mmmmmbeeer

I'm a White Sox, Bulls, and Titans fan for the big three sports. 2 of my 3 favorite teams are owned by Jerry Reinsdorf and both of those franchises have had enormous, unmitigated FO issues. When Jon Robinson came onboard as GM for my Titans, we were in a really bad place. He worked wonders by flipping the roster, hiring Mike Vrabel, nailed some late draft picks. He literally turned the franchise around. This was only 7 years ago. Last season we were the number one seed in the AFC. He was fired earlier this week, despite the Titans being 7-5 and first in their division. To outsiders, it made little sense. To fans, it made a ton of sense. There are holes all over the roster, FA pickups have been disasters, busted draft picks left and right, worst OL in football (even worse than the Bears), etc. The record is smoke and mirrors. His firing, and Amy Adams-Strunk's comments concerning the firing, REALLY opened my eyes to just how bad of an owner JR is and how embarrassing it is that Rick Hahn still has a job. She demands excellence and improvement, JR demands loyalty. Hahn and KW are so far up JR's ass it's ridiculous. No GM in their right mind would sit idly by while his "masterpiece" of a rebuild was about to be driven off a cliff by Tony LaRussa. But Rick remains. Ridiculous.

Just trade everyone. At this point, given the signals this franchise and FO have fed us since the TLR hire, just fucking blow it up and let us enjoy our summer without wasting time on this joke of a franchise. The TIME, the MONEY, and the EMOTIONAL CAPITAL hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people have spent on this piece of s%*# franchise is enough. They don't care one bit about us or winning. It's 2022. We've yet to sign a player to a $100M+ contract. In what world is any team serious about competing have that lil' tidbit on their resume? f*** JR.

And that doesn't even get into the absurd valuations of these franchises...especially for a guy like JR who bought 40 years ago for $20M. I truly despise the man. I never felt that way until he hired TLR. I never liked JR, but I didn't despise him. I wouldn't piss on him if he were on fire, now.

In person, I think #5 just grabs me more than any of the other jerseys. Not so much the uniform, per se, but just as a jersey you see at games or what have you.

Thanks for the link. Went back and watched and was admittedly encouraged. Pedro didn't seem nervous, spoke convincingly of how he wants to run things, wasn't shy about his embrace of modern baseball and allowing analytics to drive games. Rick was his typical evasive self, including when it seemed Pedro wanted to mention changes in regards to player health they're making to "sports m...." before Rick cut him off. Considering the last time we had one of these press conferences I was simultaneously enraged and confused, it didn't take much for this to get me excited. That said, I think this guy could be more than "at least he's not Tony".

I don't know, man....Herm Schneider kept us one of the healthiest team in baseball on a pretty consistent basis. A guy who probably didn't pay much attention to the all the new science but spent 40 years honing his craft by learning which stretches were best, treatment effectiveness, etc. Every team is going to have injuries, that's unavoidable, but Herm's record is amazing. Especially when everyone and their brother were tearing their UCLs....Sox had limited instances under Hermie.

Were you in a Chicagoland hospital a few months back by any chance, Lip, sharing all of this with a hospital employee? 😁 There are some things that just don't make sense to me, which could be a matter of folks injecting their own narratives into what they tell you. For instance, you've got one source saying Moncada spent all his time at Jose's locker and another source saying Moncada has his money and doesn't care about results any longer. Unless we're to believe that Jose, clearly an influential person to Yo and a clubhouse leader, let "his guy" just perform poorly and not say anything to him about his performance, these two sources' stories just don't jibe, imo. Regardless, interesting insight and really punctuates just how rudderless of a ship this franchise is. Whomever owns this team next, I sure hope they do a full housecleaning.

I don't think "lying" is appropriate...more like "find out if he was overruled...again".

I've never gotten the impression Thome is an especially intelligent guy. It follows he would have little to no reliance on data helping to steer his managerial decisions; he would be another "gut" manager. Of all the names we've heard, some much more unimpressive than others, Jim Thome shouldn't just be at the bottom of the list, he shouldn't even be on the list.

That's not an excuse. When that contract was negotiated, the Sox had enormous leverage to include worker compensation requirements.

I get trying to make each season profitable but, let's be honest, with few exceptions we see the biggest gains in franchise value through simple asset appreciation. Reinsdorf and company bought this team for $20M....it's now worth (conservatively) $2billion. And they want to stick it to the fans after a b.s. season? They want to whine about payroll? Here's a helpful hint to ol' Jerr...you're about to die soon. If you want this team to climb in value on your way out the door, get to spending and improve your product. Build the fanbase, increase the TV deals, sell more STs. Dicking over fans while your initial investment has grown nearly 10,000% over the past 40 years is just disgusting, especially given the lack of competitive seasons this franchise has mustered over the decades under Reinsdorf.

