights leaders in America because the White Sox refused to release when he wanted to be released. I simply stated that Yermin is actually having a selfish outburst and it's not baseball's fault that Yermin isn't on a Big League Roster right now. Clear?

This point of view is just unreal. With generations of history showing that if people don't like society or situations, they don't have to take it like a B, and that they can actually do something to try and do better. Civil, Gay, and Womens rights didn't "translate to the real world" generations ago, and people fixed that. Obviously this isn't on that level, but there is no reason to just roll over and play dead.

Message board overreactions and hyperbole should be called "Yermin's." In all my years on these boards, I'm not sure I've seen anything like it, and I lived through the Joe Crede and Jon Garland eras.

Thanks for your posts today, you will get the "Won the Day" banner for July 22, 2021.

No one is forcing him to play baseball. If Finance wasn’t a financially viable profession for me, I’d simply do something else. I agree that the minor league conditions suck, but the dude isn’t entitled to a release just because the Sox won’t give him an immediate major league opportunity

Haven't posted here in eons -- but the Yermin talk interested me due to the range of opinions on TLR caused it, etc. IMO, the issue ultimately wasn't TLR, and it wasn't even that Yermin had a gaping hole in his swing when opposing pitchers figured out you don't have to throw him strikes. This is something that could be corrected in the minors. The issue is Yermin bought into his own hype. He went from a guy that stormed out of the gate having fun, to a guy having a local burger named after him in a matter of weeks, to a guy wearing what I can only describe as olympic gold medals around his neck. I absolutely believe his eye can be corrected with some practice in AAA, but until he humbles himself and realizes he was never THAT good, it isn't going to happen.

SOMETHING in the organization set Yermin off. Obviously he doesn't specify what it was exactly, but it is there in his statement. It could be Tony, or it could be upper management telling him to work on something. Whatever it is he took is EXTREMELY personally. I just think in 2021, reading that statement, the guy is obviously in pain. I mean this shouldn't be General Patton in GI hospital slapping a troop suffering from what was then known as "shell shock" and was culturally thought of as just not being tough enough to handle war. Today we actually understand Post Traumatic Stress Disorder will mess up even the toughest of troops. Obviously none of us know what is going on in Yermin's head, but whatever it is, is real enough for him to be screaming for help. Just because YOU don't see it, doesn't mean that it isn't real to him. Again hopefully whatever the kid is going through gets fixed. Even if he doesn't go back to baseball, hopefully he gets fixed whatever is ailing him. He's got a whole life left to live.

Dear God

I'm so bored of everything needing to be leveled up to the same story line. I'm going to give Yermin the benefit of the doubt here. He may be acting rashly, but he also isn't crazy to be at this point: - Yermin is 28 years old and has been in the minors for 9.5 of his 10 year playing career, and most of that in the absolute worst of what the minor leagues has to offer. - He was up long enough to be a part of the MLBs pension plan - He is now looking at an uncertainly long future of being back in the minors, being on a bus living nomad life for crap pay again, the guy never got a big draft bonus or anything. - He was probably given things to work on for the sox from hitting and defense. He was playing on a team that trusted multiple 1b only players to suddenly try different positions, except him who wasn't even trusted for his "own" position. So he's a bat only player that struggled mightily for 2 of his 3 months. Again he's 28. He's been really close to the big leagues for 3 years, he got the pension, etc. And if you are the sox what do you do? Just DFA him out of politeness? Trade him just because? He's pretty stuck in his opportunity right now. Good enough to be depth, still likely passed over. Adn as for Tony. I'll never let a coach slide for not defending his players. But there is no way that just caused Yermin to crater. He isn't the reason Yermin is retiring. And I don't want Tony worrying about AAA players when he has 26 guys to worry about right now.

Your generation destroyed the economy and the environment so maybe you shouldn't be ripping others, pal. You also invented participation trophies and raised the generation that you deem soft. Hmmmm you are who raised you.

Two things can be true at once. TLR was 100% wrong in how he handled the 3-0 count/HR situation with Yermin. Basically the entire roster sided with Yermin over Tony. It was dumb then and it's still dumb now. Under no circumstance should that situation lead someone to retire from the sport. Yermin had an incredible 6 week run or whatever it was, but decided he was "above" making adjustments at the plate, wanted to keep doing his own thing, and it led to him going back to AAA. If TLR throwing him under the bus was really his mental downfall, he didn't have much of a future with MLB to start with... I wish the best for him, he's clearing upset with something and if he's not happy....go find that happiness.

Yermin stats in the 14 games leading up to the 3-0 HR off Austudillo in Minnesota: 49 Plate Appearances 11 Hits 4 Walks 0 HR 1 2B 1 3B OPS .568 The regression began way before that incident

I know LaRussa’s comments on swinging on 3-0 and calling his rookie clueless we’re wrong. It doesn’t have to do with Yermin going in a slump or retiring. It was wrong in the moment like it’s wrong now. I know that to be 100% true.

I agree it shouldn't have been done in public. However when he blatantly ignored what the manager wanted him to do for his own selfish reasons, he deserves a reprimand of some sort. If he can't handle that eventually something would have set him off anyway if he wants to be in the microscope of professional life. It had nothing to do with a player enjoying the game. This is a manager who had the bash Brothers, Ricky Henderson and the original stand and watch his HRS player in Albert Puljols.

We're really ignoring the real culprit of this whole situation - Donald Trump

The only person who knows why he did this right now is Yermin Mercedes. The finger pointing and narrative chasing is infuriating.

And yet he has a 167 wRC+ making him 67% better than those other "everyone's" but besides that, nice take.

His AAA ops is over 1000 lol. He has a 167 wRC+ there. He's killed the ball.

pal, you can't take a joke on an internet forum without losing your mind and blocking posters to protect your feelings. Not sure this is the place for you.

What we've learned from your history here *cough Jake burger* is youre an expert on mental health and how people are feeling so surely we should defer to what you deem as factual on the cause and effect of this entire ordeal. Thank you very much for chiming in.

There is literally nothing worse than spreading some rumor of this magnitude on a message board with zero evidence or facts to support it. This type of accusatory nonsense is honestly shameful and has no business being spouted. And trusting CPD gossip boys at that. Jaysus.

C'mon man, you can't use the right version of they're correctly? It's pretty integral to the English language.

Half the roster is DH’s. Just can’t have enough.