Lip Man 1

‘‘Every day, it’s something new,’’ a former baseball executive told the Sun-Times over the weekend. ‘‘They’re inventing ways to lose games. You could not have scripted something this bad in the history of baseball.’’ https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2024/09/08/as-white-sox-historically-bad-season-nears-end-you-have-to-see-big-picture-assistant-gm-says

From Sox Machine: *Gonzalez both chased out of the zone and swung-and-missed inside the zone too much to be the X-factor the White Sox relentlessly sold him to be. But his 3-for-4 night with two runs scored reminds he’s substantially improved both in Boston to become a 109 wRC+ hitter while manning six different positions for the Red Sox, after being designated for assignment in January to clear 40-man roster room for John Brebbia. He also stole three bases. Who knew?!

As long as the political climate remains the same and in the Sox case unless JR is willing to put up significant money neither team is getting squat and they can partner with everyone and it won't change a thing. Politicians in Springfield aren't going to risk their careers supporting this with the blowback from citizens and citizen groups.

if they were to add another round of playoffs and more teams a la the NBA and NHL, I'm guessing at some point fairly soon, you'd get a team actually qualifying with a .500 record or a losing one. That almost happen in 1994. At the time of the labor standoff the Rangers were in first place in their division with a record 10 games under .500. They would have played the Sox in the first round.

It doesn't matter who they put out there usually the opponent scores to break the game open or if it's late in the game, win it.

https://www.southsidesox.com/2012/11/9/3619970/south-loop-sox

More info from a source who commented on the four scouts fired (which I posted in their thread): "I was a little worried Marco would be let go. A scout from another team thinks he’ll get a job quickly. Latin American talent is volatile. Marco connected on a few but had some big swings and misses lately, which hurt him. I know Doug Laumann liked working for him."

More info on this situation from a source who knows the scouting/ development baseball world very, very well: "All pro scouts. Scherrer definitely didn’t travel. He was their top pro scout. Siers based in Florida, responsible for Jose Quintana. Also didn’t travel. Benedict was a pro scout. Not sure if his travel was curbed. Daracka had severed ties earlier this summer. Was a KW guy. Heard some bitching about his work ethic." Also had comments about the job being done by Gene Watson. Another team's scout had this to say about him: "Never watches game. Should be director of entertainment. Don’t know when Getz will stop going along with him.”

Well soon they'll be holding the record for the worst season in modern MLB history. That's pretty elite!

Not as long as JR is owner, he has stated that he doesn't think a manager or a head coach makes that much difference (as a side note that means to doesn't have to pay top dollar for top people in that position)

I suspect as long as Pritzker remains governor JR's plan to fleece the taxpayers yet again is D.O.A. much like his franchise that he's destroyed.

I think it was Jay Cuda who posted that the Sox scouting and analytics departments were one of the smallest in baseball. And I don't know if this involved the guys who were fired today but I posted what I was told by a source a few weeks ago that the Sox had been paying scouts to stay home the last three months.

“The White Sox playing shorthanded started in 2007 when Jermaine Dye got hurt and Kenny Williams refused to call up Brian Anderson or Ryan Sweeney. Maybe they were cheap, maybe they wanted to protect Herm’s record of keeping guys off the DL.” (Author’s Note: Herm Schneider was the Sox longtime head trainer and for years the Sox were among the league leaders in keeping players healthy.) This is what a source told me on this tendency for my November 2022 story.

DVS paragraph on the firing: BALTIMORE — Marco Paddy, the longtime head of White Sox international operations, is leaving the organization as general manager Chris Getz looks to shake up a pipeline that hasn’t produced much in recent years. Paddy, the 2022 International Scout of the Year, was in his 12th season as special assistant to the general manager, international operations. He directed the Sox’ Latin American efforts with an emphasis on international signings. “We’ve decided to go a different direction with a restructuring of our international department,” said Chris Getz, the Sox’ former farm director who just completed his first full year as general manager. “We thank Marco for his work and wish him well in the future.” During Paddy’s tenure, the Sox signed more than 150 international free agents, including outfielder Luis Robert Jr., Jose Abreu and Fernando Tatis — who was traded away before he became a star. But recent international signing classes have not been as fruitful. Infielder Eduardo Herrera, who became the highest rated non-Cuban international signee in franchise history in January, struggled in the Dominican Summer League. And expensive signees Oscar Colas, Yoelqui Cespedes, Micker Adolfo, Norge Vera and Yolbert Sánchez have been slow to develop. The Sox are looking to improve their operation in the Dominican Republic.

Loved those uniforms.

Will this be the key to getting them back to .400????????????????? Inquiring minds want to know. 😆

“Jake Peavy made the comment one time, ‘They have no reservations about playing shorthanded.”

May as well shut down Robert for the season, why diminish his trade value even more for the off season? Other than that nice win for a change.

So they played short handed yet again while insisting that Baldwin might be available on this road trip. Seriously how inept is this medical, training and conditioning staffs?

Story on the firing, Sox seem to be placing a lot of faith in the new Dominican facility: https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/white-sox-part-ways-with-marco-paddy

Absolutely hilarious. DVS post-mortem game story. Remember Vargas was the Sox "big" trade acquisition: "On their way to losing for the 109th time this season en route to becoming the worst team of all time, the White Sox have seemingly demonstrated a hundred ways to get beat. They lost to the Orioles 9-0 Tuesday at Camden Yards, shut out for the 16th time and having it decided early and in reckless, uncontrolled fashion. Rookie right-hander Nick Nastrini walked six batters, needing 72 pitches to record five outs, and exited trailing 7-0 in the second inning. In his first start since tossing six innings of one-run ball against the Rangers Thursday, Nastrini threw four pitches to the backstop, two of them in the the dirt and two over catcher Korey Lee’s head. As rough as things were for Nastrini, he should have been out of the second inning with one run scored despite walking the bases full, but third baseman Miguel Vargas crashed into left fielder Andrew Benintendi on former Sox Eloy Jimenez’ pop-up in short left near the line, allowing three runs to score. Benintendi had the easier play and called for the ball but Vargas slammed his forehead into Benintendi’s shoulder as the ball deflected to the ground. “That’s Benintendi’s ball,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said. 🤡

Jack McDowell can attest to your last statement.

Unfortunately the owner refuses to pay big money or long contracts for pitching, that's why he is going to be traded. You can argue whether or not that philosophy is good or bad, but the fact is other teams across baseball are doing it and are willing to take the risks.

The Sox are making money MLB won't (and shouldn't) do a damn thing.

That's because in part the players are "baseball-stupid", the staff can't teach the fundamentals properly and their is no accountability when players screw up time after time after time. No benching's, no fines, no getting sent back down...nothing.