Chimpton

That is what I meant by lack of desire by the organisation to ensure that raw talent developed, how many of the top draft picks from the losing years and beyond have actually reached their full potential and actually contributed to the MLB team?

They may have had a line-up with power hitters but the tactics and strategy was to not hit for power, and that is where they screwed up. So you can blame the manager and coaches for not using tactics that best suit the players you have.

Is the biggest problem with the White Sox actually a lack of talent or a lack of desire? Many of the players on the roster and in the system have or had the raw talent to be MLB players at a good level, I know the gaps at 2B and RF were not adequately addressed but the basic talents of these players projects to a much better season than this, most people at the start of the season were still predicting the Sox would win the Division. Even players like Moncada when he was acquired projected better than he has achieved, and so many players who come to the Sox as established MLB players perform below their career stats once on the South Side. Which leads me to think that the bigger problem is desire. The desire issue runs throughout the organisation not just the players. Does JR and do the FO really want to win another World Series? Are they really all in as a slogan from previous seasons said? As for the players, are they too comfortable and just happy to be MLB players, do they really have that burning desire to achieve. How many times have we heard this season one of the players say 'the season starts now', shortly to be followed by another abject collapse? How many of the injuries are really just accidents or caused by a lack of application to strength and conditioning over the off season. something that a player who really wants to achieve would apply themselves to wholeheartedly, example being Lance Lynn and his attitude to training. The Sox strike me as being happy go lucky in attitude, it would be nice to win something but hey we are in the Big League and still getting paid. Sorry for the long winded post!

TLR is transitioning? Is that the medical procedure that he has been having done?

You forgot to mention that you will be told TLR has fully recovered from his health scare and is back in charge and the quotes from players about how happy they are about that!

Losing this game is not what will cost the Sox this season it is all the losses to the Royals and Tigers and other basement teams and the fact that they only have a 35-38 record at Home.

Says it all really, this is a team that promises much but delivers little.

I would agree with you but there is a nagging doubt that he could get it together, a bit like many people were saying Eloy was a bust before his strong finish to the season when DHing. As any return for Moncada would be negligible, give him a go at the start of next season because Burger is not really much of an upgrade with the bat and is not an upgrade in the field and there are other glaring holes that need filling before 3B, like OF and 2B.

Only just!

I certainly didn't see that one coming after 8 innings of 2022 Sox baseball attempting to give Aokland a no hitter, but the 9th inning comeback has made me begin to believe (hope) again. I just hope that is not crushed again by the return of TLR, don't rock a winning formula, keep him on the end of a phone and let Cairo manage for the rest of the season.

I think you mean the 'Gipper'

I don't think the 'easy schedule' matters as this side has shown its ability to lose to bad teams all season, what is more important is that in the games since TLR stepped aside the team seems to have more zip and drive. If that continues then anything is possible and this frustrating season may yet end in a post season.

Maybe they are doing it for the Gipper.

Abreu is a free agent at the end of the season so the Sox can't 'trade' him, but if they get him back then DH and occasional 1B is the best option, but that still leaves the problem that Eloy and Sheets should not be in the OF and are basically DH types, not to mention Grandal is looking more of a DH than an everyday catcher. Basically this off season needs to address the same issues as last offseason, sort out a proper RF who can hit (and even a LF would be nice), sort out 2B, and clear the log jam at 1B/DH, and that is before you get to sorting out the starting rotation that will presumably lose Cueto and has the Giolito issue. Sorting that lot out is way beyond Hahn as he has proved in the past.

Maybe they like going for a drink with him after the game, or even before the game. ?

I think this just sums up what a monumentally bad hire TLR was, or any 77 year old as a manager of a pro-sports team. The Sox are entering a vital last month where their slim playoff chances could be made or broken and they are effectively managerless and rudderless. The likelihood of any 77 year old surviving the slog of a 162 game season without health concerns are poor, I am only 52 and the thought of just attending 162 games with all the travel involved is daunting, let alone add to that the pressure of managing a pro-sports team. If JR was indeed a friend of TLR he would not want to put him through that, and even if TLR makes a full recovery he should not be allowed to continue as manager for his own good as much as the good of the team.

Tony La Russa "Frustrated" by Team's Play - 101ESPN - YouTube I know it is not in his Sox days but!

Why? You have done nothing about it all season why start now?

Yes but it was Arizona not the Yankees or Houston and the Sox were at home, and even your statement that at full strength they wouldn't have swept us whilst true it would probably have been a split series.

Calling it an offense is a bit of an exaggeration.

Hard to make a team believe, especially with a manager like TLR. The team clearly hasn't had any belief all season hence the .500 mediocrity of the team. Injuries etc are used as an excuse by teams like this that are mentally weak, a stronger team would at least look like they were fighting, this bunch just look for the next excuse.

Injuries have been a big issue this season but all they have done is highlight two things: 1) The balance of the squad is appalling, too many of the same type of player, how many 1B/DH types does one team need? The failure to acquire a proper 2B or RF this offseason merely made this imbalance even worse. 2) The complete mismanagement of most of the injuries has been embarrassing, how many times this season was an obviously injured player kept on the 24 man squad rather than put on the IL straight away allowing a replacement to be brought up?

Has he been spanking it?

Maybe he thinks he has to carry the offense and is trying too hard to get the extra base hits, he does seem to get that way sometimes and when he is like that tends to extend the zone.

Losers often blame bad luck, winners just get on with it.