Chicago White Sox... The thread.

[pumpdog20]

I'm a big Ozzie guy around here, so you know I'm down for AJ taking over.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

What's your thoughts on the AJ rumors?

It would be business as usual from a stupid franchise that only wants to hire people Jerry likes who have played for the team.

AJ's only qualifications are exactly that.

It's a trash hire, so they'll do it. A few nitwits will buy tickets. The end.

 

[pumpdog20]

Yeah, I figured that was your opinion. LOL
Count me in as a nitwit more willing to pay to watch that team then this one.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Yeah, I figured that was your opinion. LOL
Count me in as a nitwit more willing to pay to watch that team then this one.

It would be AJ filling out and exchanging a lineup card with the same bad players. Then next year, Crochet and Robert are gone. Same Jerry, same stupid front office stuck in the pre Moneyball 1990s, same lack of ambition and seriousness to win.

Why keep hiring former White Sox people whose lone experience of being winners was 2005, if that? It oozes stupidity more than nostalgia or sentiment. Ozzie, Ventura, LaRussa. Now AJ. Why? Same damn washing machine.

It won't be AJ anyway. It'll be some former KC Royals asshole. That's the new M.O. these days.

 

[pumpdog20]

It would be AJ filling out and exchanging a lineup card with the same bad players. Then next year, Crochet and Robert are gone. Same Jerry, same stupid front office stuck in the pre Moneyball 1990s, same lack of ambition and seriousness to win.

Why keep hiring former White Sox people whose lone experience of being winners was 2005, if that? It oozes stupidity more than nostalgia or sentiment. Ozzie, Ventura, LaRussa. Now AJ. Why? Same damn washing machine.

It won't be AJ anyway. It'll be some former KC Royals asshole. That's the new M.O. these days.

I think there's just hope that they had (prior to trading everyone) talent, just just didn't have the right man to guide/push them correctly. My guess from far away is that prior managers let the young talent (Roberts, Eloy, Moncada, etc) develop bad habits and work ethic and maybe someone like Grifol isn't equipped to reverse that.

But yeah, it's a nostalgic play. But also I think we know the personality of those guys that if it is a an effort/habit thing, that someone like AJ/Ozzie are more keen to nip it earlier rather then later.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

I think there's just hope that they had (prior to trading everyone) talent, just just didn't have the right man to guide/push them correctly. My guess from far away is that prior managers let the young talent (Roberts, Eloy, Moncada, etc) develop bad habits and work ethic and maybe someone like Grifol isn't equipped to reverse that.

But yeah, it's a nostalgic play. But also I think we know the personality of those guys that if it is a an effort/habit thing, that someone like AJ/Ozzie are more keen to nip it earlier rather then later.

They never should have hired LaRussa when that window opened. Firing Renteria was shrewd, but you do that when you're going to make a big hire, like Theo did with the Cubs when they fired Renteria and went to get Maddon. Hahn wanted AJ Hinch, which would have been a bold move. Jerry overruled him and brought in Captain Drinky the Steroid Babysitter.

LaRussa hung Yermin out to dry for swinging at a 3-0 pitch and lost that team. They won 93 games, then 63 the next. Experiment over and by then it was too late to recover.

If we're being frank, Williams and Hahn lasted far far FAR longer than they should have in their positions. A logical serious franchise jettisons both a long time ago. Kenny had a position created for him so he wouldn't have to be fired as GM. Hahn was GM in name only because Jerry clearly had the final call in most cases of a serious nature while Kenny still had a great deal of sway on decision making.

So if they want to have AJ Pierzynski as manager with Paul Konerko as hitting coach and Jermaine Dye coaching third that's totally fine and honestly to be expected. Just don't expect people with a brain stem to give a shit. We already know Jerry doesn't think very much of White Sox fans, and many of them haven't really given him a reason to, but not all of them are idiots and if we keep accepting this stupid crap then that's all we're going to get in return.

 

[pumpdog20]

We definitely agree on LaRussa being a dumb hire.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

We definitely agree on LaRussa being a dumb hire.

