Tony

Says the guy that has posted about it twice in the last 6 hours. Beat it, you clown.

Welp, that's it for me tonight.

In that specific case, it kind of doesn't matter what I think. (It really doesn't matter what any of us think, ever lol) but those are the two options, as I see them, for any GM/President that would be running this team. They are sort of at a fork in the road. They can't be totally complacent, and I think they know that. So then it's deciding which route you take. The short-term "Go Big or Go Home" approach, or the "We need to think more long-term" approach.

There is a large difference between Eloy and Robert and Vaughn, Burger, Sheets, Collins, etc. The difference isn't just talent. It's money. Eloy and Robery and locked into long-term, somewhat expensive deals. The others are not. Here is what the Sox are going to need to decide, and quickly. How long do they truly envision their "window" being open? They need to be very honest with themselves. They know they don't have an owner that is going to support a long term payroll of 200 million+, and if they want to keep this entire core together, it's going to cost that much to accomplish. If they really believe they can make the playoffs with the current payroll restraints year after year, you need to hang onto those young players as they will play a very key role in staying within the payroll limits imposed. If they decide the window is closer to 2-3 more years....then trading some cost-controlled players like Vaughn actually makes some sense. Make the roster as good as you can until 2024, because at that point Grandal-Abreu-Lynn-Giolito will all be FA's. I'm not saying that's what they should do or that's what will happen, but if you've made the determination that this is the group and once that group hits FA it's over.....then trade anyone with cost-controlled value that will help you NOW, win as much as you can the next 2-3 seasons, and then start it all over again (with a few key pieces to either help start the rebuild over in Robert and Eloy) or build around those guys moving forward.

Luckily it doesn't sound like the Sox want to screw with him, just fans.

Especially when it leads to killing innocent drivers on the road.

This isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement for Tony La Russa.

In 2019 the Sox ranked 15th in shifts, doing it 22.3% of PA’s In 2020 the Sox ranked 22nd in shifts, but they actually increased the amount of shifts they employed, doing it 29.3% of PA’s In 2021, the Sox ranked 27th, and the number dropped to 20.3% So I’m not so sure it wasn’t a LaRussa decision……and I don’t think you should be either.

To me this is a question I would love to hear Hahn answer. I believe the Sox FO is adapting to the times and seems to be making a commitment to data and "new school" baseball. Their manager doesn't seem to have any interest in employing that on the field, and it cost the Sox runs in the postseason, no question about it.

My question would be 1. How was that any different than what Ricky did and 2. If Ricky was managing the 2021 club, how do you envision the results would have been different? I'm not a Renteria fan either, I think the choice to move on was the right one. But given the talent on this team, I expected a better outcome than 2020. Ricky and Tony won the same amount of playoff games and both suffered a first round exit. I'm not blaming that on Ricky, or Tony......but I'm wondering how big of an "upgrade" Tony was from the last guy?

For any of the LaRussa fans, now that the season is over...What did Tony do to make this team better than 2020? What did he do better than Ricky? What did he do to put the team in a better chance to win than the manager across the dugout? Very curious to hear.

The entire offseason comes down to how much the Sox believe that, and what they are willing to do to change that. Are they OK just being "a team" in the playoffs or do they want get to a point where they are making 5 straight ALCS? The White Sox have won 3 Playoff series since 1917. 3

A lot, I was commenting on the idea of signing those players, and how it's not based in any kind of reality.

Don't let reality get in the way of a good time.

Very well said.

It tells me 3 things. 1. The Astros are still the kings of the AL 2. They’ve made 5 straight ALCS. The playoffs aren’t as “random” as some are making them out to be 3. I don’t feel great about losing to anyone. I want the Sox to reach that Houston level. This series showed me they aren’t there yet. The Sox aren’t on the Houston “tier” in terms of quality.

They’ve made 5 straight ALCS. I’ve seen enough.

What do the Sox clearly do better than the Astros? Seems like Houston plays a better defense, has a deeper offense, and their starting staff was just better than what Sox put out on the mound. They were outclassed. Yes, it’s one series…but when you look at what the Sox did against above .500 teams, the picture becomes more clear that they aren’t currently in that elite tier as of now.

ptac, I think there is plenty of reason to be "optimistic" about next season. The White Sox have a very good core. That didn't change because of the playoff failure. But thus far, during this "window," the Sox are 2-5 in the playoffs and quite frankly didn't look very competitive against the class of the AL right now in the Astros. A team like the Rays seemed to run into some bad luck and bounces against the Red Sox......the White Sox got steamrolled. The core is there. But it doesn't seem like that's going to take them to the World Series. They need to improve in other areas. They can't just blame injuries and bad luck in 2021, and come back with the exact same core. There is no reason to expect different results in 2022 with the same group.

...How would you judge it?

Decided to look more into this. I think RD can be slightly misleading, especially when teams only play a 6 game series in a season. Record against .500 teams in 2021: White Sox: 27-29 Giants: 35-28 Dodgers: 35-27 Rays: 48-42 Astros: 45-32 Red Sox: 46-48 Yankees: 48-43 Brewers: 32-36 So a handful of teams that were considered "very good" had records under .500 against the better teams in the league. But the "elite" seemed to have fairly impressive records against winning teams. The Sox need to get better against better teams, no other way around it.

You can look it for yourself, but here is Houston, the team that the Sox will eventually have to get past... Rays: 4-2 Red Sox: 5-2 Yankees: 2-4 Blue Jays: 4-2 White Sox: 5-2 Seattle: 11-8 A's: 11-8 Giants: 1-2 Dodgers: 2-2 That's a 45-32 record against above .500 teams (when the season ended)* in 2021.

You've proven you're not smart enough to comprehend the argument. It's ok.

I think this was going to happen all along, but I also don't trust Bob at this point. Eduardo Escobar was a White Sox in July according to Bob..

You're simply worng.