Expectations suck so much because they tend to draw you in, instill empty confidence, and always leave you believing things will eventually turnaround. No matter how frustrated I became throughout the season, I just couldn't resist watching or tuning in to listen to games...only to be left asking myself why I chose to subject myself to more misery, anger, and frustration. I just couldn't shake off the expectations that not only the org set for themselves, but that I set based on this roster and previous performance.....Charlie Brown and the football situation. Alas, next spring I'll fall right back into the same trap. I'll blame the weather for underperformance. Or maybe it's an umpires fault. Or maybe I'll believe someone is playing hurt. No matter the cause, I'm a White Sox fan and therefore a masochist. Maybe things will go our way next season? I know I'll be watching/listening to find out!

Why would this hypothetical team be looking for a new manager? I mean, you're describing a world class, winning org.

How much of a role do you think our managerial situation had to do with not only the contracts we DID sign (trade for) but our lack of FAs coming to Chicago? Do you think free agents were lining up to play for TLR...a big selling point for the FO?

If I told you last January you could have AJ Pollock or Mark Canha for the same money, who would you have chosen? I appreciate the reply and I agree he could've done better...every GM can do better. I just don't think the pitchforks should be out.

The farm is empty, prospects have been excruciatingly expensive in the trade market, and teams aren't handing out 25-28yo good players for peanuts. Free agency dollars are determined by JR, a man who has NEVER paid to sign a player to a $100M+ contract. So what's he to do? Find value. To say the RP market has been the best value position in baseball the last 5-10 years isn't an incorrect statement....good bang for your buck as the game evolves to become so RP reliant. Royals and Cleveland both rode extraordinary bullpens to the World Series within the last decade. Be it Robertson, Herrera, Liam, Graveman, Kimbrel, etc., they weren't necessarily "bad" moves if those guys pitched to their career norms. The Kelly signing was an egregious overpay but you can't convince me that wasn't a TLR signing. Just seems we b**** and moan about all these players that Rick doesn't get, the fact he signs older veterans, etc., with absolutely zero thought given to why he's forced to do those things. You don't think he wanted to bring Schwarber in this past offseason? Of course he did....but the money wasn't there.

Bye, Jose. He gawn. For as great as Rick is at saying nothing, he definitely (unintentionally) showed his cards when the subject of Jose came up.

Fathom. To watch his bad takes implemented on a baseball diamond would be...chef's kiss.

If there were ever a time for Ozzie to come back to manage the Sox, it's now. I've always been against the suggestion in the past and don't believe he'd be a good choice in the future, either. But right now, with a heavily Hispanic team, a guy who is actually "fung", believes in accountability, and knows this team like the back of his hand, I wouldn't hate it. This is speaking strictly to the personnel side of the equation. He is certainly not an analytics guy and isn't some strategic mastermind. But he would make this team better.

Saw an article the other day saying that Dusty's contract ends after this season and there's been no sign of an extension, so far. Same with their GM.

He'd certainly be given every opportunity to lobby for himself to keep the job and I'm sure, if the staff feels strongly about him staying, the new manager would welcome and consider their input. That said, if the new manager and Katz don't see eye-to-eye, be it on a professional level or on a personal level, then he's just not going to be a good fit.

I'm actually pretty fond of the Beltran idea. He'd be the antithesis of TLR which, if this front office wants this team to buy in in 2023, that's what it's going to take. Young, hungry, player-friendly, call out shitty effort, someone who will show some fire....Beltran checks the boxes. Am I a fan of the fact he was part of the sign-stealing? Nope. Do I think that disqualifies him from managing in MLB? Nope. Regardless of it being Beltran or not, I want RH to choose HIS manager and I want to see a variety of candidates interviewing for the position. The coaching staff should be the manager's decision.

I hope they run it back minus Abreu. I just don't believe this season was at all representative of what this roster is capable of doing. A tweak here and there and I think we're still a WS contender. Get healthy, get a fresh start with a new coaching staff, watch these guys play as underdogs instead of favorites. That said, I think I put a lot more blame on TLR for this disaster of a season than most...perhaps more blame than he deserves in some folks' opinion. I may look into dealing Gio so we don't lose him for nothing but there's probably value in waiting until the deadline next season to learn if he's turned things around. If he has, he's worth hanging onto despite no return.

I'm still a big believer in Hinch and, considering he was clearly RH's pick before last season, there's clearly interest there from the Sox. I don't think you can go with Bochy. I know he's younger than TLR, been out of the league a shorter time than TLR, and definitely a more favorable personality in MLB than TLR, but he's just too damn old. You can't face those players and tell them, "yes, we know he's another older manager but, TRUST US, it'll be better this time!". Players will not buy in. What we really need is 40-50yo experienced latino manager who is known for being a bit edgy. Don't know who that is, but it's the absolute antithesis of TLR and that's the most likely to work.

It's also worth noting that no one on this team beat offensive expectations, with several players having the worst seasons of their careers. Oftentimes, we can point to a coaching issue when things like this happen. This is ESPECIALLY true when Fegan reported that there were problems in the clubhouse between the manager and hitting coach and, by extension, the players, being TLR insisted on sacrificing power for contact. Did they feel like they were going to get yelled at for striking out? Were homers almost frowned upon? These guys all came up in lift-and-pull environments and now they're asked to completely change their approaches? Point being, I'm not putting a ton of stock into this season's offensive numbers. Like the rest of this season and roster, it's been tainted by a manager who had no business managing in this league.