southsider2k5

That's kind of the point. Even if you want to take out the position player stuff, all of the sudden, this looks like the team we have waited 130 games for.

Or the ass isn't around...

If someone could put together the runs per game and HR/G before and after Tony, I would love to see it.

Tony was handed a playoff team and turned it into a .500 team with it getting worse the longer he had been here. I know the Rick Hahn slight of hand is a way to protect Tony, but if Tony was literally anywhere else in baseball, he would have been fired already. Protect Britney all you like, but the results speak for themselves, as does Tony being mocked by the baseball world.

It's too bad that we have a leashed media in the city, because there is a story there. NO ONE in this organization is willing to stand in front of a camera and talk about Tony. It's just bizarre. Though the old saying about saying nothing still saying a lot comes to mind.

He is the biggest change to a playoff team. Then he leaves and everything gets better instantly.

This is what you have? I guess you can't actually defend the job performance of Tony, so I guess that's what's left.

The team that he got to the playoffs before Tony got here and was expected to blow away the division and go to the playoffs for the third year in a row? That one? Sure. I am sure Tony had nothing to do with the team self-destructing.

These two posts belong together. This team has been disinterested garbage for the last 200 games with Tony running it. They have barely been .500, and have played disinterested and fundamentally garbage baseball. The jump in energy in the last week is shocking after seeing the previous year and a half. Tony LaRussa has been an unmitigated disaster for the Chicago White Sox. Literally every worst case scenario possible has happened in the last two seasons under his watch.

Boost in what? Their BAC?

Tim's fWAR per game is 0.0253 this season. Elvis's is 0.0193. Andrus is putting up fWAR at 76% of the rate of Tim Anderson this season. Look, I get some people are caught up in the show and their feelings about Tim Anderson. But without getting into the sillier aspects of why some people do not like Tim Anderson, but the facts are incredibly clear. Even through the injuries and the off season problems, Tim Anderson is better this season, he has been better for the last 5 seasons, and the odds are incredibly high that Tim will be better next year than Elvis Andrus.

Just like the team.

This is exactly why I refused to get excited.

It could be interesting to them if we were willing to kick in some of the young pitching.

This would be the most 2022 thing ever.

It's crazy to think of the like 7 billion people on the planet earth have never known another British Monarch in their entire lifetimes. I honestly wonder if the monarchy holds up much longer after this.

I am in this camp. We have a 2B in the bunch. I am 100% on finding an ACTUAL OF this year. You know one who can play actual league average, or god forbid, even + defense.

Pitching to contact is Oakland is a pretty solid strategy.

Maybe it has started to transition back to a more balanced approach the last couple of years, but at least back to the sell off of Sale, Q, and Eaton, the Sox focused on getting more A level prospects versus a lot of B and C level guys. All of their deals were front loaded with as much high talent as possible, and not much in the terms of lottery tickets or guys with limited ceilings but high floors. Their minor leagues reflect this. Their top guys are very good typically with super high ceilings, but the talent level falls off quickly. It does finally seem like the last couple of years have started to pull some guys up who are not in that group.

I hope so.

Andrus is putting up an OPS he hasn't seen since 2017. The WAR he is putting up is at a pace he hasn't seen since 2017. Elvis Andrus hasn't put up a full season bWAR or fWAR of over 2 since 2017 Tim Anderson in his worst year since 2017 is still putting up a fWAR of 2. 2018 to 2022 Elvis has a combined fWAR of 7. Tim Anderson is 16. Can we please stop with the idea that someone a 34 year old Elvis Andrus is a better bet at SS than Tim Anderson? This is the definition of small sample size.