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Normally I'm out on most of the guys you bring up as posting (though I love the posts), I'm very in here. Does he hit the ball on the ground ?

Again, to repeat...Garret Crochet pitched 2 times in back to back outings the entire season and gave up runs both times. His 3rd back to back outing was in game 2, and he allowed 2 inherited runners to score. That should not have been surprising at all. Michael Kopech threw 47 pitches in game 3. Tony LaRussa himself said before the game that he was unavailable for game 4, and then somehow he was the first guy out of the bullpen 44 hours later, and expected to get a guy out, go back to the bench, and then come out for a second inning? All season, he never had fewer than 2 full days off after any 30+ pitch outing. He had literally never been pushed that aggressively all season. That was also his second longest outing since his injury, next to the 51 pitches he threw on the final game of the season. You cannot blame these guys for failing when they are used like this, in ways they either did not prepare for all year or in ways they struggled in during rare opportunities during the regular season.

Hinch and Cora should have gotten 2 year suspensions. Every player on the 2017 Astros and 2018 Red Sox should have been fined 50 games pay, but allowed to play since some of them were on new teams. Both WS titles should have been vacated. All statistics from both teams should have been erased.

3 war first baseman is the least of our problems.

Maybe, just maybe, giving up 8+ runs a game and managing the bullpen so atrociously made a difference too?

Yes, I would say that is entirely possible. They gave up 14 runs, can they cut that in half? Let's look at the numbers and all the red flags. First and foremost, the White Sox's strategy coming into this series was to be extremely well rested, and they were willing to sacrifice seeding and matchups for it. This strategy did not work. Despite their guys being better rested, they were outperformed in every aspect of the game - pitching, hitting, and defense, and teams that did not have the last 2 months to coast are still playing in the postseason. This should absolutely call into question the strategy of trying to be the best rested team rather than pushing harder for seeding down the stretch. Is it a coincidence that pitchers who got extra rest and fewer innings down the stretch struggled to find the strike zone, or was that rust? There's an old joke in some other fields that a strategy "Cannot fail, it can only be failed" - resting guys extra down the stretch shouldn't be some topic that we can never question when we just watched it not work. Second, Giolito and Rodon gave up 4 runs on red flag plays. Giolito should not have been allowed to get in trouble once it got to the 5th inning, he was pulled at least 1 batter too late, and that was a concern. Worse, no one has said that "Bringing in Crochet on a back to back outing" was a good idea, literally everyone assumed he was unavailable after pitching the night before, and some people said it was a shame to use him in a game that was out of reach since it meant he couldn't pitch in game 2. Could that knock 2 runs off? Similarly, Rodon gave everything he had through the Alvarez at bat, and when he tried to throw a high fastball by Correa on the third pitch, he couldn't get it high or hard enough. Yes, pitch calling there was confusing, but overall Rodon should not have been in that game at that point. The rule for both of those guys should have been "Empty the tank, and we will not let you lose this game". That's potentially 4 runs. Finally, Lance Lynn should not have pitched on the road in Houston. This was the most obvious red flag coming into this series, it was obvious after his outing in June. Whether that means moving him to game 3 or actually going for Home Field Advantage, he had a career ERA over 5 in Houston and an ERA in the low 3s against the same team at home. Furthermore, Lynn himself complained afterwards about the game plan, which involved him throwing like Lance Lynn always does against a team that hits fastballs well. Could that cut a couple runs off what Lynn gave up, or gotten a few more innings out of him? I fully believe he has a better game if he pitched at home, and it sure seems like changing something up against this team would have benefited him. Cutting 6 or 7 runs off what they gave up - certainly possible, and that's without considering other things like defensive positioning, which we also saw to be important. Every one of those had a red flag saying "do not let this guy lose this way", and that's exactly how they lost. There are other confusing moves throughout this series - having Kopech come into game 4 less than 48 hours after he threw a 50 pitch outing still seems inexplicably bizarre. The 2 pitchers I'm ok with criticizing and saying "They needed to be better" are Cease and Kimbrel. Even though Kimbrel got hurt by the coaching staff also by moving Leury to RF, both of those guys were put out there in situations where they needed to be better and they weren't.

Nope. Still enjoying looking at my artificially bloated balance every few days

Boston should not have been allowed to remain as first base coach. That is on Rich Hahn and Kenny Williams, and Reinsdorf, if he knew about the rape allegations. At the end of the day, the GM is ultimately responsible for the day to day operation of the team. Hahn presided over years of ineffective Managing by Robin Ventura who had no business being a Manager in the first place. Hahn also knew about LaRoach having his kid in the dugout , on the training field and did nothing about it. He then sat by idly as KW finally confronted LaRoach man to man and cleaned it up. Hahn also shirked from confronting Chris Sale and Adam Eaton for their antics. Hahn proved himself to be a coward and a blowhard. Multiple championships? OK.

