tray

Vaughn had a far greater chance of hitting into a double play than Leury. Vaughn is by far the slowest player on the team. That was a consideration.as were Vaughn's prior at-bats in that game where he looked entirely over-matched. He put swings on balls that he missed by a foot. Leury had at least been making contact and had several RBIs in the games against Detroit. The LaRussa critic derangement syndrome continues. Proceed.

Vaughn in LF, Robert in CF and Eloy in RF . Yermin is our DH. Bam, bam bam, as Stacey King would say.

I agree CaliSoxman. In fact, Tony has made a lot of good decisions and a few bad decisions, like every Manager. Meanwhile look at what other Managers and their teams have been doing around the league. How about AJ Hinch challenging Madrigal's single while trailing 11-0? Senior-type moment? Beyond that, the Tigers do not look like they even want to be on the field...not motivated and lacking concentration. Errors everywhere. How about Cubman Ross managing a last place club with a lot of premier talent who have looked terrible and depressed their fan base? If the Sox go into an extended drought, JR might think about asking Ozzie to be LaRussa's bench coach for 2021 with the tacit understanding that he takes over as Manager in 2022. As it stand now though, LaRussa has the team motivated and winning. The player look like they are into it. None of them have expressed the kind of ill will toward Tony that Cub fans and other disgruntled haters have. The mindless criticism of Tony strikes me as bizarre. I have never seen anything quite like it save for Harry Carey in his White Sox career before the Cub organization put a muzzle on him. Bennetti has now started to question some of Tony's decisions in real time and that has not always been done respectfully. LaRussa vs Bennettti may develop into a thing if he keeps it up and JR will be the final arbiter of that.

Fans are fickle. Rodon was blasted by them for years, and almost all of them were on board when Rick Hahn DFAed him. All aboard now though.

Bennetti is getting aboard with those questioning LaRussa, and that may get to be an issue....for Bennetti as much as it is for LaRussa. I hope it is. I am growing sick of Bennetti and his brand of intellectual arrogance. He is self-absorbed with his own humor for much of the broadcast. The anti-LaRussa ageism reminds me of the age related criticism some levy against Biden. Seniors are an easy target. Meanwhile, nice job by LaRussa loading the line-up with lefties for game one, including switch hitting and slumping Leury G. Mize seemed to be bothered with LH hitters. Eaton almost hit that one out. I agreed with letting Hamilton hit with bases loaded and no out because there was little chance he would hit into a double play, as the Sox did several times Tuesday. Very impressive pitching performance by Carlos but I am worried about Cease if he starts walking batters early.

pseudo-intellectual BS.

It might be the kind of flu-like symptoms Rodon had. i.e., Diarrhea instead of upper respiratory issues.

Needless to say, Gio has to make some adjustments. His routine including about 30% change-ups (including many high and out of the zone) may not be sustainable. Aside from that, he had no business grooving Cabrera with two outs and nobody on base. WTF were he and Grandall thinking there? Walk that fat fuker in that situation. No?

Was he vaxxed for Covid? Yes or no.

Beautiful night for baseball.. shitty night to read about Burgur on the White Sox site.....Burgur, another player who profiles as a DH ....just the kind of organizational depth we don't need to even read about now.

Yes that was the point.

Does Madrigal's skill set at the plate fit well in within the WSox line-up? On another team with less power up and down the line-up, your answer might be different. Using Benetti's volleyball analogy, someone has to set up the ball so others can spike it. Watching Madrigal's at bats has been almost as enjoyable as watching Mercedes. He sees the ball and can put a good swing on it when he wants.

Agree. Framing pitches is also a code for trying to cheat. As we know, Grandal was sought after. in part, because he was a good framer.....he could get pitches that were outside the zone called as strikes. That has now gone to his head and he is literally trying to catch pitches before the batter hits them. If you want to fix a problem, the first thing you need to do is to admit that you have one. Ignoring this won't make it go away.

