"The 42-year-old became the organization’s 44th different manager on Oct. 31 and has seemed to be a perfect fit from the first day taking over. It’s not just about Venable being put into big league leadership of this latest White Sox rebuild, but he’s the co-pilot general manager Chris Getz was looking for in the process for now and in the future when the team moves into its contention phase. Venable is a great communicator, knows the game and has an even-keeled but intensely focused nature shown throughout Spring Training." -- Scott Merkin

https://www.mlb.com/news/1-important-thing-learned-about-each-team-2025-spring-training

 

Given the opportunity to write about the actual players on the team for this spring training mlb.com blurb...we get this instead.

On the plus side, no mention of Michigan or Notre Dame, so there's that.

Edited March 24, 20251 yr by caulfield12

Scott is the failed husband who covered up his Wife's abuse. 

58 minutes ago, pcq said:

Scott is the failed husband who covered up his Wife's abuse. 

This is ALMOST more glowing than when Cabinet members are forced to give "testimonials" on camera about their loyalty/fealty...it's why we need "objective/unbiased" Sox media coverage, most importantly.

Record-wise, there's almost zero difference from Grifol in ST last year.

And there's still a lot of the same mental and physical errors, failure to throw to the cutoff men or correct bases, failure to advance runners or drive them in from 3rd with less than 2 outs, etc.

Edited March 24, 20251 yr by caulfield12

In terms of liking Max as a manager, I just want to see some baseball IQ on the field this year.  That's the first thing that will tell me he's effective.  It's bad when you have no talent, but it's adjectively awful when your talent is also baseball stupid.  That is something a good manager should be able to help with.

9 hours ago, pcq said:

Scott is the failed husband who covered up his Wife's abuse. 

@Scott Merkin Fan would not appreciate this post.

19 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

In terms of liking Max as a manager, I just want to see some baseball IQ on the field this year.  That's the first thing that will tell me he's effective.  It's bad when you have no talent, but it's adjectively awful when your talent is also baseball stupid.  That is something a good manager should be able to help with.

I agree with this post. 

9 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

This is ALMOST more glowing than when Cabinet members are forced to give "testimonials" on camera about their loyalty/fealty...it's why we need "objective/unbiased" Sox media coverage, most importantly.

Record-wise, there's almost zero difference from Grifol in ST last year.

And there's still a lot of the same mental and physical errors, failure to throw to the cutoff men or correct bases, failure to advance runners or drive them in from 3rd with less than 2 outs, etc.

There has been like 4 watchable games.

10 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

This is ALMOST more glowing than when Cabinet members are forced to give "testimonials" on camera about their loyalty/fealty...it's why we need "objective/unbiased" Sox media coverage, most importantly.

Record-wise, there's almost zero difference from Grifol in ST last year.

And there's still a lot of the same mental and physical errors, failure to throw to the cutoff men or correct bases, failure to advance runners or drive them in from 3rd with less than 2 outs, etc.

We see that every year with this organization, big talk about fundamentals and then...

Some of that is absolutely on the manager and coaches but also a lot of it is on frankly "baseball-stupid" players too, as well as an organization that may not be adhering to stressing fundamentals and letting players in the minor leagues get away with crap. 

10 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

This is ALMOST more glowing than when Cabinet members are forced to give "testimonials" on camera about their loyalty/fealty...it's why we need "objective/unbiased" Sox media coverage, most importantly.

Record-wise, there's almost zero difference from Grifol in ST last year.

And there's still a lot of the same mental and physical errors, failure to throw to the cutoff men or correct bases, failure to advance runners or drive them in from 3rd with less than 2 outs, etc.

literally the most caufield-esque caufield post ever

Merkin is kind of the worst.   The Sox beat situation is in worse situation than the team.  

23 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

Merkin is kind of the worst.   The Sox beat situation is in worse situation than the team.  

I do like the quotes he posts in his articles, but he tweets more about Michigan football and basketball than the Sox. Lol.

7 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said:

We see that every year with this organization, big talk about fundamentals and then...

Some of that is absolutely on the manager and coaches but also a lot of it is on frankly "baseball-stupid" players too, as well as an organization that may not be adhering to stressing fundamentals and letting players in the minor leagues get away with crap. 

Earl Weaver would keep them out there until they did things right. Too much pampering I think. 

I agree and wish that was the case like back in the day for the Sox under Al Lopez and Eddie Stanky. 

If you couldn't play defense, advance runners into scoring position, drive a guy home from third with less than two out et al you'd be fined...it nothing changed you'd get benched, if you still couldn't figure it out it was back to the minor leagues for you.

But those days are gone. 

 

2 hours ago, pcq said:

Earl Weaver would keep them out there until they did things right. Too much pampering I think. 

People don't respond to being browbeaten anymore.

8 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

People don't respond to being browbeaten anymore.

Even Ozzie and Joey Cora's "Camp Cora" outside the standard practice times stuff probably wouldn't work in this day and age.

Let's be honest, most of the really top minor league hitters don't focus much on advancing runners and bunting, it's just the way it is.

 

Now defensive fundamentals are a totally different story, no excuses there IMO.

"“The Chicago one was intriguing when it opened up. Right? Because it is a team that has a lot of upside, a lot of Latino players, you know. We talked about it as a family.”“The White Sox, we love the city. We love, I mean that is a good baseball team. Then Tony happened and it was like woah. Okay. Here we go.”"

Alex Cora discussing Sox managerial possibility before TLR got the job

Edited April 9, 20251 yr by caulfield12

Nm

Edited April 9, 20251 yr by ChiSox59