I mean, if anyone wasn't going to stand for lollygagging and was going to show those guys how to play the game the right way, it was him right? It blew up in his face like everyone knew it would. Hiring AJ Hinch was the right move. It was bold. He's a modern manager and understands how the game is supposed to work TODAY, not decades ago. There were other candidates besides LaRussa and Hinch as well. Qualified guys who were ready. They chose to do things the White Sox Way. Dig into the past of a franchise that really hasn't won anything significant outside of one season 20 years ago.

I don't even know what AJ Pierzynski is doing right now.

There were better candidates than Grifol to hire, but honestly it would not have mattered. This infrastructure would doom anyone to fail, because it starts up top and trickles down. You need ownership to overhaul, support and fund the front office from the big club all the way down to the farm. Then you start building a team and put a manager in place who you want there when you are competing for a championship.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Skip Schumacher from the Marlins is getting a lot of play as well in addition to AJ. He played for LaRussa with the Cardinals, so you know who is pushing that move. HINT: it isn't Chris Getz.

Walt Weiss, Rodney Linares, David Ross, Don Kelly, Gabe Kapler are all guys I'd love to see be in play. None of them will be, though, without connections to the White Sox, LaRussa or the Royals.

Former Sox catcher who could be a good manager interview: how about Josh Paul?

 

[Crazy Balki]

Skip Schumacher from the Marlins is getting a lot of play as well in addition to AJ. He played for LaRussa with the Cardinals, so you know who is pushing that move. HINT: it isn't Chris Getz.

Walt Weiss, Rodney Linares, David Ross, Don Kelly, Gabe Kapler are all guys I'd love to see be in play. None of them will be, though, without connections to the White Sox, LaRussa or the Royals.

Former Sox catcher who could be a good manager interview: how about Josh Paul?

A GM not being allowed to GM? Color me shocked...

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

A GM not being allowed to GM? Color me shocked...

The Executive VP is Howard Pizer, who is listed directly below Jerry and directly above Chris Getz.

LaRussa was adamant in December that he himself is not a decision maker.

 

[Crazy Balki]

View attachment 3056103

The Executive VP is Howard Pizer, who is listed directly below Jerry and directly above Chris Getz.

LaRussa was adamant in December that he himself is not a decision maker.

Yep, and Jerry is adamant that he wasn't the one pushing hard to hire Tony in the first place in 2020.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Yep, and Jerry is adamant that he wasn't the one pushing hard to hire Tony in the first place in 2020.

Which is bullshit. The PR people had an announcement crafted for A.J. Hinch. Rick Hahn had all but hired him.

Jerry is tanking the organization so he can move to Nashville. They won't even win 40 games this year. It's an absolute joke. 20 losses in a row.

At this point, at least fire SOMEONE to make a handful of mouthbreathers think you care.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Pedro Grifol has been fired.

If anyone can relay to me with a straight face why Terry Francona would want this awful job with this awful franchise, I'm all ears. He may have managed in the minors for the White Sox in the 90s, but he's a smart guy who has worked for smart front offices. I Don't see how he can look at the state of this franchise and even remotely consider coming here.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

White Sox fire Pedro Grifol: Manager ousted amid historically bad season, Grady Sizemore named interim

The league-worst White Sox are 28-89 and just snapped a 21-game losing streak

www.cbssports.com

 

[ozzman]

Kenny always gets his guy! Grady sizemore named interim manager

 

[sfk324]

Skip Schumacher from the Marlins is getting a lot of play as well in addition to AJ. He played for LaRussa with the Cardinals, so you know who is pushing that move. HINT: it isn't Chris Getz.

Walt Weiss, Rodney Linares, David Ross, Don Kelly, Gabe Kapler are all guys I'd love to see be in play. None of them will be, though, without connections to the White Sox, LaRussa or the Royals.

Former Sox catcher who could be a good manager interview: how about Josh Paul?

Just a point of order, Weiss played for TLR while with the A's.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Kenny always gets his guy! Grady sizemore named interim manager

Kenny got fired last year.

Sizemore was hired into the organization this past winter on the recommendation of Ast. GM Josh Barfield.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Just a point of order, Weiss played for TLR while with the A's.

Then it's probably him or Schumacher that gets the offer.

