The Kids Can Play

Fair enough maybe toxic was too strong of a word. Yet from all indications we have, it was a clubhouse not motivated lacking positive energy as they had during the 2020 season prior to Tony. Which is why Cairo had to read them the "riot act" because he knew the team attitude and effort sucked.

Michael's injuries are not a result of poor flexibility or a lack of conditioning. If you've ever seen the Michael Kopech training routines on video, the issue of him not being in shape and working out hard in the off-season is not his problem. Michael Kopech's injuries have been: 1. A knee which he is having surgery on in the off season. A knee is not a muscle. No workout regime will prevent a knee from getting injured. 2. A torn ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow which he had Tommy John Surgery to repair. This injury only associated with pitchers is tendon and not a muscle. 3. Shoulder inflammation which caused a 15 day IL stint. A shoulder is part of the ball and socket joint. It is not a muscle. There obviously is major concern on Kopech and if he is injury prone. We all should have major concerns on Kopech and he is not exempt from any discussions. The fact is Yoan injuries though have always been muscle related which are directly related to his flexibility and injuries that could be much more preventable that Michael's injuries being prevented.

I would be very happy with a younger manager (47 yrs old) that's into more modern baseball thinking and analytics like Espada and who has been part of a highly successful winning organization.

I totally agree with you they do not have swag and haven't had it the last two years. I do however remember a Sox team having fun and swagger in the 2022 shortened season. Unfortunately it was stripped from them with the horrific managing job and toxic culture that TLR brought to this team.

It totally is his issue and problem. First, he is heavier than he was when he played in the Boston farm system. He is also heavier than when he first played for the Sox. He is still very slow and you can't tell me he can't lose 10 or 15 lbs and be quicker and still keep his strength. Losing weight is part of getting in better shape. Secondly, another part of being in great shape is to have great flexibility with your muscles. His lack of flexibility is due to being heavier and thicker and not knowing how to properly stretch or stretch and stay limber and flexible continuously throughout the game...especially for a thicker athlete. If Yoan maybe learned to do Yoga like Dylan Cease or learned how to properly stretch from perhaps a world class gymnast or sprinter, he would be able to avoid all the non-stop hamstring and groin injuries he repeatedly has. You never saw Jose Abreu pull hamstrings and groins like Moncada did. Jose is a big man too...actually bigger and thicker than Yoan. The difference is Jose did a more thorough job of stretching before and during the game. I've been to tons of Sox games and you can see how Jose is constantly stretching and staying loose in the on deck circle and right before he goes to the batter's box. Yoan never did this type of higher level and more thorough form of stretching and staying loose and limber before and during the games. The fact is, anytime an athlete pulls muscles repeatedly like Yoan does, it's absolutely related to the athlete not being in the best possible shape and/or not understanding the proper forms of stretching, strength training and fitness. Finally, I am not saying that his lack of hitting is part of his lack of being in better shape. I am saying his lack of being in better shape is what prevents him from playing 2B. Although if he did lose weight, he would be able to perhaps beat out more groundouts or run the bases from first to home better. As I've posted many times in here, these players like Yoan make ridiculous millions of dollars and can afford to hire the best trainers and dieticians. We should not be making any excuses for these athletes not being in the best top shape possible before and during the season. Again this is baseball and not football! The amount of muscle injures Yoan gets every year is simple pathetic.

I get he is a good defensive 3B and I'm not disagreeing with you on that point. However he doesn't hit well for a third baseman. Third basemen are usually much better hitters than second baseman and usually hit for more power. We might be able to go after a free agent 3B with power, a lot more easily than finding one at 2B. If Moncada can get his hitting back like in 2019, then finding a strong 3B hitter will make the Sox an even a stronger lineup with Moncada at 2B. Regardless of whether Yoan stays at 3rd base and he even if he is one of the better third baseman the Sox have had in many years, the fact is, if he can't get into better shape and be more flexible to avoid getting injured so often, then he really isn't helping the Sox.

It will never happen! To be brought back you have to be one of Jerry's buddies and on his good side. This is the quote published 5 years ago from Jerry: "I feel very badly for him,'' Reinsdorf said in the interview. "Ozzie is a good manager. I've recommended Ozzie for several managerial positions that opened up, but his experience in Miami was costly. "I hope he ends up somewhere. He can help somebody. He just can't come back here. He burned some bridges when he left here.''

