Tony

So your argument now boils down to "Drunk driving isn't a big deal if no one got hurt. No harm, no foul." Ironic...

It's insane. I know there are always a few contrarians, but again.....it's SO cut and dry in this case.

We're not even arguing opinion anymore....LaRussa ADMITTED HE DOESN'T KNOW THE RULES. What are we even debating here?

Then you simply don't understand the topic we are discussing. Not only are the rules clear, not only did Tony LaRussa admit to not knowing them, but David Bell, the manager in the other dugout, made it clear he understood them and the efforts MLB made to make sure all managers knew the new rules. Your opinion of the changes are absolutely irrelevant. I have a baseline expectation that the manager in charge of the team I root for understands the rules of the game he is in charge of managing. I really don't think that's asking a lot. But good try.

Weird, you didn't answer my question from hours ago. I'll ask again. What is your reaction to finding out the White Sox’ 76 year old manager didn’t know the rules of Major League Baseball? Making decisions based on incorrect information? Learning the rules from media members post game? Has nothing to do with what the players did on the field today. Answer those questions.

Correct. The steal was out of this world stupid. It's just a disaster man. And it sucks. Because there are SO many likable guys on this squad.

It's embarrassing this is the defense some of the more "positive" minded fans are coming up with tonight. STOP COMPARING YOURSELF WITH A MAJOR LEAGUE MANAGER. In the same post, you say "I know for certain that LaRussa has forgotten more than I ever knew about the game." So by that account, fans and managers shouldn't be compared. Yet in your attempt to somehow defend LaRussa, you're blaming baseball for changing the rules? Even though the manager across the dugout knew what the rule was? Have you seen any other manager make that mistake this year? So I don't really think you do understand why fans are frustrated. LaRussa is sitting in the dugout making MILLIONS a year, and you're blaming MLB for Tony not being up on the rule changes? Really?

That's sort of the point of all this. They really shouldn't matter too much. When Spring Training began, LaRussa could have had one of the easiest jobs in baseball. The lineup was set, the rotation was set, the bullpen was basically set. Now, things have gotten a lot more complicated because of injuries, there is no doubting that. People are always going to criticize a manager when he makes the wrong bullpen decision, or pitching to a guy instead of working around him, etc. That's part of the game, always will be. People will be on both sides of the argument. What's not acceptable is what we saw today, and what we've already seen from LaRussa is a very short time. This is now the third tine where LaRussa has had to "apologize" to the fan base/media for a bad call. The Foster debacle and Giolito being out of gas were bad, but those were "gut" calls he got wrong. Today is a WHOLE new level. He didn't know a rule. The other manager did. Knowing the rules of the game you are managing seems like pretty basic stuff. And if it's "too confusing" for someone to keep with up with all the changes, maybe being an ML manager isn't for you. So I don't want to hear about people just picking on LaRussa because of his age, or his DUI's or whatever else. He's shown us, multiple times, that he is overmatched in 2021.

Having had time to sit with what took place today....it’s somehow worse. You have the leader in the clubhouse playing without a full deck. You had the manager of the Reds come out and say today “Yeah, the league made it really clear what the new rule was going to be during Spring Training.” So the Sox are already taking the field at a disadvantage, as the guy calling the shots isn’t working off the same information the other dugout has. This is levels of incompetence I honestly couldn’t comprehend in the off-season. The cherry on top was LaRussa seemingly being OK “learning on the job” from the media, specifically from a 32-33 year old James Fegan. It’s an absolute embarrassment that this entire organization should be ashamed of.

I’ll ask you a few simple questions. What is your reaction to finding out the White Sox’ 76 year old manager didn’t know the rules of Major League Baseball? Making decisions based on incorrect information? Learning the rules from media members post game? Thoughts?

No. He objectively made moves that lacked any sort of "strategy" Are you really asking this? Do you just have no understanding of what took place today? When you say "LaRussa's moves" Do you mean having Liam Hendricks run at 2B, because he ADMITTED he didn't know a rule was in place that would allow an actual base runner could be placed in that spot?

I read it the other way, that the staff was questioning him and said "Do you realize you have Liam Hendicks running at 2B?" and he said "I know..."

That's acceptable for you not to know that. You also aren't being paid to be the manager of the White Sox.

They can't come out and say that, and would be shocked if they did. You can't fire Ricky and hire TLR, when Hinch and Bochey were out there, and Hahn made the comments about someone with recent playoff success in the dugout, along with this team having deep playoff aspirations.....you can't come out and say "This is going to take time for him to get comfortable with the game." Can't do it.

I agree in this case that this is also on the coaching staff. Typically a bench coach is there to catch this kind of mistake. But it ultimately falls to Tony....who admitted he didn't know the rule....the same week you have articles coming from Passan and Rosenthal questioning the tactics from TLR. I just don't know how the Sox sit back and just "accept this"

HEre we go!

The injuries have killed this team, no doubt. But they also now have to win in spite of Tony. They have to overcome him.

But it will.

Hahn does deserve a lot of blame for not looking for "quality" depth but I also think any team hit by this many injuries is going to look tough. The OF coming into Spring Training was Eloy-Robert-Eaton/Engel. All 4 of those guys are out with injury right now. I don't know many teams that survive that and have the depth to really make things look good.

I meant the steal, but this is also true

Holy shit that's bad baseball

Because this is an instance where you can say something that is factual but it's also misleading. The Bears traded two first round picks (along with a sixth and a third) for Khalil Mack. We all agree on that. Fair to classify as that. That was the cost to acquire that player from the Raiders. The Bears traded a 2022 1st round pick, a 4th and 5th round pick.....and the 20th pick for the 11th pick. A swap of first round picks for positioning shouldn't be classified as simply trading a first round pick.

I know you're joking, but just because you brought it up.......they simply can't get away with that this year. No "We were a year early to the party" or "Next year is the real start of this." Yes, injuries happen, but they happen to every team. Go back and listen to the interviews given during Spring Training. The expectations were not just the playoffs, but playoff series wins. Anything else is a failure. If it doesn't happen this season, shave one year off the "window" because it's wide open right now. They better capitalize on it.