Why fire Guillen? Williams? or Walker?

[striker]

I just wanted to point out to all the nay sayers of Guillen, Williams and Walker that this is one of the most talented Whitesox teams I have ever seen take the field. Williams did an AWESOME job this offseason to field a team that had the capability to win. That is his job. That is all he can do. Its up to the player to perform and win.

 

The problem is that every player, with the exception of Jenks and the starting pitching, has just plain sucked. For some reason or another they just aren't good. No manager or general manager could have ever predicted this.

 

Could Williams predict that Aardsma and MacDougal would suck this bad after finishing their 2006 seasons complete studs? No.

 

Could Williams predict that the best offensive MLB team in 2006 would be batting .232 after 52 games? No.

 

Williams found the right players for the job, but the players haven't been doing their job. It's not Williams fault.

 

Can you blame Guillen? Why? Because of the lineup he chooses? Because of the timing of the reliever he brings in? No. Because no matter what the lineup is right now, they aren't going to hit. No matter who the reliever is he brings in, they are going to suck.

 

Can you blame Walker? Yes you can. Its all his fault our team is hitting .232. Because he taught them to suck. No, you can't blame Walker. The hitters just aren't doing their jobs. And they are all VERY VERY capable of hitting.

 

So what's the point of this post? Stop blaming Williams, Guillen and Walker. And stop whining. Despite being 7.5 games out of our division lead and 5 games back of the wildcard, we are still a VERY VERY talented team and we are very capable of making the playoffs. If it takes 95 wins to make the playoffs who care which 95 games we win??

 

I'm sure you were a lot happier Whitesox fan this time last year, but how did we finish?

 

LETS GO SOX!

[iamshack]

I just wanted to point out to all the nay sayers of Guillen, Williams and Walker that this is one of the most talented Whitesox teams I have ever seen take the field. Williams did an AWESOME job this offseason to field a team that had the capability to win. That is his job. That is all he can do. Its up to the player to perform and win.

 

The problem is that every player, with the exception of Jenks and the starting pitching, has just plain sucked. For some reason or another they just aren't good. No manager or general manager could have ever predicted this.

 

Could Williams predict that Aardsma and MacDougal would suck this bad after finishing their 2006 seasons complete studs? No.

 

Could Williams predict that the best offensive MLB team in 2006 would be batting .232 after 52 games? No.

 

Williams found the right players for the job, but the players haven't been doing their job. It's not Williams fault.

 

Can you blame Guillen? Why? Because of the lineup he chooses? Because of the timing of the reliever he brings in? No. Because no matter what the lineup is right now, they aren't going to hit. No matter who the reliever is he brings in, they are going to suck.

 

Can you blame Walker? Yes you can. Its all his fault our team is hitting .232. Because he taught them to suck. No, you can't blame Walker. The hitters just aren't doing their jobs. And they are all VERY VERY capable of hitting.

 

So what's the point of this post? Stop blaming Williams, Guillen and Walker. And stop whining. Despite being 7.5 games out of our division lead and 5 games back of the wildcard, we are still a VERY VERY talented team and we are very capable of making the playoffs. If it takes 95 wins to make the playoffs who care which 95 games we win??

 

I'm sure you were a lot happier Whitesox fan this time last year, but how did we finish?

 

LETS GO SOX!

 

Amen Brother.

[Kalapse]

Here is a simple question for you Striker, no one else, just you.

 

What exactly is Greg Walker's job?

[fathom]

I can't tell if this is supposed to be sarcastic or not. If so, then well done. If not....well, Go Sox!

[iamshack]

I can't tell if this is supposed to be sarcastic or not. If so, then well done. If not....well, Go Sox!

 

Honestly fathom, if everything is so terrible all the time, why do you even get out of bed in the morning?

[fathom]

Honestly fathom, if everything is so terrible all the time, why do you even get out of bed in the morning?

 

It's not...I had a delightful day today, despite the Sox game. But when someone says that KW did an awesome job at putting together this team this offseason or that the Sox had the best offense in 2006, I'm going to laugh at that.

[striker]

Here is a simple question for you Striker, no one else, just you.

 

What exactly is Greg Walker's

 

He's the batting coach.

 

Whats your first grade teachers job? To teach addition and subtraction. But if you give the wrong change as a McDonald's cashier does everyone start posting on your elementary school's website to fire your first grade teacher? No.

 

The McDonalds cashier thing is just an analogy.

[Gregory Pratt]

Honestly fathom, if everything is so terrible all the time, why do you even get out of bed in the morning?

