The Kids Can Play

That was his 5th straight great outing. Simply wow, when you look at the stat line: 7 IP, 3 hits, 1 BB and 11 K's and only needed 89 pitches and 63 were strikes. That is called stepping up big time!

I know there is always a risk that Abreu can move on to another team and maybe with a better manager, hitting coach and players around him, could do better. However I still believe its worth saving the money and letting him move on. If that does happen and Abreu does well for another team and gets his power numbers back, then for sure we will all know that Menechino was the reason Jose and others on this team struggled with power. Likewise the only reason I would hate to see Vaughn traded, is I think if he got to the right team and doesn't have a Menechino screwing him up, he could put up huge numbers and then you can imagine the complaints you will see on this forum letting him go. However, if a deal was sweet enough and didn't involve older players, I guess the Sox should consider a trade, but it has to be an overwhelming great haul! In that case we are then putting all our trust in Sheets to be the man at first base...which maybe he can be that guy. Whatever happens in the offseason I hope it happens without Hahn which I know probably won't happen.

Where he belongs!

Robert at #7 is a head scratcher and I'm not seeing the logic. If you play Robert high at #3 for example, you have a better shot of making sure he is protected and he sees more good pitches to hit. I'm sorry but Harrison and Romy at 8 & 9 is not protecting him and Cairo is negating Robert's strength batting him 7th. Plus Grandal at #5 and Pollack #6 before Robert? Not a smart lineup!

I only keep coming back with Abreu walking because you initially said you didn't want him to leave and was worried we would lose offensive production. I agree Vaughn might have better trade value than Sheets, but I would never give up on the huge upside of Vaughn in favor of keeping Sheets. I'm not sure why you aren't a Vaughn fan, as he has the best production numbers on the time this year based on his limited amount of games played. When Vaughn becomes an everyday player at first, he is going to hit more home runs and RBI's and play a solid first base defensively as Steve Stone has constantly mentioned. Again he was the 3rd overall pick from 2019 and a former college player of the year. At 24 years old I am quite sure the Sox will not trade him. Most teams don't trade a #1 picks and 3rd overall after a few seasons, especially when they are doing well. Plus even if you traded Vaughn, I am not sure Hahn wouldn't screw it up and not get the right value back. I also think you are underestimated the value of Sheets on a trade. I think if he finishes strong, he will be worth something good in return. As far as Reinsdorf goes, as you you claim he isn't going to spend the money. The fact is as dumb as Jerry is, he did allow Hahn to spend 197 million in 2002. That is the 7th highest payroll in baseball. The problem is Hahn didn't use that money correctly with bad signings. If Jose walks, that is leaving 20 million to spend. Plus don't forget Kuechel's 18 million contract comes off the books after the season. Right there is 38 million to spend.

Lynn pitched great the last time out and actually very solid the last four outings and could have been 4-0 with any run support. He has given up 5 ER's in his last 24.2 innings in those 4 starts or 1.86. The offense fell asleep yesterday and they need to wake up and score runs like they did in the prior 5 games. Most importantly Cairo needs to be smarter and not make so many dumb lineup moves or bullpen mistakes.

I totally agree Lambert has pitched great this last time around and does not deserve to be sent down again. Velasquez definitely should be DFA now vs later. He sucks and always has! Velasquez never should have even be signed by the Sox. He was a lifetime 5.00 ERA pitcher his entire career. Velasquez's last 5 years of ERA's in the NL prior to 2022 with no DH, were: '17 - 5.13 '18 - 4.85 '19 - 4.91 '20 - 5.56 '21 - 2 teams 5.95 & 8.53 '22 - Sox - 5.34 If Hahn keeps Velasquez over Lambert, then you now officially know Hahn is inept and horrible at his job and needs to be fired.

Totally agree! In any sport when a new manager or head coach comes in, they want and should have their own people. Nobody coming in with the pressure on the new manager to fix this mess, wants another leftover coach telling him, "well, this is how we used to do it"! Of course Cairo is better than Tony, but there are way better ones out there to replace TLR than only Cairo. The Sox need to do a extensive wide range search. The Sox need a winning veteran manager or some rising star coach who is from a successful winning organization.

