The TLR Manager Thread

[caulfield12]

2 minutes ago, "The Kids Can Play" said:

That's fine, just make sure he does it for every single post here going forward. 

That sounds like either a challenge or ban bet, dear sir.  Gotta keep these moderators on their toes.  I’m sure he will pretty much 100% ignore your entreaty but have some type of witty retort.

Edited May 14, 2021 by caulfield12

[harkness99]

1 hour ago, Greydawgfan1 said:

So you’re just spewing trash? You can’t say managers don’t effect games but blame him for losses and not for wins. Is that a hard concept . He either changes the outcomes of games or he doesn’t 

coaches in pro sports matter - especially in football (in my opinion).  In baseball they matter the least... managers anyway.  However I feel like managers can't do a lot to "win" the game from their power position - but they can "lose" the game from their positions a little bit more.

 

If the sox keep winning - TLR will get credit... if deserved or not... it will come.

[South Side Hit Men]

2 hours ago, chitownsportsfan said:

Tony screwed up not knowing the rule.  It was a bad mistake and probably cost the Sox the game.  That said, just as important, because EVERYBODY makes mistakes, players, coaches, GMs, managers, Sox talks posters: is that he owned it and moved on and the Sox have been on a roll ever since.  People respond to that leadership.  He didn't pass the buck and say "oh I delegate that stuff to my guys and nobody told me".  He didn't say something like "well if we had executed it wouldn't have mattered".  He said he fucked up and he signaled to his men that the important thing is to own it and move on and try and do better next time.

So pretty much the opposite of how he handled his DUI, but hey, baby steps.

As one of his biggest “fans” here, I’d say after the first month, the two positive aspects of his second reign are:

1. Keeping the team calm after the loss first of Eloy and then Robert. The air really sucked out of the stadium and team when Robert went down. The off day helped, but beyond the team has really responded well.

2. Not sure about who is the primary driver (Hahn or La Russa or the coaches), but seeing more flexibility/creativity across the roster, beyond Garcia and Mendick (infield). Mendick and Vaughn in the corners are the primary examples.

["The Kids Can Play"]

3 hours ago, Kyyle23 said:

It's fine you can go back to being mute

Your sarcasm would be funny if you would be consistent and call out every other post here with grammar and spelling mistakes, which is many. I personally don't give a crap when someone makes a mistake in choice of words. I stick to the content for my replies and you should too. 

[Kyyle23]

11 minutes ago, "The Kids Can Play" said:

Your sarcasm would be funny if you would be consistent and call out every other post here with grammar and spelling mistakes, which is many. I personally don't give a crap when someone makes a mistake in choice of words. I stick to the content for my replies and you should too. 

Sure thing bud

[southsider2k5]

It didn't make a difference in the game, but really disappointed to not see Tony ever get out and defend his catchers over the two very different strike zones we saw today.

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

6 hours ago, Kyyle23 said:

It's fine you can go back to being mute

If you can't laugh at this, you can't laugh at anything!

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

2 hours ago, southsider2k5 said:

It didn't make a difference in the game, but really disappointed to not see Tony ever get out and defend his catchers over the two very different strike zones we saw today.

I've actually been disappointed in this all year from LaRussa. When has he ever backed his guys. I know it's entirely meaningless so I'm not upset about it W/L wise so no point in being critical of it, but the meatball fan in me and former "defend me skip" is bothered by it.

[IWokeUpLikeThis]

Keep turning heads across the country, Tony. The tides are turning. 

[caulfield12]

4 hours ago, IWokeUpLikeThis said:

Keep turning heads across the country, Tony. The tides are turning. 

Sure would be nice to have the 34 year old baseball mind back...

[35thstreetswarm]

15 hours ago, "The Kids Can Play" said:

Your sarcasm would be funny if you would be consistent and call out every other post here with grammar and spelling mistakes, which is many. I personally don't give a crap when someone makes a mistake in choice of words. I stick to the content for my replies and you should too. 

