QBBrian13

Thank you for saying it. We aren't even the same team as last year, which was good enough to be competitive in a playoff series. We are in fact, worse! And currently, based on the injuries and lack of quality people to fill some spots ... much worse.

This is how I felt the morning before Opening Day. I was pretty excited for the lockout to end and see the rush of free agency moves, trades, etc. to bust down the door, and there was nothing. All the while, the rest of the Division was making moves here and there to better compete. I felt like Randy Quaid from Major League 2. And here we are now, two weeks into the season, and all those holes that we could have filled, but didn't, have already come back to bite us. Lynn and Giolito are hurt, forcing us to see Vince Velazquez, Dallas Kuechel and Jimmy Lambert start 6 of our first 12 games. A revolving door of crap in RF and 2B. We have to hear about Cleveland not being a "good matchup" because our right handed heavy lineup. All things we could have addressed and didn't. I don't even know if this post makes sense ... don't care to proof

Brian Drew ... former franchise QB for the Cleveland Browns back in the Sonny Weaver Jr. and Coach Penn era.

Yes.

Following this whole thread, a lot of negativity on here ... and it is totally warranted! The outright refusal to 'finish the job' and make this team elite is absolutely staggering! Are we the best team in the Division? Yes, probably by a semi-wide margin. Are we the best team in the AL? Not even close! As currently constructed, we are a worse team than last season. The Blue Jays are significantly better than us. The Yankees are better than us. The Rays are better than us. Houston is still better than us, and if they get Correa back, they are significantly better. A case could be made for the Red Sox as well, and depending on how the rest of the off-season shakes out, the Mariners as well. You'd think after getting our tits knocked in last year in the ALDS, with all of our injured players back and healthy and playing in that series, that something would be shaken loose, but I guess not! Instead, we will 'hope for health' and then trot out holes in RF and 2B again. We will go into a season with a question mark as the #4 starter and a grossly declining #5 starter. But hey, at least we signed two solid relivers that we will probably still need to use in the 3rd and 5th innings of playoff games. Its beyond irritating! I'd like to say that, I think this is the last season I'm going to invest in this stupid crap anymore, because I know my money isn't going to the product. But, I'm a dummy! Much like many of us, I'll be there, hoping they win inspite of the owner and overrated GM.

You might want to start getting on that. I bought some tickets to the Monday game against Oakland back in August. The tickets never came thru, I tried to call Stubhub, was waiting for an associate for over 2 hours before I got down to the ballpark. Once there, the box office said they could see the STH had put the tickets on Stubhub and they had sold, but couldn’t do anything about it. Ended up buying two additional Lower Corner seats just so I could access the lower level to sit in the seats just above the A’s dugout that I purchased on Stubhub. Had never had issues with Stubhub in the past, but according to Twitter around that time, that was happening a lot and people were sitting on hold for over 6 hours. I’ve been gun shy on them ever since.

In these "dog days" of winter, I'm playing devils advocate with myself in regards to this team as currently constructed compared to last season. On one hand, we know we have core building blocks already in place that we think will continue to get better. On the other, there are some real question marks moving forward, especially when it comes to the money that was spent, or lack thereof, to "improve" (key word) the team. An argument could be made that Liam Hendriks is an upgrade, and I do like his personality and passion, but he's not an overwhelming improvement. People might not have liked the analytics of Colome, but he got the job done at a very high rate. So, quite frankly, if Hendriks makes us better in 2021 compared to 2020, it is minimal at best. Obviously losing James McCann and replacing him with Zack Collins/??? is a major downgrade. Adam Eaton has been discussed at length. Again, he provides some fire, but I don't see how he "improves" the team from Mazara's production in 2020. Sure, he could bounce back to the 2019 version, and be a steal. But that is a big question mark that I alluded to earlier and will circle back to later. The Lance Lynn trade, to me, when considering who we sent away, was very short-sided. The move just screamed "panic, we don't want to get to the playoffs again with only 2 proven starters". I will be clear, Lance Lynn improves the #3 spot in the starting rotation in 2021. However, the side to it that bugs me is trading Dane Dunning. At the very least, his debut season, his ability to locate most pitches consistently made him the on-paper 4th starter going into the off-season. Now with trading him, we are all but ensuring that two of Dylan Cease, Michael Kopech, Reynaldo Lopez, Carlos Rodon or Jonathan Steiver are making 60+ starts in a full 162 game season. So while the top of our rotation improved, the bottom two spots got weaker. Then we start to sprinkle in the question marks ... Was Moncada affected by Covid, or was the 2019 season the outlier? Will another year older affect Abreu? Does Luis Robert adjust and get back to July/August production? Can Andrew Vaughn produce at a MLB level despite not seeing anything higher than A+ pitching? I hope all these questions are moot points, and they all perform obviously. However, when looking at the big picture now, knowing we don't have expanded playoffs, the improvement of teams like the Blue Jays to go along with the Yankees, Rays, Twins, Astros, Angels, etc. I have a little more pause than I did maybe 3 weeks ago, as the margin for error is significantly more narrow.

