Chicago White Sox Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jul 4, 2016 -> 04:57 PM) Not giving Hahn a free pass . I have been all over Hahn for his failed attempts to improve the offense. As you said there is a lot of bad. The Sox are a bad offensive team. You can't pin that on just one player. And as others have said even adding Morneau ( if he hits well) to replace Avi will not magically make this a good offensive team. You could say if Abreu had been the Abreu of the past 2 years that would also mean the difference in a win or 2. What about all the games Lawrie sucked during the 35 games the Sox sucked. What about Shields wetting the bed his 1st three starts. How about the Rollins failure ? The Matt Albers implosion ? The game they blew in the late innings ahead by 5 or 6 runs ? The failures of Danks and Latos leading to their releases ? You blame Avi if the Sox miss the playoffs by a game or two when others who have had better seasons and expected to produce have not lived up to expectations. Plus you didn't even mention Hahn in your original post. It has been and always will be a team game and I just don't think you can ever blame one player when the whole team has not hit. You said it yourself, there is a lot of bad on the team yet you can blame just one guy if the Sox miss the playoffs by a few games ? Doesn't make sense. Of course I can also add how just about everyone wanted Ventura fired. I'm wrong ? Get real and stop being a sheep following the Avi is the scapegoat for everything other sheep. Didn't mention Hahn in my original post? I said it was indefensible for the Sox to count on Avi as a starter, who do you think that falls on? Hahn passed on numerous upgrades in the offseason and eventually entered the season with a bad hitter as his primary DH. No doubt there are other flaws with the team and clearly guys have underperformed, but I'm not going to blame Hahn for things he's not accountable for or holes that were far more difficult to fill. There's absolutely no excuse for Avi being our DH right now. Don't care that LaRoche retired, there were guys available that could provided some value offensively, such as Jay Bruce. Instead, the organization decided to give Avi one last opportunity. It was a foolish gamble and one that could cost us in the end. And again, it won't be the only reason we miss the playoffs if we do, but it will be the biggest reason that could have been easily mitigated before the start of the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago White Sox Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 4, 2016 -> 05:05 PM) The other thing is Avi wasn't supposed to see much time. LaRoche was going to DH. They weren't counting on Avi playing everyday. They tried to change him up, but e erytime they make an adjustment, either lowering his hands or opening him up, he quickly goes back to his old way. If Morneau can play fine, if he can't, I am sure they will bring in another bat. Avi wasn't the reason the team went into that horrible slide. So let's ignore Avi's failures because he like every other player in baseball history didn't single-handily cause their team to go through a horrific month-long slump. Makes perfect sense to me. We've lost 14 games by 1 run. If you don't think having a competent hitter at DH might have won us another game or two you're fooling yourself. Instead we trot out Avi and his wRC+ of 75 because our front office decided to enter the season with no backup plan whatsoever once LaRoche retired (FWIW, a guy they tried giving away). It's an absolute joke and you guys should be ashamed of yourselves for arguing otherwise. This was one of our biggest misses of the offseason and one that could be costly in the end if Hahn doesn't rectify his mistake soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaliSoxFanViaSWside Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 (edited) QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 4, 2016 -> 04:20 PM) So let's ignore Avi's failures because he like every other player in baseball history didn't single-handily cause their team to go through a horrific month-long slump. Makes perfect sense to me. We've lost 14 games by 1 run. If you don't think having a competent hitter at DH might have won us another game or two you're fooling yourself. Instead we trot out Avi and his wRC+ of 75 because our front office decided to enter the season with no backup plan whatsoever once LaRoche retired (FWIW, a guy they tried giving away). It's an absolute joke and you guys should be ashamed of yourselves for arguing otherwise. This was one of our biggest misses of the offseason and one that could be costly in the end if Hahn doesn't rectify his mistake soon. I think we are on the same page IF you are placing more blame on Hahn than you are on Avi. Avi is just being Avi . Blaming him for doing what he has always done seems fruitless to me. Baltimore stole Mark Trumbo from the Mariners for less than the equivalent of Tyler Flowers. Daniel Murphy would sure look good as the LH bat we needed and he signed for a lot less than guys like Upton Gordon and Cespedes. Even Ian Desmonds was available very late into the off season. I'm sure I'm missing a few guys who would've upgraded the Sox but lets face it The Sox were going to live or die with LaRoche not Avi as the primary DH against right handers. The fact they couldn't get rid of him earlier kind of handicapped the front office into adding that other bat they needed. Avi has had 9 lives . Every time the Sox have tried to diminish his playing time something has happened to put him back in the line up. It's explained here :http://www.southsidesox.com/2016/6/29/12057860/everything-keeps-coming-back-to-avisail-garcia Edited July 5, 2016 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldsox Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 Both Desmond and Murphy would have cost that draft pick, as would have Fowler. Hahn just was not going to give it up, right or wrong. Trumbo had a so-so 2015, striking out a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian310 Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 QUOTE (oldsox @ Jul 5, 2016 -> 03:23 AM) Both Desmond and Murphy would have cost that draft pick, as would have Fowler. Hahn just was not going to give it up, right or wrong. Trumbo had a so-so 2015, striking out a lot. Desmond on a one year deal would bring back compensation in the offseason though. On the flip-side, if he starts at short stop for us, Anderson isn't up now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenSox Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 (edited) QUOTE (chisoxfan310 @ Jul 5, 2016 -> 07:31 AM) Desmond on a one year deal would bring back compensation in the offseason though. On the flip-side, if he starts at short stop for us, Anderson isn't up now. And would Sox put him in the outfield? They have a bevy of young infielders really don't try any in the outfield. Plus Desmond had a terrible year last year. Maybe they were quantifiable reasons for that that the Rangers saw, but now he's having a career year. Avi has some traits of a good hitter. He takes walks and goes the other way. He just has no power when doing it. And good hitters who take walks and go the other way usually don't strike out so much and have better batting averages. Probably be better off if he tried to pull. Edited July 5, 2016 by GreenSox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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