Chisoxfn

Honestly - I am happy they are fading now. Gets rid of Hanh / Kw's excuse. They need a full restart when it comes to coaches and front office. Get rid of the inwardly focused nature of this franchise. They wouldn't know what a good franchise was if it hit them in the head. They are so past the times and completely oblivious to what real franchises do, including how they spend their money and what true talent development and analytics looks like. They are 10 years behind in the times and that is the legit truth.

They made it easy on me - I was planning on heading down and staying in San Diego for the final series of the season and just cancelled my hotel. Not going to waste my money on a hotel to go down and watch this squad play (nor do I want my little league kids watching this team play baseball the way it does). I personally am glad they are melting down at the end - ownership better be seeing this and completely clean house. I want to see a full change - including the bringing in of a complete outside, highly respective person to take over the organization and give it a top to bottom clense. I don't expect it to happen - but it needs to happen. I think with a really good front office person who can give that clens, we could see really great things happen and fast with this franchise. The inward, extremely loyal nature of this franchise is completely getting in the way. I'm not even going to mention the money cause it really isn't about the money - except for their inability to spend on deep analytics departments and put more money in scouting. Go cheap on the roster by $5M and ensure you have a top notch front office, coaching staff, scouting and developmental programs in place (and throughout the minors and into the majors). That $5M is worth 100 Leury Garcia's.

I am throwing the accuracy out the window because this was about the first time I have seen him ever play like this (from an accuracy perspective). Mitch on the other hand was always missing guys open down the field - I don't feel like I have ever seen Fields have a game like today (from an accuracy perspective) so I don't want to hold that against him. It really is all about the decision making to me - because he has shown he can make NFL throws and has the arm strength and speed. What I haven't seen is someone who can just stack play after play together and at times take what the offense gives until you have that shot to go for the dagger and than use that to crush opponents.

He would have had another 25-30 yards if Fields didn't airmail an interception when Kmet was wide open down the middle of the field.

The one saving grace is Tua looked horrible for 1.5 years+ and now hasn't looked that bad. Part of his issues were injuries but he also took some time, so I have to remind myself for someone who had it so easy because they could rely on pure athleticism and a good arm (as Fields could) that the learning curve was going to be steeper in the NFL where you can't just rely on that pure uncanny ability and this is forcing him to humble and truly develop. I kind of say the 1st quarter of the season is about him figuring things out and just playing - than the 2nd and 3rd quarters have to be about showing real strides and becoming a solid QB; Than final quarter of the season should reinforce those believes that you are / can be the guy to build around or...to show you aren't and than the Bears know that heading into '23.

I agree - I am starting him all year though. Either he makes major progress and shows it or you are moving away at the end of the year. Odds right now are moving away from him at end of the year but he has talent - his weaknesses are just glaring when it comes to decision speed.

I think they need to know - in our out - we are in complete agreement here. And they are in full rebuilding mode anyway. Quite frankly Mitch wouldn’t have been as big of a deal either but they followed him up but giving away the farm for Mack which meant Mitch had to be the guy. And I still say - If fields somehow learns to play fast (you can just see he spends so much time thinking vs reacting) and he’ll break through. I am not betting whether it happens or doesn’t - but it should be real clear for the coaches to see whether he can get to that point or not this year. And the whole goal this year should be around giving him the opportunity to prove he is or isn’t the guy (don’t hide him to just delay the inevitable).

And this is happening with them actually having a good rushing attack.

I will say - I have never noticed bad accuracy so this seems more like a today thing - but consistently he hasn’t been able to play decisive and read the d and make plays on time. That isn’t unique to a rookie qb but that was always what he struggled with in college and thus far he doesn’t look any better. Today it is the usual from decision making - but his accuracy has been putrid. The pick he threw in first half was an easy 25 yard gain to Kmet. That pick to Mooney just now - horrendous throw but also horrible decision.

But the biggest thing to me is - he clearly has shown zero ability to break down the d and take plays in front of him and play with real deciciveness.