The Sox pitching sucked and their hitting sucked. That's why they lost. A 5-game series can go either way.

Yes, and ditto for the reverse--if they sign a big 2B (Semien) they can make do with in-house options in RF. I hope they just focus on one big addition rather than getting cute with two middling additions.

Do you think the White Sox are way less talented than the Astros? I think they got stomped because of poor coaching and preparation. If you think the elite teams are way more talented than the white Sox, then you are telling me they’re not that far above the rest of the division. I think they have a clear talent advantage but a clear organizational disadvantage. That means for me, I think they need every scrap of talent they can get to overcome it. Id be ok with Romy in a Leury role and I’m sure there’s at bats for him in that role if he earns it, but it’s not worth risking the whole season results on him being more.

Hinch should have been banned from baseball for life for managing a team he knew was cheatiing. That is potentially worse than gambling on baseball. Gambling, if one bets to lose and throws games, as was the (unproven) allegation in the Black Sox scandal, is worse, but what the Astros did was outrageous. Hinch and Cpra should not be in the league. The investigation into the Astros cheating should have been turned over to the FBI given that baseball now involves legal gambling and the implications for that cheating were far greater than they were in 1919. How about all the money law lawfully bet on games by sports betters who had no know;edge that the Astros had a decided edge from cheating? LaRussa did as well as any Manager would have given the circumstances - prominent players injured (Robert, Eloy, Madrigal, Grandal), and a pitching staff that under-performed based on expectations. That entire episode where LaRussa was upset when Mercedes ignored a take sign to show up an opponent was overblown and people who chided LaRussaa were wrong, dead wrong. Compare what Boston Manager Cora did when Rodriguez mimicked Carlos Correa last night. He . like LaRussa, did not countenance conduct by a player who took it upon himself to show up the opposition. Mercedes was actually more blatant given his refusal to obey a take sign to embellish his own statistics.

I don’t believe he didn’t care. Reinsdorf reveled in it, enjoyed shoving the drunken criminal down the throats of fans, media, and the taxpayers he robs for his capital expenses. He also loves keeping gang-rape coach around, as well as executives who physically assault direct reports. Toxicity and dysfunction is the lifetime MO of Reinsdorf and a hallmark of his organizations.

Just imagine having Kyle Schwarber as the Sox DH. (White Sox, not Red)

Ron this is just sad.

Madrigal is a career .317 BA in 303 AB Vaughn hit .235 with 15 HR in 417 AB. Sheets had 11 HR in only 160 AB. Vaughn regressed in the last few months of the season even as Tony tried to protect him by not starting him against RH pitching. Sox don't really have a spot for him in the 2022 line-up as we saw in the play-offs. He is kind of surplusage.

Superstar Carp RF Seiya Suzuki, long expected to be an eventual MLB player, is expected to be posted this offseason. He's having a monster, MVP-caliber platform season, fueled by an absolutely insane second half. Although they're currently in the midst of an improbable late season run that has brought them within shouting distance of third place (the NPB season doesn't end until the end of October this year because of the break they took for the Olympics), the Carp have been garbage for a few years now and don't look to be a threat any time soon, so it's an alright time to let him go. Logically, it seems like the perfect year to make the jump, and everyone I follow for news believes it will happen now. The basics: He is currently in his age 26 season. He is right-handed batter with a slender, athletic build on a fairly wide-shouldered frame. It's a corner OF-only profile, but he's considered an average or better defender with a well above-average arm. He's an incredibly complete hitter at the plate -- the overall package is a middle-of-the-order run producer, but he stole 25 bases as recently as 2019. Despite being a slugger, his batting average is over .300 every year. It is not a stretch to consider him a 5-tool player, even though speed isn't REALLY his game. A little deeper: His success is centered around his ELITE plate discipline. It gives him 400 OBPs every year, but that's mostly a by-product of what he's doing -- he forces pitchers to come into the zone and just abuses them when they do. The raw power is impressive, even though the bat speed (to my extremely untrained, unprofessional, and unqualified eye) doesn't seem to be elite. He makes up for the (perhaps) lack of elite bat speed by being VERY short to the ball and employing a whip-like follow-through that, combined with his coiled load and leg kick, I suspect generates the bulk of the power: He is one of three current NPB hitters (the other two being Masataka Yoshida and Munetaka Murakami) that I consider legitimate, high upside MLB hitting prospects. Historically, it's been significantly more difficult for hitters to transition to MLB than for pitchers, and so it's difficult to ever be completely confident, but as far as experienced, MLB ready hitters go, this guy is about as promising a prospect as there is in Japan. Questions/Concerns/Downsides/Risks: Am I right that the bat speed maybe isn't elite? Is the fact that he's an extremely advanced hitter something that bodes well for his ability to adjust, or does indicate a lack of remaining upside? He plays in the Central League, which is understood to be the weaker of the leagues in the current era (like the NL is weaker than the AL). It is of course rare for the White Sox to even dip their toes in the NPB market, but given the years-long hole in RF, it certainly could be fun to dream/speculate. Stats: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=suzuki001sei A random homer highlight comp:

