The Kids Can Play

To TRL: please do not bat Leury Garcia ahead of Andrew Vaughn in tonight's lineup. Garcia needs to be batting 9th! This petty nonsense has to stop! If you are a HOF'er manager, than start acting like one! I hope this is the last attempt at "insanity" by throwing Keuchel out there and thinking a different result will happen. I pray he does well, but if he doesn't and gets hammered again, then get rid of him and eat the damn money. The bats need to come alive and the bullpen needs step up and hold on to leads.

The list from Chicago White Sox was spot on. However I would include: - Bench Coach - Miquel Cairo - Director Of Strength and Conditioning - Goldy Simmons - Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach - Ibrahim Rivera Cairo was with TLR at St Louis and obviously is a "yes man" for him, or else he is just as clueless as TLR with game decisions and strategy. The two strength and conditioning coaches are new this year and were brought in to make a significant change from last year's debacle of injuries. Seems like nothing has changed.

1. TLR - It was a horrible decision from the start to hire him and it's looking even more like a colossal blunder. Smart and logical owners do not hire their managers. Thank you Jerry! Once and for all we have to get off this rationalizing that TLR is this genius manager. This is 2022 and yes he is in the HOF! However the fact is, he is a shell of the manager that won with the 80's Sox, 90's A's and Cardinals. He is a 77 yr old early dementia manager who talks, acts and thinks like a 87 yr old manager. Personally I think TLR has taken the energy, enthusiasm, "playing loose" and having fun ability away from this team. Why has Tim Anderson made 6 errors in 14 games, when he only made 10 errors all last season? 2. Major flaw in their off season and in season strength, exercise and stretching program/daily routine! - Hahn, TLR, coaches, medical, strength & conditioning staff, along with the players, did not learn from last season on the importance of proper off-season and in-season conditioning. Eloy and Robert are injured running out ground balls! Pollack on a routine base hit! Moncada injured before the season even starts. Btw, it documented by him and videos seen on You Tube, that Yoan worked out with some professional trainer in the off-season to be able to come to spring training in the best shape ever and be able to make it though an entire season consistently healthy! 3. Large team payroll (7th) 195 million but not spent effectively! - 18 million to Keuchel is a joke! Other teams didn't spend the money we did, and have better records than the Sox thus far: Oakland, 29th - 52 million, Cleveland, 27th - 71 million, and Tampa Bay, 25th - 87 million. It begs the question, do we have the right Scouts and Coaches in the minors to recommend to Hahn to draft the right pitchers and develop them effectively in the minors? It's amazing how Cleveland, Oakland and Tampa to name a few, always find and develop good pitchers and never spend the money. Finally when they can't afford to pay them, they just trade them away for future pitching prospects and develop new ones all over again. We all agreed after the season, the Sox needed another quality starter, second baseman and right fielder. There were quality FA starters, 2B's and RF's out there and JR refused to spend the money and go get them. 4. The lack of pitching depth for both starters and relievers - Keuchel is over the hill and not fixable. Regretfully we are suck with him. Oh good news though Sox fans; if Kuechel pitches a 160 innings this year, he is guaranteed 20 million more for 2023! Furthermore, continuing to keep starting Velazquez and thinking he will turn it around, is the pure definition of insanity! Velazquez was a huge mistake to sign in the first place. Go look at his lifetime numbers pitching in the NL minus the DH! Finally, the pitching talent down in the minors is really bad with nothing immediate to bring up. If you don't believe me, just go google the prospect rankings in the minors for all 30 teams, or go check the stats for all four Sox teams in the minors. Hence why we are praying that a 36 yr old Cueto can help us. Sadly Cueto did get hit fairly hard last night at Charlotte. Hopefully his next outing will be good. I am a die hard Sox fan like all of you and always will be. This is extremely painful and depressing to watch this great potential team implode like it is. I know many of you will say, I'm panicking and it's only 14 games in and we play 162. However I see flaws in the structure of this team as stated in my points above. I sincerely hope I am wrong though, because I have bets on the Sox winning the AL pennant and WS! LOL!