Considering I watched 6 baseball games, in-person, in Rosemont last July and August, no, I’m not gonna “live with that”. Can the virus tell the difference between Independent League and Major League? Or is the mile separation from Rosemont and Chicago the difference? May 1st at the latest, hence the owners desire to delay by one month.

This whole thing is getting bizarre. I got a phone call from a Ticket Rep of the Blackhawks in the middle of last week. He told me that the NHL is looking at a January 13th Opening Night, and that the Hawks are working with the NHL, City of Chicago and the United Center to begin allowing between 25%-50% stadium capacity in February. His exact quote was "and hopefully more as long as the vaccine doesn't stall". Due to the limited capacity, they aren't planning on selling any "single game tickets", just offering opportunities to STH's. Does anyone here have Blackhawks ST's to verify? At first, I was skeptical, due to him just wanting to get a sale. But when you look at some of the stuff going on at college basketball venues, it makes some sense. Assuming that is true, how would we be good with 25%-50% indoors in February, but not 50% outdoors in April?

That's all it is! A.J. Hinch OR Tony LaRussa aren't going to win with Adam Engel/Nomar Mazara as the starting Rightfielder (Engel as the 4th OF, yes!). They aren't going to win with 2 legit starting pitchers. The organization needs to recognize "Win Now" mode and spend accordingly on good baseball players.

I don't have time to catch up from where I left off yesterday at Page 92, so maybe I'm repeating some points here, if so, I apologize in advance: First to be clear, I was "all in" on the A.J. Hinch bandwagon. But I was fine with the idea of TLR. Now we look at A.J. Hinch, and I'm playing devils advocate with even myself here ... If he was such a profound commodity in Major League Baseball and a clear cut "win now" guy, why have the Padres, Cubs, Reds, Twins, Blue Jays, etc. not fired their inexperienced Managers to bring him in since they are all in "win now" mode? Why is the only team that wants him currently, the team that is 5-years away from winning? What if, some people (Jerry, maybe Kenny, etc.) didn't want there to be speculation of cheating after EVERY SINGLE win the White Sox have in 2021. Now again, I wanted A.J. Hinch too! But could you imagine the court of public opinion, if the White Sox won the World Series in Year 1 of A.J. Hinch being off suspension? Perhaps some people didn't want that potential story-line to take away from the players. In regards to LaRussa ... Sure, he is old, but what does that matter really? Do we need him to throw the 7th inning? Please! Age is merely a number. At the end of the day, he was/is the most successful/experienced baseball manager walking the planet currently. Does he relate to younger players? I don't know. NONE OF US DO! You see the tweets from Bruce Maxwell and emails from Red Sox prospects, maybe he tries to, maybe he is successful. At the end of the day, you know how you relate to players (at any level of competitive sport)? Give them the tools and put them in position to win games. These players do not need an Godfather to their children, they need a Manager to help them win more baseball games. If Tony and Tim Anderson enjoy a nice card game and a chat on the team plane to New York, awesome. If their families enjoy Thanksgiving dinner together, even better (but not for longer than 2 hours per CDC Guidelines). But at the end of the day, if their relationship is only about how to better play baseball, how to improve here or there, and then to give each other a high-five and a hug at 4:15pm each afternoon or 10:15pm each night, what is the issue? Both parties are satisfied and have accomplished what they are being paid to do! Lastly, four weeks/months/years ago, the overwhelming consensus was that the Manager/Coaching Staff in Major League Baseball is inconsequential. "Analytics drives decisions", "the hitting coach isn't swinging at the slider low and away", "the pitching coach isn't the one walking the leadoff hitter", blah blah blah. Now all of a sudden, we are acting like it matters? At the end of the day ... it DOES NOT matter if the decision was A.J. Hinch or Tony LaRussa, or anyone else, if the White Sox use this off-season to spend real American dollars on better players, the White Sox will be a better baseball team! This league, and every other sports league is player driven! The team with better players will win 75-80% of the time. If we have a legit #3 starter this season, any one of us, are smart enough to pencil that player in as the Starting Pitcher in Game 3 of the ALWS. So, again, so my point isn't lost. Am I disappointed that A.J. Hinch isn't the Manager? Yeah, that might be the right word. Am I mad? Absolutely not! To those people who are acting purely out of emotion, saying you aren't going to be a fan anymore and calling their Season Ticket rep and being taken off the distribution list, etc. I'll do you one better ... I'm looking for an extra seat in Section 158 to add to my plan, I'll buy that seat off you +20%