We did not see as superimposed strike zones on telecasts years ago and did not have ball/strike calls questioned based on video technology. That is why some people suggest that similar technology be applied to improve the accuracy of ball/strike calls. Instead of a blanket rejection of the idea, perhaps consider some kind of compromise solution.

I wonder if the two dimensional rectangle we see over the plate is accurate, whether it is the same height and width as the strike zone the umpire perceives, whether the zone gets adjusted for a player's height, and whether it is really positioned at the front of the plate. Bill Veeck famously mocked the strike zone with Eddie Gaedel. Players don't seem to take advantage by moving up and back in the box, which they can do from pitch to pitch. If a pitcher has a good sinking pitch, why not move to the front of the batter's box to get it before it sinks into the lowest part of the zone? Another issue is catcher "framing" or in Grandal's case, catching the ball almost off the hitter's bat in an effort to alter an umpire's perspective and grab a strike call. IMO, that part of the game has gotten ridiculous. Framing pitches is not something that was always this prevalent in the game, at least as far as I recall.

It is pretty clear that umpires have difficulty determining if a sinking pitch is still in the strike zone when it crosses the plate. That's not a slam against umpires, it is just a limitation on human depth perception from their vantage point behind the plate. Imagine an ump trying to determine whether a pitch is inside or outside if their vantage point was from the side of the plate. Maybe there can be some kind of compromise with a partially automated system, i.e. a way to outline the strike zone for umpires in order to aid their depth perception. Fans see an outline of a strike zone on their TV screens but umpires lack the same advantage. Another idea would be to allow for an appeal of ball/strike calls based on video replay....perhaps for one pitch per inning. That one doesn't sound too good, does it? If the analytical scorecard of umpires mentioned above is based on a system that is presumably 100% accurate, why not switch to it ? Try a few automated strike zones in the minors for a year or two and see how they work.

I didn't realize that Kopech has been friends since childhood with Pat Mahomes, part owner of the Royals who said he is on "the wrong team." I guess we can just about kiss Kopech's ass goodbye after he hits FA if he keeps pitching like this. Let's win one before that happens.

Collins 3 infield hits helped his BA today, but I'd like to see him get more consistent hard contact and jack some some HRs.

The epic trade fukup that may have turned the tide of baseball history on the Southside was Tatis Jr for James Shields. The Mazara and EE deals were mistakes but not really that costly or significant moving forward. Once Eloy returns I can see Big Foot (Vaughn) in LF and Eloy in RF. I want extra offense until the 7th when defensive substitutions can be made (as was done last night).

Fox News is a rank propaganda channel that has divided this nation. It is hard to stop them because they have convinced their viewership to distrust news sources and only tune in to their channel. This has to be challenged head on in some way. Their anti-vax nonsense has to stop.

If Grandal swung away he could have made an out without advancing Robert into scoring position or worse, hit into a double play. If Grandal made an out without advancing Robert, nothing short of a triple would have scored Robert from first. T LaR knew Mercedes would then be walked. However, he also knew that there was little chance that the infield could double up Hamilton even if he hit a grounder. Therefore, chances were that Madrigal would have a chance to win with a single if Hamilton failed, and he just missed winning the game with two line drives that went foul. Criticizing that move in hindsight , especially considering that it worked perfectly, seems like mindless LaRussa hatred. Bunting the winning run into scoring position in the 9th has been part of baseball for generations.

If Kopech can go 4 innings in his next few starts, Cease may lose his spot in the rotation to him.

Nice K

Great defensive switch getting Vaughn out of there

There are many reports of long term health impacts from infection by the Covid virus including brain fog, heart rate spikes, and chronic fatigue. Perhaps Moncada''s Covid experience is an example of that. Not enough is known yet about how long the virus lingers in those infected with it and whether it has long terms impacts like organ damage but the risk of that seems too much to ignore. Young people and some minorities, including those addicted to anti-vax politics, need to be encouraged to get vaxxed. If you don't think it will impact your own health, OK, I get how young people feel invincible, but please do the right thing for your family, your friends and your country and get vaxxed.