caulfield12

One thing is for sure, they didn't prioritize the PR spin value of things in terms of holding onto season ticket holders with Grifol here. Not unlike dumping El Caballo, Maggie and Valentin for the cast that would lead them to the WS in 2005.

Would be a total shocker if he wasn't 100% positive, especially if he felt the Royals made mistakes twice passing him up for Matheny and Matt Q.

Especially because we just hired a guy an inferior divisional rival (arguably) fired/reassigned once and passed on two more times when they had the opportunity to make him their manager. Once for Matheny, this year for Matt Q. Marlins also just passed on him.

Cuban American. Passed over by at least four teams and the Royals twice. Six years as a manager in the Mariners minor league system when they were the best team in baseball. Baseball lifer like Thomson. Three years of winter ball managing including one trip to championship. Some connections in Venezuela. this article can be accessed for free if you have a FB/Meta account https://www.kansascity.com/article268134122.html#_=_

This is THE ONE article everyone will want to read from the analytics side of things. https://theathletic.com/306432/2018/04/09/dodd-how-the-royals-flourishing-analytics-department-convinced-ned-yost-to-shift-on-defensive-shifts/ Dodd a long-time KC Star contributor intimately familiar with Royals and Chiefs operations.

"Grifol was reassigned himself the next year when Royals hitters continued to flounder, taking over catching coach duties and quality control. He was considered for the managerial opening when Ned Yost retired, and interviewed for the Giants and Tigers managerial openings in 2019, but returned to serve as bench coach under Mike Matheny in 2020. Grifol has served as the connective tissue between the Royals’ analytics department and the on-field staff. He was part of the push to implement defensive shifts and sought to improve Salvador Perez’s framing. The 52-year-old Miami native is well-liked among players and is bilingual, often serving as a translator for Spanish-speaking players." Excerpt from royalsreview...previous citation. Also has mostly positive fan comments following article.

https://www.royalsreview.com/2022/11/1/23434814/white-sox-hire-royals-bench-coach-pedro-grifol-as-manager Lots of good stuff here. Royals' fans think the White Sox made a good move and should have been hired over Matheny. That said, he was fired/reassigned by KC right before they got to World Series level. And passed over by many many teams like Espada Dave Martinez and Sandy Alomar Jr. Recently passed over for Marlins' job as well as KC again.

Jones had an 827 ops with the Sox. Kotsay and Erstad, not only much.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/34897273/mlb-playoffs-how-phillies-constructed-world-series-roster Spend spend spend!

Another potential innovative hire off the board...to the Royals this time. Tigers and KC have been doing basically what everyone on the board has consistently advocated for with the Sox.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2022/10/29/detroit-tigers-mark-conner-scouting-director-san-diego-padres/69591321007/ Also hired someone from TB.

That must explain Kelenic's 2022.

Fathom calling for reinvestigation of Castellanos being denied a Gold Glove.

Former QC River Bandit...Kyle Tucker.

And Hahn wasn't out of Harvard Law School until 1996 at the earliest. But it would be fun to blame his regardless. Maybe Hahn originated the diminished skills clause as an intern to win JR's everlasting respect as a risk mitigator.

All of his financial problems the first 40 years of his life led to a ton of bitterness (and the whole steroids era overtaking him), but he's seemingly in a much better place now from a mental health standpoint.

Moncada got too muscle bound in the upper half and didn't spend nearly enough time on fast twitch muscles/legs/bottom half. I mean his sprint speeds this year were lower than Jake Burger after two Achilles' blow outs. How's that even possible?

Ivan Calderon and Mike Huff are not exactly interchangeable names. He was pretty much the best player on a number of those mid to late 80s teams.

