The Hawk

Yep. That was right on the money as far as I am concerned. YOu can have all of the statistics in the world available to you but if someone cannot show you what they mean and how they can help you better perform, they are not worth much other than a cudgel to batter someone with after the fact. Another thing that burns my butt is this. With all of the exotic shifts employed in baseball right now, why haven't hitters as a group adapted the approach at the plate to beat the shift, including a refresher course in bunting. Bunting right now is a lost tool in baseball. You've got no fielder other than a pitcher within 100 + feet of you and all you have to do is square up and knock the ball down on the ground for a free hit? It drives me crazy. Or choking up on the bat, shorten your swing and hit the ball the other way? Look at how many hits Abreu and Anderson got last season by doing just that.

That was interesting. I'm also surprised that the author of that piece didn't say that Sandy Alomar was a candidate. Perhaps, even though he retired as a player not very long ago, he's considered "old school" and not analytical enough. I just hope that Hahn doesn't get too carried away with analytics in his quest for a manager. To me, that stuff can be handled by a coach and staff. The biggest thing to me about being a manager is handling the clubhouse along with setting clear yet fair rules and making sure that everyone is on the same page. Renteria had some very good qualities but he just did not know how to manage a pitching staff to my satisfaction and it was obvious at the end that Cooper was frustrated by his own inability to "coach up" the new breed of pitching talent that was contending against the newer breeds of launch angle hitters.

I'm not 100% sure but his name always comes out in them dangling him as being "available" and that same kind of thing happens when there is a bit of disapproval in the clubhouse. He's had family problems also which are supposed to be based on a medical condition for one of his children and/or his wife. But the bottom line is that whatever is going on, he has spent a lot of time away from the team and when he has played, he hasn't produced at all this year and is useless against left handed pitchers. I know that I wouldn't trade for this guy and give up anyone good as a prospect. He's not cheap either. As an update. I found out the other day that Pederson is liked by his teammates. I was wrong about that. Turns out that he has a brother who I believe has Downs Syndrome and Pederson is a wonderful advocate for his brother and tends to him a lot which his teammates have seen and love him for. I also learned that Pederson has a very young son who has required a lot of medical care for as has his wife which has required him to be away from the team quite a bit. I thought I'd clear that up with the additional information that I just found out about.

I'd say that he needs to develop a repeatable motion as a first priority.Neither he nor Cease have one of those things.

I don't think that Roberts is a above average manager at all, Particularly regarding managing a pitching staff.

I've had a hunch for awhile now that the White Sox have had a bunch of off of the books informal scouts in Latin America who are several of their ex Latin players. What I know about the area is that a lot of former major league players are considered akin to gods in Latin America and when an organization is seen to be treating Latin players with respect and well, that organization reaps some great rewards when it comes to these guys signing with the organization. Certainly the Sox have had terrific success with Cuban players and other Latin countries. Aparicio is still a god in Venezuela as was Minnie in Cuba. Contreras amongst the pitching prospects and a new generation of role models also.

Thank you:)

Pederson has a certain "aura" about him that a lot of teams do not want to touch. He isn't very well liked by either players or coaches from what I've seen.

I'm curious. What do you base that on? I heard the same kind of thing about Robert being the best prospect since Mike Trout from the mouths of many Sox fans also. And at the end of the year, he looked totally lost at the plate. Also, right now, I'd consider Jose as the best hitter in all of baseball and I doubt that many across baseball would share that opinion with me. Perhaps there needs to be a discussion of what determines who the best "hitter" in baseball is?

I'd have acted on my own and stopped the players from doing that shit. And after I did it, I'd have told the GM what was going on and what I did. It was his responsibility to do that, not the Gm's not anyone else. There were a lot of powerful personalities in that locker room and I think that he got intimidated by them and their success.

The thing that grates at me about Hinch and company is that if he or someone else that enabled the cheating to take place, there will always be a stench about it on the present team and a wonder about are they cheating once again. I'd rather not have to have to listen to the questions being asked of these guys. It is the same crap sort of that we went through with the roid users which was much more serious and ruined baseball for me for a pretty long time. I don't know if anyone of you guys experienced the use of roids funneling down to the younger players but let me tell you that it was really scary not just with the roids and HGH but also the so-called "additives" that these sports medicine jerks were peddling to young high school kids. My youngest son who was a terrific soccer player came home one day with a huge jar of somekind of powder. Tried to hide it from me. I asked him what it was and he told me that it was to make him bigger and stronger, no less. He bought the damned thing for like $30 no less. Well, he took the thing back and got his money back. I told him that whatever he was going to do athletically was going to come naturally.

I think it is way too early to talk about Vaughn being the best hitter on a team blessed with very good hitters. You are talking about Anderson, Abreu, and Jimenez who conceivably will be competing for MVP honors next year. Vaughn hasn't tasted major league pitching yet. It took Eloy 3/4 of a season to figure things out. Anderson took two years, and Abreu was a veteran when he broke in. Vaughn will struggle like all young hitters do.

I think that you have to cheer for a kid like Burger to make it. Its not his fault he got hurt bad right at the start of his career. I hate when people call these kind of kids, "BUSTS". I fee the same way about Mercedes. Never appeared on anyone's radar, almost shoved out of baseball and all the guy kept doing was mashing the ball. Someone needs to give this guy a chance somewhere. He's hit everywhere they put him and I hope he is on the roster in 2021.

That's good. I think that he really is their best catcher all around. But it is going to take some major bank to sign him. He's going to get three years minimum and is in his prime. He might take some money deferred to spread the money out some but he shouldn't be expected to give them a major break money-wise.

The most important guy that the Sox will add in this off-season may in actuality be the new pitching coach. Cease has got a multi-million dollar arm but his lower half mechanically sucks. This should be pretty fixable but he needs to throw strikes with command.

As a steroid use hater, I really hope that La Russa doesn't get the job. I was trying like hell to keep kids from using roids in high school and guys like La Russa had them shooting the stuff up in his own locker room.

I think that Sandy Alomar will be the pick. He is Latin and a legend among these folks. A great catcher and knows pitching well. Just a solid baseball man. Not sure he is up on all of the analytics that are getting applied now but he can find one of those guys to set the defenses, shifts, etc. I don't like cheaters and Hinch, Cora, and LaRussa all were cheaters.

I would hope that whoever they bring in as the new pitching coach can fix Cease's delivery. His problem as I see it is his stride to the plate basically and that is pretty straight forward to fix normally. Maybe that high school coach who fixed Giolitto's delivery can Cease's problem also, although it is a different one.

I am a new user to this board and I apologize if I repeat something already said. To me, this team should focus on adding two starting pitchers in the off season. One should be Trevor Bauer who is the baddest beast on the current free agent list. They should then take look at whoever appears the healthiest of the 3 or 4 available left handers on the list. If healthy, I like Paxson the best. As for the rest of the additions, I really hope that they re-sign Colome. He deserves a two year deal and all he does is get outs and saves games. The rest of the pen is extremely deep and solid. I love McCann but he is going to be the number one catcher on a good team so unless they trade Grandal, he almost has to go. I also want that big over-achiever Mercedes on the team next year as a DH and catcher/1B guy. I thought that he should have taken EE's place on the roster this last year. The guy is one of those Latin guys who just knows how to bash the ball. I also think that they do not have to over-spend for a right fielder and no one needs to be added considering the age of the guys presently on the team. Maybe they will get pressed by one of the guys in the minors also?