10 Steps to Save the Season

[Chicago White Sox]

Time to shake things up.  While very little of this will actually happen, these are all moves a competent organization would consider in hopes of righting a sinking ship:

1. Fire Tony La Russa - This is the biggest no-brainer move possible.  Tony is a lifeless zombie who has no business being a major league manager.  The game has clearly passed him by and it’s evident by his terrible decision-making day after day.  Time for Tony to head back to California where he can get blackout drunk on the daily and go rescue some animals.
2. Make Jirschele Manager - Forgot bringing back Ozzie or hiring another former player without experience, just go with the best managerial option in the system.  Jirschele has been hyped up quite a bit for years now and the major league team could use a young leader who actually has a pulse.
3. Fire Rick Hahn - I’ve been a Hahn supporter for some time and gave him a free pass in the past for lackluster moves as he was getting the organization in a better place, but this offseason was so bad / confusing that I can no longer look the other way.  He must be held accountable for failing address the same holes for multiple offseasons.
4. Make KW Defacto GM - We are in our window and can’t afford letting Hahn oversee another trade deadline.  And when you need a big move, there is only one man for the job and that’s Trader Kenny.  I know handling the day to day at this point is not what he’s looking for, but Jerry can make this happen by telling him it will only be a 1 1/2 season gig.
5. Replace Menechino - Honestly, I don’t even have a replacement idea here, just bring in any new voice.  I am so fucking sick of watching everyone regressing and it being groundball city night after night.  It may not seem fair to make Menechino the fall guy for players underperforming, but unfortunately we can’t fire all the players so he has to go.
6. DFA Big Energy - Our big 2B addition has been an utter disaster.  Hard to believe that he was the best we could do, but it ain’t a Rick Hahn offseason without signing some free agents who will be DFAed by the trade deadline.  And while the dude may be a great clubhouse guy, his bat is simply unplayable at this point in career and we have better options in the minors.
7. Free Yogurt - One of those better options is sitting right there in AAA.  This kid won’t be a star, but he’s a massive upgrade over both Big Energy & Legend.  And at 25 years of age, it’s time to give him a look.  If he doesn’t take advantage of the opportunity, then give Lenyn Sosa a shot or even possibly Romy Gonzalez if he can figure his shit out.
8. Acquire Bryan Reynolds - I don’t care about some Cuban OFs in AA / A+, the Sox need to finally address RF while also adding a LH bat.  With Kenny as our GM, it’s time to make a bold move.  And yes, I know the cost won’t be cheap despite a slow start and it will certainly deplete an already weakened system.  I’m sure many people will hate this, but I’m thinking that Ramos, Kath, Popeye, & Mena gets it done.
9. Demote Sheets - With Reynolds in tow, we no longer need to leverage Sheets as our one left-handed power bat.  And quite frankly, there will be way too many bats to fit him in.  As a Gavin fan coming into the season, I’ve been very disappointed with what I’ve seen out of him and this year he’s been passed on the depth chart by Jake Burger.
10. Make Eloy a DH - I argued against this in the past, but it’s time to put Eloy in a bubble and make him a permanent DH.  Even that won’t protect him from running the bases, but we must limit the opportunities to injure himself.  And with a new hitting coach in place, he’s even more important to this offense.  This means that Vaughn becomes the primary LF and Pollock rotates across all three OF spots.

What do you guys think?  What else could be done to fix this mess?  Share your thoughts and feel free to rip away.

[Chicago White Sox]

And let’s pretend for a moment all this happened, here’s your new lineup against RHP:

1. Anderson, SS
2. Robert, CF
3. Reynolds, RF#
4. Vaughn, LF
5. Abreu, 1B
6. Moncada, 3B#
7. Jimenez, DH
8. Grandal, C#
9. Sanchez, 2B

Bench: Pollock, Engel, Garcia#, Burger, McGuire*

[Sleepy Harold]

In this hypothetical, if Rick is getting canned I'd want KW to ride off into the unemployment sunset with him as well as the pro scouting department. They've been on a heater of failures.

[The Mighty Mite]

The franchise needs a complete housecleaning starting with a new owner.

There is a reason this franchise has been mediocre for 41 years and its starts at the top. Of course we did win it all in 2005 but you have to look at the whole enchilada, even when the team wins an occasional division title it falls flat on it's face in the playoffs.

Edited May 29, 2022 by The Mighty Mite

[Kyyle23]

Fire Hahn keep KW?  Can't kill a hydra like that 

[Chicago White Sox]

9 minutes ago, Sleepy Harold said:

In this hypothetical, if Rick is getting canned I'd want KW to ride off into the unemployment sunset with him as well as the pro scouting department. They've been on a heater of failures.