*which are many

[Dick Allen]

Has nothing to do with his managing, but does anyone else notice where Tony spends the game managing? Where he is standing and with players sitting on the high bench, and Katz and some other coaches standing at the railing, there is no way he can see what is happening on most of the field. He must have a TV monitor or something.

[hi8is]

1 hour ago, Dick Allen said:

Has nothing to do with his managing, but does anyone else notice where Tony spends the game managing? Where he is standing and with players sitting on the high bench, and Katz and some other coaches standing at the railing, there is no way he can see what is happening on most of the field. He must have a TV monitor or something.

Don’t you know there’s an extra handicapped section in every MLB dugout, complete with additional amenities and preferred parking?

Side note: How’s my grammar?

[Texsox]

21 hours ago, chitownsportsfan said:

 If it was easy, everybody would do it.

You've been here long enough to know it is easy,  and we all do it. Lol

Just memorize all the advanced stats and follow what the computer shoots out. An iPad is really all you need to manage in today's game.

 

[Texsox]

21 hours ago, "The Kids Can Play" said:

 

My bad, I should have checked my words better before sending, which I normally do. Thanks for being the designated English teacher here on the forum. We greatly appreciate your support to the community. I sure hope you never post something where you make an accidental grammar or spelling mistake. I'm sure that has never happened to you! I'm curious though, do you reply to all the posts here with grammar and spelling mistakes? I have seen a ton of them on here and not sure if you replied to every single one of them. LOL. Like most here, I thought we were to reply to the content of the post.?

No need for designated English teachers when we have actual ELA instructors here on the board. 

With the fast pace of a message board it should be assumed we're reading first drafts and not polished pieces. For example,  your opening sentence here isn't very strong and I'm certain based on other writing samples a little revising and editing would be closer to your full writing abilities. This also could have benefited from a different organization,  perhaps two paragraphs. 

I believe this was an improper word choice and not a spelling or grammar error. Mute and moot are commonly switched to the point that many linguists support expanding the definition of mute. 

I hope y'all ain't still fightin' over this little dustup so we can have ourselves a hum dinger of a strongend!

 

 

[Jerksticks]

14 minutes ago, Texsox said:

You've been here long enough to know it is easy,  and we all do it. Lol

Just memorize all the advanced stats and follow what the computer shoots out. An iPad is really all you need to manage in today's game.

 

Lol that’s always the best part of the boards.  When one of us used advanced stats as like an “Aha Gotcha” at our FO or coaching staff.  
 

Forgetting the team spends millions of dollars a year on people sifting through data we have no idea even exists.  
 

?

[Texsox]

15 minutes ago, Jerksticks said:

Lol that’s always the best part of the boards.  When one of us used advanced stats as like an “Aha Gotcha” at our FO or coaching staff.  
 

Forgetting the team spends millions of dollars a year on people sifting through data we have no idea even exists.  
 

?

To me it’s like trying to beat the market. What stats tell you to do is basically a mutual fund. If you are happy with average or standard then do that. But folks that can beat the baseline end up in the HoF. 
 

We rested a few guys and earned a split. Not a bad day. Plus, we’ll never know how players are really feeling. 

[caulfield12]

28 minutes ago, Texsox said:

No need for designated English teachers when we have actual ELA instructors here on the board. 

With the fast pace of a message board it should be assumed we're reading first drafts and not polished pieces. For example,  your opening sentence here isn't very strong and I'm certain based on other writing samples a little revising and editing would be closer to your full writing abilities. This also could have benefited from a different organization,  perhaps two paragraphs. 

I believe this was an improper word choice and not a spelling or grammar error. Mute and moot are commonly switched to the point that many linguists support expanding the definition of mute. 

I hope y'all ain't still fightin' over this little dustup so we can have ourselves a hum dinger of a strongend!

 

 

Uncharted and unchartered waters...

[Dominikk85]

TLR looks a bit better recently. 

