Balta1701

Well yeah, of course he wasn't going to fire McGwire for using steroids. He benefited from them and looked the other way for practically McGwire's entire career. He might not be considered a "hall of fame manager" if McGwire hadn't been using steroids since the 1980s.

So far he hasn't been reaching out to them, per what was said here a couple pages ago. Shouldn't it be the manager's job to be offering the first olive branch? If the coach can't be bothered to have done that so far, even with the team captains, why should the players put in any more effort than him?

Who is actually in charge there now?

Even if they did, they're not going to be gathering information about it at this point - the hired manager would clearly be involved in the process of coming up with his staff.

That's absolutely why Willie was interviewed, they aren't even hiding it by saying other people they talked to. But honestly, it's not the worst thing for Willie - a promotion to manager is well beyond his current experience level, he's only been a coach for a couple seasons according to Wikipedia so being able to see even a sham process for a big league managerial interview gives him insight into the kind of preparation he'll need to do if he decides to go that way with his career. Don't feel bad for Willie in this case, feel bad for the White Sox.

I would have thought it was all but guaranteed within a few years other than the Virus.

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I keep saying this - he doesn't need to, in his mind at least. He is Tony LaRussa. He's in charge of everyone, and the organization made sure everyone knows that.

Oh for sh*t's sake do you really need to be that person too? It has several official names. Use them.

I believe we saw posts yesterday saying the opposite, that he was specifically interested if asked.

They interviewed Willie Harris. It wasn’t quite a Rooney rule deal, but basically was - he had no shot at the job and they weren’t interested in what he had to say, but they had to interview someone nonwhite or it would be even more obvious.

Earth. Welcome.

Worth considering: TLDR will not be fired from this job as long as JR is in charge. If an up and coming manager is on his staff, and TLDR did not say “next year will be my last year” on the day after the World Series, said managerial prospect will probably jump at any opportunity to coach elsewhere because they might not get the chance here any time soon.

Reinsdorf never would have allowed RR and especially Cooper to be dismissed if he didn’t know that the replacement was going to be his buddy. Remember how we were all surprised they actually removed RR because it was so unlike them? This is the other half of the explanation. They interviewed Willie Harris to check the diversity box and did what JR decided months ago. He didn’t even let his assistant GM in on the gag.

Just to stress this - LaRussa's answer on kneeling was the answer you give to satisfy white people who don't want to have to think about it but who saw the video this spring and realized it was really bad. It wasn't the answer of anyone who has put genuine thought into the subject, and we have people on the roster who are smart enough to recognize the difference.

He got the job while barely having to interview and ownership overruled objections of their now-demoted general manager. In what sense does he have to prove himself, or expect that he won't be deferred to? I think he'll be walking in expecting to be deferred to, and whenever someone doesn't...he'll win, eventually, probably while ripping apart a few relationships in the process.

No one here has been harder on Rock Hahn than me and the White Sox clearly downgraded their whole front office today.

We stripped the GM of his power to name his own manager or even to conduct interviews for one. So basically, yeah. Hahn will run most of the day to day stuff there, but TLDR will have a veto since ownership already said he’s more valuable to them than Hahn.

And his time as GM in Arizona?

These two don’t even have a working relationship. This is a problem. Simple possible example. LaRussa leaves spring training next year deciding Crochet is going to be his 9th inning guy. Hahn says no, he wants to convert him into a starter, asks LaRussa to get him 120 innings. LaRussa says he’s the closer. Hahn says he’ll send him to the minors, LaRussa says he’s the closer. Who is going to win this debate? Rick Hahn is now an assistant GM to LaRussa. Hahn lost any debates today before they began, TLDR knows it, and he absolutely has shown he has the personality to make use of that even in his recent stop as GM.

And how did that go?

I feel like we just replaced one arrogant, old-fashioned manager with another one - except this one now has veto power over everything the now demoted GM might want to do.

Well, first of all, let's just all note that "Sure this is a terrible move but maybe managers don't matter!" is a really rotten take overall and one I'd really like to stop hearing as though it's some sort of justification for bad moves. But second point...maybe the difference between most "average" managers is small, but we've seen what good and bad managers can mean for franchises over the past few years. How many games did RR specifically cost this year? 3? 4? In a shortened season? Robin Ventura was a nightmare who couldn't possibly have cared less for the last 4 years. On the other hand, it didn't work out in game 6...but seriously, how on Earth did the Rays get to the World Series? They did it by rigorously following a set of well-designed rules and acting them out.

Fascinating. I wonder if I might have known that before writing the post and you should go back and reread the context.

Houston Texans. Watson is really good. Bill O'Brien should have no problems this season.