ThirdGen

TA's original comments when he was hired were borderline critical, many thought he would demand a trade based on those comments. I don't see him as someone who is dishonest to please the boss. Burr, maybe.

If you can honestly say that if last March: 1. You knew that Robert, Jimenez, Madrigal and Engel would miss a large chunk of the season. 2. The bullpen pitchers would underperform. 3. Grandal would only be able to catch 80 games. and you would have predicted the Sox would win 93 games and the ALC division, you can complain about TLR. Otherwise recognize that he managed this team through a lot of issues that in past years would have sunk this team to a losing record.

Marquee is playing "This Old Cub" and the Sandberg game on continuous loop today.

(20) Sarah Langs on Twitter: "True home teams are 59-61 all-time in winner-take-all postseason games (true = playing in home ballpark; aka excluding LDS-onward in 2020, which were neutral site games)" / Twitterhttps://twitter.com/SlangsOnSports/status/1445418887823118338?s=20 Sarah Langs confirms that if they play five games- HFA is irrelevant.

One primetime game makes sense. As much as they like to put the Yankees at night, they really can't do that for every game of their series realistically.

To Phil's credit, if the Sox used that method of analyzing trades, we never would have traded Tatis/Johnson for Shields.

And as far as McGwire goes- do you really think a manager should call out a player on his own team for something that was not against MLB rules at the time, and has no way of proving anyway? Thought you were against the "unwritten rules". Managers lose teams by doing that.

The scoreboard camera was bullshit made up by someone who wasn't even there. Do you know how far the scoreboard was from home plate at old Comiskey? The technology didn't even exist in the 80's to make that happen. Take a look at the Sox stats from that season. No one had an unusual season, in fact most everyone sucked. The same guy who claimed to know it was going on in the 80's, when he was in college in California, also claimed to not know if the Sox were still doing it when he was actually on the team. Great credibility.

I still have yet to hear one explanation of what LaRussa was supposed to do about the cheating. He has to follow the agreement with the Players Union which he had no part in negotiating. The Basic Agreement did not allow testing or discipline for PED by MLB, much less an individual manager. I don't recall any manager of that era attempting to take matters in his own hands on this, and other teams had roiders. Hinch on the other hand was well within his rights to fire his coaches involved in this. Front office wouldn't let him do it- fine go public with what you know. Instead he chose to win the World Series.

Here's my way of looking at HFA for a 5 game series: If a series only goes 3 games, it was an ass kicking and HFA probably had nothing to do with it. If a series goes 4 games, both teams had two home games so HFA definitely had nothing to do with it. Only if a series goes 5 games does HFA come into play. Since 2012 that has happened 16 times out of 36 series. So a little less than half the time it even comes into play. But here is the kicker-in the 16 times it has come into play, the team with HFA has only won 6 of those 16 series. So- why worry?

They refer to it as ALDS game B.

I think you are ignoring the possibility that Houston would be managing games differently if they didn't have a comfortable lead over the Sox for HFA. They have been putting players on the IL for minor issues as well recently, clearly resting players for the postseason. 3 of their last 4 losses have been one run losses. It works both ways.

Full season ticket holders had presales last week.

Try tracking a fly ball against a completely white background sometime.

I was old enough to drink beer the last time I went to a TLR managed Sox playoff game. I was even older in 2008. Can't wait for October. We don't get many of these. Enjoy every minute, no matter the outcome.

He never specified a year.

By calling Collins up within 21 days of sending him down they don't lose an option year.

Ten teams make the postseason, 6 are gone by the time the LCS starts. Considering the random nature of post season play, predicting disaster isn't that ballsy of a move. It is the most likely outcome for the majority of teams.

I wish there was a way to go back and use the tools we currently use to evaluate players to evaluate players from previous generations. I recall Dick Allen having insane power. But I wonder how his exit velocity would compare to Robert and Jimenez. The size and strength of today's players makes players from the 70's and 80's look like high school kids. Frank was part of the first generation that were built like that (many through modern science). A lot of people blame cell phones and a lack of attention for the need to screen in the stands. The real reason is that the current generation of players- 1 through 9- hit the ball a hell of a lot harder than prior generations did. I do believe Robert has the ability to retire as the Sox GOAT. I've never seen such raw all around talent.

And Rick's 60 game season was only against the relatively weak Central divisions. Sox are .600 against those teams this year.

Pretty sure he had surgery on his foot during the offseason, was expected to come back mid season, came back and reinjured it quickly, tried to fight through it but was awful and then had surgery again.

As I recall, the Sox knew before the season he would likely miss a signficant amount of time and had replaced him. This wasn't comparable to Robert or Jimenez situations.

The use of one run records to judge a manager is nonsense. The Sox are also 15-7 in two run games which can also be decided by one manager's decision. They are 11-6 in three run games, also close. Would LaRussa be a better manager if the Sox scored one or two less runs in those games? He would have a better record.

The 2005 Indians played over .700 ball for two consecutive months to close the gap. They have neither the time nor the talent to go on a run like that in 2021.

I am surprised the owners offered the floor in their first proposal. While just about everyone knows it is needed, I figured the owners would hold out on that to grab something else back from the players in exchange.