Pitching management is better as he was leaving guys too long out there early. I wonder if he got a talk by the FO or Katz gets more involved into that (or both). 

Lineups are generally decent too (except for frequently batting bad guys second) and lamb is hardly playing but then again part of this is due to injury. 

At least he now is fully sold on Vaughn whom he was squeezing a little early on as Vaughn has played like every game the last 7 or so. 

I think especially the Engel injury was good for Vaughn as he was able to get in a rhythm, I'm pretty sure without the Engel setback Vaughn would have been in and out a couple more times and then been sent down for 4-6 weeks before being up for good. Wouldn't have been a terrible outcome either as Sox would have gotten an extra year but like it is now it is ideal of course. 

Abreu, Mercedes, Robert (when healthy again) , Vaughn, madrigal, moncada grandal will probably play almost every day and the other two spots will probably rotated between mendick, Hamilton, Eaton and leury. 

Edited May 15, 2021 by Dominikk85

[South Side Hit Men]

Jessie Jackson is first and foremost when I think of the word moot.

 

[caulfield12]

1 hour ago, Jerksticks said:

Lol that’s always the best part of the boards.  When one of us used advanced stats as like an “Aha Gotcha” at our FO or coaching staff.  
 

Forgetting the team spends millions of dollars a year on people sifting through data we have no idea even exists.  
 

?

That last part is most assuredly not true.

Evidence?

At best, 3-4 guys paid....and an army of interns.

[Tony]

24 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

That last part is most assuredly not true.

Evidence?

At best, 3-4 guys paid....and an army of interns.

I mean, maybe spend less time posting in every thread on this board and actually do 8 seconds of research.

Major League Operations

Developer: Brett Phillips
Analysts: Wataru Ando, Emily Blady, Jonathan Lewyckyi
Coordinator of Baseball Information: Devin Pickett
Baseball Video Coordinator: Bryan Johnson
Technical Video Coordinator: Ross Mika

 

[caulfield12]

1 hour ago, Tony said:

I mean, maybe spend less time posting in every thread on this board and actually do 8 seconds of research.

Major League Operations

Developer: Brett Phillips
Analysts: Wataru Ando, Emily Blady, Jonathan Lewyckyi
Coordinator of Baseball Information: Devin Pickett
Baseball Video Coordinator: Bryan Johnson
Technical Video Coordinator: Ross Mika

 

Millions?

C’mon.   We barely have paid our managers that before LaRussa.

Dan Fabian from Notre Dame is and has been director of analytics for quite awhile now.

https://theathletic.com/1845734/2020/06/02/meet-mike-mcneive-the-one-constant-tasked-with-gathering-intel-for-hawks/
 

So I’m going to ask one of my two best friends from grad school in Sports Admin who is well above Dan Fabian’s position with the Atlanta Hawks (basically, the basketball equivalent of scouting/advanced analytics) to provide some of his insights and see what he can infer about a rough budget and comps with what other MLB teams typically budget. By the way, your posting the Sox organizational chart is hardly demonstrable proof of even a multi-million dollar commitment to analytics on a yearly basis.

Although I’m quite elated we have two now assigned to video so KW doesn’t have to assess Tadahito Iguchi with worn out JPL tapes!!!...but they already messed up working with LaRussa on what should have been a replay challenge earlier in the season.   And we also lost Gellinger who was invaluable in this area.

 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettphillips/  He’s a software engineer in Baseball Ops.  He doesn’t run Ops. That’s Daniel Zien. That’s also quite misleading.  You just copy and pasted the bottom of the front office listings, a total of seven people, to be exact.  You also should have had Matt Koenig included there, since’s he is ostensibly #2 to Fabian.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wataru-ando/  I sincerely doubt someone from Lafayette College and not a quant from Cal Tech or MIT like the Cardinals and Astros hired (in addition to NASA) is making hundreds of thousands.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-blady-364570a2/  Barnard, now we’re getting a bit closer...in preferred backgrounds.

