South Side Hit Men

His belly indicates he mostly swallows. He's a happy camper, plenty of BBQ in Kansas City, and three more days to hit as many as he can with no team obligations.

There is still a good chance 78-80 wins takes the Division at this point. Coming into the season, I thought the Sox would likely win about 85. Now it looks to be 75-76 wins with Tim out until the Autumn Equinox. His absence alone will cost the team 2-3 + wins with the lack of options. Didi Gregorious is cooked, but maybe Jerry will give Hahn $200K to cover the minimum after his DFA is final. He is terrible, but still a major upgrade over everyday Leury. And Tony is not playing Sosa regularly unless Leury hits the IL or Sosa goes 14-27 over the next two-three weeks.

Jerry likely told Hahn "I gave you $200M, this was the maximum, and you spent it." Can't blame Jerry in this instance. It's like giving a drug addict more money.

Has to be hard finding an insurer willing to take on Tony La Russa.

Yes, I was going off the static stats through yesterday. Would say Harrison has a better chance of the two to finish over .700 if he stays healthy. Zavala will hit his highest MLB games caught this season, (3 2019, 33 2021, 33 2022), and will likely wear down a bit the final two months as he probably catches 3-4 games per week from here on out.

Grandal, Keuchel, Steak. approaching or past mid-30s. Sale 34 next year. The hardest of hard passes at that salary. Verlander is the exception, not the rule.

It's OK, because Tony built up a big lead in the first half, and now they are primarily playing to enter October healthy.

I see only seven entering today, and three are on the IL (Anderson & Burger + Mendick). Active: Aberu .850; Vaughn .813; Robert .791; Jimenez .782

Fegan is on family medical leave. Bruce Levine and the rest suck ass.

I wouldn't be surprised if Tony and Hahn weren't extended until at least 2024 or 2025 last offseason after their AL Central Division Championship and Game 3 win over Houston.

Verlander pitches more innings every six weeks than Sale does in three seasons. Hell, most octogenarian bicyclists are more athletic and less injury prone than Chris Sale.

Perhaps if he can bike here from Boston I would consider it. https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/241004-boston-chicago-route-tips.html If only his hands were made of scissors, they could avoid these types of fractures. Sighs

Welp, I rather only face Franmil four games a year than in many more division games. Cubs claimed OF Franmil Reyes off waivers from the Guardians.

I can't believe Manny Buenos Dias is still in baseball, taking the loss for Pittsburgh tonight. He's actually pitching decent, with a 3.86 ERA. https://www.mlb.com/player/manny-banuelos-544365?stats=gamelogs-r-pitching-mlb&year=2022

He stated a multi-championship contention Window. If Hahn built a team that was a legitimate top 2-4 team in the league for a 2-4 year stretch, that is all you can ask for. Houston and Los Angeles have been at that level the past 5ish years, and each won one World Series. I don't believe most fans would consider the 2020, 2021 or 2022 White Sox teams legitimate World Series contending teams, but rather a good team that could be expected to compete for the AL Central, but not much else.

The lyrics, not the video until the last ten seconds. Maybe the season The colours change in the valley skies Oh, God I've sealed my fate Running through hell, heaven can wait Long road to ruin there in your eyes Under the cold streetlights No tomorrow, no dead end in sight

There is a whole six month timeline of Stone's comments, and Jim Hendry's and Dusty Baker's responses during Stone's final days with the team. It got so bad the Cubs players wanted Stone and Chip Carey banned from team charter flights. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-10-02-0410020225-story.html

Stone has been inferring Yoan is lazy and unmotivated for years. Steve Stone "pleaded the 5th" when asked whether Tim Anderson led the league in stupidity on Saturday. Stone historically found joy trashing Dusty Baker, Lou Piniella and Ricky Renteria. Yet he'll defend Jerry Reinsdorf, Tony La Russa and Frank Menechino, among other unqualified hacks to his last dying breath.

