The Kids Can Play

Breathe in right away. Nothing seems to fill this place. I need this every time So take your lies, get off my case. Someday I will find A love that flows through me like this This will fall away, this will fall away. You're getting closer To pushing me off of life's little edge 'Cause I'm a loser And sooner or later you know I'll be dead You're getting closer You're holding the rope and I'm taking the fall 'Cause I'm a loser, I'm a loser, yeah. This is getting old. I can't break these chains that I hold My body's growing cold There's nothing left of this mind or my soul. Addiction needs a pacifier, the buzz of this poison is taking me higher. This will fall away, this will fall away. You're getting closer To pushing me off of life's little edge 'Cause I'm a loser And sooner or later you know I'll be dead You're getting closer You're holding the rope and I'm taking the fall 'Cause I'm a loser, I'm a loser, yeah. You're getting closer To pushing me off of life's little edge 'Cause I'm a loser And sooner or later you know I'll be dead You're getting closer You're holding the rope and I'm taking the fall 'Cause I'm a loser, I'm a loser, yeah. You're getting closer To pushing me off of life's little edge 'Cause I'm a loser And sooner or later you know I'll be dead You're getting closer You're holding the rope and I'm taking the fall 'Cause I'm a loser, I'm a loser, yeah.

Exactly 100 percent spot on!

No doubt Neander is a stud! However actually the only reason the TB to Chi comparison are polar opposite is strictly because Tampa Bay not only has a better Pres/GM, they also have superior scouting and coaching at the minor and major league level. The fact the TB teams year in year and year out are always good and in the playoffs, while the Sox are struggling, is a pathetic joke based on a Chicago major market vs the Tampa minor market. The Rays have a payroll of $90 million which is 24th highest. The Sox have a payroll of $196 million which is 7th highest. The scary reality is this disparity makes Jerry and his front office look like buffoons and complete idiots. I mentioned this in detail in a different post. Long before Erik Neander, TB had Andrew Friedman who is now President of the LA Dodgers. He made TB great for years with a payroll that was even lower relative to the entire league...like usually 28th to 30th. If the Sox ever want to compete and be consistent winners, they need do what the Dodgers did and recruit a stud GM like Neander or Friedman type and make them pres. of baseball ops in Chicago. Unfortunately for us, Neander was already promoted last year from GM to pres. of baseball ops at TB. The bottom line is the Sox just need to go find any super successful GM (especially one who has been successful with a low payroll) and recruit him to be our Pres and pay him the money. In the corporate world it's called following "Best Practices"! The fact is, when you don't have the payroll like TB, if forces their FO to be even better at their job. They were forced to be strong at making trades and signing international players. Most importantly, their FO had to make sure they had phenomenal scouts and could draft well. This also forced their FO to make sure they had quality coaches to develop the drafted talent at the minor league level, because the fact is teams like TB are not able to spend money in the free agent market. This all sounds great in theory and makes perfect sense. However until Jerry sells, dies or allows someone else to run this team, like he did with his son Michael with the Bulls, this White Sox organization will continue to have failed expectations and continued mediocrity for years.

We needed Teresa Keuchel to tell us something the entire baseball world and especially the Chicago White Sox fans already knew! ?

Sosa can play even if Leury plays. Either Leury at third to replace Moncada or at second to replace Harrison and let Harrison play third. Either way, anybody else is better at third than watching Moncada go 0-4 and swing embarrassingly at wild pitches outside the zone or not swing at good pitches in the dead center of the zone. Last 9 games for Moncada. 4-33, 0 doubles, 0 HR's, 1 lucky triple (only because of poorly played ball by Ranger's Garcia), 3 BB's and 15 K's! Last 9 games slash line: .121/.194/.182/.376 Continuing to throw him in the lineup at third and thinking something different will happen; is the pure definition of insanity! He needs to sit and sit for several games!

Yes you can! Such as: His teammates don't care and aren't hustling. He is doing his best but he can't motivate or get others to do the same. His manager has created a toxic and negative team culture, which is why many of the players do not hustle, try harder or care. Pretty much in a polite and round about way, Jose just threw several players and his manager under the bus!

