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The Popemobile needs the L flag.

But this, your next post, did: You would have argued with it, anyway. Sure, Francona was more coveted than Venable.

Hopefully we stop trading really young players for older players really damned soon. There is plenty of trash floating in the ocean to fill the roster with, we don't need to trade our youngest players to do it.

Weird. Neither of those guys would have helped the bullpen in the last two years. And if Mena has his current shoulder woes with the White Sox, you and Liptak would be dancing around and high fiving each other over how another White Sox player was injured.

Getz sucks so much at trading

Hyperbole personified. Pretending to laugh, golf clap or being a mini-me hasn't disproven a thing I've written.

Really? There were 3 openings last offseason. He was the second hired. The first one was Terry Francona. I think he's probably a better manager than Wil Venable. Not only that, but they only had to beat out the Marlins.

Didn't see this until now. What I meant by that is the advanced offense metrics that have shown his scheme is working, guys are getting open. Caleb has been up and down in actually putting it all together, but we knew this would take time. At the end of the day, Johnson is the head coach of the offense. Dennis Allen is the head coach of the defense. So I'm judging Ben on the offense, as well as his in-game decision making. Which by his own admission, hasn't been perfect, but no coach is. I look at the Monday night game. Think the Bears got the ball back with like 3:20 left to go in the game. They not only got themselves in good field position to kick the field goal, but managed the drive perfectly to be able to call their final timeout with 3 seconds on the clock, giving Washington no chance to come back on the field. That's not easy to do, and we've been witness to it way too many times ourselves with coaches that don't have a feel for the game, get overwhelmed by the moment, and the last few minutes end up being a clusterfuck. For the first time in a long time, I just don't have any reservations about the coaching staff of the Bears. Feels like they are in good hands, which isn't always easy to find.

I know I’m going full meatball here, but boooo to domed stadiums, especially in football! I love when stadiums play a role in the personality and character of a team. Domes just lack any character and are basically interchangeable sterile basements. Also, it’s nice being able to “feel” a day game vs a night game. Oh, and also, snow games rule.

In case you're wondering if Pope Leo has still been keeping up with the Sox...

Both of them banned from playing in the Dominican Winter League supposedly irrefutable proof of gambling on the games they were involved in. I hope whatever bets you made were worth it!

Idiots. Everyone knows you just have to get your translator to make the bets for you.

Based on these list, I want the pitching coach to be either Max Weiner, Mark Lowy, or Casey Jacobson. And for the hitting coach, I'd like either of Matt Borgschulte, Joel McKeithan, or Cody Atkinson. I think that whenever a team is filling out a staff they should look for guys who have backgrounds in player development, which is something that doesn't stop at the ML level. I also think these hires should be left up to Bannister and Fuller, let Venable recommend guys but I think Fuller and Bannister (and Getz) should sign off on the hires since they're the ones who the pitching and hitting coaches will be answering to. I really hope the Sox do hire more coaches and create new positions on the staff, like quality control and player development coaches. I imagine that they'll hire another offensive coordinator. I know McKinven can do the job of a catching coach but I think they should still hire another one.

Venable was a great hire. There's really no arguing that.

Francona wasn't a realistic option for most teams. He was retired and the Reds seemingly convinced him to come out of retirement. I'd rather have a guy like Venable who is 25 years younger and just beginning his career. I think it makes a lot more sense for the Sox to get a guy like that. The talk at the time was that Venable was the most sought after manager compared to guys like Skip Schumaker, Phil Nevin, David Ross. It's interesting that Venable chose not to interview with the Mets or Guardians the year prior and also decided not to take over for Bochy in Texas. Shouldn't the Mets gig have been a perfect opportunity for him? I can totally imagine what this board would've said if Francona was hired and the Sox performed exactly the same as they did this season. TLR part 2 sans drunkenness. Would've been called an over-the-hill flop for sure. I was a little underwhelmed by some of the choices Venable made this year, but he was so much better than Grifol in their respective rookie seasons. I think the sky is the limit for Venable especially now that he can bring in his own staff. I wish he got angrier at umpires, but his cool demeanor seems to work for the players.

Thought Fletcher was fine for a fourth outfielder, maybe even get a chance to start in right over Tauchman and keep the spot warm for Braden. He played OK in Charlotte and in limited time for Chicago last season. Adequate defender. Not exactly a worldbeater, but probly should've gotten a lot more play than MAT. Hopefully they change some players' positions and get a real free agent. Need real guys behind Robert and Tauchman who you almost expect to be injured.

Sounds like a guy I would have really liked. I joined way before my profile states, I had to recreate a new profile because something got messed up with my username/pw, but I do remember this poster. Nothing specific, but if he was a Sox fan he woulda been OK with me. It's incredibly sad, gone too soon. My heart goes out to his family and friends.

I've noticed that this subject has over 141,000 views. I wonder if thats a record on this site. Obviously White Sox fans are interested in the thought of a new stadium.

You've now really gone over the deep end haven't you? 🤡

Weird. I never mentioned helping the bullpen the last two years. I thought it was fairly obvious by my previous post about the current state of the rotation and bullpen that I was talking about going forward. No one was saving Getz’s 101-223 White Sox over the last two seasons. These two failed trades that Getz signed off on definitely didn’t help things either.

