Lip Man 1

And for those who think he should be a "closer" or a bullpen guy that's not in his plans: https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/carlos-rodon-committed-to-being-starter Good luck staying healthy I guess.

Exactly what was his injury? If I recall correctly it was a bruised shoulder. If it is not and there's something else going on then doesn't that suggest a misdiagnosis by someone on the medical staff? I agree there seems to be something more here in play which gives me greater concern that someone, somewhere blew the exam / diagnosis.

Folks you have to look at the entire history of the franchise not just during your lifetimes. Granted Bevington, Ventura were pretty bad. One was psychotic the other didn't even want the job but they gave it to him anyway. Renteria is right there as well (all approved by JR by the way which speaks volumes...) But historically Lew Fonseca and certainly Jack Onslow may have been the worst. Onslow was so bad one of his players actually got into a fistfight with him. If memory serves the guy who did it was eventually traded for a young left handed pitcher named Billy Pierce. If my memory is correct at least something very good came out of that experience for the Sox. But it should be disturbing that many of these guys were fairly "recent" hires by the organization that have proven to be very bad at what they do. Even more disturbing is that again a lot of these guys are members of "the family" and instead of the Sox conducting a full scale search that is open to getting the best they already seem to have an idea of who is going to get the job and the guys they hire basically are working pretty cheap. Remember JR has gone on record as saying he's never though managers or head coaches make that much of a difference (which is why he's never really hired any outstanding ones with a proven track record.) He lucked into Ozzie as he did with Jeff Torborg.

Maybe he should see Giolito's high school coach! LOL.

I think he's done a better job in trades than in FA acquisitions but that's not saying much is it? By the way the Sox put Ian Hamilton on the IL. At Charlotte he was 0-2 with and ERA of almost 10 in 16 games. Another "quality" bullpen guy there folks for those posters who were saying how good the Sox bullpen should be in future seasons.

Good. Hopefully he STAYS optioned.

Lopez didn't have it, the bullpen was just as bad and the Twins continue to hit just about everything thrown out of sight. If it wasn't for the fact that they are killing pitchers on the road as often as at home, I'd think something is going on with the scoreboard or sign stealing.

Extensions yes...acquisitions? No. Someone here posted a list of every FA he has acquired and the results are sickening.

That was a masterful game Giolito threw. He's completely turned himself around thanks to that high school coach of his. To get a split in Houston was impressive. Now we'll see what happens in Minnesota. The Twins clubbed eight home runs again this afternoon in a slaughter of the Angels. Second time this year they've hit eight in a game.

Have that game in my library. Joel Horlen threw a complete game in a 4-1 September Saturday win if I remember right. It was NBC's Game of the Week.

Giolito, Jose and Anderson. Jose will start.

So?

Saw some stories at MLB.com where they are dropping hints he's going to sign with (who else?) the Yankees right after the draft. Guess they no longer give a damn about the Luxury Tax threshold (which they are already over...)

At MLB.com they had some updated stats on the Central teams and this stood out to me about the Sox: "The Sox are in a four-way tie for the worst strikeout-to-walk ratio, have the second-to-worst WHIP in baseball and the highest walk rate in the MLB (10.6%)." Normally I'd say, "Coop will fix em'" but I have to cut him some slack since he doesn't have a whole lot to work with.

When Ed was doing nothing but color he was terrific. Go back and listen to the 2005 broadcasts for example...it was uncanny how often he'd predict something a pitch or two ahead of time and it would come to pass. But he is completely out of his element as a play by play guy...but JR likes him, so there you go.

Speaking of "dumb" I've seen White Sox ownership do a lot of dumb things over the decades so I put nothing past them. And thanks for the "courteous" reply.

Balta: By the way have you seen what Frankie Montas has been doing this year for the A's?

Well they won't get swept. Nice game all around except for Vieria.

Part of it was because Rooney wanted to go back to St. Louis, part of it was because the radio station wasn't willing to meet his salary demands.

I have to agree with Balta myself. I see very little in the system that inspires confidence. Or as I have put in in the past, a bunch of "retreads, no-name's, has-been's, cast-off's..." Basically four A stuff. Burdi is about the only one who I think can make an impact. The rest are all flotsam and jetsam.

Maybe constantly being on a losing, disorganized team was getting to him?

True although they ran him out there constantly trying to salvage what they could and it costs them games. I guess my point is they don't do it regularly and it takes an extreme situation for them to go that route. Maybe it will happen with Alonso but at this point I have my doubts...Ricky remember continues to bat him fourth even though he's hurting the team. They keep trying to salvage some face with his trade / salary.

I may have forgotten them but can you give me examples. Did they cut Dunn? LaRoche? Keppinger? et al. Not trying to be snarky just can't think of anybody off the top of my head save for Santana and they only owed him peanuts.

Dunning is coming off TJ and is a starter as is Hansen. Covey is a four A player, nothing more nothing less. Burdi also coming off TJ surgery is a complete unknown at this point.

I assume you mean a combined 65 million. The way you wrote it seems to indicate giving one player a 65 million dollar a year deal. But over and above that, it takes two to tango. Said players have to want to take the Sox offer and unless they overpay or show significant progress this season that may be a hard sell.