Greg Hibbard

I am fine with Madrigal being a .300 hitter and having zero HR power if he hits combined 30 doubles and triples per 162. I think he’s capable of that, but he hasn’t looked good lately. I do want to believe he will be good, and I’m willing to give him 200 games of rope to find out, just like we gave Moncada, who took that long to get good. It took Anderson nearly 3 seasons to unlock his true potential.

10000%. To draw a hockey analogy, Jose wears the C jersey on this team and will wear the C on this team until he retires. Year in and year out we hear the people run their mouth about his age on this side of 30 and the dip in production in some months, but he is playing harder than ever, he’s smarter than he used to be, and he consistently finds defensive and offensive nuances to add to his game. Tim Anderson wears one A on this team, and even though he’s currently struggling, I think Lucas Giolito wears the other A.

Another windswirled homer to right that just appears to be weird wind luck?

Leury “Automatic Out” Garcia is at least providing some consistency to the lineup

Because he plays every position and TLR has to show us how smart he is for using him in so many different places

TLR really doesn’t have an impact on the situation when everyday players do what they’re paid to do and the White Sox win. When Rodon throws a no hitter, that had nothing to do with TLR being good or bad. Similarly, when the everyday lineup rakes and scores a million runs and your starter throws a quality start, that has nothing to do with TLR being good or bad. What we need to discuss are all the situations TLR makes autonomous decisions that will not be good long term plays, regardless of whether they work or not. The manager really only has an impact on the game when he makes pitching change, substitution, and lineup construction decisions. Saying yesterday’s game was some sort of 4D chess by TLR because we ended up winning a game that really shouldn’t have been close is mind-boggling. It’s results oriented, in the same way that playing a bad poker hand because “you had a feeling” and winning despite the odds is not good play. We won despite Lamb playing awful defense a first, a TLR only decision. Lamb did his very best to hurt us more than he helped us with that home run. We won despite a number of obstacles like that. Good for us. I wonder what would have happened if we had just played Abreu at first and DH’d Mercedes. I wonder if we would have won 9-2 again. What is with this notion that we have to only play stud starters 130 games a year now? These are top tier athletes at the highest level. Abreu played every damned game last year. Play the regulars. TLR has cost us actual games - like leaving in Giolito too long or not understanding the Reds extra inning situation - by himself. If you’re happy being 22-13, that’s great. With another manager we might be 18-19 and with a third manager we might be 26-9. here’s the point - a high leverage situation in the playoffs is a once or done deal. You don’t get a second chance. So a gaffe like that in the postseason destroys potentially 10 years of work- the tear down we did, the rebuilding we went through, the shakeups and the losses. You either make the right call or you don’t. This guy has shown me so far that he is really iffy in that department. Whether it’s age or not being familiar with the game, he’s not altogether on top of it. I truly hope that this is just TLR shaking off the rust, and that he will learn things as we progress. I want the best for the White Sox. Ozzie was not a great manager in a lot of respects but there was never a doubt in my mind about him making gut calls in the 2005 playoffs after the Boston series.

It’s certainly fun being on the side of a winning team who pulls it out despite all the awful situations and red flags signaling trouble

What is with Moncada not giving way to Anderson nearly every time he’s called off

“Weird game” says Jason No, this is just our bad lineup and defensive set theres nothing weird about it

So are we now even on Jake Lamb futures?

Damn I guess I have to get a refund on this plane ticket I bought for Lamb to fly out of town tonight

OMG

Lamb is like the son of a little league coach. He’s going to play occasionally no matter how much he sucks

Why not just put Mercedes at 1st? Same defense, way better stick, no bad vibes

Can we get him in CF then?

1) COME BACK FROM THE BAR 2) STOP DRINKING 3) PUT VAUGHN AT FIRST 4) PUT LAMB IN LEFT

WHY IS LAMB PLAYING FIRST

Except he plays 1st base where you expect massive production.

Not trying to be obtuse, but how is Astudillo a ML first baseman? He doesn’t seem to have much in the walks or power department and he’s almost 30.

Where’s Coach Green? Somebody tell La Russa that Lamb and Leury are who we thought they were

Investment savvy genius Reinsdorf spends all this money on payroll and brings in literally a stupid bum to manage the team La Russa is like De Niro at the end of Jackie Brown. Just a pathetic shell loser version of himself.

The follow up questions should be "so you don't think Billy Hamilton can get the bat on the ball there? Then why is he batting?"

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I concede your point but it’s likely the Sox would have made the playoffs in 1994 if it wasn’t for the strike, and in 2006 they won’t 90 games and missed it, and I think we all know that was somewhat rough luck. I suppose the question I would ask back to you is how many wins you think we lose if Robert’s injury is 6 weeks and how many do we win back with a trade and what are we giving up?

The Sox have gotten at least Eloy’s equivalent WAR value out of Mercedes thus far, and probably have been better defensively in left, even with Vaughn Its likely Robert is gone six weeks, how much WAR do you really lose? Assuming he’s a 5 WAR player we lose 1.25 WAR and probably pick up .3 WAR from his replacements the bullpen has been brutal at times, Giolito hasn’t pitched well, Keuchel has regressed, our backups look weak, Abreu is seriously showing his age...and yet we are 15-12, dead on pace for 90 wins. yes, I know weak teams, but Seattle has played well and the entire AL has been inconsistent, this appears to be anyone’s league to take who gets hot at the end. Sox can do that with Robert and Eloy both back in September. I suppose I understand the knee jerk reaction to trade at this point, but in my mind we are weathering an incredible storm and still fine record wise. I don’t like the idea of trading anything away when we are likely looking at a 1-win loss over the next six weeks.