Balta1701

Jfc people the answer is Robin Ventura and it isn’t close. They did so little fielding practice in spring training 2013 that they had to start trying to do it before games during May to make up for it. Somehow they didn’t notice until April 2014 that Jose Abreu was putting his foot in a spot that would make him lose his foot on plays at 1b. Avi Garcia nearly tore apart his shoulder diving for a ball in RF because he didn’t know how to do it, so no one coached him and a couple weeks later he tore apart his shoulder. Marcus Semien needed work and that was too hard so they traded him. Ricky Renteria was one of the worst in game strategists I’ve seen and he was completely unprofessional when it came to learning new information and dealing with the press or frankly anyone. But his teams always played hard and works hard.

Pros: beer.

I mean, the 2019-2020 White Sox weren't the crispest team I've ever seen in those spots, but I didn't think it was much beyond "there's a pretty young, inexperienced team here". Madrigal, for example, was a surprising disappointment in this regard last year. But I've seen sloppy teams. Robin Ventura's teams 2013-2016. If you go back through game threads in 2013 I swear I posted the youtube link to "Circus music" at least 30 times. That was a sloppy team with a manager who didn't give a crap. It wasn't just the rookies, it was everyone. I'm half serious when I say I'd be surprised if I saw a video of them correctly hitting a cutoff man all year.

Basically...yes.

There you go, he's cleared the whole league.

Oh sure now the thread comes around...

I'm ok with adding Baker to the list. Let's remember the steps in the story though - Tetrahydrogestrinone out in San Francisco sees the 1998 home run chase, decides "ok I'm going to get off the soft stuff and get onto the hard stuff", starts the BALCO program in 1999. I'm what, 2 degrees of steroids away from LaRussa, with the 1998 home run chase under him? Basically, blame whoever you want, they are all guilty there. But do not sit there and tell me how Tony LaRussa is redeemed and AJ Hinch is dirty. Tony LaRussa had people shooting things into their asses that violated federal law in his locker room. If AJ Hinch's scheme was so horrible that he's dirty, then LaRussa deserves equal, if not more scorn.

The bolded isn’t true on fangraphs (4.4 war 4th on the team). Canseco also valuable on both and present for the playoffs.

Tony LaRussa wrote a piece in Sports Illustrated saying that Kaepernick’s protest was “insincere”. I’m going to give this one to Passan https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30220736/why-tony-la-russa-sincerely-curious-choice-white-sox-manager

TLDR is short for too long, didn’t read.

Some rando named Mark McGwire. I’m sure he was clean.

So has Hinch. I’m totally ok with shaming him for it. TLDR was the manager who had as much steroid abuse under him as any in baseball. Probably more. At least one of those titles of his.

For all I know TLDR could have adapted his philosophy, I’m surprised how well Baker did. But he should have had to explain that fully in a well prepared interview setting, and earn the trust of the front office, not just the owner. Baker did.

No one made Tony LaRussa speak out on that issue for years, as recently as February. He chose to do so, without even bothering to understand the issue enough to know why people were doing it according to his own explanation of how he has “evolved.” It didn’t hurt him to condemn people asking for justice at the time because he was in a position of privilege where he didn’t have to worry about that. So how did we get to this place? Ask TLDR.

Literally every comment saying “Hinch’s team cheated and LaRussa is a champion” needs “what about the gigantic steroid abuse scandal” asked in reply.

So why not conduct professional and complete interviews with several people, including the one who was hired, and actually let your GM make the decision based on the content of those interviews?

because we're not dumb and he said that on the day RR was fired...yes.

They were told 3 weeks+ ago that Hinch was a possibility/likely. We know that from Keuchels' twitter.

Deep down, that's exactly what I'm expecting. If they thought someone was going to jump at that contract, they would have traded him.

No one was pressuring them to fire McGwire when he admitted it publicly. There might have been pressure to not hire him, but once that river was crossed, the admission didn't matter at all.

I'm predicting the excuse we'll read here in February when it turns out that LaRussa hasn't talked to virtually any of them.

Is there any reason to think that this member of the family is as determined to overspend as the previous one was? I thought they were clearly done with that when the change happened.

Someone they sign, like Wainright. The players are going to keep quiet for a while.

3 months from now "Why would he need to contact these guys during the winter? They can handle themselves, he'll be seeing them in a couple weeks anyway".

Roll your eyes all you want, but seriously, you're saying that it's reasonable under any circumstances to have expected Tony LaRussa to fire McGwire for having used steroids/admitting it publicly? Really? Tell me how on Earth that makes sense to you? LaRussa watched him "not want to talk about the past" before Congress and assumed that meant the shots he got in the locker room and the bottle labeled andro were all just vitamins, and was totally caught off guard when McGwire admitted it?