 

6 minutes ago, The Mighty Mite said:

The franchise needs a complete housecleaning starting with a new owner.

There is a reason this franchise has been mediocre for 41 years and its starts at the top. Of course we did win it all in 2005 but you have to look at the whole enchilada, even when the team wins an occasional division title it falls flat on it's face in the playoffs.

 

5 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

Fire Hahn keep KW?  Can't kill a hydra like that 

Let me be clear, in this hypothetical scenario, KW would be gone after the 2023 season as well.  Ultimately I think you take your shot now and in 2023 with KW at helm and then start afresh with a brand new front office.  Jerry isn’t going to fire both KW & Hahn at the same time and it would likely take him some time to hire a new President of Baseball Ops.  KW is simply the lesser of two evils if I have to pick a transitional GM for two “all in” seasons.

[caulfield12]

Well, there’s no realistic way they would turn everything over to Haber.

So KW, whatever.

Whoever’s in charge of pro scouting absolutely has to go.  Definitely don’t want Hostetler near the decision-making process, either.

Pollock should never play any position in the OF other than left.  Of course, in your scenario Vaughn is unfortunately stuck there in order to at least attempt to protect Eloy.

 

The other problem with this scenario is Grandal and McGuire isn’t being addressed, either.  They’re obviously not going to DFA Grandal before next season, but they need to get a catcher who can at least provide a 600ish OPS if that catcher is going to play almost half the time.

I do find it hard to believe they would be willing to give up on Pollock so quickly as a starter, especially when he too will likely be on the 2023 roster just like Grandal and Leury.

I also think going after Drury and creating a complementary Tyler Naquin/Engel platoon is 10x more realistic than clearing out the system for Reynolds.

It’s also getting harder and harder to trade Burger because he’s important insurance for Moncada.

[The Mighty Mite]

5 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

Well, there’s no realistic way they would turn everything over to Haber.

So KW, whatever.

Whoever’s in charge of pro scouting absolutely has to go.  Definitely don’t want Hostetler near the decision-making process, either.

Pollock should never play any position in the OF other than left.  Of course, in your scenario Vaughn is unfortunately stuck there in order to at least attempt to protect Eloy.

 

The other problem with this scenario is Grandal and McGuire isn’t being addressed, either.  They’re obviously not going to DFA Grandal before next season, but they need to get a catcher who can at least provide a 600ish OPS if that catcher is going to play almost half the time.

I do find it hard to believe they would be willing to give up on Pollock so quickly as a starter, especially when he too will likely be on the 2023 roster just like Grandal and Leury.

I also think going after Drury and creating a complementary Tyler Naquin/Engel platoon is 10x more realistic than clearing out the system for Reynolds.

It’s also getting harder and harder to trade Burger because he’s important insurance for Moncada.

Moncada might become insurance for Burger, a very high priced insurance.

Edited May 29, 2022 by The Mighty Mite

[caulfield12]

Also does anyone really believe they would turn to Jirschele without any big league experience?

Carlos Beltran (yes, outsiders) feels more likely.  Bringing in Bochy would just mean another high salary, an older manager and a new league.  God help us, but I almost might even go for Mike Scioscia but who knows how the veterans and especially Hispanic core would take to him.  Which is why Beltran makes more sense.  

[Sarava]

Everyone in the organization needs to be replaced, maybe other than Ethan Katz. To me KW is right there with Rick Hahn in needing to be axed. I suspect they've all made these decisions together.

[caulfield12]

3 minutes ago, The Mighty Mite said:

Moncada might become insurance for Burger, a very high priced insurance.

In that case, they might as well trade him after this season if he rebounds.  Too risky to assume he still has an MVP season bottled up in there somewhere.

[caulfield12]

1 minute ago, Sarava said:

Everyone in the organization needs to be replaced, maybe other than Ethan Katz. To me KW is right there with Rick Hahn in needing to be axed. I suspect they've all made these decisions together.

Marco Paddy has never done anything but identify and attempt to utilize our limited budget to go after the best future talents in the game.

Now we can still consider the Dominican and Venezuela disappointments but the Cuban Connection has compensated…with the caveat that the two most disciplined guys in Moncada and Grandal seem completely lost.

[The Mighty Mite]

4 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

In that case, they might as well trade him after this season if he rebounds.  Too risky to assume he still has an MVP season bottled up in there somewhere.

What could we get for him, he's constantly an injury waiting to happen.

[Dick Allen]

61-57 plus 1-3 in the playoffs since the All Star break last year. It’s a mediocre team as is, but they think they are a WS contender. Sign bad players. Make a bad managerial hire. Fall in love with your worst players. It’s all happened, and it’s a mess. 
 