 

Assistant General Manager Jeremy Haber
Senior Director of Baseball Operations Dan Fabian
Director of Baseball Analytics Matt Koenig
Director of Baseball Operations Daniel Zien
Director of Team Travel Ed Cassin
Assistant Director of Baseball Operations Jeff Lachman
Special Assistant to the Chairman Dennis Gilbert
Special Assistants to the Senior VP/GM Nick Hostetler, Marco Paddy, Bill Scherrer, Jim Thome
Special Assistant to the Executive Vice President Todd Steverson
Special Assignment, Baseball Operations Ken Williams Jr.

 

Posted November 1, 2018

   On 11/1/2018 at 8:47 AM,  Chicago White Sox said: 

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs/job-posting-white-sox-baseball-operations/

I wanted to post this for two reasons.  1) There are a lot of smart, data driven people on this site and maybe one of you guys meet the qualifications for one of the two roles.  If so, I wanted to make sure you’re aware of these job postings.  2) I think it’s a great sign we’re adding to our analytics team.  From the sound of it, we have one of the smallest analytics departments in all of baseball (but one of the largest scouting departments).  I feel like we’re a little bit behind the times in terms of modern baseball, but it does appear we’re making efforts to change that.  This is one of the reasons I’m willing to give Hahn a little bit more rope than his track record warrants.  I truly believe he’s more forward thinking than KW & Jerry and this another example of the progress he is making in that regard.

Are you kidding me this is a total embarrassment, they are worth over 1 billion dollars, I would rather not know about this, what do we have as Sox fans to be proud of, nothing.

 

Edited May 15, 2021 by caulfield12

[caulfield12]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-houston-astros-a-case-study-of-the-transformative-power-of-analytics-1532102127
 

Remember, this was a decade ago with the Astros...we’re still miles behind on the curve.

The Indians with Antonetti run loops around us.   How else can a team with the lowest payroll in the sport compete?

https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2014/08/cleveland_indians_analytics_de.html

Once again, seven years ago, they were already quite well-established.

Same with the Brewers under Stearns.  The Rays, the A’s, the Red Sox, etc.

 

 

https://www.soxmachine.com/2021/02/03/the-new-names-jobs-of-the-2021-white-sox-player-development-staff/

2020 vs. 2021 roles.   By the way, none too happy to see the names Kenny Williams, Jr., and Louie Silverio on these staff pages.  Silverio was one of the players involved in Dave Wilder’s kickbacks/embezzlement/fraud scandal.  But gotta love the JR loyalty.

Kenny Williams tipped the addition of his son to the White Sox system in a Bob Nightengale story from December. In seeing another offseason go by without a Black person ascending into a main front office role, Williams said:

“I can’t even tell my own son (Ken Williams Jr.), who’s our assistant player development director,’’ Williams said, “to stay in the game because I don’t know if there will be an opportunity for him. No matter how good he gets, will there be an opportunity for him ahead? I can’t say that. What evidence is there this will be the case? And I can’t begin to tell you how much that hurts.”

Quality Control	Zach Jones Nate Pearson Devin Pickett	n/a
Coordinator, Baseball Information	n/a	Devin Pickett
Analyst, Player Development	n/a	Zach Jones

Edited May 15, 2021 by caulfield12

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

7 hours ago, Jerksticks said:

Lol that’s always the best part of the boards.  When one of us used advanced stats as like an “Aha Gotcha” at our FO or coaching staff.  
 

Forgetting the team spends millions of dollars a year on people sifting through data we have no idea even exists.  
 

?

People working in analytics in baseball are paid bottom of the barrel compared to the profession in almost every other industry. They rely on people taking jobs for the fact of "working in baseball."

The retention rate of the profession is crazy low and obviously turnover is pretty high. If the Sox spent 500,000 total on the entire department I'd be shocked. Millions a year ?

Best part of the boards is your never ending deferral to "authority" on every topic and your absurd takes on what people who aren't players get paid in the industry 

Edited May 15, 2021 by Look at Ray Ray Run