Lip Man 1

So the last two to do it have been with the White Sox, counting yesterday.

At least shown up and compete?

Good point which is why I qualified my original comment. No guarantees with this ownership / front office that it all works out in the end.

According to a story I saw today on Twitter, the new Cubs TV Network is expected to net them 90 million a season in revenue. That will be up from the 60 million they are getting now per year. They are going to be able to buy any player they want moving forward as well as suck a lot of advertising revenue out of the market. Not good news for the Sox who try to fight for some relevance in that same market.

Richards was the guy who started the "Golden Age" of the franchise, the run of 17 straight winning seasons (how good would that look today?) as they went from "Rags to Richards" in 1951. back in his day he was terrific. Billy Pierce told me he was the best manager he ever played for. Regarding 1976, Richards also said he did it simply as a favor to Bill Veeck and actually reached out to Chuck Tanner (according to what Chuck told me when I interviewed him) asking him to stay as third base coach and retake the managerial job in 1977.

I don't know how good Minnesota's farm system is but they seem to have some good young players and a front office that knows what they are doing. Assuming the Sox rebuild works, it looks like those who thought they were going to dominate the division will be in for a surprise. Like days gone by the Twins won't be going anywhere and will be in a position to fight the Sox for the Central.

God help us! This was a lost weekend, totally and completely. At least they won two games in Houston. Maybe they can recover over the next 14 games against Kansas City, Cleveland and Washington. None of them juggernauts.

Have to agree.

This is where a franchise's Major League player evaluation people come in. You can get productive "second tier" free agents if you have a department staffed by people who know what they are doing and can make good recommendations to the G.M. The track record speaks for itself regarding the "success" of the Sox acquisitions overall. Hahn doesn't work in a vacuum, the issue in this area doesn't fall completely on him.

Keep in mind Hahn public comments recently about Jose' that he felt he was going to be with the organization for a long time. Take it with a grain of salt of course, but don't dismiss it completely.

September 14, 1997 - Carlton Fisk had his uniform #72 retired in a ceremony before the Sox took on Cleveland. The game was also remembered for manager Terry Bevington going to the mound to change pitchers...expect for the fact that no one was warming up in the Sox bullpen when he called for the change! Bevington was just a nut job. Paul Sullivan used to be the Sox beat writer for the Tribune (when they actually gave a damn about the Sox) and he grew up a Sox fan. He told me he specifically requested a change in assignments because he simply couldn't take dealing with Bevington anymore.

Agree. Just look at 2005 for example. The Sox had excellent starting pitching, a lights-out bullpen and were in the top quarter of the league in home runs, sacrifice fly's, infield hits, stolen bases and sacrifice bunts. That's great balance. They could beat you with a blast into the seats, a bloop hit into short right field or a bunt down the third base line.

Actually it would be their seventh straight losing season and ninth in the last 12 years.

Then if they address issues like this WHY do they keep happening? Either they aren't very good teaches or the players they are talking to are "baseball-stupid" when it comes to the fundamentals. Probably a little of both in my opinion. Only way to solve this, again in my opinion, are pre game drills (regardless if the players like it or not) or benchings until they get it. The Sox as a team are almost dead last in fielding this year. Not like we haven't seen that before the last 10 years.

Didn't Minnesota have a winning seasons and just miss the playoffs, was it two years ago? I don't know if you can say they are still rebuilding because of that. Last year they went "all in" and it backfired but this year they are an almost sure lock to win the division and make the postseason. That's not rebuilding any longer to me.

VERY well said.

Somewhat fair point. However given the track record of this organization in developing actual major league players you can understand the concern.

But is the poster wrong? Me thinks not...and he's entitles to vent just like anybody else. Speaking of which please allow me, Banuelos...no good. Herrera...no good. Thank You.

I post this here because of the short time he spent with the Sox but if you read the story it says the Sox owe him his entire salary of 4.3 million which contradicts earlier reports that the Sox only owed him a portion of his money due to an agreed clause in his deal with them. Hahn was pretty specific about that when talking to the press so I tend to believe him but who knows for sure. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mets-continue-to-mine-the-scrap-heap-sign-ervin-santana-and-matt-kemp-to-minor-league-contracts/

I would agree with Tony although that was more Roland Hemond's doing.

Something with his wrist is what I've seen.

Hey dude.... See an earlier post where I asked how severe his accident was. If I remember correctly it was a bruised shoulder. I would think if that was it, it shouldn't be causing this type issue so long after the fact. If it is more than that, which it is beginning to look like it was, then you wonder about his original diagnosis. Have a great day....dude.

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.