Like was stated last night, they almost assuredly will eventually blame this on the hitting coach, fire him, and think problem solved. But it won’t be solved until they are done with this mediocre season, with the media taking shots at LaRussa, where he tells JR he’s tired and wants to go home. That will give them a chance at fixing one problem. Another should be RH/KW. I do believe KW is ready to retire. His wife retired. JR appears to think KW is the greatest talent evaluator ever, so he might beg him to stay, but hopefully he doesn’t, and they pull a Bulls and get rid of Hahn who seems like a nice guy, obviously can speak with anyone and is very bright, but not very good at building baseball teams. 

Then hire someone who has a clue. Someone who realizes Gavin Sheets isn’t going into the HOF. Someone who realizes what this team really needs. There’s still enough talent to be pretty awesome with a couple of shrewd moves, but the people who are capable of making them aren’t currently employed at 35th and Shields. That has been proven time and time again. 
 

Although I am sure he feels for his former players, somewhere Ricky Renteria has to be laughing his ass off.

[Dick Allen]

Josh Harrison played for the Tigers in 2019. They lost 114 games. His offensive stats are almost identical this year in close to the same amount of play. He was released be one of the worst teams ever.The Sox move him up to the 2 hole.

[Dick Allen]

Sox have 2 non vaxxed players that will miss the Toronto series.

[thxfrthmmrs]

The best thing we could hope for is this team continues to slide and becomes sellers at the deadline, makes a few moves to retool, TLR relieved of his duties and we do this again next season.

Edited May 29, 2022 by thxfrthmmrs

[Tnetennba]

2 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Time to shake things up.  While very little of this will actually happen, these are all moves a competent organization would consider in hopes of righting a sinking ship:

1. Fire Tony La Russa - This is the biggest no-brainer move possible.  Tony is a lifeless zombie who has no business being a major league manager.  The game has clearly passed him by and it’s evident by his terrible decision-making day after day.  Time for Tony to head back to California where he can get blackout drunk on the daily and go rescue some animals.
2. Make Jirschele Manager - Forgot bringing back Ozzie or hiring another former player without experience, just go with the best managerial option in the system.  Jirschele has been hyped up quite a bit for years now and the major league team could use a young leader who actually has a pulse.
3. Fire Rick Hahn - I’ve been a Hahn supporter for some time and gave him a free pass in the past for lackluster moves as he was getting the organization in a better place, but this offseason was so bad / confusing that I can no longer look the other way.  He must be held accountable for failing address the same holes for multiple offseasons.
4. Make KW Defacto GM - We are in our window and can’t afford letting Hahn oversee another trade deadline.  And when you need a big move, there is only one man for the job and that’s Trader Kenny.  I know handling the day to day at this point is not what he’s looking for, but Jerry can make this happen by telling him it will only be a 1 1/2 season gig.
5. Replace Menechino - Honestly, I don’t even have a replacement idea here, just bring in any new voice.  I am so fucking sick of watching everyone regressing and it being groundball city night after night.  It may not seem fair to make Menechino the fall guy for players underperforming, but unfortunately we can’t fire all the players so he has to go.
6. DFA Big Energy - Our big 2B addition has been an utter disaster.  Hard to believe that he was the best we could do, but it ain’t a Rick Hahn offseason without signing some free agents who will be DFAed by the trade deadline.  And while the dude may be a great clubhouse guy, his bat is simply unplayable at this point in career and we have better options in the minors.
7. Free Yogurt - One of those better options is sitting right there in AAA.  This kid won’t be a star, but he’s a massive upgrade over both Big Energy & Legend.  And at 25 years of age, it’s time to give him a look.  If he doesn’t take advantage of the opportunity, then give Lenyn Sosa a shot or even possibly Romy Gonzalez if he can figure his shit out.
8. Acquire Bryan Reynolds - I don’t care about some Cuban OFs in AA / A+, the Sox need to finally address RF while also adding a LH bat.  With Kenny as our GM, it’s time to make a bold move.  And yes, I know the cost won’t be cheap despite a slow start and it will certainly deplete an already weakened system.  I’m sure many people will hate this, but I’m thinking that Ramos, Kath, Popeye, & Mena gets it done.
9. Demote Sheets - With Reynolds in tow, we no longer need to leverage Sheets as our one left-handed power bat.  And quite frankly, there will be way too many bats to fit him in.  As a Gavin fan coming into the season, I’ve been very disappointed with what I’ve seen out of him and this year he’s been passed on the depth chart by Jake Burger.
10. Make Eloy a DH - I argued against this in the past, but it’s time to put Eloy in a bubble and make him a permanent DH.  Even that won’t protect him from running the bases, but we must limit the opportunities to injure himself.  And with a new hitting coach in place, he’s even more important to this offense.  This means that Vaughn becomes the primary LF and Pollock rotates across all three OF spots.

