Chicago White Sox

At least we know Marty isn't a troll, he's just Dan Berstein.

I think it's clear by that article we're going hard after McCann/Salty in free agency or will be looking for a catcher via trade. Doesn't sound like Phegley showed enough to be handed the starting job in Hahn's eyes.

QUOTE (JoshPR @ Sep 29, 2013 -> 09:40 AM) You said it yourself, the cuban league... Different type of baseball Listen, I'm not saying he's going to be the Cuban god of walks. I just think that Cuba is a totally different animal than the rest of Latin America and to lump a 26 year old Cuban with other free-swinging Latin American prospects is a bit foolish.

QUOTE (JoshPR @ Sep 29, 2013 -> 06:52 AM) Do we really want another free swinging Latino player? Here's his slash line from Cuba this year: 382/.535/.735. What's screams out "free swinging Latino player" there?

Strange that Hawk is the one dropping this news, in game 161 of the season no less, but it's definitely the right move IMO. I think a lot of people on this site, myself included, weren't fans of the hire to begin with when Manto explained his views on hitting. I don't expect a lot of people to be sad to see him go.

I believe Castro is out of options, so he either makes the team out of spring training or he's gone (assuming his velocity is back to normal).

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 28, 2013 -> 08:40 AM) It wasn't the same group of guys. You mentioned 2 of the biggest reasons for the offense last year and their replacements were garbage. Konerko hasn't been the same. Viciedo got hurt. Beckham got hurt. Who are the players with a dropoff you can reasonably say with a different hitting coach, things would be a lot better? We went through this several years with Walker. According to a lot of people on this board, he was the reason the Sox didn't win.he leaves and it's happy time here. The Braves hire him and this board laughs. How can they be so dumb? Their offense is fine. The Sox offense will be fine once they acquire better hitters. If they don't, you are just going to want the next guy to get fired. It seems from Hahn's comments a coach or 2 is going to go. I think Boston is in charge of OF defense and baserunning. It seems he will be a sacrificial lamb. They could have a decent reason to fire Manto. I just think basing it on the results of the garbage you gave him to work with would be ridiculous. It would be like saying Bo Porter is by far the worst manager in baseball because his team lost the most games. As I said previously, I don't know if anything would be different under a new hitting coach, but I don't see how things could get any worse. When you finish second to last in all of baseball in runs scored, you have to try something new, especially when none of your young guys are progressing. Let me ask you this, what's the downside in firing Manto?

QUOTE (oldsox @ Sep 28, 2013 -> 07:11 AM) I follow the Rockies very closely, Stan, and I gotta ask if you have seen something about their trading Cargo. Not that I wouldn't like to have him with the Sox, even though I am very familiar with his shortcomings. Any trade talk would start with Sale and include other pitchers as well. Sale > Cargo, especially when you factor in the contracts.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 28, 2013 -> 07:20 AM) If the fire Manto because they have a philosophical difference moving forward, it makes sense, but if you are going to fire him based on the 2013 stats, there is not a hitting coach past, present or future that would have been able to keep their job with this bunch. It would be like firing a professor because he couldn't get a guy with the intelligence of a 6 year old to pass organic chemisty. Then how did the same group of guys, minus A.J. & Youk, finish 7th in runs scored the year before?

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Sep 28, 2013 -> 01:05 AM) What has Manto done to get canned? Let's see, he oversaw an offense that will finish 29th in runs scored this year despite playing half of their games at the Cell. The vast majority of the offense regressed from 2012 and none of the young guys made any progress. I'm not sure what there is to argue here. In any real world profession a guy would be fired with those kind of results. And honestly, I don't blame this offense's incompetence on Manto, but clearly he wasn't doing anything to help us this year. Bring in a new hitting coach and hope he can connect with a guy or two. That alone would be a huge upgrade.