 

Easy on my guy fathom. He only hates the team's bullpen, which can't throw strikes or throw a fastball by a player. And he just hates our lineup, which can't hit lefthanders at all, rolls over for certain pitchers every time, pulls everything with little success and can't score a run on three straight singles. He also hates our defense, which looks like it's running through quicksand and can't throw out a baserunner, or hold one even! And then he hates our lack of speed, youth or energy. And then he hates our general manager and manager.

 

But there, he's wrong.

 

On the plus side, I've heard he likes puppy dogs and Hulk Hogan. He just doesn't like bad baseball.

[iamshack]

It's not...I had a delightful day today, despite the Sox game. But when someone says that KW did an awesome job at putting together this team this offseason or that the Sox had the best offense in 2006, I'm going to laugh at that.

 

You act as though bullpen's are a simple thing to assemble. I know you're smart enough to know they aren't. Ask the resident genius in Cleveland about that last season.

 

I can only imagine if we kept track of what everyone's great moves around here would be how incredibly laughable it would be.

Edited June 4, 2007 by iamshack

[fathom]

You act as though bullpen's are a simple thing to assemble. I know you're smart enough to know they aren't. As the resident genius in Cleveland about that last season.

 

I can only imagine if we kept track of what everyone's great moves around here would be how incredibly laughable it would be.

 

No, I know they're difficult. But I also know KW made a huge mistake this offseason in thinking that guys throwing hard is the main thing. I've always thought that having relievers with good sinkers is huge, as you can make the opposition put the ball in play and not worry about the long ball as much. The ironic thing is that our bullpen guys really don't throw that hard. Only Jenks and Thornton reach 96 mph. Heck, the Blue Jays had more velocity from their relievers than we do, and that was a bullpen where just about everyone makes the minimum.

[Frankensteiner]

The team has underachieved, there's no question about it.

 

Walker is horrible. Is it really coincidence the guy with the highest BA on the team is the guy who's been around Walker the shortest amount of time?

 

I guess I'd still like Williams to try and salvage the season with some deals. Some might disagree, but the Sox look like they'll get good starting pitching for the rest of the year, so I'd try and give this team a shot. And I can't imagine the hitting can go anywhere but up.

[iamshack]

No, I know they're difficult. But I also know KW made a huge mistake this offseason in thinking that guys throwing hard is the main thing. I've always thought that having relievers with good sinkers is huge, as you can make the opposition put the ball in play and not worry about the long ball as much. The ironic thing is that our bullpen guys really don't throw that hard. Only Jenks and Thornton reach 96 mph. Heck, the Blue Jays had more velocity from their relievers than we do, and that was a bullpen where just about everyone makes the minimum.

 

You act as though we have a high-priced bullpen...

[southsideirish71]

He's the batting coach.

 

Whats your first grade teachers job? To teach addition and subtraction. But if you give the wrong change as a McDonald's cashier does everyone start posting on your elementary school's website to fire your first grade teacher? No.

 

The McDonalds cashier thing is just an analogy.

 

He is a major league hitting instructor, he was not Jermaine Dyes minor league instructor so I dont see the analogy.

[fathom]

You act as though we have a high-priced bullpen...

 

No...what I'm saying is that they have a lot of hard throwers in their organization that they've developed. Meanwhile, we don't.

[iamshack]

No...what I'm saying is that they have a lot of hard throwers in their organization that they've developed. Meanwhile, we don't.

 

No. They have two. Casey Jannsen and Jeremy Accardo.

 

The grass is always greener. Toronto, prior to heating up over the past week, was eight games under .500.

[fathom]

No. They have two. Casey Jannsen and Jeremy Accardo.

 

The grass is always greener. Toronto, prior to heating up over the past week, was eight games under .500.

 

Wolfe was pretty damn impressive with how hard he was throwing today.

[iamshack]

Wolfe was pretty damn impressive with how hard he was throwing today.

 

Their two young starters also made it through three innings a piece the last two games. Toronto has their own problems....if we could only combine the best players from every other team we would be awesome.

[fathom]

Their two young starters also made it through three innings a piece the last two games. Toronto has their own problems....if we could only combine the best players from every other team we would be awesome.

 

Which other starter? McGowan seems to be "getting it".

[Buehrle>Wood]

Again, if someone like Walker really has no effect on the players' play, then what would be the harm in firing someone like him?

[Kalapse]

He's the batting coach.

 

Whats your first grade teachers job? To teach addition and subtraction. But if you give the wrong change as a McDonald's cashier does everyone start posting on your elementary school's website to fire your first grade teacher? No.

 

The McDonalds cashier thing is just an analogy.

Yeah, that's his job title. What is his job description.