What do you guys think?  What else could be done to fix this mess?  Share your thoughts and feel free to rip away.

All of these things should have already happened.  Not that I really believe any of it would right the ship this year year.  But change must be made if they want to salvage this “window.” 

[iWiN4PreP]

These are really excellent steps that would make me interested in the organization again. With this being said, I don’t think it’s possible that the white sox acquire reynolds 

[Chicago White Sox]

1 hour ago, caulfield12 said:

Well, there’s no realistic way they would turn everything over to Haber.

So KW, whatever.

Whoever’s in charge of pro scouting absolutely has to go.  Definitely don’t want Hostetler near the decision-making process, either.

Pollock should never play any position in the OF other than left.  Of course, in your scenario Vaughn is unfortunately stuck there in order to at least attempt to protect Eloy.

 

The other problem with this scenario is Grandal and McGuire isn’t being addressed, either.  They’re obviously not going to DFA Grandal before next season, but they need to get a catcher who can at least provide a 600ish OPS if that catcher is going to play almost half the time.

I do find it hard to believe they would be willing to give up on Pollock so quickly as a starter, especially when he too will likely be on the 2023 roster just like Grandal and Leury.

I also think going after Drury and creating a complementary Tyler Naquin/Engel platoon is 10x more realistic than clearing out the system for Reynolds.

It’s also getting harder and harder to trade Burger because he’s important insurance for Moncada.

I almost included Carlos Perez as one of the ten steps, but you got to give Grandal more rope since his contract runs through next year and Eloy is at DH in this hypothetical.

As for Pollock, there is zero chance everyone remains healthy the rest of the way so he’d remain a defacto starter.

[soxfan49]

 

[soxfan49]

12 minutes ago, iWiN4PreP said:

These are really excellent steps that would make me interested in the organization again. With this being said, I don’t think it’s possible that the white sox acquire reynolds 

That's the only thing you don't see as possible? It's the Sox. It's Jerry Reinsdorf. The odds that #1 happens would probably be somewhere around 1,000,000,000:1 in Vegas

[iWiN4PreP]

4 minutes ago, soxfan49 said:

That's the only thing you don't see as possible? It's the Sox. It's Jerry Reinsdorf. The odds that #1 happens would probably be somewhere around 1,000,000,000:1 in Vegas

I just feel like most of these steps are logical, but they reynolds trade is not because logically he should cost more than we could  ever pay

[reiks12]

3 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Time to shake things up.  While very little of this will actually happen, these are all moves a competent organization would consider in hopes of righting a sinking ship:

1. Fire Tony La Russa - This is the biggest no-brainer move possible.  Tony is a lifeless zombie who has no business being a major league manager.  The game has clearly passed him by and it’s evident by his terrible decision-making day after day.  Time for Tony to head back to California where he can get blackout drunk on the daily and go rescue some animals.
2. Make Jirschele Manager - Forgot bringing back Ozzie or hiring another former player without experience, just go with the best managerial option in the system.  Jirschele has been hyped up quite a bit for years now and the major league team could use a young leader who actually has a pulse.
3. Fire Rick Hahn - I’ve been a Hahn supporter for some time and gave him a free pass in the past for lackluster moves as he was getting the organization in a better place, but this offseason was so bad / confusing that I can no longer look the other way.  He must be held accountable for failing address the same holes for multiple offseasons.
4. Make KW Defacto GM - We are in our window and can’t afford letting Hahn oversee another trade deadline.  And when you need a big move, there is only one man for the job and that’s Trader Kenny.  I know handling the day to day at this point is not what he’s looking for, but Jerry can make this happen by telling him it will only be a 1 1/2 season gig.
5. Replace Menechino - Honestly, I don’t even have a replacement idea here, just bring in any new voice.  I am so fucking sick of watching everyone regressing and it being groundball city night after night.  It may not seem fair to make Menechino the fall guy for players underperforming, but unfortunately we can’t fire all the players so he has to go. hts and feel free to rip away.

The only way any of this happens is if Jerry croaks, and that just doesnt look like its going to happen anytime soon. Jerry is going to outlive us all.

[Sleepy Harold]

2 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

 

 

Let me be clear, in this hypothetical scenario, KW would be gone after the 2023 season as well.  Ultimately I think you take your shot now and in 2023 with KW at helm and then start afresh with a brand new front office.  Jerry isn’t going to fire both KW & Hahn at the same time and it would likely take him some time to hire a new President of Baseball Ops.  KW is simply the lesser of two evils if I have to pick a transitional GM for two “all in” seasons.

Fair enough, no way they'd totally clean house mid-season. KW at least had some success in his tenure, although I'd be leery of him trading away several futures for more bandaids, and I don't trust the pro scouting department to make any solid recommendations at this point.