Lip Man 1

This organization has been getting criticized for years both locally (Jay Mariotti) and nationally (Ken Rosenthal when he wrote for The Sporting News) are just two examples. It doesn't bother them at all. Rick Hahn will NOT be fired. Period. End of story. Now he may leave on his own ("health issues" LOL) but he won't be fired. If anything he'll be "promoted" to a senior advisory role a la Kenny Williams.

That would play a factor but not as much as you think. It's not the 1960's anymore...MLB is a 10 Billion dollar a year business. The amount of money coming in to the teams from domestic and international sources is staggering. Even if the Sox were to draw say 800,000 for a season it wouldn't move the needle much, JR has already shown he doesn't care, they'd still be getting revenue from national and local TV/radio/advertising contracts which is a tremendous amount and then he'd just order Hahn to slice the payroll down to the bone (like during the rebuild years when the Sox had some of the lowest payrolls in MLB) and he'd make even more profit. Literally the only thing that can change the equation is JR leaving the scene and new ownership coming in.

Sounds like something the Captain of the Titanic would say. ?

Don't know if the Pirates ever really committed to a tank job in the first place.

All the remaining members of the board of directors (the Sox media guide lists six names) are all roughly his age. Like JR as long as they are making money I'm guessing they don't care. It doesn't matter anyway if they do, they literally have no power, no say in the operations.

The Sox would have to basically pay for a lot of Moncada's salary to get anything remotely decent back for him from another team. I'm guessing the Sox are stuck with him.

There were a number of national baseball people who said/predicted this was a real possibility in large part because of what Hahn did not do this off season. "Window of contention?" ?

Just a few thoughts... Well...at least they weren't swept. LOL (of course they have also yet to win a series and are now already five under...) Banks fits right in with this garbage bullpen that Hahn has spent the most money in MLB on. (Not saying Banks is making a lot just that he's ineffective just like all the others) I'd be shocked if the Sox win any of the next three series. By the time May starts they'll be nine under, seven back and fans will be writing them off in droves. (Only around 10 thousand today on what looked like a very nice day.)

April 19, 1960 - Orestes “Minnie” Minoso made a triumphant return to the White Sox, blasting two home runs, including the game winner in the ninth inning for a wild 10-9 victory over the A’s on opening day. “Minnie”, re-acquired over the off season from the Indians, also had a grand slam and drove in six RBI’s. More ominous however was the fact that the vaunted American League champion Sox pitching staff gave up nine runs in the first place and the team committed two errors in the field. Those shortcomings would eventually lead to a third-place finish with a record of 87-67. In 1960 Minoso hit .311 with 20 home runs, 105 RBI’s and 17 stolen bases winning a Gold Glove and making the All-Star team in one of his finest individual seasons. April 19, 1961 - In the home opener against Washington Sox owner Bill Veeck hired a number of midgets to sell concessions throughout Comiskey Park. Why? Because Veeck received a number of complaints that taller sellers were obstructing the fans view of the game itself! Given that the Sox lost the game 7-2 said fans may not have wanted to see the game much anyway. April 19, 1965 – White Sox manager Al Lopez tied the record when he used five pinch hitters in the seventh inning of what turned out to be a 7-2 win over the Orioles at Comiskey Park. The Sox trailed 2-1 when Lopez began his maneuvering. By the time the inning was over he used Don Buford, Danny Cater, Johnny Romano, Dave Nicholson and Gary Peters as pinch hitters with Romano and Peters both hitting singles and driving in runs. Peters’ hit would give the Sox the lead for good. Lopez first used five pinch hitters in an inning on May 18, 1957 also against the Orioles in Baltimore.