I'm fine with Ventura getting one more shot. We took him off the street and made him a major league manager. A learning curve should have always been expected. I'd like to see some serious growth in year 3 or else consider other options prior to 2015. Now, I'd like to see Manto get canned and quite frankly I expect it to happen. I'm sure plenty of people will claim hitting coaches don't matter and to that I will say that firing him has no downside then. Clearly the offense was an epic disaster on all levels and whatever Manto was doing probably wasn't helping, so bring some fresh blood in and hope they can connect with a hitter or two.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 27, 2013 -> 12:24 PM) Yeah I can't think of a ton of major mysteries that they didn't explain by the end of the show. edit: a good read http://www.cracked.com/blog/108-answers-to...ered-questions/ Surely you're not serious? And that article is a joke right? I mean, using "magic" as the answer to any unanswered question is pretty ridiculous.

I love Breaking Bad, top 3 show of all-time IMO, but I'm not sure it's the GOAT. It may feel that way right now, but people need to rewatch other contenders like Sopranos & The Wire before making that claim. I just got through season 3 of Sopranos and it's mind-blowing how good those first three seasons are, probably the best television I've ever seen. Breaking Bad has definitely been more consistent from start to finish, but I'm not sure that outweighs the early greatness of Sopranos. Really tough call which is the better series IMO. And Lost was incredible for a long period of time. The show ultimately failed because they were unable to answer the vast majority of questions they raised and didn't provide a satisfying conclusion, but it did so many other things right that it was extremely enjoyable up until the end. Having said that, I don't think I'd ever rewatch the series because I truly felt cheated by the writers. There was just no payoff in the end and that was something promised to us.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 26, 2013 -> 12:36 PM) The pitching staff's performance was pretty average in the AL. Of course you could make a point the defense will make their overall numbers look not as good as they should have been, and it would be hard to argue, and they dumped Thornton, Peavy and Crain, but they are pretty much in the middle of the pack in most of the big categories. The other parts of the team performed so poorly, even an average-like performance seems spectacular. What are you basing this on? If you're looking at something like runs allowed, then even an average ranking would be incredible given we play half of our games at the Cell. The Sox's staff has definitely better than average this year.

QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 26, 2013 -> 05:06 AM) Wtf with everyone defending Frank. Dude bullies everyone, including women, and someone finally got in his face about it. Looked like he was going to cry after Knight smacked him. Maybe there's something we didn't see but Emily standing up for Frank was a turn off. Frank is the most despicable person in recent Real World/Challenge history. Maybe some people are just afraid of him because he is such a bully. I have no idea why Emily would come to his rescue, she honestly had no reason to get involved. Part of the problem is Frank is bipolar or something and I'm guessing most of his relationships detoriate over time like his friendship with Zach. So while some people may still like him (for now), I'm sure the majority of people hate his f***ing guts and are simply too much of cowards to say something to his face. I can't wait for the next Challenge with him and Knight. Their beef won't die down so quickly.

What the f*** is Knight on? Dude could barely make cohesive sentences and looked like death. At least he slapped/punched Frank in the face. That cocksucker deserves to get his ass kicked.