I totally agree. I usually go to 10-12 games and I will not spend a dime next year...even if they gave me tickets at half price. If more fans thought like you, then Reinsdorf might wake up and see the fans are pissed on this debacle year. The fans need refuse to be taken advantage of and spend more money in JR's pocket without any detailed apology letter from him and a specific new direction plan statement from him. Paying an major increase to renew season tickets is the pure definition of Insanity and it's "thank you Jerry...may I have another!"

How about this for an off-season plan. Have Jerry Reinsdorf send out a motivational and apology email/open letter to the White Sox fans as Tom Ricketts just did for his Cub fans. As much as I hate the Cubs, what Ricketts did was extremely necessary and really smart on his part. I know our demented and clueless owner won't have the desire or guys to stand up to this horrible season and assure the Sox fans he will do everything in his power to improve the team. Note to JR: We don't want to hear this letter from the Rick Hahn. It needs to come from you.

I really love this idea! I was never a fan of him moving from 2B to 3B. He should have been forced to work harder at improving his weaknesses at 2B, instead of moving him to 3B and accepting his failures at 2B. We traded one of the best pitchers in baseball in 2016 for Moncada who was the #1 2B prospect. The only reason he cant play 2B right now is he is too big and slow. He needs to lose some weight and work on increasing his flexibility and quickness which he has never worked on improving. There is no reason Moncada can't play 2B if he loses some weight, and works at it hard in the offseason to master 2B. Btw, your comment about whether or not he will be able to handle hard coaching. The fact is, if he can't handle a hard coaching approach, then even more reason to move on and trade him. I pray we get a manager next year who is going to have tough love, demand hard work and effort and make them work on their fundamentals and defense. This what the Sox were missing the last several years and so desperately need in a manager going forward.

I am not asking Eloy to lose 30 or 40 lbs. and be skinny and weak! I'm asking Eloy to lose 15-20 lbs. by eating a better diet and while losing weight, get in the gym and do the proper strength training and flexibility work to maintain his power. It's been proven that through the proper diet and strength and flexibility regimen, a player can lose weight and maintain power. Eloy makes enough money to be able to hire the proper people in the off-season to coordinate and monitor his diet and workouts. As I said, if he isn't willing to make that sacrifice, then we don't need a lazy and unmotivated player that will always be injured and on the IL and not putting up the power numbers we need from him.

Yep, which is why the front office, scouting dept, farm system coaches and managers need to be changed and improved. The good teams like Tampa and Cleveland to name a few, with limited payrolls discovered this novel idea in baseball! To have a winning playoff organization, you simply need greatness in your scouts, minor league coaches/managers and FO people, as well as a top notch manager and coaching staff on the major league level. This seems to be the blueprint the Sox are clueless on, in order to find the right players to draft and develop, who will have well rounded baseball skills and be able to work hard at being in the best shape to play healthy.

The Sox still get the last laugh over the loser Cubs on this trade, because we also got Dylan Cease. Even with Eloy being injured so much and not living up to 2019 season, we are still light years ahead in this trade with Cease as our pitcher over Quintana. Hahn obviously hasn't down well with his trades, but this is one of his few good ones. You are right though, Eloy has gotten to big and fat. He needs to lose some serious weight in the offseason. He also needs to work on getting more flexible through some Yoga or some other quality flexibility program. I am still confident and hopeful that if Eloy can come to spring training in much better shape and lighter, as well as being the full time (not allowed to have a glove) DH, then he can still be a big run producer for the Sox. On the other hand, if Eloy comes to Spring training in 2023 at the weight he played at this year and with his lack of flexibility he displayed, then I think he will always be capable of getting hurt, even as a full time DH...just because of his inability to run the bases without getting injured. In fact, if Eloy doesn't do anything to improve himself and comes to spring training in the same bad shape as this year, then the Sox should simply trade him before the season even starts. The Sox wouldn't need a player that just showed the organization he was too unmotivated and lazy to care enough to get better in the off-season, so he could hopefully play most of season healthy.

As much as I would love any player who leaves the Sox by trade or their own will to totally blast this horrific front office, I think Jose is too classy to do that and will simply take the high road. However, I do think that even though the FO did not offer him a contract, Jose was tired of the Sox organizational direction and was probably already planning on finding a new team to play for next year. He knows at 36 his number of productive years are limited and I'm sure he wants to play on a good team and have a chance to win a WS ring before he retires. Even though his power numbers have fallen off, he would be a big improvement for many teams, especially even some of the playoff teams. For example, Jose would be a huge improvement on the current Astros team in the playoffs over their current first baseman Yuli Gurriel.

