I believe the White Sox have shown that they can compete with any team. But I do believe that Will‘s lack of experience and his tendencies to make some in game decisions will prevent the White Sox from going all the way to the World Series. At least that will be one factor. I know he’s done a very good job for a relatively young manager….only two years, but I think he makes mistakes that more veteran managers do not make. Your thoughts?

Will's in game management is bad. Thats not what is stopping the Sox from the world series though. For that you can look to the entire starting rotation, Kolson, Mune, and friends.

Will is the least of our issues in a short series. Pitching, pitching, pitching.

Will makes some mistakes but yeah.

Our starting pitching isn't near the level required to be serious contender.

The disdain for Will Venable from many posters on this site and elsewhere baffles me. Here's a guy who inherited a team that lost a record 121 games and has his team in the playoffs only two years later (after the team improved by 19 games in 2025). The team's only All-Star last year, who he was relying on as his No. 1 starter, is languishing in the minors. He has only truly reliable starter; is starting numerous rookies and wasn't really well-served by his GM during the trade deadline this year. He's Ivy League-educated, super-articulate with the media; a standup-guy who never throws any of his players under the bus; and he is apparently great in the clubhouse.

He the hands-down Manager of the Year, if you ask me.

Will is part of the issue but not the biggest.

The pitching staff doesn't have it in them to go very far.

Plus the "home run or nothing" offense doesn't leave a lot of room for error.

Again, I am not convinced that Will's in game management is nearly as bad as many think. He's got a terrible pitching staff. Like one of the worst in the game. He's also got about half of a roster that completely forgot how to hit a baseball at once. It's hard to look like you know what you are doing when no matter who you send out there, they are going to be bad. This squad is on life support.

Im afraid of the dreaded one and done in the playoffs

41 minutes ago, The Grinder said:

Im afraid of the dreaded one and done in the playoffs

That may very well happen but for the Sox to go from 102 losses to a winning season and get into the playoffs at all is pretty remarkable and noteworthy.

Just now, Lip Man 1 said:

That may very well happen but for the Sox to go from 102 losses to a winning season and get into the playoffs at all is pretty remarkable and noteworthy.

And something that 99 pct of us on here didn’t think was possible coming into the year

15 minutes ago, fathom said:

And something that 99 pct of us on here didn’t think was possible coming into the year

If you break it down and look at the individual pieces on the roster, and then compare that to the record they have, there is no doubt he got pretty much everything he could have out of this roster as a whole. Don't get me wrong, in the minutia dudes make mistakes all season long, even the best of them. But when you look at the whole body of work, being .500 with this roster is a minor miracle.

1 hour ago, The Grinder said:

Im afraid of the dreaded one and done in the playoffs

I mean at this point I wouldn’t even be mad. Most fun season of my life outside of 2005.

5 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

If you break it down and look at the individual pieces on the roster, and then compare that to the record they have, there is no doubt he got pretty much everything he could have out of this roster as a whole. Don't get me wrong, in the minutia dudes make mistakes all season long, even the best of them. But when you look at the whole body of work, being .500 with this roster is a minor miracle.

That's spot on. While the in game stuff can be mystifying in the larger picture hes done very well.

Venable has a starting pitching staff equivalent to Al Bundy's Plymouth Duster, cut him some slack.

10 minutes ago, Falstaff said:

Venable has a starting pitching staff equivalent to Al Bundy's Plymouth Duster, cut him some slack.

my first car...1974 beige, Slant 6 engine, Ofc I as a 16 year destroyed the transmission slamming it from neutral to drive at stop lights and got a reckless driving charge before ending up with the boxy but economical 1984 Honda Accord instead.

And Al Bundy moved up in the world to Sofia Vergara lol.

Edited Thursday at 11:48 AM2 days by caulfield12

17 hours ago, Thesieve300 said:

I believe the White Sox have shown that they can compete with any team. But I do believe that Will‘s lack of experience and his tendencies to make some in game decisions will prevent the White Sox from going all the way to the World Series. At least that will be one factor. I know he’s done a very good job for a relatively young manager….only two years, but I think he makes mistakes that more veteran managers do not make. Your thoughts?

No doubt, he was hired as an OJT manager and I hope he is learning from all his mistakes.

Stoney tonite flatly stated that venable and getz will win manager and GM of year.

That's a bit of a leap but could happen.

I know that Dave roberts and pat murphy are probably the only managers whose fan base does not hate.

I still think overall venable has done a good job sheparding this flawed roster to the cusp of playoffs.

Big picture....he's not a bum.

1 hour ago, hawkeyesox said:

Stoney tonite flatly stated that venable and getz will win manager and GM of year.

That's a bit of a leap but could happen.

I know that Dave roberts and pat murphy are probably the only managers whose fan base does not hate.

I still think overall venable has done a good job sheparding this flawed roster to the cusp of playoffs.

Big picture....he's not a bum.

Dodgers fan base use to hate Robert's till he won the two most recent World Series. I actually think a lot of the complaints they had about Roberts are similar to some of the complaints about Venable.

3 hours ago, hawkeyesox said:

Stoney tonite flatly stated that venable and getz will win manager and GM of year.

That's a bit of a leap but could happen.

I know that Dave roberts and pat murphy are probably the only managers whose fan base does not hate.

I still think overall venable has done a good job sheparding this flawed roster to the cusp of playoffs.

Big picture....he's not a bum.

Both guys in Tampa should win those awards. The Sox are a nice story but being average after sucking hard for 3 years should not win you an award.