Good riddance.

Venable was not a more coveted managerial candidate than Francona. Francona took a year off from baseball due to health issues but that didn’t automatically make Venable more desirable. Desirability is indicated by pay. Counsell got 5-years and $40 million guaranteed a year earlier. Francona is rumored to have received 3-years and $15 million guaranteed from the Reds. I’d bet that Venable is no where near either of those contracts. The Sox beat out the Marlins in the final offers. There was no massive rush from multiple teams for Venable’s services. Just offers from two of the worst and cheapest teams in baseball. Perhaps if you would have stated that Venable was “the most coveted young managerial candidate” it could have been a true statement. But you didn’t say that.

1000% agree. By far my biggest gripe with the Bears right now is what the 2025 Draft looks like after Week 6. Tyler Warren leads all TE's in yards with (370) and AVERAGES more yards a game than Loveland has total on the year (54 total yards vs. 61.7 yards per game for Warren.) Doesn't mean Loveland won't be a good player, but spending that kind of capital on a player that isn't making an immediate impact is criminal. Through Week 6, Luther Burden is averaging 25% of snap counts. Ozzy Trapilo got 0 snaps in offensively vs. Washington. Shemar Turner is averaging 30% of defensive snaps over the last three weeks, after not playing early in the year. How do you spend that much draft currency filling up a roster that went 5-12 last season, and there seemingly is no room for these guys to play? It boggles the mind.

The Sox hired Grifail and he was an absolute joke. I truly believe he fits your first paragraph’s narrative. Meanwhile, the Sox reportedly beat out the Marlins for Venable’s services. ***** golf clap *****

This is very well said - the area I still have a lot of reservations with is Poles and the personnel department. Very little faith in them at this point in terms of how roster constructed, use of capital, free agency etc. I really hope we look back by end of the year and are seeing a much better product and looking at a number of his picks standing out and other moves starting to look better.

it's a weird take that some of the most competitive people on the planet walk into a job thinking, "Yeah, I can f*** up for years and still get paid to play Wordle at work". Something tells me you have no grasp of the motivation of the people who take sports front office jobs. and Jesus, how is it NOT impressive that the most coveted managerial candidate jumped at the Sox job? Just repeating the same thing multiple times across multiple threads daily doesn't make it true.

Chicago Pope, hater extraordinaire 😂

And who wouldn’t want to accept a promotion from a team in which the organization has historically not fired their front office people after years of poor results? Also, how low are Sox fans’ expectations that it’s even impressive to sign a first-time manager? It’s not like a first-time manager is going to command a ton of money like Craig Counsell. The Sox bread and butter throughout the years (minus the awful TLR best buddy hire) has been signing first-time managers because quite simply Jerry is cheap. Just sad how low the expectations are with this team. Jerry has brainwashed everyone. “Listicle.” 🤣

Lazy huh? Venable got a what? Promotion. Bannister? Promotion. McKiven? Promotion. The last dude you listed somehow took a demotion, which is probably telling, but sure. That's one out of four for your listicle.

Why would I say the Sox are cheap? Are you serious? And then you listed a literal promotion who had never been a MLB manager as dude number 1 on your listicle.

Why would you say this? They pried Venable, Bannister, Walker McKinven and Joel McKeithan from jobs. Another team looked at Mike Gellinger as a hitting coach, and he was already too highly paid to increase his salary.

Idiots. Clase especially since look at what dominant closers get in FA these days. Probably would have been traded to another contender like Dodgers or Mariners or someone too.

I don't mean Prior specifically, I mean a guy like him who felt it was important to finish college in addition to playing baseball. Craig Breslow is another example of a solid pitcher turned executive (director of pitching for the Cubs/Chaim Bloom's replacement in Boston) who apparently graduated with a double major from Yale and deferred medical school so he could play baseball. I think this sort of background is less important for hitting, but you might like a guy who could look at the large amount of pitching data, biomechanical or traditional, and be able to implement some programs based off it at the game level. One thinks Katz wasn't so good at this.

It honestly feels like both of these series might go 5 games max.

Oopa !!

Big Dumper (a nickname derived from the man’s large ass) + A butt plug with his number on it. Kinda hard to read as anything but plugging the big dumper or something to that effect. Dude lives in infamy now though!

Honestly he's been everything we asked for. Understand there are ups and downs but based on what my eyes tell me, plus the advanced analytics, he's been great.

Now this is a valid takeaway, and it's why the end of the Jerry Reinsdorf era can't come soon enough.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CHIBears/s/o9RoWQJ4Fo Ben Johnson is a very good public speaker and is very good at getting his points across without being harsh

The biggest question mark for Sox fans remains the ongoing stadium issue...the timing of that possible sale to Ishbia and 2029 certainly is not a coincidence.

You in a game thread are pretty awful

And still a lot of flotsam and jetsam remaining.

Whew. A bit worried for a while that they might have to expose Curtis Mead, Derek Hill or Ben Cowles.

The leader is good The leader is great

As well as a scholarship in his name… https://cyclones.com/news/2025/8/13/iowa-state-football-creates-alex-ernst-legacy-scholarship

And yet this somehow isn't the worst one.

When you suck at player evaluation that is inevitable

You'll get Michael Conforto and you'll have to like it...