Jake

TBH, I respect Pedro's willingness to boldly lie to protect his players in public. Going back to the LouBob running hard to first base fiasco earlier this season.

Jimmy Lambert, closer

Yeah I think Tim wasn't looking for a fight before the play started but once Ramirez stuck his finger in his face it would have been incredible if there wasn't some sort of fight. IMO, if you want to punch the guy in that situation, don't be honorable and say let's fight like TA did. Just punch! Wouldn't even be a sucker punch as far as I'm concerned because Ramirez's actions were clearly begging for a reaction like that. A better and more typical reaction would be to just shove the guy because he's both invading your space and clearly saying fighting words. It's hard to imagine a way it could have resolved **once Ramirez got up and confronted him like that** without them getting at least lightly physical and the benches clearing.

Seems emblematic of the broken state of the Sox fanbase that an opposing player completely misunderstands what happens to him on a play and gets real mad about nothing which triggers a fight... and our fans pile on our player who got mad enough to fight about someone instigating like that. I'll always be a Sox fan but the way fans have treated Tim throughout the season is despicable and embarrassing IMO and has made me distance myself from fan communities.

I think Kopech grabbing him, while the right thing to do, unintentionally set up the death blow by adding confusion and blocking Tim's view of what was going on. The whole thing seems like a fluke since Ramirez couldn't have been aiming for the spot he hit when he was getting moved mid-punch.

So what's the deal? Yips? Injury?

If this is the useless argument thread, can someone point me to a thread where we collect scouting reports on the new Sox farmhand?

I hope Colas has figured something out. He honestly spent most of his time in AAA treading water, but that's a hell of a lot of homers this past week. Hopefully something just clicked.

I've definitely been watching less and pursuing other hobbies. I still tend to follow the games on MLB's app or website as they go on. I tend to search for something positive, so it's nice to think about Luis Robert's good play and the whole Jake Burger phenomenon. But the team doesn't stir much emotion anymore, I hoped they would but the personnel moves over the past 12-18 months or so have left less and less to be hoped for. There's a lot of apathy now. I'm not really mad at anyone, I don't think Jerry is the worst owner ever or a tightass or whatever. I think people are trying their best and they aren't good enough. The Sox are not widely watched or cared about and it's probably better that way because the team would be more fully exposed as an embarrassment under a brighter spotlight. But I'll always be hanging on waiting for them to pull me closer. And of course I still track everybody's stats and so on looking for something. One thing that hasn't changed is I feel no pull towards another baseball team. Some are likable, some aren't, but none are the Sox to me. I sometimes wonder how I would react if Jerry sold the team and it moved out of Chicago to become the Nashville Guitars or whatever. I think I'd just be done with this lifelong passion, I'm just too loyal to this team. It's Sox or nothing, but for now that does mean there's more nothing than usual.

I know McGuire got off to a hot start this year (has slowed down considerably since then it looks like) but he had played terribly for us, Zavala was on fire, and we were about to release him. Wish Diekman had pitched better but that trade isn't even on my list of things I'm upset about.

When Giolito and Kelly come back, who is the odd man out? Aren't we carrying an extra position player? Feels kind of like Haseley has earned a spot on the roster but I'd be surprised if we called up Hamilton just to immediately send him down/DFA.

I've never bought into this kind of thing but I think the players who we believed to be the leaders of last year's (unsuccessful) team were Abreu, Hendriks, and Tim. All of them absent at the moment.

"The Bears will be successful thanks to the QB whose statistics so far are not very good" — words that have never steered me wrong

Too soon to say worst, but it certainly is provoking a lot of apathy in me. BTW, does anyone else remember when Jacob May was our opening day leadoff hitter and then didn't get a hit for like 3 weeks?

