caulfield12

He took the $18.5 million qualifying offer this year...want no part of him next year as a full-fledged FA. He will get one of those Eovaldi-like deals.

Matt Zaleski (AAA pitching coach) and LHP Nik Turley both ejected in bottom of the 9th, game tied at 3-3. Turley must have been upset with ball/strike calls, walked two runners. Wes Helms (former Brave) gone too. More coaching ejections in one minor league game than the entire White Sox season so far.

By the way, has Tony been going to Rudy Giuliani's hair stylist/salon? Those roots...past dye job, in major need of a touch-up or revitalizing rinse.

"Big mistake," La Russa said. "The fact that he's a rookie, and excited, helps explain why he just was clueless. But now he's got a clue." La Russa was in full get-off-my-lawn mode during his video conference with reporters the next day. "I took several steps from the dugout onto the field, yelling, 'Take, take, take,'" La Russa recalled. "The way he was set up, it looked to me like he was going to swing. "I was upset because that's not a time to swing 3-0. I knew the Twins knew I was upset. . . . He missed a 3-0 take sign. With that kind of lead, that's just sportsmanship and respect for your opponent." And . . . "I'm certain that will not happen again with Yermin," La Russa said. "It's a manager's responsibility. It's a teaching moment. You want them to understand why there's a take sign in that situation. "I'm absolutely certain the guy is not going to swing 3-0 in another situation." Tipsheet isn't so certain that Mercedes won’t repeat this breach of baseball etiquette. He insisted he wouldn't change his playing style. "I'm always doing Yermin," Mercedes said. "For that reason, I'm here right now. For that reason, you guys are talking to me right now. If I'm not Yermin, if I'm not doing that, nobody wants to talk to me, nobody wants to know what I'm doing." https://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/jeff-gordon/tipsheet-la-russa-insists-on-enforcing-baseballs-unwritten-rules/article_ee6f7865-1299-5f1c-a87f-a5bed569f412.html

And now for a brief moment of levity on TLRTalk, a word from one of our many valued sponsors, Jim Beam Whiskey:

Tony La Russa doubles down on HR controversy while his players send different message on social media https://www.yahoo.com/sports/tony-la-russa-doubles-down-on-hr-controversy-while-his-players-send-different-message-on-social-media-170429453.html Mercedes has since gone private on Instagram. Those messages don't criticize La Russa directly, though Anderson and Mercedes make it clear they don't agree with their manager's ideology. None of this bodes well for La Russa. Anderson is one of the team's best players and its most recognizable national superstar. Mercedes is only a rookie, but he's been arguably the best hitter on the White Sox this season. Those voices —especially Anderson's — carry significant weight in the clubhouse. La Russa may want to consider that the next time he decides to weigh in on Mercedes' home run.

Is there ANYONE taking LaRussa’s side? Carlton Fisk? Harrelson? Pujols? Molina/Wainright? Well, besides Rocco Baldelli, of course.

ARKK/Cathie Wood? Soros is the one playing 5D chess, definitely not the Sox front office.

Padres are joining in on the party at +10, and SFG could be all alone at +11 depending on Cincy results.

Take your irrational ire to its source, Elon Musk, or the Chinese govn’t .?

And his bullpen actually closed out games...granted, it was Colome, but nothing like the current situation.

Does anyone honestly think LaRussa is actually doing this intentionally to unite the team and take all the attention/focus off the players and put it all on himself, like Ozzie consistently did until the end? I’ve got some Bitcoin, Dogecoin and tons of Shiba Inu that I’d just love to offload. Great investment opportunity, far better than boring old gold.