I agree with this. It's better to lower the expectations so that watching the rest of the season doesn't have to be so frustrating. If they miss the playoffs and finish 3rd and under .500, then we won't be as upset. If they make the playoffs and possibly go far, then we can celebrate. However until then happens, it's not worth the mental anguish any longer to kid ourselves and keep our hopes so high. Hell if the owner doesn't give a shit, why should we the fans give a shit!

Seems like a good day to let another garbage pitcher have their best game of the year and let our Sox hitters make him look like a ace! Let's continue those lack of hits, walks and patience at the plate, to assure you hit plenty of grounders, zero home runs and tons of swinging strikeouts significantly outside the zone. We are confident you will continue to play with no energy, enthusiasm and hustle...because let's face it...you have the leadership and wisdom of TLR and Menechino in your corner!

I protest that Jerry Reinsdorf is officially mentally unfit to continue being in charge of this club. This team is a complete joke and utter embarrassment to the City of Chicago, entire major league baseball and most importantly the loyal Sox fans. Note our POS owner: Do the right thing for your fans, players and family legacy; and let one of your sons or someone else from the outside run this organization with full and final authority on all decisions. For once, can you please drop your arrogant ego and let someone else do a total overhaul? This needs to include the termination of KW, RH, TLR, all the coaches, training, analytics and medical staffs. Additionally, all people in charge of the farm system, including the executives, coaches, managers and entire scouting department need to be removed. Someone with the expertise and successful experience needs to flush this horrific joke of a baseball organizational hierarchy down the drain. Not one single current member of this organization should be allowed to take part in any of the future rebuilding and restructuring decisions of this organization. Yes Jerry, it's that fucked up!

Here is a novel idea, how about the Sox maybe try to score more than the last two game averages of: 2 runs, 5.5 hits, 1 HR, 3.5 BB's (note: the first game of 6 walks was an aberration), and most importantly, 10.5 K's a game.

Yes, that is 100 percent correct! However even if they hired a good hitting coach, he wouldn't be able to make chicken salad out of chicken shit. Moncada doesn't give a shit anymore. He plays without any hustle, desire and guilt in his mind if he sucks. He has made the big money and simply doesn't care anymore.

I don't know the number of times and I'm sure you're right not very often. However the good teams in the league seem to be able to hit home runs and have a winning record. 2022 - W-L and Home Run Rankings HR's W-L 1. NYY 1. LAD 2. ATL 2. NYY 3. HOU 3. HOU 4. MIL 4. NYM 5. PHI 5. ATL 6. TOR 6. SD 7. LAD 7. TOR I don't know, but either our players aren't capable of hitting HR's like the elite teams, or our players are not taught to hit home runs. Either way, it would be logical and prudent, if our FO could figure out this blueprint for this type success and start drafting, signing and developing players accordingly in the future years! It's obvious its probably our FO being clueless and not finding the right players, as well as the right coaches and managers to train and develop these players at the minor and major league level. Again I can only speculate, but I would imagine if you took Abreu, Robert, Jimenez and Vaughn and put them on these other successful home run hitting teams, they would have more home runs. Once again, thank you Jerry, Rick and Tony! You made this rebuild so exciting and successful during these last six years for all us loyal die-hard Sox fans!

Once again the team is relying on Cease to stop the pain! It sure would nice if some hitters on this team might want to contribute offensively tonight, especially after that anemic and embarrassing performance last night they gave Cueto. Other than Robert's last at bat, he was extremely patient on all his plate appearances. If Robert, who is usually very undisciplined can adjust, then the rest of the team needs to try and be more patient and not continue to be the 30th ranked team in pitches per plate appearance and walks. Then maybe you guys can get some good hitting counts and quit swinging at pitches severely outside the zone. Most importantly, can you guys please start hitting for power with doubles and home runs? You guys are embarrassing yourselves with the lack of power and production. Enough with the groundball outs and even the lucky groundball singles. The entire team needs to put their big boy pants on tonight and be mentally tough like Cueto was last night.