Swisher is such a douchebag.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 25, 2013 -> 07:02 PM) Again, you insist that they adequately worked on fundamentals, the evidence instead says that the white sox are te first team in nearly 100 years to have the best fielding percentage one year and the worst fielding percentage the next year. I don't get the not working on fundamentals in spring training argument. Our defense has been bad all year, that would be one hell of a spring training carry over effect to explain the majority of the change in fielding percentage between 2012 & 2013.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 25, 2013 -> 03:15 PM) De Aza-consensus he isn't very good, get rid of him Ramirez-consensus, he has to go Gillespie-consensus, not a regular player Dunn-consensus, please retire Konerko-consensus, see Dunn. Garcia-consensus, hope for the future Viciedo-consensus, maybe hope for the future Beckham-consensus, bust, should probably go Phegley-consensus, the Sox need a catcher This is Ventura's line up. The players he has to play with. Just going by Soxtalk's consensus, expecting anything but losses piling up would be insane. Again, why does the offense sucking balls mean that Robin did a good job this year? We all know the talent level on this team, especially on offense, was pretty damn bad and that a poor season would have been the outcome no matter who the manager was. That doesn't mean that Robin didn't contribute to our struggles as well with poor decision-making. Let's hold everyone accountable for their roles in this mess, even if some parties are more responsible than others. While the players are the chief culprits here, Robin does not deserve a free pass IMO.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 25, 2013 -> 10:37 AM) Lou Piniella was known as a great manager before he came to the Cubs. Leo Mazzone was known as a great pitching coach, then he went to Baltimore and then couldn't find a job. Rudy Jaramillo was the hitting guru. I remember reading on this very board that he was such a genius, the Sox needed to hire his "assistant". He then went to the Cubs, and is now unemployed, at least at the major league level. People pin way too much of the results on coaches and managers. They can make a difference, but not a 20-30 game difference. People think Ventura needs to go, yet they also say all these players need to go. If the Sox lost because of the manager, shouldn't they keep the players? If the players are bad, how do you blame the losing on the manager? No manager wins with bad players. No coaches make Cy Young award winners or MVP candidates out of bad players. Why can't we blame both the players and the manager? Why do we have to single out just one party? I've never understood this logic. Clearly when you go from almost making the playoffs to losing nearly 100 games a lot of things went wrong. Let's assign blame to all responsible parties.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Sep 23, 2013 -> 08:24 AM) Is this is a serious question? Why would you get mugged? The "dangerous" Chicago is so overblown. It's only like 3 neighborhoods and it's between gang members. The media lies and says gun violence instead of gang violence and people like you think you can't make it to a Bulls game. Oh boy. Remember, the Bulls had the longest sellout streak in sports despite a guaranteed mugging on the way back to your car. Just part of the price of admission if you want to take your family to see Benny & the gang.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Sep 22, 2013 -> 11:57 PM) An average starter>an excellent reliever. Fixed this for you.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 22, 2013 -> 11:43 PM) Why does Robin all of a sudden want to manage forever? If his stance has completely changed, my guess is he'll sign that multi-year extension if it's offered again this offseason. If we suck defensively and on the basepaths again next year, Robin should be on the hotseat. He probably won't be, though, cause Sox are not going to be in the news much next season if we are out of it in May. My guess is attendance also will take a big hit this time if we suck a second consecutive season. p.s. To those of you who get mad when I bring up how expensive it is to go to a game, the current edition of ESPN the Mag has an article on best/worst franchises. The BEST FRANCHISES currently (Memphis Grizzlies is No. 1) are ones with very cheap season ticket prices and food prices. ESPN said surveys say AFFORDABILITY is huge now with fans. Fans don't want to be robbed at their sports venues. Finally, I'll be at the United Center this year to watch Duke play Kansas in men's college basketball and Kentucky play Michigan State. I have to drive a car to the United Center and not take public transportation. Do you think a.) I'll be mugged or b.) my car will be damaged/stolen? I have to stay a while after the game waiting for a friend who works at the UC. Will I be mugged going back to my vehicle? Thank u for all the answers. Time to put you on the ignore list.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Sep 21, 2013 -> 07:40 AM) And Detroit once upon time made enough stuff to win a world war. Its over for Chicago the same way its over for Detroit. The best outcome the city could hope for is not being on the ledge of being unincorporated like could very well still happen to Detroit. Its the city listed on my birth certificate, it is home to me, so while it does bring me some joy to see the liberals fail yet again I just wish it couldve been somewhere else. Expecting a return to former glory for Chicago is going to leave you disappointed. The future of the city is basically North Platte NE mixed with Cleveland/Detroit/Milwaukee type rot... whole lotta trains, whole lotta vacancy. You have smoked yourself retarded.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 08:52 AM) He also needs to never, or at least almost never, play 1b. How have his numbers been as a DH? I thought someone mentioned he's hit much better for us while playing 1B.