He looks terrible though and I have said that every week so far this year.

We either want to know he sucks or see something special. I don’t want someone in between that makes it hard. He keeps this up he is making it easy but I’d like to see a stellar 2nd half.

All right - it’s about time for Justin Fields to have a total splash game. Something like a 5 TD type of performance with 359 yards passing etc.

Never thought I would say surgery is a good thing - but this seems like great news. If they can be patient and this actually fixes things, they should have Lonzo back by turkey day. Would have preferred they figured out this months ago but maybe just maybe he will get things back here. Would be huge cause a healthy Ball would be a huge lift for the Bulls. In meantime - hoping Ayo and Caruso are both healthy and can take advantage of their reps - in particular interested in seeing how Ayo has grown. Even better would be seeing Williams and White with their first healthy offseason take some real huge steps forward too. Not holding my breathe though.

You still have Robert, Anderson, Moncada, Vaughn, Eloy. Maybe some don’t belong on that list plus Aubreu. Rotation still has guys like Cease, Kopech, Gio (one bad year after a few real good ones). And yes some of those contracts suck but every team has some bad. Grandal is probably worse - pollock not great but he is producing since Lasucka left and does have a good track record. So there is plenty there - get creative and make something happen.

Shakes head - not at Hendricks and I still say with a better manager we will see a better Moncada. More like a 4 WAR guy. But they need someone creative for a lot of this.

It is amazing how many bad moves I just listed - let alone the money spent on Kelley / Graverman / Pollock into next year. I will say - one scenario that would quickly remedy things would be Grandal bouncing back next year. I keep hoping if they miss - they start over. Kenny retired and they do what Bulls did and bring in new people and change things.

I agree - Andrus and Cueto worked stellar. Pollock / Kimbrel / Kelley / Rodon non qual / no outfielder / Leury were a disaster.

A lot of money tied up on this pen too.

It sure stinks this entire team, which deserves plenty of its own blame, had to deal with the mgr who was historically as bad as I have ever seen for as long as they did. Maybe this can be the reverse Nayler game and they shock us.

I have to remind myself - they also ran very few plays. Packers totally owned them yesterday and it showed. I kind of think the good thing with Fields is - we know what he needs to do to show us. It is one thing if the wideouts aren't getting open, but we got to see his decision making show up and his special play ability to be there regularly. If we see enough flashes of that - you feel good (regardless of drops etc). If we don't - than you know you don't have anything that special and you move on, cause you can't waste your time with mediocre at the QB position. I will also notate the first few weeks - I'll give some benefit of the doubt, but after that, you got to go make plays and regularly. Show you can put the team on your back despite sub-part talent.

On the topic of Martin - he has been admirably in his role with the squad this year - but look at his numbers in Charlotte and before - someone has to tell me what is happening at the MLB level is truly sustainable vs. a more historic track record of being a relatively meh minor league pitcher and meh minor leaguers don't typically translate into okay or even good major leaguers (unless of course there is some sort of mechanical adjustment where plus stuff and meh command gets corrected). I don't see Martin as having electric stuff so I got to think this is a small sample size in the Sox favor more than anything else (and touche to Martin for doing it) but assuming he is anything other than fools gold would be a mistake in my mind.

The wideouts are absolute trash.

Good news is if he plays a few more games like the first two weeks it makes things easy for the brass….he has to start showing some real growth and fast.

Based upon the piece in the Atlantic - some of this would appear was driven by an approach led from the top that minimized the focus on this. In all fairness - with a more juiced ball the Sox might be crushing homers at a high clip and hitting at a high average, so it might have worked - but they never adjusted this season under TLR (if he really was setting the tone) - but it seems like at this point something different is happening in terms of approach. It also is very clear that a different tone has been set. Really unfortunate this tweak wasn't made at the same time the Phils did it with Girardi - cause it was pretty evident at that point things weren't working - whether it was the Mgr or not - you knew the Mgr certainly wasn't helping. This is not revisitionist history either - as I said the same thing back than.