The Sox buddy system equals a nonexistent and archaic analytical department. Even if it was solid or state of the art, TLR and Menechino would have no clue how to use those stats or better yet, coach their hitters to make the proper hitting adjustments. Here are some more disturbing stats for the Sox: Walks 30th - 2.39 per game Pitches Per Plate Appearance 30th - 3.78 per PA Home Runs 26th - 91 HR's ISO 28th - 0.127

Agreed, but has been the MO of our POS hitting coach Menechino all year. Here is an interesting stat to ponder. Abreu leads the Sox with 14 home runs. Relative to the rest of the league, 26 of 30 teams all have their home run leaders with more than 14 home runs. In fact, there are 59 players in baseball with more home runs than Abreu.

This is a no-brainer, it's Hawk!. It was Hawk who fired TLR in 1986 when he was actually only 41 yrs old and actually a solid manager and had a manager of the year award under his belt. Jerry's first delusional decision was hiring a play by play broadcaster to be GM in the first place. Then when Jerry should have stepped in and stopped Hawk from firing TLR, he made his second delusional mistake. Finally because Jerry knew he screwed up back in 1986 by not stopping Hawk firing TLR, he made his third delusional mistake and hired back TLR when he was too drunk and senile to even think about managing. Not only did Hawk fire LaRussa, but he fired the assistant general manager Dave Dombrowski, who went on and won 2 world series rings and 4 executive of the year awards. He forced out Roland Hemond, the GM at the time. If you go google Roland Hemond, you'll find he had an excellent career after the Sox and won 2 executive of the years awards and a several other awards and recognition. Oh yeah finally, in Hawk's one year as GM, he also managed to trade away rookie Bobby Bonilla for José DeLeón. Bonilla later become a six time all-star. DeLeón in 1987 was 11-12 with a 4.46 ERA and was traded away after 1987. Seems pretty clear that all roads lead back to Hawk!

Dinelson Lamet gets traded from the Padres along with 4 others for Josh Hader on Aug 1. On Aug 3, having never wearing the Brewers uniform, Lamet is DFA'd. Maybe because with the Padres he had 13 appearances, 12.1 IP, 16 Hits, 13 ER's, 9 BB's, ERA 9.49, WHIP 2.03. Severino is a lifetime mediocre back-up catcher who is not better than Seby and obviously not replacing Grandal, due to the stupid 18 million contract Sox are stuck with until 2023. There is a reason they were DFA'd!

I agree with that. Or maybe it's the hatred of playing for TLR or the toxic culture TLR created on this team. We saw the video of how lame and bored the players were in the locker room when it was announced TA was named an All-Star starter. Something seems to bothering TA mentally. Every time I see him sitting in the dugout, he doesn't seem to have that same high level of enthusiasm and getting into the game like he used to.

True, but perhaps very much needed for our mental state, because Cease is one of the truly great things to feel good about during this miserably underachieving season.

Ok my bad in that case!

I hear what you're saying, but the Silver Slugger is just one per position. The Gold Glove is mostly defense and also just one. My point was I think there should be 3 All-Pro teams at the end of the season for each position like in the NBA and NFL. Just my opinion!

There is no need to pump the brakes! Diekman has looked great, but please, just two games. You need to pump the brakes! Even if Diekman continues to do well, it was a one for one player trade. The Quintana trade was for Dylan Cease and Eloy Jimenez. There is no comparison. You need to keep in mind that Boston desperately needed a catcher, so McGuire made sense. He might not have hit well for the Sox, but he was a tremendous defensive catcher and he might end up being good for the Red Sox! However, Quintana is on his 4th team and we still have Dylan and Eloy playing for the Sox! Best Hahn trade ever!

This why baseball needs to wake up and be like the NBA and NFL. You can have your NBA All-Star game and NFL Pro Bowl recognition, but the real awards in those two sports that players actually treasure, are the NBA and NFL All-Pro team's. Cease got screwed out of the all-star game, but he should least be able to achieve an all-pro status at the end of the season like they do in the NBA and NFL. Wake up MLB! Having said that...great job Dylan!

Best Hahn trade ever!