In the end, this isn’t about a rookie “missing” a sign — or downright ignoring it; it’s about a manager that has lost touch with the game. Today’s game. He said that Mercedes isn’t playing his game; he’s playing Major League Baseball, in response to Mercedes saying that he only knows how to play his way. Well, Tony, you’re right; he’s playing Major League Baseball. It’s just not your Major League Baseball, and that’s what you continue to fail to comprehend. If Tony La Russa insists on playing the fun police role, and he insists on throwing his players under the bus in the name of dinosaur-age unwritten rules, then his career is going to suffer the same fate of the dinosaur age… extinction. Get with the times. After all, the team you’re managing has donned “change the game” as their marketing slogan for the past two seasons. Maybe it’s time their manager gets on board before he “gets run over,” as Tim Anderson said a couple of years ago about people offended by the evolution of baseball. https://whitesoxdaily.substack.com/p/here-we-go-with-the-unwritten-rules?r=ku3nf

Can we say spaz now? Tiger Woods got hammered for this...

That has been just a little bit...lacking.

“It's just one of those things where people are going to get their ideas of how they should do things,” Lynn said. “I’ve been in situations last year where [Fernando] Tatis did the 3-0 grand slam off of a pitcher that had 10 years in the big leagues [Juan Nicasio] and didn't throw another pitch in the big leagues after that, and everyone seemed to think that was fine. “You're damned if you do, damned if you don't, it seems like. But I think everybody should just play the game as hard as they can and do all that, and don't worry about anything else." https://www.mlb.com/news/white-sox-blow-lead-lose-walk-off-to-twins

As Mercedes broke into his home run trot, La Russa said he was looking angrily at him. “I was upset because that's not a time to swing 3-0,” La Russa said. “I happened to look over there, and I know the Twins knew that I was upset. [Third-base coach] Joe [McEwing] had given the take sign. I just think that Yermín was locked in. He and Astudillo, they know each other from different competitions. He was locked in and [thinking], ‘I've got to get him, I've got to get him.’ “But he missed a 3-0 [take] sign with that kind of lead. That's just sportsmanship and respect for the game and respect for your opponent. He made a mistake. So there'll be a consequence that he has to endure here within our family. But it won't happen again because Joe will be on the lookout, and I will be, too, and we'll go running in front of the pitcher if we have to.” Mercedes’ comments about having to be Yermín and not changing his ways were not agreed upon by La Russa. “I heard he said something like, ‘I play my game.’ No, he doesn't,” La Russa said. “He plays the game of Major League Baseball, respects the game, respects the opponents. And he's got to respect the signs. When he gets the take sign, he takes. He's in there today, so the consequence is not sitting him down. It's a learning experience.” https://www.mlb.com/news/tony-la-russa-yermin-mercedes-on-3-0-swing

From his HoF induction ceremony, brother.

https://www.azsnakepit.com/2017/1/30/14442364/arizona-diamondbacks-gaffes-tony-la-russa In its entirety, the five-player deal sent Miller and relief prospect Gabe Speier to the Diamondbacks, who in turn gave up Ender Inciarte, Dansby Swanson, and Aaron Blair to the Braves. Just about six months earlier, the D-Backs made Swanson, a 21-year-old shortstop from Vanderbilt, the first overall pick in the 2015 draft. For that hefty price, Arizona got their man. ..... In June 2015, the Braves acquired Bronson Arroyo and prospect Touki Toussaint from the Diamondbacks in exchange for Phil Gosselin. The Braves also took on the remaining $10.1 million still guaranteed to Arroyo while he was recovering from Tommy John surgery. “The epic failure of the TLR/DS regime finally pushed Kendrick and Derek Hall to go all in with a new-school regime that will incorporate analytics—which is to say, all the information, insights, tools, and ways of thinking available or potentially available to them—into the way it does business. Too bad it happened this way, but then again maybe it almost had to happen this way.” ... From a gaffe perspective, the Yoan Lopez signing is, by far, the biggest and it’s not even close. To not fully understand the new international free agent rules and therefore not realize that we would have to pay both an $8 million luxury tax AND lose out on 2 years of IFA signings? That is, literally, a gaffe whereas the Y. Tomas signing and Shelby Miller trades were just terrible talent evaluations. I find it funny that the Tomas signing ranks ahead of both Lopez and Miller even though his "cost" to us was arguably the least. Yes, he’s cost us a good amount of money, but he didn’t cost us much in the way of talent like the Lopez signing (no IFA for two years) or Miller trades (see ya Ender and Dansby) did. The biggest problem with Tomas is that we rushed him to the MLB, after taking an entire year off from baseball to defect Cuba, and likely stunted his development curve. And we still have three years of Miller, so it could end up being much better than it stands, currently (that comment didn’t age very well, haha.)

