southsider2k5

This team has about $20 million in raises coming.

Think back to 25 year old you. If someone had come in with all of the titles and accolades in the world, but crapped on you personally and everything you believed in, and didn't spend anytime to act like they cared what you thought, would you respect them? Especially with their entire public history contradicting their most recent public statements, especially if you had been led to believe that the person was originally supposed to be someone who you did have some excitement about having as a leader? People want a level of respect before they give respect. I don't buy that anyone is just going to blindly accept one part of the resume, but not the rest.

Your own list was 1. Never managed a major league baseball game in their lives. 2. Never played major league baseball. 3. Never served as a major league baseball executive You've done none of these things. If you are going to use these as a basis to lecture the anti-TLR crowd, then you have already shot your own argument in the foot. The rest of is just mental gymnastics. I have no problem calling this for what it is, a rash move made without considering an impressive slate of potential candidates which are/were out there that we could have gone to without Tony's considerable baggage. The fact that TLR's "considerable track record" ends a decade ago. Baseball has changed A TON in that decade. TLR has contradicted the statements he made this week, with others made very recently about how he wouldn't incorporate data once a game started. Why are we supposed to only believe the statements that fit your argument, even though he has consistently made the same statements until someone started paying him again? It doesn't strike me as authentic at all. The fact that while he might have said the right things in some people's point of view during his most recent interviews, he has done other recent views which contradict these words mere months ago. His ACTIONS of supporting anti-Black and anti-Latino causes IS going to raise eyebrows. His lack of contacting players ISN'T going to make anyone feel better. Even it is eventually rectified, players are going to wonder why it took so long to reach out to them. While a guy like Maxwell has taken to Tony's defense, there are PLENTY of players who had large problems with him, and NONE have spoken up here. These accusations aren't new. With the steroid era, people keep using the idea that EVERYONE WAS DOING IT as some sort of a defense for this. Tony's team's had major steroid systems in place, and were operating in the open, and were even an open joke in front of the media. He knew what was going on, and did nothing to stop it. AJ Hinch at least sort of tried to put on a show of stopping things. TLR gave it is tacit endorsement by ignoring it completely. He's never been brought to reckoning for it either. There are also the Jack McDowell accusations of an organized sign stealing operation that have never been addressed. At the end of the day, none of us owe Tony Larussa anything. The idea we do owe him something with all of these other things hanging there over him is absurd. I am not afraid to question his hire, and no one else should be either. There is no reason at all where he can't be questioned as well as the process that brought him here.

Give him the hardware.

15 (B)“Beware of false prophets, (C)who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 (D)You will know them by their fruits. (E)Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, (F)every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 (G)Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Beats me.

The same people who run on gun rights are the same people making sure as many people as possible can't vote, but greg isn't ready for that conversation.

The fact that he feels the need to post this is not making me feel any better.

Not if he is giving them different instruction.

Again, baseball is different now on pretty much all fronts. In this era, owners aren't doing all of these jobs like they used to in the olden days. They can't. And it doesn't seem to be a coincidence that when you look around pro sports, the teams that have owners trying to do more of those jobs themselves, are the ones that are struggling the most.

Only if the manager listens to them.

Well some did. He did have problems with others.

I guess you aren't voting this election then.

Saw Krogman video of a couple of bombs as well.

Tyler Kolek is a free agent. Its crazy thinking that even with Rodon's struggles, that he was the pick right in front of him.

It's worth the thought exercise, but it wouldn't shock me that if the Sox do spend in free agency, that they don't spend in the draft. I think it is plausible they they would be perfectly fine with giving up draft picks to save the money on it.

This right here. If you don't support it, then act like it.

Rick Hahn actually made an incredibly inciteful thought that sadly too many people have completely misunderstood when he said that he didn't think he would be able to be a GM in 10 years. He was referring to the amount of change and information that has flowed into the job since he started doing it. He flat out said that despite starting out working with arbitration hearings, that today he would no longer be qualified to be able to do the job. It was his next sentence where he said (not that he would be GM for the next decade) that he thought with the amount of data and change happening, that he would no longer be able to do the job. I think this is great point when talking about how involved ownership is. Back in the 70's? Sure one guy could probably manage and understand everything going on within a baseball franchise in great detail, because there wasn't the amount of detail happening that there is today. In 2020, you have to surround yourself with people who understand their own piece in incredible detail, and then trust them to do their jobs. JR, nor any other owner today, is capable of doing so alone. It felt like we had been moving that way with the people we had hired, and the modernizations that had happened all over the franchise. The TLR thing is the complete opposite. There is a real feel that the job has changed so much since TLR last did it, that he might not have the ability to do it anymore. His public statements only help to enflame those thoughts. So while you can call Jerry a "baseball" guy or a "real estate" guy, it isn't the title that matters, it is the interference with his people on the ground level who hold information in their heads that Jerry doesn't full get.

That is a step down scenario for me. My #1 goal is a Bauer/Stroman/Kluber (if he passes physical muster) at the front of the rotation type of add. If that doesn't work, sure targeting Spring is a plus to this team, but not nearly as impactful as a front line pitcher.

If we get a front line pitcher and fix up the closer spot (even resigning Colome) I am happy about it. But I have reduced spending expectations this winter too.

I know people will think I am crazy, but we can hide a bad to mediocre RF in this line up, especially if we find one that can catch the ball in RF. We CAN'T hide bad starting pitching. We need to add one more mainstay to this rotation.

Rather hit Bauer with the 5/125 than Springer.

I think the Mets selling ideas are dead with Cohen taking over. In fact judging by the Cohen has already stepped in, I would say they could be the winters biggest buyers, versus being sellers.