Next up, Dayton Moore as GM. There’s just no way Chris Getz is a legit candidate.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Mike_Gellinger

I have a feeling it would be the latter with the Sox. Unless you went to Notre Dame, lol. We keep connecting Getz and Hahn together because of Michigan, well Fabian is the one in Chicago who lets you into the inner sanctum or not. In that sense, better to work in Charlotte or Birmingham and attach yourself as indispensable to a prospect moving up like a Colas or Montgomery. I also think Mike Gellinger is the career path you need to follow if you want to become the next Getz…unfortunately, Chris seems to have jumped Gellinger simply due to his “big league bonafides” and name recognition. Jirschele might be running into the same issues as a managerial candidate…his name will not trigger any season ticket sales from a frustrated fanbase, Mike Gellinger stayed with the White Sox organization after 1988 in a variety of roles. He began his coaching career as a player/coach for the Tampa White Sox in 1988. In 1989 Gellinger started the year as the third base coach for the Utica Blue Sox before taking over as manager on July 4th from Ron Vaughn. The primary purpose of the move was to allow Vaughn to concentrate on working with the hitters. In 1990 Gellinger managed the GCL White Sox, but there are also baseball cards showing him as a coach for the Birmingham Barons. It may be that he began the year with the full season Barons before taking up managerial responsibilities with the short season GCL team. Gellinger returned to Utica as manager in 1991. He was the White Sox' minor league defensive coordinator in 1992-1993 before returning to managing in 1994-1995. He spent 1996 as the minor league infield coordinator. In 1997 Gellinger was named the White Sox' major league computer scouting analyst, a role he retained through the 2012 season. During these years he also worked informally with the hitters in support of hitting coach Greg Walker. This secondary role became more pronounced over the years so that by 2012 news reports referred to him as the assistant hitting coach even though he never formally held that title. He replaced Joey Cora as bench coach for Chicago for the final two games of the 2011 season after the White Sox fired both Cora and manager Ozzie Guillen. He was then manager of the Bristol White Sox in 2013 and served as the hitting coach for the Glendale Desert Dogs of the Arizona Fall League later that year. Gellinger managed the AZL White Sox from 2014-2015. He was scheduled to return in 2016, but was replaced by Ever Magallanes. Gellinger took over as minor league hitting coordinator for the 2017-2019 seasons. He was scheduled to manage the Great Falls Voyagers in 2020 before COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the minor league season. Gellinger was the manager for the ACL White Sox in 2021 and bench coach of the same club in 2022. As a scout, he signed Eddy Alvarez. Pretty sure in the middle of that he had some significant health problems.

Try 70-80 hours when the team is at home. Not clear, but highly likely they would also travel with the team on the road. So it's a full/solid five months of busting your ass for peanuts with a perhaps 1/3 or 1/4 shot at a real paying job. And even that paying job after one year is going to be a lot less than the majority are expecting based on the skills required. Far better to build an independent reputation in the industry and get hired from FG, BP, etc. Seems more like lip service to transforming things analytically. Follow the money/investment, or lack thereof.

Better SPs, primarly at the tail end of the rotation. I would venture to say Chris Bassitt if he is available would be best but that would be embarrassing for Hahn again. I highly doubt the Sox will go after deGrom, or Verlander or even Kershaw. Noah Syndergaard would be another name that could be added to the rotation, while nowhere near as good as he used to be with the Mets. It seems like an abundance of teams are interested in Carlos Rodon, so forget that. The only other pitcher that might be good would be Jameson Taillon from the Yanks if he can produce good numbers though his salary might be a bit too high for the Sox again. Former Dodger, Rich Hill might be a name to be added, though he is 43 years old, he does have a ton of experience and his salary isn't in the $35 million range like others but in the $4.2 million range. That's the main place where Hahn is comfortable in terms of risk these days. But he'd likely end up another version of Keuchel. Japanese and Korean markets, that's outside the comfort zone, too.

https://www.gaslampball.com/2022/10/24/23419931/a-thank-you-note-to-a-j-preller-and-peter-seidler Will Hahn ever get a fawning article like this for the rest of his remaining career (hopefully short) with the Sox?

A Bryce Harper hiring would have been ten times more effective.