His is the worst and talks way too much. If he does play by play next year, which unfortunately I'm sure he will, I will probably just turn the volume off and watch the game visually.

Great point! As we saw the Sox are last in number of people in the analytics dept. Lord knows Jerry wouldn't want to spend more money than necessary to run this team.

Don't waste your time wondering why he wouldn't want Espada. Jerry's extensive track record with his dumb decisions have absolutely shown no wisdom or logic. 1. Let Hawk Harrelson, a play by play broadcaster with no prior GM or front office experience become his GM. 2. Allowed Hawk to fire Tony LaRussa even though he had a winning record. As we all know Jerry has confirmed it was one of the biggest regrets he made not stopping Hawk. Additionally Jerry also allowed Hawk to fire Asst. GM Dave Dombrowski and trade away rookie Bobby Bonilla for Jose DeLeon. 3. Jerry fired Larry Himes who drafted Jack McDowell '87, Robin Ventura '88, Frank Thomas '89, Alex Fernandez '90, Bob Wickman '90, Wickman was traded away to Cleveland by Himes replacement Ron Schueler. Btw, Wickman had a solid career at Cleveland and was a two time all-star and league leading saves leader twice and is currently 2nd on the all-time on saves list for Cleveland. 4. During the 1994 strike year Jerry was one of the major driving forces to convince the owners not to accept the players offer and allow the season to end at around 113 games...thus costing his own team, a legitimate chance at the 1994 World Series with arguably one the best teams in baseball that year. 5. Jerry overrides Rick Hahn and makes Hahn hire his buddy Tony LaRussa well past his prime both mentally and physically. Even though he made this massive mistake, Jerry doubles down to make an even dumber mistake of not firing Tony. 6. With his Bulls team, Jerry allowed Jerry Krauss to force out Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan and breaking up the dynasty and not allowing the Bulls to go after a 7th title. 7. With his Bulls team Jerry also allowed John Paxson to destroy the Bulls and allowed Paxton to keep the team in total mediocrity until his son Michael finally took the team over and removed Paxson to go out and sign Arturas Karnisovas. Paxson's final 4 seasons were 102-199 and probably would still be in charge if not for Michael Reinsdorf being finally allowed to step in and have full authority over the Bulls team, thus making logical changes which his father obviously was clueless on. This is why you can't even begin to wonder why Reinsdorf has made all these historical terrible decisions. He is plain and simply one of the worst owners of all time. -

- Rick Hahn has wanted to quit for some time and will possibly resign in the off-season. He is extremely upset that he cannot run the team the way he wants and cannot spend the way he wants. He was against the Kimbrel trade and was apparently overrode somehow by Kenny when he's the GM. This is believable and probably true IMO. Having said that, what concerns me is why Hahn wouldn't and hasn't resigned based on the following facts. Let me play the devil's advocate here: 1. Reinsdorf overrides Hahn's decision to hire his own manager and he is forced to take TLR and thus your next two seasons are seriously hampered. Regardless of the job Renteria did, this team clearly went downhill when Tony came on board for the last two years. 2. Early on this season when its clear the team is not performing and failing miserably due to TLR, while meanwhile we see other owners firing experienced World Series winning managers like Girardi and Maddon. Once again Hahn's hands were tied and he couldn't fire TLR. Hahn should be furious and consider resigning, as he doesn't have full decision making authority as other MLB GM's have when it comes to underachieving managers. 3. The fact Jerry made this colossal mistake hiring his drunk demented buddy to be manager, now resulted in TLR's constant inept decision making during games or with stupid lineups. This resulted in Hahn's constructed roster finishing a major disappointment with a W-L record of 81-81 and out of the playoffs. Consequently, Hahn is blamed for the poor roster construction and takes a heavy amount of blame for the 2022 debacle. One could argue, if a competent manager was hired, this team might have done much better the last two years. Let's be crystal clear here, if TLR didn't have any medical problems, there is no way Jerry was going to fire Tony and he would definitely would be the Sox manager in 2023. Another valid reason to resign. 4. Kenny Williams who I and many people thought, was not involved in the roster decisions anymore once Jerry promoted Hahn. We all know Jerry knew Hahn was be approached and recruited by several other teams. We all thought Jerry gave Hahn with his new GM promotion, the full authority without KW overriding him in order not to lose Hahn. Well obviously that possible wasn't the case and KW overrode Hahn and made that ridiculous Kimbrel trade. Evidently now, not only does Hahn not have a decision in hiring or firing his manager, but with KW still around, he obviously doesn't have final authority on the roster moves. Let's not be naïve here either, if this was true that KW was involved on the Kimbrel trade, how do we know KW wasn't overriding or making other stupid trades? Well the fact Hahn hasn't resigned, shows me he is not that smart or tough minded GM with principles, character and pride. Since the owner isn't going anywhere and who knows with KW, why in the world would Hahn want to stay to fix this trainwreck, when you can't make critical manager and roster decisions. I realize Hahn didn't do the greatest job for the Sox, but there will always be an owner out there that would think Hahn might be better qualified than their current GM and are looking for new direction. There are always owners who would respect Hahn's resignation due to his circumstances and not hold these poor results as harshly against Hahn. Owners could argue that Hahn wasn't dealt a fair hand to be successful. Sadly until this team is sold, unfortunately this kind of dysfunctional leadership and management style will continue to prevent loyal Sox fans from watching their team compete for a world series.