I can’t argue that perhaps he might be to loyal. At the end of the day, if I’m gonna go down, I’m going down with the best bullets I’ve got! Again, I’m not saying he is the best candidate, or that he should be the guy. But I am also not gonna sit here and complain if the next six seasons includes 5 division titles and 2 pennants. As it stands, maybe it won’t matter. Dodgers in 7!

I actually would be in favor of bringing in Roberts. First of all, he has a .614 winning percentage in his career as a manger (6 seasons, 2 teams). Won five division championships and 2 pennants in that span. After what we have experienced in the last 15 years, if people are saying they wouldn’t take that over the next 6 years, you are just being silly! In the various playoff appearances ... His team lost in the World Series to a team of players that knew what pitchers were coming (in 7 games). After winning 106 games in 2019, they lost in the NLDS 5 games, losing to Strasburg, Scherzer and on a crazy 10th inning Grand Slam. This season, his MVP player (Cody Bellinger) was absolute crap most of the season, and definitely in the playoffs. Clayton Kershaw, the best left-handed pitcher of this generation, simply turns to mush in all of the post-seasons. I don’t think any of the blunders have been a direct result of his actions. Meaning, in the games I have watched, he hasn’t brought in a starting pitcher fresh off the IL in a bases loaded jam against the games hottest hitter in the 7th inning, etc. Hire Dave Roberts, entice Joc Peterson to come with him. Throw all the remaining available money at Trevor Bauer and Liam Hendricks. Championship!

Long time reader, don't post on here all that often. Lot of conjecture going on here right now! Which is cool, because this is a message board, where opinions can be thrown about without recourse. That said, I wish some of you would go back to talking about how tomorrow's weather 'would' have impacted the game. How inconsiderate the Sox are for not cancelling before people take the day off work, or how big of a dick move it would have been to allow 33,000+ people inside the stadium in to sell beer, etc. just to make money before cancelling it, which they could have done at 9:00am. Maybe, some of you can talk about how bad we look after low-balling Manny Machado. At least some of those topics, we all have minor knowledge on. TURN OFF CNN FOLKS! This isn't political at all! TURN IT ALL OFF! If some of you really don't think there will be a 2020-2021 basketball or hockey season, or a 2021 baseball season with fans, etc. you are doing exactly what the media wants you to do! Panic! This specific virus will never go away permanently. Just as H1N1 is still around, AIDS is still around, etc. The thousands of brilliant scientists in the world will come up with something to help with this. I'm worried that with the relentless negativity, along with the isolation we are experiencing, some of you might not be around to enjoy the 2022 World Series Championship (played in Chicago, with fans). Relax, wash your hands and watch Tiger King!

Totally agree with you! One of the dumber trade possibilities I've read lately. But, since we are talking about the White Sox FO ... what if this was actually true??