It's REALLY difficult to guess, IMO, because we still don't even have a "normal" market back yet, you know? And that's before we consider the work stoppage that is probably going to happen. In my head, if we assume we'll see something resembling a normal free agent market, I'm thinking something like the first Abreu contract. I think evaluators in the game know that he's a cut or two above the Tsutsugoh class, but I also know for a fact that some teams (I wish I knew precisely how many) are almost literally give a hard pass to all NPB bats, period, because they find it confounding to try to evaluate their skills against what is just really different pitching, and so they consider them too risky. So I think it'll be one of those situations where a few teams will REALLY believe in him, but the market isn't robust enough to really drive it super high. Traditionally, that's where the White Sox like to strike -- where JR can feel like he's getting a bargain because Hahn and Co have an eval that is higher than consensus, so maybe there is a glimmer of hope? But I'm just guessing. SO many massive factors will affect the pace and size of the free agent market this winter.

This guy would go a long way towards fulfulling the Soxtalk goal of having 9 right handed DHs in the starting lineup.

Lots of people dislike the Manager on this site after practically every game regardless of who the manager is, but every manager on every team makes decision's that the fan base disagrees with. It's part of being a fan, but it get's taken up a notch on this site with a lot of hate. Of course we would like to see the same 9 players go out day after day without rest, but it's not sustainable.

Joc Pederson anyone?

Cespedes will likely not even be an MLB caliber player. Colas isn't a sure thing either. If they are good, you trade them or use them as depth. This guy is easily a better player than those 2 at this point and is ready to contribute now. He may be better than any other free agent option.

I don't think it's likely either, because, quite frankly, the Sox have completely failed to build the relationships and make the necessary investments to be competitive in Asia. And for whatever obscure, 1980s-business-man reason, they seem to be content having only a single pipeline to international talent.

It would make sense why his team would post him this year then as this would then be the last year before he could qualify as a free agent.

If you don't like the owner take a hike. It's his toy.

The right answer continues to be “the field”. There are hundreds of bench coaches, pitching coaches, position coaches, minor league coaches in this sport. You can’t interview them all, but there is no reason you can’t interview over a dozen. You will probably get better at the interview each time too! You do that and you find the right balance of attitude, intelligence, experience, and a philosophy that fits with the front office. They shouldn’t agree on everything, but they should come to a fit after a second or third interview. Brian Snitker worked his way up through the Braves organization for decades. Kevin Cash retired as a catcher then caught on as Francona’s bullpen coach in Cleveland. AJ Hinch was going to managers meetings before he retired, took over Arizona’s minor league system afterwards (and was there for the Chris Young time), managed the DBacks, was fired, and the Astros found his philosophy to mesh with what they were trying to build a few years later. Alex Cora was a Houston bench coach and now he’s unbeatable in the playoffs. Dave Martinez was a bench coach for so long we wondered why he couldn’t get a job and he finally got one and won the 2019 title. There is no single answer on how to do this correctly. A White Sox retread with no interview was the only wrong answer. If Hinch came out of an interview process, fine. But ruling out hundreds of people because they aren’t former white Sox managers was and is silly.

Exactly my point this whole time. The guy they want to manage the white Sox is either being groomed or unavailable or undecided at this point. People act like the manager of the future HAD to replace Ricky and that’s so fucking dumb. It’s beyond fucking dumb. It pains me to read all the LaRussa trashing posts that are made through this extremely myopic lens. The team didn’t want Hinch obviously and for totally justifiable reasons. I happen to agree with those reasons. I wanted Bochy too but maybe he’s done or not interested. If the guy they wanted wasn’t available…then what was the right move? A place holder like TLR who has won the big game. I expect we’ll all be pretty darn happy with the manager they choose in the next year or two.

You must trust Hahn with mid-tier FA and trading youth for veterans more than the majority at SoxTalk...

Tony La Russa last managed the White Sox in 1986, Jack Mcdowell came in 1987. Did he have a way-back machine that transported him back onto the team in 1986 or does Jack have sour grapes.

