Hawk hates Ginobili.

 

 

How reassuring. They're just going to stop making bad pitches and redouble their efforts.

 

Shades of 2007?

 

"Maybe more," John Danks replied Thursday when asked to compare the White Sox's current level of frustration with their 90-loss season six years ago.

 

With Rick Hahn in attendance, the only suspense left might be when the Sox general manager finally begins to revamp the 25-man roster after a sloppy 8-4 loss that completed the Twins' three-game sweep and marked the Sox's seventh loss in their last eight games.

 

The last time the Sox (29-41) were 12 games below .500 was at the end of 2007, when they finished 72-90 during Danks' rookie season.

 

"We truly feel we're way too good to be playing like this," said Danks, who allowed a career-high four home runs. "We feel we're just as talented as any team in the league."

 

...

"When you're not playing well, you can see all the warts and everything else, and you see how hard the game is," manager Robin Ventura said. "You don't take it for granted. You keep playing hard and eventually the sun comes out."

 

But the Sox have plenty of clouds to clear before their first American League Central showdown with the Tigers on July 9 in Detroit. The series originally was supposed to serve as a gauge of what direction they would take before the July 31 non-waiver trading deadline.

 

"We all believe we can turn it around tomorrow," Danks said. "We have to do it soon."

Ventura said the poor defense has been most disappointing but didn't hint at personnel changes.

 

"The solution is to keep working at it and put importance on it," Ventura said. "The game has never changed in that way."

Robin is right.

 

Keep focusing on playing the game, keep working on the defense, keep focusing on the fundamentals, and let Hahn take care of the rest.

 

It's like Robin's the iron chef, he's leading the charge, he's supervising, he's stressing how to properly cut the veggies, checking on the bakery, doing all that stuff, sauteeing the fries or whatever, making some weird ice cream, etc. and all he can focus on is delivering the best meal possible for his judges. But Hahn is the one who brings him the groceries, Hahn's the one who decides what food item the dishes are going to be based on, and Hahn's the one who is going to have to take out the garbage when it's all over & go shopping again, bring in some new ingredients. There's no reason for Robin to get all mad about things and yell & scream, just like Hawk was saying, it's a different game now & players can be metros about accountability & so forth, players want special treatment and like to cry about things. Robin's not going to kiss anyone's ass, just keep stressing what needs to be stressed, and he's going to tell Hahn in private which guys he doesn't feel are working hard enough, which guys aren't mentally strong enough, which guys are dogging it, accepting failure, etc. and it's going to be up to Hahn to take out the trash.

I can't believe metrosexuals and Pale Hose Talk have collided in the same biosphere.

Robin is right.

 

Keep focusing on playing the game, keep working on the defense, keep focusing on the fundamentals, and let Hahn take care of the rest.

 

It's like Robin's the iron chef, he's leading the charge, he's supervising, he's stressing how to properly cut the veggies, checking on the bakery, doing all that stuff, sauteeing the fries or whatever, making some weird ice cream, etc. and all he can focus on is delivering the best meal possible for his judges. But Hahn is the one who brings him the groceries, Hahn's the one who decides what food item the dishes are going to be based on, and Hahn's the one who is going to have to take out the garbage when it's all over & go shopping again, bring in some new ingredients. There's no reason for Robin to get all mad about things and yell & scream, just like Hawk was saying, it's a different game now & players can be metros about accountability & so forth, players want special treatment and like to cry about things. Robin's not going to kiss anyone's ass, just keep stressing what needs to be stressed, and he's going to tell Hahn in private which guys he doesn't feel are working hard enough, which guys aren't mentally strong enough, which guys are dogging it, accepting failure, etc. and it's going to be up to Hahn to take out the trash.

Robin also let his group of well trained sous-chefs spend the several months before the taping doing nothing but drinking and gaining weight so they're out of practice, disinterested, and hungover for the show.