Balta1701

And the White Sox will have him on their roster through July before they eat any money on it.

10 days after the end of the World Series for the first part.

His defense and base running did improve during this season compared to last year and his awful start.

And as long as your team is rebuilding , that’s fine. 2 extra wins would have been huge to the White Sox this year. 15 extra wins would have made no difference to the 2018 white Sox.

But the games were still played without him though right?

Huh?

Eduardo Escobar put up about 2 fWAR over the time Madrigal was hurt, but had some phantom issue the White Sox didn’t like. 2 wins would have been home field advantage in round 1.

A key part of that Lee deal was that moving his salary cleared them to sign Iguchi and Pierzynski. How does that work here?

If the CBA adds a salary floor, this could readily happen.

One big difference in the modern super team era is the level of professionalism. By that I don’t mean you can’t have fun or celebrate in the dugout, the Astros are great at that, and I certainly don’t mean the “n-words shouldn’t wear chains!” We heard here yesterday. Teams like the Astros, Dodgers, Giants, Red Sox, they are full of guys who come to the plate or the mound or their defensive position well prepared, even the young guys. Think about Alvarez working Rodon for a walk in the third inning yesterday to bring Correa up, that was the last bit of fuel Rodon had and Alvarez worked an 8 pitch at bat to use it up. That same inning think about Maldonado leading off - he struck out, never had a ball in the at bat, but he stayed composed, fouled off three pitches, and made it a 6 pitch at bat. That takes a level of focus the White Sox do not have and neither of those managers were interested in. The Twins famously beat the White Sox over and over this way, with an organizational philosophy of hard work and preparation, even when the white Sox clearly were more talented. For the White Sox, they’re stuck in that “TWTW is all that matters” mode. They believe that it’s not preparation or hard work that wins things, it’s trying harder to be the hero. So when Giolito or Rodon have given you every last drop of energy they had, it’s up to them to find more, and it’s their failure if they can’t - they’re supposed to be the hero! If you’re against a tough pitcher you need to swing harder so that you are the hero! They should have a higher TWTW! Things that take practice, dedication, commitment, focus to learn - defensive positioning, framing, footwork, making the proper decision on who to throw a ball to - those are anathema to the White Sox. You always try to get the out at home even if it’s not a smart play and could set up a big inning, because if you do get that out, you’re the hero! The mindset of a LaRussa team isn’t that different from a Guillen team in this regard. Or a Ventura team or a Renteria team for that matter. While it worked 15 years ago, we now have had the rise of these superteams, where they have this mentality that they are being paid millions of dollars so they have to work hard to earn it. So while Guillen would be a better strategist than LaRussa, (someone making decisions by throwing darts at a board would be), neither of them will solve the organizational problem.

I will give a D- for Tepera now?

Giving up a long home run to Altuve to make sure the Astros had icing on the cake? Do you mean why was he out there? Because there was no harm in putting him out there as the game was already lost.

I still can’t get over the fact that they could have had Escobar in June and said “naw we are worried about his medical stuff”, then Escobar was solid the rest of the year with no injuries and they instead traded for a guy who fell apart. They scouted what, 3 players fully wrong?

2013, the year Ventura started sleepwalking through spring training and they limped to 63 wins. You go back to game threads that year and I’m constantly posting the “circus music” to sum up their play on defense.

They at least need to bring in a warm body out there, and OMG if they overpay the first warm body on the market because they’re scared to lose him when there are 4 or 5 other better guys who could be had for the same money who don’t sign for a month and a half again….

Vaughn does seem like a Dodgers fitting player, but with Muncy and Bellinger and others on their roster I struggle to see them paying that much for him. Interesting concept.

Remember, you’re trying to convince a guy who wrote probably 3000 words on why Rick Hahn was the worst GM in baseball back in 2019 that Rick Hahn screwed up. He absolutely did. But I also watched how bad the coaching was this year and the last time the White Sox had such a set of in game debacles might go back to freaking Bevington. Both mattered. I don’t know if either can be overcome. I don’t know that I see Hahn having a core of defenders after this deadline.

And yet that didn’t seem to affect the Astros (or Red Sox for that matter). How odd.

With this roster and the way Hernandez was playing? Nearly all of them. How many would have moved him to RF in game 2 to pinch hit Cesar in a nonsensical situation, leading to a major defensive miscue? One.

Personally I would have done everything possible to use Rodon and a bullpen game in game 2 and then have Lynn and Cease in Chicago. But hell, just avoid the shitty bullpen move in game 2 and this is a different series.

Oh Hahn sucked. But with a a professional manager they’re playing tomorrow night.

Lance Lynn had an ERA over 5 against the Astros in Houston and an ERA just over 3 against the Astros elsewhere. I have posts here from early August saying “damn we need HFA if we want Lynn pitching an early game otherwise he’s probably going to get shelled and then there’s a big chance we are stuck in an 0-2 hole that will be very tough to dig out of”. Giolito had the White Sox in a spot on the road where they had a 71% chance of winning. G and Rodon are funny examples when both should have been pulled earlier after giving their best against a tough lineup.

We saw the problem with Bummer a ton in this series. If he’s getting ground balls, but defensive positioning and poor play leads to those ground balls becoming hits, then he’s going to have some games where he implodes unnecessarily.

I just don’t see the white Sox being talented enough to overcome their manager.

New coach? Yayayayayayayayayayayaya!!!!!!!!!!