Tony

God I hated Mike Sweeney so much. Dude was SUCH a pain in the ass on what were almost always awful Royals teams...

Here is what you can’t seem to understand. I’ll try and make it simple for you. Me being critical of Tony LaRussa doesn’t mean I think I could be a better baseball manager. Have you ever criticized a baseball player for his performance? If so...does that mean you think you can play better than him? There are 30 MLB Manager jobs. They aren’t easy to come by. Because they are so limited, I think it’s fair to have high expectations for the performance in said position. When someone in that position is continually making mistakes that an amateur can notice while they are happening..that deserves ridicule. Two things can be true at once. Tony LaRussa has won a lot of baseball games as a manager. He’s also making a lot of bad decisions for the White Sox at 76 years old. If you can’t deal with that, I can’t help you.

Good call @caulfield12 lol

lol, I don't know if I've ever deleted someone's thread, but no one can stir the pot like you, ron. I do give you credit for that lol.

Right, it would be a giant undertaking to "fix it." Jack is right in the sense from a geography perspective, it would be a cool location for the Sox to play, no doubt. But from any sort of logistical standpoint it would be an absolute nightmare. I know numerous people that simply won't go to Bears games anymore. It's just too much of a pain in the ass to get there, and then get out. After doing it 4-5 times over a two year period, I totally understand the frustration.

Man, @chitownsportsfan....

Yikes? This was the best you could do? Jeff Passan and Ken Rosenthal are wrong because Moncada rubs Madrigals head. Got it.

So you haven't been to a Cubs game in over 5 years, and it's been much longer than that since you've been to a Bears game. I went to multiple Bears games in 2019, and probably been to Wrigley 10 times in the last 3 years, both for games and concerts. It's about 45 steps to the red line out of Wrigley, and there are multiple different ways out of the ballpark. Solider Field is an absolute shitshow, from driving in, public transportation and ways out of the stadium. You don't know what you're talking about and multiple people are telling you how wrong you are. This is why I stopped responding to any of the items you post. You die on hills you have no business being on.

No it wouldn't. This is incredibly wrong.

So just answer this simple question, I know you have the time. You said LAST NIGHT: You've spent the last 24 hours defending LaRussa, telling us to let it go, we're being too hard on him, that he's doing his job. At the same time, you're glowing about how insane this roster is. So the question is......what are you expectations of a manager? It seems like your bar is set incredibly low, seeing as you think LaRussa is a "moron tactically" but argue the roster he took over is incredible. And again, you mentioned how Tony's job is to "get guys ready to play" and we've had multiple reports from the most respected reporters in the game that multiple players feel like Tony isn't as prepared as he needs to be. So aside from this roster actually performing like it should.......what has Tony done that others managers, or basically any other human, wouldn't do that has helped this team win more games? If they had no manager at all, or YOU were the manager...what do you think their record would be right now? You're talking out of your ass and you know it.

That's the thing. If you put Billy Hamilton in LF and Leury Garcia in CF right now (as is happening fairly often) and had them bat 1-2 every day.......there is no chance in hell that doesn't cost the Sox multiple wins over a season.

Weird, you responded to this post, and not the one that was in direct response to you telling me to "Let it go"

It's because you don't watch the games. No. It's almost the exact opposite No, he should not be hitting ninth

This is Cody Parkey all over again. Dude missed 4 FG's in a 34-22 win over Detroit. "Ah he might suck, but the Bears still won! It's all good!" You knew you couldn't really count on him, but the talent on the rest of the team was overcoming his mistakes. When crunch time came in the playoffs......guess who cost the team?

No. You can’t have it both ways. 5 posts up, you’re jerking off the roster for being like an “OTTP roster that has been building for 3-4 years after you keeping winning lopsided trades.” But then you’re going to come over the top and say “Well Tony might not be the sharpest tool in the shed but these guys are playing for him!” Which is it? Is the roster amazing or is Tony getting the most out of these guys? Sorry, but I believe the reports from Passan, Rosenthal and Jesse that multiple players don’t feel like Tony is on top of his game over....you. This isn’t a complicated roster to handle. Furthermore, I have a lot faith in this roster. What I don’t have faith in is the soon to be 77 year old in the dugout who may make a costly mistake when it matters the most. That’s not who I want to go into battle with. Sorry, my expectations are a little higher than that.

Because in this case, it’s absolute bullshit. @VAfan, seemingly trying to school all of us, posted this.. Managers make decisions for reasons they feel like make sense at the time. They don't always work out. To say another strategy would have been better doesn't mean the other strategy would have worked, and therefore, it may not have been better.  That’s a bunch of words that mean absolutely nothing to the specific debate at hand. As we have discussed ad nauseam, LaRussa admitted he didn’t know a rule, and wouldn’t have made the same call if he was aware of the rule. This isn’t second guessing bullpen decision or lineup placement. These are errors that should not be happening, and have happened multiple times. But someone like Vafan won’t get specific about that, because it destroys his entire “position.” Instead he’ll just use cliches and general ideas that aren’t speaking to actual issues at hand. Positivity is a good thing. And as many know, I get after the negative posters more than most here. But positive or negative, come at an argument with actual substance. That had none of it.

It’s always been that way. But I really don’t think it’s that weird. Think of the Sox like any other product. Usually on a brand social media page, the complaints outweigh the compliments 10/1. When you have a great restaurant experience, most people don’t rush to Yelp to glow about the service. But they are much more likely to post about a terrible wait staff, cold food, etc. Just sort of the nature of the beast. Plus...debate drives conversation. Not much to debate in a nice weekend sweep. Anyway...long season and this team still has some obvious concerns...but they just need to keep stashing away the victories. At some point, Abreu and Grandal will heat up, hopefully the rest the lineup keeps hitting....and hopefully Gio remembers he’s an Ace.

Who is suggesting that?

That aboy Andrew!

It’s bizarre the only pitcher that has really regressed under Katz is Gio (and I guess Crochet)

And it’s fine that it happened thus far. Happens all the time where stars under perform, it’s up to the other guys to pick up the slack. But at some point the stars needs to act like stars. Everyone struggles, but this is getting concerning.

I don’t care how good the rest of the starters are going, if Gio isn’t the Gio we know, the Sox aren’t going anywhere. They need to figure this out, ASAP.

So what did I miss?

Manny-Griffey-Alomar-Thome-Canseco-Rollins-Andruw Jones-Youkilis-Morneau Why not Pujols? It's a White Sox tradition.