Tony

Having had time to sit with what took place today....it’s somehow worse. You have the leader in the clubhouse playing without a full deck. You had the manager of the Reds come out and say today “Yeah, the league made it really clear what the new rule was going to be during Spring Training.” So the Sox are already taking the field at a disadvantage, as the guy calling the shots isn’t working off the same information the other dugout has. This is levels of incompetence I honestly couldn’t comprehend in the off-season. The cherry on top was LaRussa seemingly being OK “learning on the job” from the media, specifically from a 32-33 year old James Fegan. It’s an absolute embarrassment that this entire organization should be ashamed of.

I’ll ask you a few simple questions. What is your reaction to finding out the White Sox’ 76 year old manager didn’t know the rules of Major League Baseball? Making decisions based on incorrect information? Learning the rules from media members post game? Thoughts?

No. He objectively made moves that lacked any sort of "strategy" Are you really asking this? Do you just have no understanding of what took place today? When you say "LaRussa's moves" Do you mean having Liam Hendricks run at 2B, because he ADMITTED he didn't know a rule was in place that would allow an actual base runner could be placed in that spot?

I read it the other way, that the staff was questioning him and said "Do you realize you have Liam Hendicks running at 2B?" and he said "I know..."

That's acceptable for you not to know that. You also aren't being paid to be the manager of the White Sox.

They can't come out and say that, and would be shocked if they did. You can't fire Ricky and hire TLR, when Hinch and Bochey were out there, and Hahn made the comments about someone with recent playoff success in the dugout, along with this team having deep playoff aspirations.....you can't come out and say "This is going to take time for him to get comfortable with the game." Can't do it.

I agree in this case that this is also on the coaching staff. Typically a bench coach is there to catch this kind of mistake. But it ultimately falls to Tony....who admitted he didn't know the rule....the same week you have articles coming from Passan and Rosenthal questioning the tactics from TLR. I just don't know how the Sox sit back and just "accept this"

HEre we go!

The injuries have killed this team, no doubt. But they also now have to win in spite of Tony. They have to overcome him.

But it will.

Hahn does deserve a lot of blame for not looking for "quality" depth but I also think any team hit by this many injuries is going to look tough. The OF coming into Spring Training was Eloy-Robert-Eaton/Engel. All 4 of those guys are out with injury right now. I don't know many teams that survive that and have the depth to really make things look good.

I meant the steal, but this is also true

Holy shit that's bad baseball

Because this is an instance where you can say something that is factual but it's also misleading. The Bears traded two first round picks (along with a sixth and a third) for Khalil Mack. We all agree on that. Fair to classify as that. That was the cost to acquire that player from the Raiders. The Bears traded a 2022 1st round pick, a 4th and 5th round pick.....and the 20th pick for the 11th pick. A swap of first round picks for positioning shouldn't be classified as simply trading a first round pick.

I know you're joking, but just because you brought it up.......they simply can't get away with that this year. No "We were a year early to the party" or "Next year is the real start of this." Yes, injuries happen, but they happen to every team. Go back and listen to the interviews given during Spring Training. The expectations were not just the playoffs, but playoff series wins. Anything else is a failure. If it doesn't happen this season, shave one year off the "window" because it's wide open right now. They better capitalize on it.

Gio ain’t right

Also hopefully more time for Vaughn.

They are remarkably thin in the OF. Could really, really hurt.

You don’t know if any of that is true. We can speculate all we want, but what is fact are the results. And again, he’s been either Assistant GM or GM since 2002. The Sox record since 2002 is borderline horrific. So again, there is no “apology” coming to a man who has held a VERY high ranking position with one of least successful teams in baseball since he began his employment tenure. If you want to shower him with roses, go nuts. But I don’t know how much support you’re going to have.

Rick Hahn was named GM in late October, 2012. He was assistant GM beginning in 2002. But just looking at his run as “the guy”.....he didn’t have a winning season in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019......it took a COVID-shortened season for him to achieve his first winning record as GM, and the Sox won one game in the Playoffs. He has been the man in charge for 8+ seasons and has 1 playoff victory to his name. No, I will not be apologizing to Rick Hahn. As others have said, it would be far more appropriate for the organization to apologize to us.

Just got back from a long walk with the family, I don’t envy any of the fielders out there today, it’s pretty crazy in the city.

It’s really the fault of Katz and Cairo, because they aren’t whispering loud enough to Tony (that tends to happen when you hit 76, can’t really blame TLR on that one)

So obviously we don’t know if those whispers are happening. So you can keep asking the question, but you know there is no way we find that out. What we do know is Tony LaRussa is the manager, and was paid quite a lot of money to do so. He was also selected over many other quality candidates, apparently because of his vast amount of experience. Yet here you are, asking about Ethan Katz and Miguel Cairo. As Hawk would say.....STRETCH!

Doesn’t the buck stop at the manager? It’s the reason he makes more than anyone else, right? If they Cairo and Katz DID offer input and were ignored, it’s an even bigger red flag for TLR. If they didn’t....why didn’t the HOF Baseball mind Tony La Russa know better than them? Isn’t that why he was brought in?