The injury situation is frustrating and bizarre and it's been going on for a longer period of time than people think. Back in 2016 for one example four rookies who were brought up never even finished their first game in a Sox uniform because of injuries, (Tilson, Coates, Davidson and Smith). The Sox have gone through three trainers, and multiple strength and conditioning coaches just in the past few years. They also had that study last winter that was going to look into why this was happening. Those results were never made public although the Sox did hire some folks with biomechanical backgrounds and tried to upgrade that area. Nothing seems to have changed (which makes the Sox lack of depth even more telling.) When I specifically asked sources about the injury areas this winter, these were their comments about it: On the constant injuries “Alan Thomas (Author’s Note: Thomas was the Director of Strength and Conditioning) was let go because his son was draft eligible and he was told the Sox no longer wanted to draft sons of members of the organization. Turns out his kid is playing center field for the Diamondbacks. I’m not saying he’d be playing center field for us but he’s good enough to be in the Major Leagues. I don’t know the new guy they brought in, but guys are getting hurt left and right.” (Author’s Note: I had heard Thomas disagreed with the results of the Sox injury study conducted last winter which was never released to the media or public. I was told he felt the Sox issues were only caused by the COVID restrictions. “The Sox play checkers where others teams play chess” when it comes to injury prevention, conditioning, nutrition, sleep schedules is a phrase I had heard mentioned.) “The White Sox playing shorthanded started in 2007 when Jermaine Dye got hurt and Kenny Williams refused to call up Brian Anderson or Ryan Sweeney. Maybe they were cheap, maybe they wanted to protect Herm’s record of keeping guys off the DL.” (Author’s Note: Herm Schneider was the Sox longtime head trainer and for years the Sox were among the league leaders in keeping players healthy.) “Jake Peavy made the comment one time, ‘They have no reservations about playing shorthanded.” “You know about Mike Reinold right? (Author’s Note: Reinold is the White Sox Senior Medical Advisor) He was fired by the Red Sox because he was injecting players with Toradol.” (Author’s Note: Bleacher Report had a story on this situation published in February 2013. Here is the link to that story: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1530943-ex-red-sox-trainer-mike-reinold-injected-players-with-controversial-substance) “Given the inordinate amount of soft-tissue injuries they have had you’d think that they would do a complete change in the training, conditioning and nutritional areas.”

Grifol "defends" his expensive bullpen to DVS of the Sun-Times: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/4/18/23688403/white-sox-manager-on-beleaguered-bullpen-i-believe-in-these-guys

Have no idea what you are referring to but perhaps my wording wasn't clear. When Buehrle threw his no-hitter in 2007 he was the 15th Sox pitcher in team history to throw a no-hitter and the 16th time it was done. Frank Smith had thrown a pair of no-hitters which would make the 16th time it was done. Again that was as of April 18 2007.

Lynn, Giolito, Grandal, Hendriks immediately come to mind.

“I thought Hahn was prepared to do well, his last few years as assistant G.M. he was out on the road, watching guys, scouting, trusting what he saw. Then when he became G.M. he started getting guys like J.B. Schuck.”

April 18, 1972 – Because of the labor impasse and the late start to the season it wasn’t until the middle of the month that the Sox finally opened at home. It turned out to be a night home opener and the 20 thousand plus fans who turned out gave a standing ovation welcome to new Sox slugger Dick Allen. Allen didn’t disappoint, going 2 for 4, with three runs and two RBI’s in the Sox 14-0 win over Texas. Afterwards Dick said, “I think I’m going to like it here.” Teammate Carlos May had six RBI’s on the night. Bill Melton added two. The heart of the Sox lineup drove in 10 runs that evening. April 18, 1991 - The Sox opened the new Comiskey Park by falling flat on their faces and getting wiped out 16-0 to the Tigers. It was a strange game that saw Detroit have a six run third inning and a 10 run fourth inning. Sox pitchers Jack McDowell, Brian Drahman and Ken Patterson gave up the 16 runs on 14 hits along with four walks. The next day Sox players burned the jersey of pitcher Scott Radinsky at second base as a ‘sacrifice’ to the baseball gods for leaving the original park, according to teammate and losing pitcher in the first game, McDowell. April 18, 1994 - Sox leadoff man Tim Raines belted three home runs in a game at Fenway Park. He went 4 for 5 with four RBI’s in the easy 12-1 win over the Red Sox. It was the only time in his Hall of Fame career “Rock” had a three-home run game. April 18, 2000 - The White Sox set the franchise record for the most runs ever scored in the fourth inning of a game when they plated 11 of them in Chicago against the Mariners. They trailed 6-2 before sending 14 batters to the plate. Greg Norton and Mark Johnson homered in the frame. Tanyon Sturtze got the win in relief of Cal Eldred as the Sox won 18-11. April 18, 2007 - Mark Buehrle became only the 15th pitcher in franchise history to toss a no-hitter (16th overall at that time) as he beat the Rangers 6-0. Buehrle struck out eight and only allowed one base runner, giving up a walk to former Sox player Sammy Sosa in the fifth inning whom he then promptly picked off. His was the first no-hitter at home since Joe Horlen’s in 1967. Jermaine Dye had a grand slam and Jim Thome added two solo home runs to help Buehrle’s cause.