Even VAFaN is smart enough to refrain from writing an impassioned TLR defense...at least for now.

#1 April 1st @ LAA, 8th inning, 3-2 lead turns into trailing 4-3, blown save #1 (Aaron Bummer) April 2nd, 7-1 lead turns into 7-6 nail-biter, Sox hang on to win #2 April 3rd, 8th inning, 3-2 lead turns into 5-3 deficit, blown save #1 (Evan Marshall) April 4th, 3-3 and 4-4 ties blown, 4-7 loss (Jose Ruiz) #3 April 7th Seattle, 6th inning, 4-1 lead turns into 4-7 deficit, blown save #1 (Matt Foster) #4 April 11th, KCR, 9th inning, 3-2 lead turns into 3-3 tie, 3-3 tie blown, BS #1 (Hendriks) (W) #5 April 12th, Cleveland, 6th inning, 3-2 lead turn into 3-3 tie, Sox go on to win, BS #2 (Evan Marshall) #6 April 15th, Cleveland, 6th inning, 1-0 lead turns into 2-1 deficit, Sox go on to lose Boston, April 17th, 3-3 tie turns into 7-3 deficit, eventual 7-4 final (W) #7 April 23rd, Texas, 5th/6th innings, 6-2 lead turns into 6-6 tie, BS #2 (Aaron Bummer) (W) #8 April 24th Texas, 9th inning, 1-0 lead turns into 1-1 tie, Sox go on to win 2-1, BS #2 (Hendriks) #9 April 27th, Detroit, 7th inning, 2-1 lead turns into 5-2 loss, the infamous Giolito is done game (W) #10 May 16th, KCR, 7th inning, 2-1 lead turns into 3-2 deficit, eventual 4-3 win, BS #3 (Aaron Bummer) #11 May 18th, Minnesota, 8th inning, 4-2 lead turns into 4-4 tie, Hendriks gives up GW RBI to Polanco in bottom of the 9th, BS #4 (Aaron Bummer) White Sox record in games when they've blown a lead=4-7 Blown saves LAD 13 SFG 12 Miami Marlins 11 Philly, Baltimore, CWS 9 (8/17 SVO)

The Greatest Team on Earth, shouldn't really matter who the manager is, they should be able to overcome it, amirite? And not even sure Hahn's capable of 3 or 4-D chess, let alone 5. Let's just hope it doesn't end up in Yermin being purged from the team (instead of TLR).

You should at least have your player's back IN PUBLIC and WITH THE MEDIA. If you call him out, do it privately in the clubhouse through a one-on-one, closed door/s meeting. Completely unnecessary manufactured drama, a Sox specialty for a CENTURY plus now, lol.

That will be the demise of ChiSox59... Probably ends up with this one going out into the national/regional/local sports media universe, too. Maybe that's actually a good thing for the White Sox fanbase, for the front office to understand the depth of feelings/emotions...but it's going to get SoxTalk some more unwanted attention for all the wrong reasons, unfortunately. Someone like Merkin or Stone or whoever will pick up on this and use it as even yet another reason to double down on defending TLR...carrying water for defending his every action because that's what JR wants (until it becomes untenable.)

TA would end up getting traded, lol...we might as well throw in some talented Latin American prospect who's never even seen action in the States in an official game, why not sweeten the pot since TA and TLR obviously can't get along and the Sox have no choice but to trade him, haha.