Adam LaRoche retires

[LDF]

Nothing in this whole thing is a crime or anyone doing anything wrong to the other person. That's why this whole thing is so freaking stupid. LaRoche was stubborn for quitting and Sale needs to worry more about not letting the Twins make him look like Jim Parque.

 

and someone should break eaton's thumbs.

[southsider2k5]

Isn't this exactly what happened until someone from the LaRoche side leaked the story to the Pitt writer and Rosenthal?

 

It seemed like LaRoche didn't want the story out himself, but his story has sure been encouraged and told by a lot of people in his camp, not to mention his company's twitter account basically telling his story with what they retweeted.

 

To me that is worst of all. If you want to talk, talk. If you don't, stay out of it, and don't use backdoors to do it. In the 21st century it isn't hard to connect the dots.

[Dick Allen]

None of this whole thing is a crime or anyone doing anything wrong to the other person. That's why this whole thing is so freaking stupid. LaRoche was stubborn for quitting and Sale needs to worry more about not letting the Twins make him look like Jim Parque.

You of all posters would have a totally opposite opinion if this made a player who has been productive walk away. Sale was sticking up for his teammate. In the clubhouse, which supposedly "belongs" to the players. With all complaining you have done about LaRoche, why do you have to be derogatory towards him for quitting? You should be thrilled.

[shysocks]

It seemed like LaRoche didn't want the story out himself, but his story has sure been encouraged and told by a lot of people in his camp, not to mention his company's twitter account basically telling his story with what they retweeted.

 

To me that is worst of all. If you want to talk, talk. If you don't, stay out of it, and don't use backdoors to do it. In the 21st century it isn't hard to connect the dots.

THIS THIS THIS.

[fathom]

You of all posters would have a totally opposite opinion if this made a player who has been productive walk away. Sale was sticking up for his teammate. In the clubhouse, which supposedly "belongs" to the players. With all complaining you have done about LaRoche, why do you have to be derogatory towards him for quitting? You should be thrilled.

 

Purely as a baseball move, I'm thrilled. As a potential chemistry issue for this season, I'm concerned. If he retired Tuesday and nothing else was ever said about this, that would have been fantastic. Also, I don't think a productive player would have walked away. He hated playing last year and maybe this situation made the choice easy for him.

[Dick Allen]

It's a good question, and this may be a naive view on it, but that speaks to the leadership or lack thereof with the players, coaches and management if they can't bring everyone together.

 

"Guys, this can turn into a huge distraction, or we can be united on this front and focus on an incredibly important season. No one is asking you to be in 100% agreement with this decision, you have a right to be upset, but act like a professional and keep it in the room. b**** at me, not to the media or anyone else. It happened, we're going to talk about right now, and then we are going to move on and focus on 2016."

 

This turned into a circus and I don't think it needed to. When the story broke that the reason LaRoche retired was because of Williams asking Adam to dial it back with Drake, it became a story, understandably. Then Williams quotes came out, and almost everyone was in agreement he said the right things. Where it started to spin out of control was the leaks from the clubhouse with Sale popping off, Eaton making comments directly to media, then going on Twitter. That's really where the cracks starting showing, and I think there were some measures that could have been put in place to avoid that, that's all.

Eaton is also saying the team is united regarding this. It's other media saying there has to be divide because at least Jimmy Rollins complained, and apparently had back up.

[Chisoxfn]

Today is the day LaRoche is supposed to make it official. If he really wanted to make this a circus, he would change his mind. I'm thinking there is no chance of that.

Duquette and Bowden both said on MLB radio this morning that LaRoche's stance is absolutely ridiculous and there is absolutely no place for a kid to be around the lockeroom all the time. During the show prior to Duquette and Bowden the stances were nearly identical and even alluded to the fact that in Washington, where LaRoche's son was allowed to be on the stadium most of the time, the lockeroom was off limits for kids after BP, so basically there was a family time for players and there kids and business time. The earlier show (can't remember who the hosts were) did mention that LaRoche's camp seems to be reporting that Ventura / Hahn used it as a marketing ploy to get Adam to sign with the club though, that said, they all felt that it was absolutely absurd to have in the clubhouse and that the Sox shouldn't have made any direct statements to that like (because reality is clubhouse dynamics change).

 

Boone was on ESPN and had a similar stance as the above, except he went one farther saying he knew that there were rules when him and his brother were around his dad and even asked questions when he was traded as to what it would be like. It really sounds like what the White Sox allowed last year was a total outlier in all of baseball and while last years dynamics allowed for it, it is becoming more apparent that this years team had at least some people who weren't behind it and supportive of it and thus the Sox had to make a move. The problem really is in what the Sox allowed to begin with (however you can't blame them for eventually making the right call...with the exception of if they did actually verbally tell LaRoche it was fine and it was part of him signing here).

 

 

[Dick Allen]

Duquette and Bowden both said on MLB radio this morning that LaRoche's stance is absolutely ridiculous and there is absolutely no place for a kid to be around the lockeroom all the time. During the show prior to Duquette and Bowden the stances were nearly identical and even alluded to the fact that in Washington, where LaRoche's son was allowed to be on the stadium most of the time, the lockeroom was off limits for kids after BP, so basically there was a family time for players and there kids and business time. The earlier show (can't remember who the hosts were) did mention that LaRoche's camp seems to be reporting that Ventura / Hahn used it as a marketing ploy to get Adam to sign with the club though, that said, they all felt that it was absolutely absurd to have in the clubhouse and that the Sox shouldn't have made any direct statements to that like (because reality is clubhouse dynamics change).

