Lip Man 1

Merkin on the latest news. Looks like the Sox are signing three guys including ANOTHER Tatis. (So when does Hahn or Kenny trade the kid for another broken down guy?) https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/white-sox-to-sign-fernando-tatis-jr-s-brother-elijah

Pitching matchup's aren't so hot for the Sox right now. Will be satisfied with a split but hoping for three out of four.

Maybe even with the changes in how this all takes place JR still isn't comfortable paying for "potential" as opposed to actual results.

According to the story today at MLB.com none of the top 30 international prospects are supposedly being signed by the Sox. The Yankees will sign the top prospect an outfielder and the #18 prospect. The Cubs will also be signing two of the top ones. For those who follow any ideas why the Sox aren't involved in any of these guys? https://www.mlb.com/news/international-prospect-signings-july-2-2019

Actually the Chairman didn't make that comment I(although I'm sure he believes it). That comment was made by Jerry Krause.

I don't think Hamels gave up 10 runs in his last start for his previous team as Shields did, nor do I think Hamels' owner was publicly ripping him before the trade in essence saying he was "done." To me there was a major difference between those two pitchers / acquisitions and again it seems to show the difference between the Cubs FO (Theo) and the Sox with Hahn. Just my opinion. Now in fairness to Rick the entire Shields deal smells like Kenny completely to me. That was his M.O. when he was G.M. "Go for it right now! Dammit!!!" That football mentality. Which is OK in moderation but not when it overwhelms your ability to make rational decisions.

Or given recent history he'd be hitting .195 with eight home runs. Just seems to happen that way the past few years.

The numbers in this case don't lie unfortunately. One thing I was thinking about recently is that early on at least Sox fans could reasonably expect the team to win more than they lost at the end of the year. Low bar I grant you, but at least it was something. From 1981 through 2006, 26 years the Sox had winning seasons in 16 of them (1981,82,83,85,90,91,92,93,94,96,00,01,03,04,05,06) with some good runs there. (81-85, 90-94, 00-06) From 2007 through 2018, 12 seasons they'd only been on the plus side of the ledger three times (08,10,12). Yea...things have really gone south over time.

Almost three hours worth of rain.

"Luck is the residue of design"-Hall of Fame baseball executive Branch Rickey. Hahn is part of the reason for the bad "luck." The guy is excellent from a contract / financial standpoint regarding players. From a purely baseball standpoint, the record speaks for itself.

The fact that hoping to entice Machado by acquiring a declining Alonso and a 34 year old (I think he's 34) Jay is indictment enough about Rick and the organization. They were acquired this off season, they combined have been paid (or will be paid) 12 million. One missed half the season with a mysterious groin/hip injury that seemed to appear out of thin air...one has already been released. You can't exclude them or set conditions and claim it doesn't count in the grand scheme of things. And again Hahn signed off on getting Santana out of the dump. Bottom line as other have stated I was being kind by just factoring in this season, it's bad...there's no way around it...zero. Period. And then if you want to factor in the last several seasons and all of the acquired people who posted a negative WAR rating with the Sox it may be as bad as anybody in baseball. I respectfully disagree with your analysis.

Probably both.

Well Colome is not. But let's add things up shall we. Just this year to make it more reasonable (Keppinger, Dunn, LaRoche and all the other stiffs need not apply) Success stories: McCann, Colome. Failures: Alonso, Jay (missed half the year), Santana, Nova, Herrera. It's pretty hard to win or consistently win (unless you can buy your way out of mistakes like the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs and Dodgers) hitting on two out of seven. Now this has been going on over multiple seasons. That says something no? And I don't put the blame squarely on Hahn, he doesn't work in a vacuum. The Sox pro scouting department who helps recommend these trades and free agent signings appear to be just as bad.

When they tone down the baseball (and you can bet that they will) that also may make a difference in pitching style and philosophy.

Was hoping that they'd call the game because of concerns about the bullpen keeping the Twins in check. They almost didn't. Marshall now is regressing rapidly. Glad Gio turned things around though, he's got one more start against a tough team (Cubs) then he probably won't have to go through a stretch like this (Cubs twice, Red Sox, Twins) again. Would have been satisfied with them going 5-10 in this stretch due to the circumstances...the fact that they went 7-8 is not bad at all! And they seemed to have some nice crowds as well.

It helped because they didn't have to trade one of their better starting pitchers because of salary concerns. That may turn out to be a big deal in future seasons, let's not forget that aspect of things.

If the people who continue to make bad decisions (i.e. drafting, scouting, trades, injury prevention) don't change or learn from their mistakes than it does make an impact a huge one in my opinion. Simply because Alonso is not an outlier, it is a continuing pattern over the last several seasons of one major screw up after another.

That shows you the gravity of things when Covey being activated (in theory) helps the situation.

Glad you are doing well but you also weren't using that shoulder to try to throw a ball 95 MPH I'll wager.

Yesterday Jim Margalus answered a question of mine about this entire farce situation, here is what he said: "In this case, I think Alonso is more the case of coming up short on an NBA-style recruitment strategy over pro scouting issues. I don't think they'd have had any interest in Alonso without Machado ties." "That said, they painted themselves into a corner by having to pretend it was for baseball reasons, because it looks no different from so many moves made with earnest intent to solve roster issues that flopped hard."

There is no comparison. Regarding Fulmer, he's a very draft pick pick who has done NOTHING but I understand why the Sox keep giving him chances...because they decided to draft him in the first place in that position. However I think he's out of options now (someone please help correct me if I'm wrong). I suggest sometime this off season perhaps on a busy sports news day (so it will get lost in the shuffle) the Sox are going to flat out cut him.

Well...that wasn't any fun today. Nova is flat out bad like most of the other off season acquisitions. AND he's even worse at home if you look at his numbers. Bullpen also sucked. The lowest ERA of all the pitchers used today is 5.3...words fail me. The good news? To the best of my knowledge nobody else got hurt and is out for the season.

According to a story in the Sun-Times today Hahn yesterday defending the Sox training and medical staff (which implies a reporter must have asked about it. It also reminded me of Kenny doing the same to the media after the carnage of 2000-2001) but he also said the Sox have to keep "an open mind" about trying to keep players healthy. Typical Hahn "cover all the bases" talk but I appreciated him at least acknowledging in an indirect way, there may be a problem somewhere the Sox are missing that could be a factor.

By my count I think it is up to eight. Maybe someone can correct me: Rodon, Lambert, Dunning, Burr, Adolfo, Jones, Kopech, Burdi. Now add in guys who ALWAYS seem to be hurt Basabe and Burger immediately come to mind, throw in Covey and Banuelos and it is now an epidemic.

It has reached beyond the law of averages in my opinion. SOMETHING is wrong, something is being missed or not done and it is having an impact. They need to do a complete thorough examination of everything from the doctors to the trainers to the physical therapists to the off season conditioning program to nutrition, the entire gamut and especially in my opinion the staffs at the minor league affiliates including the manager and coaches. If someone on the staff is offended by doing this I quote the great philosopher Ozzie Guillen, "F*** feelings, it's about winning."