nrockway

I think he's gonna be a great player but he didn't really say anything interesting. "My mindset is to hit the ball. I'm competitive. I like playing baseball and I want to play in the Major Leagues. Arizona is hot in the summertime. I work hard." Oh OK. Not a slight against Montgomery, but against sports journalists in general. Probably could have asked him more interesting questions, I imagine. Chat-GPT could ask these questions. Problem with guys like Merkin is that they're employed by the corporation they're supposed to report on, ie it's propaganda. They're just proving that their job can be automated.

this was a decade before I was born but the early 80s Sox is my favorite (non 2005) rendition of the team. Lots of fun players and a much better logo/jerseys.

Am I the only one who can't stand that little "I drive the bus" thing they all do when they get a hit? Very corny imo, maybe I'm just now noticing it because they're actually getting hits two days in a row.

The quality of journalism is almost always better when you’re paying for it with a subscription than paying via ppc advertisements. Less rushed clickbait, more thought out and researched. Generally speaking. This doesn’t seem to exist anymore, those publications realized they can charge money and still publish blog posts. See: the athletic. Canceled my subscription after they fired fegan

He’s looked better to me since about that game. I don’t know how it plays out statistically but it seems like he’s hitting the ball harder and off the ground more often. Baby steps in the right direction, I’ll take it.

Power shift

I'm not the one who's obsessed, you are, I just call a spade a spade and stay true to the idea that I like sports for the sporting aspect of it and not the TMZ-esque personal drama. If I cared about that, I'd watch the Kardashians instead of baseball. You might prefer that brand of entertainment. And obviously there's a giant difference between rooting for a guy who cheated on his wife (wow incredible an athlete, had an affair...) and one who is accused of criminally assaulting his spouse (regarding Clev. I'll still cheer for him to have a good ERA because whatever investigations took place didn't find anything. I bet he has anger issues that affect his personal relationships even if he isn't a criminal and I hope he figures it out for his own sake. In the mean time, I hope he pitches well). Don't be obtuse to compare the two. I speculate that it stems from some personal insecurity that infidelity is a worse offense to you than an alleged assault. I also speculate that it's racially motivated but I really don't want to have this discussion on a baseball forum and won't mention it further. It's just I think kind of obvious why some athletes receive this bizarre level of personal hatred from the fans who are supposed to be cheering them on. I bet if Luis Robert spoke English he'd get the same level of it. People call him slurs too and I think it's sort of disappointing for a baseball team that's located on the south side of Chicago...anyway. It is true of all athletes (pretty much any public figure) that fans will redirect their personal hang-ups onto them. That's part of the reason they get paid the big bucks, they have to have thick skins and deal with it. I still think it's weird. Few days off of baseball so now let's talk about how shitty they are as human beings. Some of the remarks about Giolito getting a divorce, it's like....maybe this is actually a Catholic church forum and I got lost somewhere. Who cares? I wish him the best through it as I would anyone else but I really don't care about a stranger's divorce!! Why should you? You care more about Tim's infidelity than his wife does, get a life!

I completely agree with all of this, I just think it rests on people over Pedro's head to institute it. I think any brand new manager without a reputation would be fine with using data to address these things you mention (which stand out even by the 'eye test' and if you don't look at the aggregate stats) but there's obviously no willpower within the organization to do so. It's actually pretty strange because the Bulls operate this way too (though the 'advanced stats' are less important in basketball), it's like Jerry just thinks statistics are made up and tell you nothing and anyone who thinks there might be a use has no voice. I think there's a debate about which 'advanced' stats are more relevant than others, I read a good argument recently about why batting average might be a better metric than OBP, but these are debates that people in the multi-billion dollar organization should be getting paid to have in order to achieve the goal of winning games and a world series and keeping fans interested in the product and spending money on it. Winning games is obviously not the most important thing to this organization, the profit stream exists regardless of whether or not fans are engaged. I don't think it's the manager's fault per se but he was clearly not the right guy for the job by any metric...I don't think they actually want to hire just 'yes men', makes more sense that they just misevaluated Grifol's ability to do the job.

Sabermetrics is fine but that’s an organizational priority, what does it have to do specifically with the manager besides listening to advice on when to pitch hit, batting order etc. the minor league development people need to know this stuff more. This is a Hahn issue which is confusing because he’s an Ivy League mba, those dummies love this stuff. leads me to think it’s over his head. The big league team manager needs to be a leader and get the most out of his players. And needs to be bilingual. Some sabermetrics nerd who learned a few things on excel isn’t that guy. Anyone on this board could do that job, minor statistical analysis that people probably learned their first semester of college. Pedro is none of these things besides ostensibly bilingual, but boy was it foolish to think a Cuban-American would fit into the Cuban thing the Sox having going on and be able to inspire moncada, Robert etc to play hard. They’re gonna blow that connection which is about the only thing this team has going for it over other franchises.

I care about his baseball production and also you can still be a good person and do a bad thing, ie spousal infidelity. The Clev accusations are way different, that’s describing a violent crime. Cheating is not a crime even if I think it’s immoral. Regular people do it all the time, but my exact point is why are you looking at a baseball shortstop for moral guidance? I say once more, his wife obviously forgives him and wants to remain married to him. Why is your opinion on this matter stronger than hers? Oh yeah it’s cuz it’s Tim Anderson, resident whipping boy, his sin being…anyone can read between the lines about why everything applies extra to Tim.

I like how you have a stronger opinion on his supposedly bad ethics than his wife does. Ya know, the woman who is being victimized here. It isn’t you. Stop acting like such a p**** about pro athletes, some of you guys think these millionaires who play with a ball are supposed to be these paragons of virtue. All this stuff applies extra to Tim Anderson apparently, couldn’t imagine why….

Doesn’t look like there’s a “rule” against it but it does make you a dick to be like “the white sox are bad at baseball, I hope these guys’ personal lives crumble.” it’s like, get a life.

I’m thrilled with the selection and can’t believe he fell this far! I doubt he sticks at SS but Montgomery/Gonzalez looks like a decent infield for the future.

i've finally made peace with the fact that this team isn't going to rattle off a 15 game win streak this season. the problem with blowing it up is that rick hahn still has a job.

giving multiple years to and spending actual money on relievers is such a terrible idea. you can get 90% of the production of joe kelly (or 200%) or graveman out of a 29-year-old perpetual AAAer and then spend that money on difference makers with predictable (or at least low variance) performance

gorman is a permanent DH. he's flubbed every play he's been involved in this series

The Cardinals are perhaps the only team that is more WTFworthy than the Sox are.

wow

why send the catcher from first to home lol

his numbers on the year are surprisingly good over 27 innings for a 29-year-old rookie. i don't really expect it to last but he's far from dreadful

I love that they're running out ground balls and making it close. there can be a millisecond difference between a good outcome and a bad outcome in baseball, minimize the probability of those bad outcomes by doing easy things like sprinting to first base

most players are probably less knowledgeable than a lot of fans about 'macro' sort of baseball things.

supposedly it'll storm for several hours. double header would be great, I could possibly go. I want that Italian heritage night hat...

why doesn't luis robert bat second?

Three perfect games that year...like what?