greg775

Would love to see the thread when Sox acquired Keuchel. I would assume most people were thrilled. Did anybody predict his demise or was soxtalk unanimous in its love for Dallas K at the time?

I kind of think Grandal is a bust. I have no hopes for him. I'd rather play Seby in 80 percent of the games and trade Grandal. I guess nobody in their right minds want Grandal though. $$. Agreed on Eloy. Let's see what he can do ... again. Since we are in the lift and pull era he needs to lift and pull. We don't need ground outs, pop ups and a few singles and doubles from Eloy. I'm not a Pollock guy either though I got obliterated on the board a while back when I ripped him during a 'hot streak.' People were furious.

I like Hendriks. Hopefully Lopez and Graveman will dominate the second half. All the Sox left options appear weak to me. And we know the lefties are coming in games. They will continue to stink. So that means Lopez and Graveman CANNOT stink. They have to be consistently good leading into Liam. I see no hope for the lefties. Maybe they'll not cost the team games.

I'm starting to think Jerry's firing of Renteria was even dumber/more unfair than firing Tony the first time he managed the Sox. I wonder where RR will surface next? Somebody's bench coach?

Seby has been good as u say. I'd try my hardest to dump Grandal on somebody. Anyway they could get rid of Grandal for a couple minor league pitchers?

To be fair to the board, most all of us on here realized Tony would not be fired. He'd have to step down and that's always possible when a person is pushing 80. Even though people expressed a desire for him to get fired or point out most teams would have fired him by now (specifically after 2 or 3 games in which he seemed buffoonish) most on here realized it was dumb to even discuss this. JR is Tony's good pal; JR fired him once and how the hell can he justify firing a hall of famer twice in one lifetime. I guess if Sox go 0-10 to start the second half, even JR might have to can his buddy. Thing is Tony would probably forgive his buddy at that point.

These are unfair critiques IMO. He usually pulls the pitchers right at 100 pitches and these guys usually get yanked in the sixth or fifth. That's on the pitchers. And it's not Tony's fault those relievers for the most part stink. Stacking the lineup in asinine ways? I disagree, Most nights there have been four automatic outs or close to that in the lineup. That's a lot of automatic outs.

Riordan was pretty forceful in his prediction. If he's wrong he deserves some fan criticism for sure.

Not a bad post regarding the Sox chances now and in the future. For the Sox to make any noise, not only do they need big time upgrade in performance in pitching and defense, but need Robert, Eloy to become bonafide stars as well as Tim to remain a star and Abreu to do what he's done in the past, knock in a hella lotta runs. Good post taking the negative side of things.

If he's the real deal ... who is the last Sox top five draft pick to be a star? Or top three pick?

Nice win. Nice series. Sox should have a lot more of this against Central Div. foes even with injuries harming the team. Sox go into the all star break fairly hot which means NOTHING. After the many days off here, it's a new start for all teams. This Sox offense is built to lift and pull homers. If Sox can do that the offense will be OK post all-star break. If the Sox can't lift and pull homers they'll do a lot more of hitting right into the defensive shift(s) and striking out on lame sliders out of the zone. Kudos to Abreu for once again doing well after an abysmal start. He's a hit and walk machine right now. Vaughn and Anderson have been excellent obviously. Would love to see Sheets blossom. Zavala has been fine. The pitching sometimes shows signs of life. I'd say the starters are average to a little below average. Cease should be in the all star game obviously. Sox bullpen is lousy overall but the Sox do have a good closer which is vital if they ever get it together enough to be playoff/WS contenders this season. The Sox pretty much should be happy they are .500 IMO. My take is the team overall performed way worse than a .500 team pre all-star break. The defense blows so the key is lift and pull to score a batch of runs per game, get 7 innings out of the starters, have Liam be very hot, have Abreu be a great leader. As far as coaching ... Tony has done a couple head-scratching things (the intentional walks) but the bottom line is no manager would have a better record right now with this bunch than .500. Unless you believe managers have the ability to make players play better. This team if everything goes well could finish 10 over .500. If things remain sour, they could finish 10 under. Just my takes as a fan.