The almighty 77 yr old HOF mgr likes Leury at 2nd or 3rd because: Leury is dead last on the Sox in the following stats: BA-068, (2-29) OBP%-.129, SLG%-.103, wOBP%-.116, wOBAcon%-.092, Barrel%- 0, RC - 0.8, RC/27 - 0.8, SECA% - .103. I could go on with more, but you get the point. It's like TLR is telling Hahn and the fans we can all go F off.

I agree! That would be the best lineup. With Engel, Pollack and Vaughn in OF, we would have a stronger outfield defensively and Engel is hitting better than Sheets.

Yes, but he has 6 innings so far too many for the season! He needs a 154 more innings for the season to secure a 20 million guaranteed salary for his final season before becoming a FA. There better be zero chance of Kuechel being allowed to even get anywhere close to 160 innings this season. That money should be used for a legitimate quality ML pitcher next year.

I completely agree with you. Moncada was traded here to be a 2nd baseman. When Moncada comes off IR, it would be insane to bench Burger.

This line of thinking is accurate and does not need to die in a fire. Yes, the Sox are 7th in payroll. However it's not nearly as high as other teams. The Sox are behind 6th - Boston, 5th - San Diego and 4th - Philadelphia., not to mention Most importantly per the new MLB CBA, the Sox are under the first level CBT Threshold of 230 million. The reason the CBT was increased so the owners could spend more money to build a competitive team. Like the old adage "you have to send money to make money" which applies here. If Reinsdorf spent the money for another one or two quality starters, then the team would be in a better position to win now. As know, the window for the Sox winning a WS is now. This team with the right additional parts can win a World Series now. If Reinsdorf spent the money now, then the team would potentially win more and be a more competitive team. With a better team on the field, the attendance would increase substantially and Reinsdorf would make up for the higher payroll, through the higher attendance, merchandise sales, food and liquor at the park. The Mets owner already said he is probably going over the top threshold CBT level of 290 million. I guess Steve Cohen wants to win. So yes, JR is cheap compared to several other owners, especially some in smaller markets than Chicago. I do agree with you they spent some of the money poorly, but having said that, when you are this close to winning a WS, then unfortunately he needs to spend more money to make up for some of those bad contracts.

Your damn straight getting a #4-5 starter should have been a major priority in the off season of FA before the lockout, or even after. Of course when JR is cheap and clueless and doesn't let Hahn spend any money, this is what you get. I know you were half joking, but the sad thing is the Sox should be hiring an outside consultant to design a proper exercise conditioning program for the Sox that would include, Pilates, Yoga, proper core work and stretching routines. Btw, forget that cold weather playing in Chicago in April as a reason for the injuries. The Sox were pulling hamstrings in the summer last season! LOL!

This is a solid lineup. It's time for Lambert to prove he belongs up here!

I do agree with you the blame and criticism goes to the Sox for this pitching depth problem. Losing Giolito and Lynn to injuries and Crochet out for year for TJ surgery is a problem, especially when there aren't any pitchers to bring up. As we went through the rebuild, at one point we did have the top farm system, but many of those players are now on the Sox club or traded away. The Sox have done a poor job of drafting and developing pitchers in our farm system. The bottom line is the Sox need to work harder at staying healthy. You would think we would have learned from 2021. In 2022 through 5 games the Sox already have the highest amount of payroll on IR at $62,550, 000. That is not only the highest in MLB, but 30 million ahead of the second place team in team payroll on IR.

You obviously didn't get my point or sarcasm. your reply to me: lol what? They have Montas to offer. That's the point. The A's can offer Montas all they want. Nobody is stopping them. My point was Montas is not enough value to get their wish of acquiring Vaughn. My original point was the A's want Vaughn, but they do not have enough talent to give us in return for Vaughn. Trading Vaughn to get Montas as you suggested, would be Hahn's worst trade ever. The 2019 #3 overall pick isn't going to be given away for for a mediocre pitcher like Montas.

