1 hour ago, Quin said:

Like seriously, you can blame off field antics all you want, but how does a leg injury for w dude that relied on his legs get constantly glossed over?

It's probably a combo, but it'd be like "Albert Belle's career was derailed due to him being a crazy son of a b****" and ignoring the degenerative hip.

The one that also never gets mentioned is the murder of his best friend.

Hanser tackling him surely didn't help

1 hour ago, Quin said:

Like seriously, you can blame off field antics all you want, but how does a leg injury for w dude that relied on his legs get constantly glossed over?

It's probably a combo, but it'd be like "Albert Belle's career was derailed due to him being a crazy son of a b****" and ignoring the degenerative hip.

So you think his knee injury last year was as big as a factor in his decline as Albert Belles hip?   Didn’t TA start to fall off the prior .500 season second half and then it never got better 

11 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

So you think his knee injury last year was as big as a factor in his decline as Albert Belles hip?   Didn’t TA start to fall off the prior .500 season second half and then it never got better 

For Belle, I was trying to think of someone who has both sets of issues and couldn't think of many.

Also TA did have a bad second half of 2022, but had a good WBC + 2023 prior to the injury (roughly a month and a half). Those are small sample sizes, but I still feel like he was heating back up until then.

Then it all spiraled.

Javy Baez had a similar drop off but he waited until he was guaranteed 9 figures.

30 minutes ago, Quin said:

For Belle, I was trying to think of someone who has both sets of issues and couldn't think of many.

Also TA did have a bad second half of 2022, but had a good WBC + 2023 prior to the injury (roughly a month and a half). Those are small sample sizes, but I still feel like he was heating back up until then.

Then it all spiraled.

Milton Bradley seemed to have regular maladies, was ... maturity challenged, and then fell off the table. 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bradlmi01.shtml

I just really think he had built this huge public image of being smooth and awesome and then that facade was broken when the social media stuff started, and he just has not been able to find that again.  I do think it’s mostly mental

1 hour ago, Kyyle23 said:

So you think his knee injury last year was as big as a factor in his decline as Albert Belles hip?   Didn’t TA start to fall off the prior .500 season second half and then it never got better 

For a guy whose game was his legs?  I think a large part of his fall off was related directly to this.  It is a lot like a pitcher with a decent shoulder injury in that it takes away from what they use the most.  Especially in the case of things like tendons, some of those things never really 100% recover, and when your game is speed and drive from your legs, it has to have an effect.  It's why speed guys don't last as long as say power guys.

Ah man, I didn't really want to be on Pedro's side, which means I am probably wrong here...

 

 

I was a big fan of TA, he was a force at the leadoff spot for a short while. He is still young enough to make a comeback.

As far as his personal life goes with the ladies I am not interested. 

1 hour ago, Kyyle23 said:

I just really think he had built this huge public image of being smooth and awesome and then that facade was broken when the social media stuff started, and he just has not been able to find that again.  I do think it’s mostly mental

Jose Ramirez punctured a hole right through the facade.

48 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

 

I have zero recollection of what this is referencing? Did he cause his injury? Did he introduce him to tik tok?

6 minutes ago, PaleAleSox said:

I have zero recollection of what this is referencing? Did he cause his injury? Did he introduce him to tik tok?

https://www.mlb.com/news/tim-anderson-injures-knee-on-close-play-at-third

3 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

https://www.mlb.com/news/tim-anderson-injures-knee-on-close-play-at-third

Oh yeah I forgot how horrible that was. Both how it looked and how they executed. 

25 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

Jose Ramirez punctured a hole right through the facade.

That was basically the final blow, yea

47 minutes ago, Falstaff said:

I was a big fan of TA, he was a force at the leadoff spot for a short while. He is still young enough to make a comeback.

As far as his personal life goes with the ladies I am not interested. 

I am 100 percent with you, I really wish it didn’t keep forcing itself into my view 

Every time I see people talk s%*# about TA I remember this is the same fan base that embarrassed themselves by booing Frank Thomas relentlessly and remember what they have in common. 

1 hour ago, caulfield12 said:

Jose Ramirez punctured a hole right through the facade.

Getting caught by a punch thrown by Jose Ramirez isn't even remotely as bad as Robin getting the dog s%*# beat out of him by a 45 year old pitcher.

20 minutes ago, TaylorStSox said:

Every time I see people talk s%*# about TA I remember this is the same fan base that embarrassed themselves by booing Frank Thomas relentlessly and remember what they have in common. 

He went from an All-Star and one of the faces of baseball to arguably the worst player in the game seemingly overnight.  Skin color should have nothing to do with the criticism he’s received.

Some shortstops play into their 30's but age and wear and tear on his legs were too much for him to sustain what he had in his best years. Best to leave it at that and not pursue another narrative.

11 hours ago, greg775 said:

Holy cow. This will be controversial, but I'd sign him. He's much better than what we got. He's a cheap contract and if we want to build on our pitching for next year, we have room for him at second base!! We can release Lopez and sign TA and have him get his act together with a strong eye on 2025.

You can't deny we need a middle infielder til Monte is ready.

you need to learn the difference between stupid and controversial 

10 minutes ago, bobbydanks said:

you need to learn the difference between stupid and controversial 

Why start now?

10 hours ago, Kyyle23 said:

I can very much deny that I want his shitty glove replacing anyone on this field.  Did you even look at their stats 

I think he could play 2B adequately to nicely. It's a lot easier than SS where he was unreliable.

3 hours ago, TaylorStSox said:

Every time I see people talk s%*# about TA I remember this is the same fan base that embarrassed themselves by booing Frank Thomas relentlessly and remember what they have in common. 

If Frank did indeed get booed, those people that booed should have their fan cards taken away. That's just unacceptable. Some guys earn lifetime achievement awards which includes no hometown booing.