These are mostly fair and accurate grades except for: Bummer & Foster get D's Ruiz and Velazquez get F's.

Regardless of which one of these rumors are true and and which ones are BS doesn't matter! The disgusting bottom line is, the Sox are still owned and run by the worst pathetic owner in baseball. Sadly nothing is going to change until JR passes away and the team is sold, or he let's his son Michael run it and completely stays out of any decisions and involvement whatsoever.

But a manager is still a cog, and important. But a manager from tampa is likely to be a good manager, it just doesn't mean we are the rays because we hired the manager from tampa. You are absolutely right the manager is just one piece to the equation and having a guy from Tampa couldn't hurt!. However if you want to be really like Tampa and be that continual and consistent successful organization, then you lose Rick Hahn and hire the GM from Tampa who learned well in this solid organization originally developed by Andrew Friedman. The current TB president talks about how they still use the same blueprint for scouting and drafting of solid fundamental players, as well as having an excellent farm system with proper coaching and development in place.

Good for Jim Leyland! Most mentally sharp and aware people in any kind of management role would usually determine if you didn't take the recommendation of Jim Leyland and let Leyland's buddy Gene Lamont get fired under your watch, you would probably use basic common sense and realize, it might not be a good idea to approach Jim Leyland and ask him to return to be your manager. Phone conversation from Jerry's warped mindset to Leyland: "Hi Jim good buddy, it's me Jerry, hey I know that Gene Lamont firing might have disappointed you a little, and I'm sure you have put that behind us...So I'm wondering good buddy, would you like to come back and be my manager again? What do you think? Does that sound like a good idea Jim?" Just another dumb delusional decision in JR's long laundry list of illogical and irresponsible decisions as an owner of two different sports teams.

You have every right to be pissed and all of us here feel your pain. It's good we all vent and share our anger for this terrible season based on this shitty owner, terrible GM and horrific manager. Most of us are no different than you. My dad is the reason I'm a diehard fan. I have lived through many frustrating seasons as all of us have. This one is without a doubt the worst season ever in my time. However I will keep the faith and hope we turn this around somehow. I know it won't be easy and maybe it won't happen until Jerry sells the team. I thought we were heading in the right direction in 2020. The only thing that will help me hang in there is the hope that one day in the future, I get to live that joy and total euphoria that I experienced watching my favorite team win the 2005 World Series.

I just hope that the players on this team that underperformed and got frequently injured this year, are going to commit to an intense and smart offseason training regime on their own to get in the best shape possible. I would hope they take pride and are embarrassed and frustrated enough, to work on their fundamentals weaknesses and skills that allowed them to perform so poorly.

Yes you can, you can get quicker on the rest of the infield and outfield. First base is not a speed position. Jose has been one of the best and he is not fast. Go find me in both leagues a first baseman who is fast. Again I am not opposed to trading Vaughn but if Abreu is moving on, which from his recent remarks looks like he may be exploring free agency, then your option to replace Vaughn is Sheets and that is probably a step backwards.