As Hawk would say, you make your own luck. And Ozzie sure did plenty to avoid getting hired to manage this or any team

Just at a point where you're dying for some small number of players to stake a claim to a decent season

No doubt about it, while again I'm very much on the general side of "coaches don't matter much" this is the kind of situation that could justify a quick hook. But I think the front office knows deep down that even if Grifol is fucking up he's not being given good players and it wouldn't surprise me if Reinsdorf would disallow a managerial change at this point. I know we all hate Reinsdorf etc etc but any decent owner who found himself in this situation would not allow his front office to make any decisions with long-term consequences right now. And if it goes on much longer you'd have to make the rare midseason firing of the GM (and in this case VP) in furtherance of that goal

Who on the White Sox has clearly met or exceeded expectations thus far? Burger and... I don't know, Middleton and Santos I guess. Cease not a disaster by any stretch but I'm not sure if he's really at the expectation yet. Giolito also not a disaster so it depends what your expectations were.

Well I'm not saying there was some obvious first place roster out there, and it's not a pro-front office statement, but there was no reason to believe this group of players should go 7-18 and look like maybe they were lucky to win as many as 7.

I have tried to disengage a little bit but Eloy definitely looks completely joyless in my observations

So...I don't want to act like the manager really matters all that much, but when things are going *this* badly you've gotta wonder about the manager right?

As I teach in college, I'm often trying to find a balance between the two things hinted at here. On one hand, I don't want to ask my students to do things I would have found utterly torturous. On the other hand, I know that as a student I needed to be forced to do certain things I'd never have chosen because I always wanted to find the lowest effort, easiest way to the end of the course.

Jake Burger's healthy season last year as chronicled through Rotowire and Rotoworld updates: White Sox placed INF Jake Burger on the 10-day injured list with a bone bruise in his right hand. It doesn't sound like an overly serious injury, but Burger might remain sidelined through the All-Star break given where this transaction falls on the baseball calendar. The 26-year-old has slashed .250/.302/.458 with eight home runs and 26 RBI across 51 games played this season for Chicago. Jul 6, 2022, 11:59 AM ET Jake Burger's (hand) rehab assignment has been put on hold due to illness. Burger had been slated to play his first rehab game with Triple-A Charlotte on Friday. Assuming he makes a quick recovery, he still could be ready for activation immediately after the All-Star break. Source: Daryl Van Schouwen on Twitter Jul 15, 2022, 2:56 PM ET White Sox activated INF Jake Burger from the 10-day injured list; optioned him to Triple-A Charlotte. Burger is recovered from a bone bruise in his right hand, but the White Sox don't have a spot for him on their major league roster at this moment. The 26-year-old is sure to get another look down the stretch. Aug 2, 2022, 7:03 PM ET White Sox's Jake Burger: Dealing with fractured wrist Rotowire Aug 27, 2022 Burger is expected to miss several weeks due to a non-displaced left wrist fracture, James Fegan of The Athletic reports. Burger dealt with a hand issue earlier this season and sustained his most recent injury when he was hit by a pitch Aug. 20. The 26-year-old was placed on the 7-day injured list this week but will likely need to spend more than the minimum amount of time on the shelf prior to returning to action at Triple-A Charlotte. White Sox's Jake Burger: Makes late return at Triple-A Rotowire Oct 3, 2022 Burger (wrist) was reinstated from Triple-A Charlotte's 7-day injured list Sept. 23 and went 5-for-26 with a triple and three runs over the club's final six games of the season. Burger suffered a non-displaced left wrist fracture in late August, but he was able to make his return to action after about a month-long absence. Unless the White Sox are in need of another position player over the final two days of the regular season, Burger will rest up at home before beginning offseason workouts. Over his 183 plate appearances with Chicago earlier this season, the 26-year-old hit .250 with eight home runs and 26 RBI.

I really hope Burger has figured something out and you gotta find ways to keep getting him looks until he falls back to Earth. But let's not forget he had a nice run last season only to proceed to put up some very mediocre minor league numbers afterwards. Let's try to avoid having another Yermin Mercedes situation as far as overhyping a hot hitter is concerned.

Sounds like it's the classic sign stealing where you spend enough time looking at the coaches giving signs and waiting for the results that you learn the pattern. Probably wasn't all that useful unless they were signing in every pitch and the Sox had a more clever system to tell the hitters what was up than the Astros did.