On Jerry Reinsdorf “JR is 86 and he’s in great shape, he looks good, still drives himself around but I just think at this point he simply doesn’t want to be bothered with having to bring in a new front office, maybe he thinks in a few years it won’t matter anyway.” “People, his friends… have tried to tell him what has been going on, “Hawk” Harrelson, the late Ed Farmer… God rest his soul, Darrin Jackson, Scott Reifert (Author’s Note: Scott is the Senior Vice-President for Communications) , Bob Grim and others but it’s just not registering for some reason.” “I wonder what impact his wife passing away earlier this year has had on him.” “JR has told his family he does not want any of his sons owning the team when he is gone. The Bulls are fine he said because they make Michael (Reinsdorf) money but baseball just doesn’t allow you to do that. (no salary cap)” (Author’s Note: Was told by an individual who knew some of the minority owners that “The Sox haven’t lost money in a long time.” A second source agreed with that statement. Seems to be a conflict doesn’t it? Maybe JR isn’t making enough money to suit him vis a vis the Sox?) “With :30 seconds left in their selection time on draft day JR would say things like “You know this college right-handed pitcher has the lowest injury risk.” “In October 2005 some investors asked JR to sell and get out while the going was good, but he wouldn’t.” “Andrew Berlin, twice tried to buy the Sox around 2008 but wasn’t successful.” (Author’s Note: Berlin, grew up a Sox fan and is now the owner of the Cubs farm team in South Bend, Indiana.) “I heard that JR owns 12% of the team but with some of the original investors passing away that has probably gone up to 18%” (Author’s Note: Even though he only owns a small percentage of the franchise Jerry Reinsdorf has absolute authority to run the team as he sees fit. It is written into his contract. That includes selling or not selling the club despite what the other investors wish. The only way he can be removed from his position is if he has done something illegal, appears to be losing his mental faculties or is being financially irresponsible.) “I was talking with an agent and they said the next owner of the Sox can’t be a group of investors, it has to be a big company. That’s why Dennis Gilbert, who tried to buy the Dodgers won’t get the Sox, he can’t come up with enough big money investors” “JR has become oblivious to things and what he’s allowed to happen is sad. He’s probably the most successful owner in Chicago sports history given the Bulls titles and the White Sox one which is dear to his heart, but what has happened the last two years is just sad. He is out-of-touch. And even worse he’s inaccessible. He’s either afraid of having to answer questions or he’s incapable of doing so.” “JR likes the structure he has because it gives him an extra layer of protection from criticism.”

He won't be in this position in 20 years because the Sox will be under new ownership and he'll have been fired.

In Stanky's defense he was also considered a tactical genius, usually two steps ahead of the opposing manager. And I've interviewed a good number of guys he managed, some didn't get along with him...some did. Kind of a mixed bag. Players told me Stanky would also randomly go up to a guy on the bench and ask him, "How many outs are there?" or "What's the count." And you damn well better know the correct answer or you'd be fined. He wanted guys to keep their heads in the game.

It's all Greek to Hahn though. He pays lip service to it but when push comes to shove?

The hard ass manager guys like Al Lopez, Eddie Stanky and Chuck Tanner for example lost their hammer over guys when they were given contracts worth multi-millions of dollars. Before, like you said, if you don't produce you were headed to the bench (Stanky would fine guys for not moving runners over into scoring position, not getting guys home from third base with less than two outs and for not being able to execute fundamentals. He'd also buy a new suit of clothes for any starting pitcher who threw a complete game with a certain number of ground ball outs and a new pair of shoes for every stolen base) Those former Sox managers must all be turning over in their graves when they see how "baseball-stupid" this organization has become.

The last I looked 44 million for relief pitchers was the highest amount for a single team in MLB.

I'd agree with this belief.

44 million being paid to this bullpen. 44 million.

Was excited at first given his reputation (George Brett's comments) but we are seeing the same garbage as before, giving guys time off when they just recently had a team off day or would be getting a team day shortly, bad bullpen decisions, not knowing when to pull a starter and then doubling down on his decisions talking to the media a la TLR.

Maybe they feel if things don't work out everyone of the "core" group will either be traded or will have left in free agency in two years?