A true five-tool superstar and potential MVP this year. Please stay healthy Luis!

Yeah Montas for Vaughn! ? Hahn can't wait to make that trade! LOL

This is just plain stupid. Depending on which review or source you go by, the A's farm system is ranked 22nd -26th in MLB. They have gutted all their top players to have the 29th ranked team payroll...second to last! They don't have enough talent to waste Hahn's time telling him they are interested in Vaughn. Hahn isn't going to give up the 2019 overall #3 draft pick to a team like the A's who have nothing to offer.

Chasing a ton is a weakness only when you strike out often and make little or poor contact. Yeah maybe he could get some more walks, but he is hitting the ball great and he is pretty damn good at chasing. The fact is he has only one strikeout in four games with 16 AB's, producing a .375-BA/.412-OBP/.625-SLG/.1037-OPS! Several of his hard hit balls are just bad luck as he has crushed the ball often and unfortunately right at someone.

One them needs to be DH and not both in the OF.

Nick Castellanos or Kyle Schwarber could fit.

I will be full blast mode as well right there with you! This is one time JR needs to spend the money!

Agreed. No MLB team with any brains would want Kenny Williams, but Rick Hahn could be a president of baseball ops for a ton of teams if he wanted to move. Let's not forgive people, Reinsdorf is too dumb and loyal to get rid of incompetent executives as witnessed by Jerry keeping Paxson in charge with his Bulls for so ridiculously long. Oh yeah...it took his son Michael to finally correct that mistake and move on from Paxson. Too bad Michael Reinsdorf can't run the White Sox too.

Those degrees and colleges are correct! However JR was never ahead of his time and is still lagging behind other successful owners. As a matter of fact, it turns out in 2000, Kenny Williams hired Rick Hahn as Director of Major League Administration and not JR. Two years later Kenny promoted RH to assistant General Manager. In 2010 Hahn interviews for the Mets GM position which he obviously didn't get. RH also interviewed for the Angels GM job in 2011. At this point JR was getting many other owners calling him requesting interviews with RH. He was considered MLB league wide, as one as of the top GM candidates listed on Baseball America's list of Top GM Prospects. The only reason Rick Hahn was promoted to General Manager in 2012, is the the fact Reinsdorf knew he was going to lose Rick Hahn. It didn't take a genius to figure out losing Rick Hahn and continuing solo with Kenny Williams would continue to keep the White Sox in total mediocrity.

Agreed!. That's why ideally it should be a ridiculous billionaire owner like Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk who would spend the money. The Reisdorf family needs to move on.

I wish it were more than rumors. The sale of the White Sox and getting JR removed from anymore stupid decisions with the White Sox cannot happen soon enough!

No kidding and thanks for all the scenarios. However that was not my point. I would have never traded Madrigal. If he was a bust or just a average utility player, then so be it. My point is the Sox should have been in control of that outcome on their watch and not the Cubs. We invested a first round pick, 4th overall to get him. A MLB franchise typically does not throw away their high draft pick assets after only 2.5 years. The smart and winning clubs don't do that, until they know they did everything possible to get the maximum out of that player. A team can work on helping a player get into better condition and more flexible to avoid injuries. They can also help that player with his fundamentals like fielding. However, what they can't do is teach a player to have that rare and amazing hand eye coordination that Madrigal had to make contact and get hits.

Giolito could go more than 4 innings. Unfortunately his loser manager decided to not have faith in him to get out of the jam. We were leading 4-2 with one out and with runners on first and second. I can recall countless times this season where Giolito got out of jams like that because he is capable of striking out two more men. TLR was always too early to pull starters, beside that fact he was a trainwreck handling the bullpen.