 

And a better analogy would be Walker is your McDonalds Supervisor and under his watch you and 6 other employees have been taking regular afternoon s***s in the deep fryer. There is no real way for the restaurant to get rid of the lot of you due to cooperate and FDA regulations, so they're stuck with your miserable ass no matter terrible your fries are. In the past when fry cooks had acted up firing the Supervisor would give the whole group a little jolt and brought about some overall acceptable production in the french fry department.

 

Really Walker isn't doing much as your Supervisor just kind of standing around watching his professional fry makers struggle to make a quality french fry so firing him would be no big loss in the grand scheme of things but canning his ass now could get the fry makers going and the McDonald's could once again start performing at the level excellence which is expected of it.

[southsideirish71]

Yeah, that's his job title. What is his job description.

 

And a better analogy would be Walker is your McDonalds Supervisor and under his watch you and 6 other employees have been taking regular afternoon s***s in the deep fryer. There is no real way for the restaurant to get rid of the lot of you due to cooperate and FDA regulations, so they're stuck with your miserable ass no matter terrible your fries are. In the past when fry cooks had acted up firing the Supervisor would give the whole group a little jolt and brought about some overall acceptable production in the french fry department.

 

Really Walker isn't doing much as your Supervisor just kind of standing around watching his professional fry makers struggle to make a quality french fry so firing him would be no big loss in the grand scheme of things but canning his ass now could get the fry makers going and the McDonald's could once again start performing at the level excellence which is expected of it.

 

 

[Kalapse]

Again, if someone like Walker really has no effect on the players' play, then what would be the harm in firing someone like him?

I truly believe it is as simple as this. If the only real reason for keeping him on board is that he really doesn't have much of an effect on the players anyway then what's the harm in firing him in hopes that the offense could get going under someone else's watch?

[caulfield12]

Yeah, that's his job title. What is his job description.

 

And a better analogy would be Walker is your McDonalds Supervisor and under his watch you and 6 other employees have been taking regular afternoon s***s in the deep fryer. There is no real way for the restaurant to get rid of the lot of you due to cooperate and FDA regulations, so they're stuck with your miserable ass no matter terrible your fries are. In the past when fry cooks had acted up firing the Supervisor would give the whole group a little jolt and brought about some overall acceptable production in the french fry department.

 

Really Walker isn't doing much as your Supervisor just kind of standing around watching his professional fry makers struggle to make a quality french fry so firing him would be no big loss in the grand scheme of things but canning his ass now could get the fry makers going and the McDonald's could once again start performing at the level excellence which is expected of it.

 

 

Everyone in the world wants to be a major league player, but there's a finite number of quality replacements.

 

Whereas McDonald's has lots of replacement options, but, at the amount they pay, they are bound to invest a lot of time and money in training them and replacing them, because of the low pay.

 

The McDonald's question is more about pride and effort, whereas MLB bullpens that "try too hard" see diminishing results.

 

Maybe the McDonald's manager gets better effort from properly motivating his "fry team," but I'm not sure that Cooper can do a better job "motivating" relievers that have serious endemic limitations.

[iamshack]

Yeah, that's his job title. What is his job description.

 

And a better analogy would be Walker is your McDonalds Supervisor and under his watch you and 6 other employees have been taking regular afternoon s***s in the deep fryer. There is no real way for the restaurant to get rid of the lot of you due to cooperate and FDA regulations, so they're stuck with your miserable ass no matter terrible your fries are. In the past when fry cooks had acted up firing the Supervisor would give the whole group a little jolt and brought about some overall acceptable production in the french fry department.

 

Really Walker isn't doing much as your Supervisor just kind of standing around watching his professional fry makers struggle to make a quality french fry so firing him would be no big loss in the grand scheme of things but canning his ass now could get the fry makers going and the McDonald's could once again start performing at the level excellence which is expected of it.

 

That's nonsense. Firing the hitting coach has never been a sure-fire way to get everyone hitting again. At times, it has happened, probably more as a coincidence than anything else, as good hitters will always begin hitting again as a result of the law of averages. i guess Cooper should have been fired last year due to the starting pitching being terrible.

[Kalapse]

That's nonsense. Firing the hitting coach has never been a sure-fire way to get everyone hitting again. At times, it has happened, probably more as a coincidence than anything else, as good hitters will always begin hitting again as a result of the law of averages. i guess Cooper should have been fired last year due to the starting pitching being terrible.

I never said it was a sure fire solution but if there is even a possibility as you stated that firing the hitting coach could get the hitters going even a bit then I don't see the harm in it. As so so so many Walker Backer's have stated: these are professional hitters, Greg Walker isn't really having a huge effect on their production anyway so what's the harm in firing him now?

 

Coincidence or not, at this point I think it's worth the gamble considering the downside is really quite minimal.