I think everyone here agrees with you this log-jam of Sheets and Vaughn as true first baseman playing out of position in the outfield has got to stop. Of course they both are weak in the outfield, as they both played their entire amateur career at first base and never in the outfield. Again, it's not their fault! The Sox front office screwed this up. If the FO was going to think long range with Abreu, then in 2017 they didn't need to take Sheets with the 59th overall pick. He was of the best first basemen coming out of college. Then in 2019 the FO, again knowing they had Sheets waiting in the wings, along with Jose still very strong, used the third overall pick on another first baseman in Vaughn who was clearly the best first basemen coming out of college and still is from that class. However the damage is done. At this point to keep a 36 year old aging player and keep paying him big money and trade away two young first basemen 24 & 26, that have so much upside...with friendly low salaries would not be a wise choice. Jose's power numbers are never going to be like there were several years ago. Again his money could be used for a quality starting pitcher or power hitting right fielder or whatever best player we can get. The only other thing to decide even letting Abreu walk, is whether the FO keeps both Sheets and Vaughn, or trade Sheets who based on his recent power and with a strong finish, could be a valuable trading piece.

Let's F*#KING hope so, especially if this win streak keeps going!

Don't Stop Now Boys! Bring your A game Giolito. We need you to step up big time today. Let's keep bringing those home runs for another game!

Great job Dylan! Sometimes the use of "ace" is given out to readily, but Dylan truly is the ace of this staff, as well one the best aces in MLB. Nice to see home runs again. In this 4 game winning streak they have hit 8 home runs. Oh btw, did I see the Sox having some some serious fun last night like they used to back in 2020, before a certain old man arrived here?

It's true, they are better without him.

Site looks great and thanks for taking the effort to do that.

The problem bringing Jose back is not only the fact he will be 36 years old and his power numbers are declining, but the Sox will have to pay him over 20 million. I am quite sure Jose won't be giving the Sox a hometown special discount and take less money. I think not paying him 20 plus million and saving that money to be used toward a legitimate stud starter, or a power hitting right fielder would be better use of the money. I also don't think we lose any production at first base with Vaughn there because the fact is, Vaughn is tied with Abreu for the team lead in RBI's with 63. However Vaughn has only played 109 games vs Jose's 131 games. Vaughn also has 80 less AB's and has more home runs 15 to 14. Keep in mind Vaughn is only 24 years old and has so much upside potential. Don't forget Vaughn due to Covid never played in the minors, so his numbers should only get better as he adjusts to major league pitching. Abreu had an awesome career for the Sox and he will go down as one of the best Sox hitters of all time. However in my opinion, it's time to move on. As I said, not paying Jose saves the Sox some serious money for other positions we desperately need help at.

Why would you keep Abreu turning 36 and his power numbers are declining badly. Yes he is hitting over .300 this year, but it's a lot of ground ball singles. Based on Jose's 2022 home run projection he will probably finish the season with his lowest HR total in 9 seasons. In fact, he is on target to hit less home runs than his 19 HR's from the 60 game Covid season. You must remember Jose came into MLB as an older rookie. He played 5 pro seasons with the national Cuban team. I get we can't keep playing Sheets and Vaughn in the outfield, but Vaughn is only 24 and Sheets 26. How many more years does Jose have left that are productive? Then all of a sudden Jose is gone in a few years and you've already traded away Vaughn or Sheets or both. How will that go if either of them or both have great careers for another 10-15 years with another team? Maybe our genius VP/GM Hahn should have thought about this more when in 2017 he drafted Sheets in the second round 49th overall, or Vaughn in 2019 in the first round 3rd overall.