Happy for Vaughn and happy for the Sox. First round draft pick No. 3 overall. He's only 24. Seems like a guy who cares. If he can stay healthy (and why shouldn't he?) might be a homegrown star, at least I hope so. His old, traditional stats are all good. Not sure how he's doing in WAR and all that cause I don't really care. Love me some Vaughn. Nice first half, sir.

I know Wrigley is iconic and everything but where do these people get the money? I have some people coming to town and was checking out getting the best seats possible for the pathetic royals vs the rays next Saturday. If I got everything I wanted, at this time it'd be four diamond club boxes at 100 a pop. So that's 400. I assume parking is 40 or so. So that's 440 to get us in. I saw the crown boxes are 330 apiece for the luxury food seats, etc. It looked like all the diamond club boxes are sold out but I saw 4 seats at one of those secondary sites. Do u all know which site is the best to get tickets? Are they all legit and not ripoffs? I'd love to know if there's a significant percentage of Wrigley crowds from out of towners or if it's only 10 percent or so and the rest diehard Cub fans.

Wow, cupboard hasn't been bare for a while. I'm sure it adds something nice to the fall on the South side when Rice and Marist are good in football. Hope the team is still good. ... Did Badke get burned out?

Sox need more runs. Bullpen can't cover that many innings on the road against an average team. More runs baby.

How come the Sox can't just get rid of managers like other teams? I prefer the Phils' way. Do it out of nowhere and have the team be 'shocked' into getting hot under the new manager. If Tony steps down over the break I'm going to lose it and yell out loud. If the Sox bring in AJP for the first game of the second half, that's stupid. Sox will probably go 0-5 and 1-9 and be out of the race and be stuck with AJP. Dumb organization IMO.

Great post. It wouldn't be the modern White Sox without one, two or three guys or more out of action for whatever reason. Ugh. I do love me some Eloy when he's 100 percent tho.

Ozzie got me a WS title and I'll always be grateful. That team didn't dominate that postseason by itself. True managers don't do much but Ozz knew to let the starters start and have them pitch five innings! He pushed all the right buttons in a perfect postseason. Yes, this drama seals Oz's fate. it will remind teams they cannot hire Ozz cause he's 'the mouth that roars.' But Ozzie Guillen IN MY MIND is a genius and thanks Ozzie for the title. I do not care that he 'quit' on the team. KW wanted him out anyway and JR reluctantly was gonna choose KW over Ozzeroo. Ozzeroo is like Ditka in terms of roaring. But he got me as a fan a title and I love Ozz.

Not all of us.

The bats were roaring, Luis Robert is the face of the franchise going forward along with TA. Stay healthy please. What a rocket grand slam.

Hate to say it but you can and should give up on Eloy. He's injury prone. It's unfortunate and sad but he's injury prone and the Sox obviously have no solution to keeping him healthy in the future. I guess reluctantly you could keep him around and keep paying him but the guy can't stay on the field.

No offense to Eloy but this is about right amount of time for a relapse. Some of these guys are just injury prone.

Serious question: Are the Sox basically unwatchable? Mostly because of their approach to hitting? Except for diehard fans like we fans on this board, does anybody in Chicago give a flip about the Sox? B-O-R-I-N-G. p.s. Kudos to my guy, Jose Abreu. He's close to .300 BA after being so horrid in terms of BA early on. They should add him to the all star game just cause he's a class act and now close to .300.

Bring in Don Kessinger as player/manager! I mean interim manager. .... Nyuk nyuk. Little joke.

Yep. They need to be at the max 7 games out of a playoff spot at the break when Tony steps down. However, I don't like the way the Sox do things. Usually when a manager gets canned or "retires" it comes during the season (like Phils this year) and the team rattles off several wins in a row and has a nice stretch. Doing this at the all star break will stink. They'll announce it on home run derby day then we'll have time for it to sink in with the team and it'll be all organized with a team meeting and the "shock value" will be gone. Instead of just accepting the choice as Phils had to do with Thompson there will be debate how the new guy won't matter and u wait, Sox won't get the usual jolt and WILL NOT go on 5-10 game win streak with the new skipper. Do it TONIGHT and get some value out of it White Sox!