Its too bad he isn't left handed, or he could be a perfect fit.

Or perhaps beekeeping. You could start a pretty good hive with just the ones in your bonnet

4 teams that sold LCS tickets but didn't make it x 4 LCS games sold per team x 40,000 tickets sold per game x $150 per ticket = $96 million that they get to collect interest on for 6 weeks before refunding it.

Eloy Jimenez, Craig Kimbrel, Dallas Keuchel and $18m for Jesse Winker and Sonny Gray.

This season did convince me that there are a lot more Sox "fans' who would rather have something to complain about than have the team win. It's in every fanbase, but I think the White Sox have a pretty high number.

It's like reading early 2000 forward chain letters

Jeez enough of the Wikipedia copy and paste about bands, this is suppose to be a sports blog.

Here are my proposals... totally unrealistic for this franchise: Send Mercedes/Crochet to SD for Abrams/Hosmer (we pick up money for Hosmer) Padres said they would be willing to move Abrams to get rid of Hosmer and Crochet is a great add to their bullpen and Mercedes for the inevitable NL DH. Send Kimbrel/Burger/Minor Leaguer to Mariners for Kyle Lewis (Burger could be a potential replacement for Seager if he leaves) Use Hosmer to give Abreu a break and a decent lefty off the bench in the playoffs with experience Lewis in RF full time Abrams in at 2B Rotate Vaughn/Eloy/Sheets/Abreu/Hosmer in at DH/LF/1B Nice thing about Abrams is if TA get injured or is out, we have a much better replacement level player in Abrams to move to SS and have a less guy fill in at 2B.

Additionally, @Balta1701 is using a premise that with a different manager, every button would have been pushed correctly. That doesn't happen with any manager, ever. Coaching staffs can make an impact for teams, no question. The idea that a starting pitching staff put up an ERA collectively over 10 would be cut in half (or more) simply with different coaching is ludicrous to me. Players need to be held far more accountable for their performances on the field. TLR didn't ask Lynn to throw with his left hand. Yes, the Astros were a bad matchup...but tough shit. It's the playoffs. This is coming from a guy that hated the TLR hire and still hates it. But LaRussa wasn't the main issue in the playoffs. The players on the field were.

I don't have a specific target figured out yet, but when the White Sox want to compete and they have a system that is generally weak, they have a habit of packaging 3 guys together from their top 30 prospects to target someone who is 1 or 2 years away from free agency.

I predict Yankees sign seager for ss, move Laemahieu to 2b and trade Gleyber Torres. I have been working out a 3 way trade with Phillies & Yankees that gets us torres & Nigioshioka while getting rid of kimbrel, keuchel, & burger, but don't know how realistic it is. Also, the trade makes us even more rh hitting.

They don't have to wait until after the World Series if they conduct the press conference before the World Series begins. Hahn conducted his press conference on October 11 last season, and September 27, 2019. I reached out to James Fegan, and hopefully he can provide the date or timeframe in the interim. Hopefully they will stream it in it's entirety, and host afterward on their website.

Well, this is the kind of issue that probably deserves to be discussed earnestly by itself, rather than cheapened by inclusion among various other baseball personnel moves and conspiracy theories in an ongoing, over-the-top diatribe about a baseball team owner-as-supervillain ("Reinsdorf reveled in it, enjoyed shoving the drunken criminal down the throats of fans, media, and the taxpayers he robs" ?). I can be concerned about Boston and find the tone of your posts creepy at the same time.

That's certainly an interesting way of looking at it. Not having to face McCullers at all in a series is definitely catching a break. But having to face the ace of a staff twice in a series is not a bad break. I believe that's just called the playoffs.

I’d put that in the “what else is he supposed to say?” file.

Not at all. No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No In a historic occurrence in an effort to continue playing baseball during a work shortage, Jerry will sign the following in order to play 2022 baseball: @Chisoxfn @CaliSoxFanViaSWside @Balta1701 @fathom @southsider2k5 @greg775 @JoeCredeYes @Greg Hibbard @queerty The following will be denied from a roster spot: @hi8is @ron883 @Tony @Jack Parkman The GM will be @WBWSF or whoever that lovely fan is that writes Jerry petitioning for an interview all the time. As such, expect the 2022 White Sox to win exactly 0 games. This is exactly how next year will go down.

I'm hoping you're right and they just decline his option after realizing it won't happen quickly, if at all. Who on Earth would add a $16 million reliever without knowing what the CBA will look like in the end? Hell, you trade for the guy, and then the whole season doesn't happen - sorry you're out of luck, thanks?

Soxtalk is disappointed

? if that post is my legacy on this board, it is a good one.

The dedication to your Sox Fandam is quite impressive.

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