I think you are being naïve if you think a horrible finish and several games under 500 won't bring enough pressure on Jerry to make changes. Not all owners make changes during the season and obviously with only 31 games left, Jerry will ride this out before making any changes. If change doesn't happen, then we as loyal die-hard Sox fans are f#*ked! Of course we all want these players like Cease, Sheets. Gonzalez, etc. to finish strong. However this team has struggled all year for various reasons, whether it was poor starting pitching, blown saves with our erratic bullpen, poor defensive plays, poor hitting and just basic dumb fundamental baseball. So all of sudden after 131 games, these struggling players are going to turn it around and finish with huge numbers. We've been waiting for this all year! If you think the Sox will be the Yankees, Astros or Dodgers for the last 31 games, then you are the one dreaming. We've already seen some media sources heavily criticize this team and by the end of the season, it will only be fueled more intensely. If this team does indeed finish that bad and there aren't changes, where Hahn and TLR are allowed to continue destroying this team, then we all have a huge problem to deal with as Sox fans going forward. With obviously some talent still left on this team, do you really want players like Giolito, Cease, Vaughn, Sheets, Robert etc. to continue to be coached and developed by TLR and his coaches? Throwing these bums out to run this club for a third year in a row and thinking they will figure it out and turn these guys around...is the pure definition of insanity. These players need change badly if they are ever going to reach their potential. We should all pray for change so that we could hopefully get a Terry Francona or Brandon Hyde type manager. The Orioles are 30th and the Guardians 26th in team payroll. The Orioles manager Brandon Hyde has the Orioles 9 games over 500 in the toughest division in baseball, with the lowest payroll at 44 million to the Sox 197 million. I would call that coaching! The unbelievable results these two mangers do with players making so little money, just makes me believe there are more out there like them...if the right GM was on board.

It absolutely is, but the idiot arrogant owner doesn't see it and probably doesn't give a shit

The time for win streaks are OVAH! That ship has sailed. These last two seasons were wasted away by a pathetic owner, worthless VP/GM and senile, drunk and now unhealthy manager! Guardians have 34 games left to the Sox 32 games. Guardians finish: Sox need to then finish: 17-17 22-10 .685 16-18 21-11 .656 15-19 20-12 .625 14-20 19-13 .593 With the bottom .593 scenario, and that is if you truly believe the Guardians will choke and go 14-20, then understand this reality: the Sox have never played .593 ball over any 32 game stretch this season. The best case scenario if we truly want massive change in this pathetic organization, is for this Sox team to lose as many games as possible. Jerry needs to be embarrassed to the maximum level, so he is ripped and feels the heat by the national and local media sources.

I totally agree with you that Hahn is not qualified and should be fired! I am not a Hahn advocate as I have stated in numerous posts. However I am dealing with the sad and absurd reality that Jerry is a demented, arrogant and ignorant dumbF@#k that doesn't realize Hahn isn't capable. As I have said numerous times, I want Hahn fired and some new outside baseball executive from a winning organization to be brought in. We can wish Hahn and TLR gone all we want, but as long as Jerry is in charge, anything stupid can happen, as we have seen with his inept ownership decisions.

Actually I do think it could be for good! Maybe it is wishing thinking, however maybe it could be for medical reasons. What we don't know yet is how serious his health condition is. I am sure they are doing extensive medical tests on him. The fact is if some of the tests for example reveal some heart issues such as blockage or narrowing of the arteries, that involves some surgical procedures, there is no way in hell he comes back to manage this season or in the future at his age.

There is no worry there! Cairo has zero chance of being the permanent manager if TLR steps down, other than the interim manager position to finish the season. He is strictly here because of Tony. I am quite sure Hahn has no intention of hiring him either. There is no way Hahn would give the job to Cairo without a full blown manager search. Plus, with all the massive criticism Jerry took hiring Tony, I am also quite sure Jerry will completely stay out of the next Sox manager hire and let Hahn make the decision. Although I would pray Jerry would also dump Hahn and let some new outside executive from a winning organization come in to make that next manager decision. The only worry is if Jerry would be dumb enough to put TLR in some executive position in the front office. However having said that, if indeed Tony's health is a major problem, then doing a FO job would be stressful as well, so hopefully TLR would just move on and retire.

Wow! This really puts into perspective how much this loser franchise is finding new ways to completely embarrass themselves nationally! Now our pathetic manager and hitting coach are spewing this total BS trying to rationalize their lack of home runs. Most good managers and hitting coaches would be embarrassed to even think of stating such nonsense. This season is becoming the ultimate circus and trainwreck during my long and loyal White Sox fandom!

Hopefully this will be one of many future media sites blasting the Sox hard! Furthermore, hopefully this will be a wake-up call to Jerry to bow out gracefully now and let his son Michael finally run the team. It's time Jerry, enough is enough and let your son clean-up your sloppy mess, so you can go enjoy your final years of retirement.

Great time to step down and re-retire for medical reasons and to deflect the other obvious reasons you need to be really fired!