Still don't know how anyone with a brain stem would want to take the job knowing the history of this organization and how unserious the owner is about doing anything with putting a winning team out.

 

[ozzman]

Kenny got fired last year.

Sizemore was hired into the organization this past winter on the recommendation of Ast. GM Josh Barfield.

I know. It's always been the joke that Kenny always gets his guy no matter how old or washed up he is. The organization is still obviously the same. Sell Jerry sell.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

 

[pumpdog20]

I saw a tweet that the AL Central is like 38 games under .500, and four of the five teams are above .500. LOL

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5773947/2024/09/19/white-sox-failure-worst-season-history/

Nothing we did not know or could have assumed. Still scathing and ultimately sad.

Dude is running his team like it's the 1990s. He's a dinosaur and thinks he's smart.

 

[NDFAN2008]

Jerry is the worst owner in sports. He is totally fine with the White Sox sucking he is cheap and doesn't want to win. As long as the Bulls keep selling out it's funding the Sox.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Reading this is just a reminder of how dire the situation is. The whole thing needs to be destroyed. From the top down. When players leave the White Sox, they then get to understand what it's like to be in the Major Leagues. How they get treated, how they are invested in. The organization is like an unkempt house that is overgrown with weeds. Jerry is stuck in time, he's stuck in the past. They've let the other 29 teams pass them by. There really is no bottom at this point, either. It's going to take them such a long time to ever catch up now. They keep rolling downhill.

You have a billionaire owner pushing 90 who still thinks it's 1992 and he has all the answers. The organization has become so insular that they're basically a calcified disaster of people who know they won't get fired but know that things need to change. Employees won't say a word because they have jobs for life. His money has bought him loyalty and people will let him go on while they say yes to whatever he says. Tony LaRussa will always be there as long as he wants.

It's as funny as it is sad.

 

[MacIrish75]

We’ll always have 2005.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

We’ll always have 2005.

That's all we're going to have, and we probably had every star and planet align in order for it to happen.

Everything that is wrong with this franchise rests on the notion that they should bring Ozzie back as manager or hire someone like AJ to be manager. It's exactly the type of shit Jerry has been doing for 30 years and it's what has gotten them to this point. Why keep hiring former players or promoting former players in a franchise that has not been successful other than one season nearly twenty years ago? The weirdo mouth breathers love it, but there is a large swab of this fanbase who have had enough and were done with it years ago. Count me among them. It's insulting. Tony LaRussa being hired again really should have been the indicator that all hope was lost for most people. Yeah, they won the Central in 2021. Then it went off a cliff. Yet he's still advising the team and Jerry is listening to him. Why?

Asked about La Russa’s nearly two seasons as manager, Williams said, “I don’t yet have a way to talk about that period of time because it takes me to a bad place, and it will take me from the person I aspire to be.”

This says everything. Kenny, mind you, put his own son in a player development position he was not qualified for. Hahn declined to be interviewed for the piece.

There are franchises like the Dodgers, Astros, Rays, Braves, etc. who have a history of winning and know how to do it. Jerry will not hire anyone from these places. He's loyal and ignorant to a fault, and on top of it, he's stuck in the past and behaving in ways that no owner in 2024 should be. It's far more dire than most people realize.

Even in their attempts to use analytics, they did it poorly to the point of it being comical. No professionals are going to want to come here, so you have to develop your own players in your farm system, but they can't do that either. It's sad, and what's worse, they have a lot of fans who actually want to see it continue out of nothing more than nostalgia and sentiment.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

The collateral damage to seeing the Guardians, Tigers and Royals all playing right now is that Jerry is going to think he can make a turnaround in 2025 and be in the playoffs in a year's time. The Royals in particular, considering the CWS have been hiring Royals people left and right for years to run various parts of the team. It's just how the man thinks.

I think if every single possible thing went right for them, every planet aligned and bad luck fell on half of the AL they still are not even remotely close to being a serious franchise.

For a guy that doesn't like parting with money, it's strange Jerry doesn't embrace analytics considering what front offices like Milwaukee, Cleveland, Tampa, etc. have been able to do on small payrolls.