That wasn't the case over the decade before Jerry Reinsdorf built the team. Stu Holcomb, the interim GM after Ed Short was fired, brought in both Roland Hemond and Chuck Tanner in September 1970 to serve as GM and Manager, respectively. Roland Hemond's tree includes Dave Dombrowski, Walt Jocketty, Doug Melvin, and Dan Evans. Paul Richards mentored, and Bill Veeck & Roland Hemond hired Tony La Russa for AA Manager in 1978, and ML Manager in 1980. Tony La Russa brought in Jim Leyland and Dave Duncan shortly thereafter.

100% Agree. I noted Tampa's strengths is patience / bargains for FAs & smart trades, player development and prioritizing players on pre-arb contracts. The Sox are struggling due to the the lack of player development / poor selection of not only their first round picks beyond 3 Vaughn (Busts - 8 Fulmer, 26 Burdi, 10 Collins, 4 Madrigal; 11 Burger a DH/reserve 3B, 11 Crochet an injured reliever), but the lower rounds as well. The highly rated prospects obtained in the tanking trades have not developed as expected between injuries and non-optimal approach. The Core generally improved and played well under Ricky, but stalled or even regressed the past two seasons outside of Katz' work with Cease, Rodon, Lopez, Kopech. Player development and having 10-15 solid contributors in their year 0-3 seasons allow a small-mid market team compete at the highest levels. The Sox are on the opposite end, very top heavy in terms of payroll and fWAR production, and few players playing at $0.7M-$1.0M making a big impact. Failure to improve scouting and player development his is where Hahn has failed most the past decade, more so than the poor FAs he signed that most people focus on (Leury, Keuchel, etc.).

I believe @CaliSoxFanViaSWside made a keen observation of Moncada still feeling the impact at the plate of his oblique strain. Smart teams allow their players to recover fully so they don't go through a prolonged injury. The Sox have been rushing their players back all year, between not having depth and Tony's refusal to consider playing rookies brought up when players go on the IL.

TLDNR: You are tying to compare polar opposites when comparing Tampa and the White Sox. One team is run by Erik Neander, the other by Rick Hahn. Case closed. Details: Tampa has nine Batters with a 1+ fWAR, Chicago has five. Tampa has seven Pitchers with a 1+ fWAR. The White Sox have four. Tampa looks for bargains in free agency, makes smart trades, develops players and maximizes production for players on ML minimum contracts. The White Sox outbid themselves on players at/beyond retirement age. Their main priority is to wrap up market stupid free agent signings by early December to allow Hahn to enjoy a six week Christmas / New Years break. The White Sox make dumb ass trades during their "competitive window", are terrible at developing players, and look to pawn off their top draft picks for aging veterans because they are too cheap and stupid to acquire quality free agents when they are available. One team makes the postseason regularly despite being in a juggernaut division and having a bottom five payroll. The other team rarely makes the postseason and isn't competitive despite being a big market in baseball's worst division and having a top half to seven (this year) payroll.

Unless I'm color blind, La Russa lost 538-0. OK, Karen.

If I had three White Sox wishes, one would be to flip Lenyn’s name with Tony’s in the first sentence.

I lost my optimism enjoyed in 2019 and 2020, when Jerry fired Ricky, and instead of conducting a legitimate manager search ended up hiring this drunken senile disgraceful buffoon. Sox fans were locked into a full porta-pot and rolled down an enormous hill on October 29, 2020, a date which will live in infamy. I get why some may have continued to share optimism the past two seasons, primarily due to their love of the core players, and hoping the team could succeed despite the shitshow management and ownership. The pathetic ownership and stewardship of the other four AL Central teams also gave fans legitimate hope that this team could finish as the tallest midget, or earn one of six farcical wild card births, and win a wild card series if everything worked out. Anything is possible until a team is eliminated, but any cause for optimism now is based on blind faith and hope against logic and what fans have witnessed the past two seasons. This is the burden Sox fans have carried since the day they were born, but it didn’t have to be this way.