Timmy U

The Sox weren’t juicing. Lots of players and lots of teams weren’t. The A’s were at the bleeding edge of cheating along with the Rangers. Also, Astros weren’t the only ones electronically stealing signs. That’s why Manfred sent the memo. The Red Sox were certainly doing it, and people had strong suspicions about the Yankees. I believe Chris Sale had some fairly strong suspicions about the Tigers as well. I am no fan of the Astros, I’m just saying, if we’re gonna be anti-cheaters, those A’s teams were among the worst I have seen.

It just occurred to me that anyone who’s upset about Hinch and cheating might want to look at LaRussa’s tenure with the A’s. That whole team was roiding. I remember McGwire was out for like a year and a half with a foot thing. He came off the DL and after 18 months off he was way better hitter. Suddenly he could get to the high fastball. Everyone knew they were juicing, but baseball didn’t care.

Maybe the Dodgers will can Roberts so they can beat Reinsdorf to LaRussa?

We should have a barf reaction. I don’t doubt this is good info, it would just ruin my fandom. Giving this exciting young team to that sour curmudgeon would depress the hell out of me. I might have to do the unthinkable: start watching the Mets.

Giolito credited Renteria and Cooper for standing by him; the actual changes were suggested by Adam Katz. For the record, I stood by Giolito during that time as well. Not sure if it helped.

I wonder if the change in pitching coach is going to have an effect on this calculus. In recent years, Cooper's record of helping top prospects transition into MLB starters was abysmal. Lopez regressed, and this year when they wanted to fix him they sent him to Zaleski. Cease looks considerably worse than he did in AA. Sure, his ERA was better this year but his peripherals collapsed from 2019 to 2020. I guess you can cite Giolito, but there's no evidence Cooper was involved in that at all. Long term, if they don't get that fixed, it's not going to matter if they sign Bauer or trade for somebody. No organization is gonna thrive if they can't develop their players.

I'm old enough to remember this. There were definitely hard feelings. The Sox reporting of the agent was unusual at the time. I believe Hinch didn't sign the paper allowing them to redraft him out of Stanford. That's why I was surprised he seemed to be the leading candidate. Then I read the report that Hahn worked for his agent at the time, Jeff Moorad. Apparently, this is long-forgotten by both sides now, but at the time it was quite heated.

So? La Russa is very close to Vance Law and would try to get him to come to Chicago.

Good lord. How does he still have a job???

Fair enough, but here's the headline: Opinion: Believe it or not, Hall of Famer Tony La Russa could be the next White Sox manager

It's an opinion piece he's yanking from, let's say, the late '90s.

Here's the twitter.

Regarding Scioscia, I think if the Sox are saying the game has passed Coop by and Hahn name checks Rocco Baldelli, the chances that they're going to hire Scioscia or Showalter or someone like that are negligible. But, I've been wrong before.

Just read an interview with Francona on Cleveland.com. He's coming back to Cleveland. Only reason he wouldn't is if his health worsens. He had blood clots, multiple surgeries and still needs a hip replacement but is delaying it because of the blood clots. With what Hahn said about this manager committing to the entirety of the window, even if he were available, it would not be Francona. I'm expecting someone much younger/healthier.

He had strep before the season began. Apparently, he has had frequent struggles with it in the past.

The record is still intact. Remember technically this was "mutual."

Really sounded like it.

Reading between the lines, the answers all pointed to Hinch as the leading candidate for the job: Recent October experience, doesn't necessarily speak Spanish, outside the organization, wouldn't answer cheater question.

Woo! Best presser ever!

Woo! Cooper had to go!

I posted in another thread that Sox had a bad relationship with Hinch like 100 years ago. Did that ever get patched up?

Aside from the cheating, there was bad blood between Hinch/his family and the Sox from when they drafted him as an amateur. Generally, JR holds a grudge. I'd be surprised if it was Hinch.

Wow. His managing down the stretch and in the Oakland series was so objectively head-scratchingly bad, it was like a death wish. Think back to when they clinched and Hahn said all that stuff about how the Cubs treated Rickey. 100% believe he lost his job in a 3 week stretch.

It will be interesting to see what payrolls look like next year. I saw an article about Cleveland and they will be slashing payroll. No more Santana, Lindor gone, Hand won't be resigned, they're looking to trade Carlos Carrasco... I now imagine the Sox non-tender everyone they can Rodon, Mazarra, maybe even decline the option on Leury and try to pick through the giant cutout bin that will be this offseason. I think we have no idea who will be available outright or in salary dumps this offseason. My question is "Will the Sox be aggressive? Or are they one of the teams looking to dump payroll?" Could be a huge opportunity for teams like Boston, who are getting an influx of Billy Beane cash, or the Mets, who figure to up their payroll now that they have actual ownership. I could also see the Phillies being big spenders, given their huge TV deal. Point is, I think it's too early to settle for Puig or Pederson. There may be some very solid players out there this winter.

I am insane? Didn't Klentak "resign" because the owner was pissed they didn't make the playoffs? What evidence is there that the Phillies are rebuilding? They have a pretty good major league team and a bad farm system. That seems to mean they'll try to resign Realmutto and compete next year, right?