 

Boone was on ESPN and had a similar stance as the above, except he went one farther saying he knew that there were rules when him and his brother were around his dad and even asked questions when he was traded as to what it would be like. It really sounds like what the White Sox allowed last year was a total outlier in all of baseball and while last years dynamics allowed for it, it is becoming more apparent that this years team had at least some people who weren't behind it and supportive of it and thus the Sox had to make a move. The problem really is in what the Sox allowed to begin with (however you can't blame them for eventually making the right call...with the exception of if they did actually verbally tell LaRoche it was fine and it was part of him signing here).

Maybe it is ridiculous. But my stance is it doesn't matter. If Hahn and Robing gave their word it was good before he signed, whether it was in the contract or not, the White Sox should be held to their word. That's it . And an article linked from last season about him did state he doesn't have unlimited access that many are assuming. There are certain times he can't be around.

Edited March 18, 2016 by Dick Allen

[flavum]

here's that Bowden clip.

 

https://soundcloud.com/mlbnetworkradio/form...roche-situation

Edited March 18, 2016 by flavum

[shysocks]

Maybe it is ridiculous. But my stance is it doesn't matter. If Hahn and Robing gave their word it was good before he signed, whether it was in the contract or not, the White Sox should be held to their word. That's it.

We get that. What about the fact that it was LaRoche who walked away when asked to compromise?

[Chisoxfn]

You of all posters would have a totally opposite opinion if this made a player who has been productive walk away. Sale was sticking up for his teammate. In the clubhouse, which supposedly "belongs" to the players. With all complaining you have done about LaRoche, why do you have to be derogatory towards him for quitting? You should be thrilled.

I don't think the Sox acted wrong (with the exception of any promises they may or may not have made prior to signing Adam as those really aren't promises that you can / should make to a player as the clubhouse is dynamic and belongs to the player). I'd also say allowing for that probably isn't a wise decision anyway as there is a time and a place for family and there is a time and a place to be professional and have that closed clubhouse. I also don't have any issue with LaRoche retiring, he's 100% entitled to it. I don't think he should drag it through the media, but I don't necessarily think he did. I think others had an issue with it and some players on the club were clearly tight with him and Duke and have made it an issue. I'd argue it is admirable for them to stick up, but also looking at the guys who are sticking up, they tend to be the more over-reactionary hot-heads vs. the true leaders.

[Bob Sacamano]

I definitely loved this story a whole lot more when we didn't know anything and assumed he was retiring because he knew he couldn't contribute because of his back.

[Chisoxfn]

Eaton is also saying the team is united regarding this. It's other media saying there has to be divide because at least Jimmy Rollins complained, and apparently had back up.

To be fair, no player is openly going to come out and say something. Any of that will be handled behind closed doors and the reality is this team lacked real leadership the past few years and the people who have been most vocal, while they might represent some of our best players, they don't represent our real leaders, imo.

[fathom]

And as a teammate, if LaRoche is told that it might be distracting to some of his peers, wouldn't he want to try and figure out a compromise if he was really interested in trying to win this season?

[shakes]

Maybe it is ridiculous. But my stance is it doesn't matter. If Hahn and Robing gave their word it was good before he signed, whether it was in the contract or not, the White Sox should be held to their word. That's it . And an article linked from last season about him did state he doesn't have unlimited access that many are assuming. There are certain times he can't be around.

 

Again, your whole argument revolves around a hypothetical agreement, you nor anyone else can confirm, that would have given LaRoche a privilege nobody in the history of the sport has ever gotten, and seemingly everyone agrees nobody should have.

 

 

[Dick Allen]

We get that. What about the fact that it was LaRoche who walked away when asked to compromise?

 

He did the team a favor. But he shouldn't have to compromise. Why don't the Sox compromise with Chris Sale and rip up his contract and give him one he deserves? You make an agreement, whether you like it, love it, or hate it in a year or so, you made the agreement. If you don't have your word............

[Dick Allen]

Again, your whole argument revolves around a hypothetical agreement, you nor anyone else can confirm, that would have given LaRoche a privilege nobody in the history of the sport has ever gotten, and seemingly everyone agrees nobody should have.

You say this but more and more people are reporting it. The Sun Times beat writer is the latest.

[shakes]

You say this but more and more people are reporting it. The Sun Times beat writer is the latest.

 

Link them

[fathom]

Another thing to come out of this story is that by all accounts, the clubhouse chemistry sucked last year. Then you have someone like Tom Shear say players were frustrated by it last season as well.

 

To me, I honestly think this has less to do with the kid and more to do with the belief that LaRoche isn't as focused on baseball as he needs to be.

[Dick Allen]

Link them

The link is in this thread.

[Black_Jack29]

He did the team a favor. But he shouldn't have to compromise. Why don't the Sox compromise with Chris Sale and rip up his contract and give him one he deserves? You make an agreement, whether you like it, love it, or hate it in a year or so, you made the agreement. If you don't have your word............

 

There's a huge difference between a written, legally binding contract and an off-the-record gentleman's agreement that may or may not have been made.

 

[Princess Dye]

Kill me now

 

 

Bob Nightengale ‏@BNightengale 28s28 seconds ago

Chris Sale has. Adam LaRoche and Drake LaRoche uniforms hanging in his Whitesox locker

[Baron]

Adam LaRoche ordered the code red

[flavum]

https://twitter.com/BillShaikin/status/710851275944910848

 

Drake LaRoche's uniform still hanging in White Sox clubhouse.

 

There's one question I had answered this morning.

 

If Sale has them in his locker, he's just trying to pick a fight with somebody. Go for it. Get it out of your system.

Edited March 18, 2016 by flavum

[Dick Allen]

There's a huge difference between a written, legally binding contract and an off-the-record gentleman's agreement that may or may not have been made.

Maybe legally, but not morally. JR held a press conference after Horace Grant went back on a verbal agreement. He said he lacked character.