Balta1701

They wouldn't have removed RR and Cooper if the job wasn't already going to LaRussa. They did a couple of other interviews to check the boxes on diversity but never seriously considered anyone else.

There's no assumption about it.

Frankly, bullcrap. MLB repeatedly sent out memos saying "steroids are not allowed in this game", going as far back as the early 1990s, I believe under commissioner Fay Vincent it was so long ago. MLB sent out a memo saying the same thing about video recording. LaRussa ignored those memos, those rules, and frankly federal law in some cases, for what, 20 years? McGwire felt it totally ok to have a bottle of andro sitting openly in his locker in 1998 during the home run chase. There are zero ways to justify the bolded, unless the next clause is "the steroid era was far worse". The steroid era was open defiance of MLB rules, and in many cases even of federal controlled substance regulations.

Tony LaRussa is absolutely going to have the final say on personnel decisions. The former GM/now assistant GM opposed this move and it was driven by others - so if LaRussa and Assistant GM Hahn have a disagreement on a player's use or on an acquisition, it's already clear that the owner will come down on LaRussa's side. Assistant GM Hahn might make 95% of the moves, but he's already lost any power struggles.

A quality roster or a roster stocked with players approved by TLDR?

Why would you have your assistant GM comment on a hiring?

Don't forget the "White Sox" step - they would never have allowed RR to be fired and pay two coaches at once if ownership didn't already know this was how it was going to go. JR talked to his old buddy sometime during the season about this and TLDR said he'd be interested, that's the only reason Renteria was allowed to be moved. Ditto Cooper - you think they're going to move their 20 year loyalty pitching coach if they didn't already know that TLDR was going to bring in his own guy? This is the only reason why RR and Cooper are gone.

Jesus Christ yes.

LOL he knows that it's based on his friendship and what happened years ago so much that he is denying it before anyone even asks the question. This is a tactic we teach in sales - you know something is coming up because it's true so you address or distract from it in advance.

Maybe not allowing bottles of Andro to be kept out in the open in players lockers would have been a great start.

Anderson's under contract, he'll keep things behind the scenes for now and just go on being himself. It'll be when something blows up between them that you'll want to hear from Anderson.

He should resign. He is now officially demoted to assistant general manager, or General Manager in name only.

He might have tried to do so but ownership would have said no without this. This closes the loop to make that firing “classic white Sox”. Everyone was surprised at RR because the white Sox never remove managers for cause. Turns out it wasn’t for cause, it was to get another of JRs buddies around. So White Sox.

With this virus... 1 in 3000 Americans get it per day. 100 days, so 1 in 3 chance he gets it by then? For a man in his late 70’s, survival rate is 76%. Wow I never did the math on that until now. He’s rich and white so that helps because he can afford better treatment, but who knows if he has anything underlying.

I...will take TLDR over Ventura. Ventura we already know had no respect from players in this clubhouse.

KW hired Ventura. Hahn extended him after a successful 63 win season, blame him for that, Kenny hired him.

I have never in this organization seen anything that convinced me more that we just saw Reinsdorf overrule everyone than this. If you want to make the case that Hahn, Williams, and everyone else are yes men with no spine, today is exhibit 1.

Lol you think the white Sox did any long term thinking or advance planning here?

This is not weird at all for this franchise. It is totally par for the course. It even makes the last month less weird - firing their last manager was weird for them, but now we understand why, to bring in one of the owners old boy network.

If Rick Hahn isn’t saying that he will leave if they do this over his objection, then we might as well just call him Assistant General Manager Hahn.

I...agree with this, at least partially. I feel dirty.

And yet there are clear cases of TLDR not operating this way during his managing career with the Cardinals.

That has to be a fake.

And this is a major reason why Rick Hahn should leave.

Look, let’s be honest, we don’t know that for sure. There is an outside chance it works great and he’s the perfect person for this job. Given everything we know, there is a decent chance it is in fact a dumpster fire and we are bumping this thread next October after the whole thing implodes. Most likely it won’t be terrible or great, but asserting that it won’t be a dumpster fire requires a time machine. Do you have a time machine? Because there are some things around 2016 that we need to go back and fix.