Toggle sidebar

OT: Other Sports 80

  • Work is still on-going to rebuild the site styling and features. Please report any issues you may experience so we can look into it. Click Here for Updates
Status
Not open for further replies.
Sarava said:
Interesting seeing the Padres and Phillies in the NLCS. If we go back a few years, there were basically 3 teams chasing Machado and Harper. The Phillies, Padres and White Sox. We all know how that ended. Reinsdorf is too cheap to give out a 9 digit free agent deal, and the other teams won their services. Now they are both 1 step from the World Series, and the Sox rebuild is in shambles (for the moment at least).
Click to expand...

Phillies' former interim / now manager Rob Thompson did a great job getting the team to play sound baseball through thick and thin. Harper's not getting into the playoffs with TLR as his manager either. So it's much more than throwing the big bucks outbidding the other teams for the big FAs on the market. It's more about getting the right manager who will get the most of the roster.
 
Panzerspitze said:
Phillies' former interim / now manager Rob Thompson did a great job getting the team to play sound baseball through thick and thin. Harper's not getting into the playoffs with TLR as his manager either. So it's much more than throwing the big bucks outbidding the other teams for the big FAs on the market. It's more about getting the right manager who will get the most of the roster.
Click to expand...
TLR was a separate mistake. It was one thing to hire him, but to let it go on and on when it clearly was not working, only made the situation worse. At a certain point you need to cut bait on your mistakes.

However, the TLR mistake doesn't mean Harper or Machado wouldn't have been huge signings for the Sox. 4 seasons in and those guys have been worth every penny they were paid. Still 6 seasons left for Machado and 9 for Harper. But the contracts are looking good. And you know you're eating a few dead years at the end when you sign these types of deals.
 
I'll also add in - the roster as it was constructed, made it darn near impossible to play sound baseball. After the managerial change, that should be near the top of the list. Improve team defense. Improve team speed. Get a new hitting coach that teaches launch angles and not opposite field singles for slow station to station hitters.

Stop playing first basemen in half the positions on the field. If I'm the Sox, I prioritize getting a starting catcher who can hit and plays good defense. You'll have Grandal as a backup, bad defense and all. And hopefully his bat resurges a bit in his final year with the Sox. The banning of the shift will help him.

With the expected salary constraints coming next season, they're probably going to count on Colas for one of the corner outfield spots. Even if its not until May-ish. Conforto on a one or two year prove it deal may work if they can afford him.

I'll say one last thing. As bad as they seemed last year. This rebuild is not dead yet. There's a ton of untapped potential here. A new hitting coach and manager may unlock a lot of it. I'm not saying it's likely to happen. But the potential to be a 100+ win team next year is there with the right moves.

Finally, the Sox should prioritize improving these guys off-season conditioning/workouts, to hopefully lessen the injuries from the core players. Particularly Anderson, Jimenez, Robert and Moncada.
 
  • Like
Reactions: x Tame Impala


Was not remotely expecting:

A) For both Illini football and basketball to be ranked any time soon, and
B) For the football team to be the higher ranked of the two.

Wild stuff.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Pez68
Chicago Bulls season starts tomorrow night (Wed) against Miami. Ayo D will be starting at PG.

Bulls should be better, if for no other reason than their second unit is much improved (now w/ Drummond, PW, AC, GD). But quite a few teams in the EC have improved. So winning on a nightly basis will be difficuly. They should at least be a play-in team for the playoffs. Likely the difference between the 5-6 seed and 8-9 seed may only be 3-4 games.
 
Last edited:
TIL that Kerry Goode (great Bama RB back in the 80s), who is confined to a wheelchair because he has ALS had drinks thrown at him and his family by Volunteer fan.

F**k all things Tennessee. Hell F**k Peyton Manning. I hope those low down, scumbag, snitching pieces of dog crap make it to ATL in Decmeber, because without the refs in their back pockets, Tennessee will be run off the field.
 
Idk what goes on in that organization, but a knee injury to a bulls player seems to be a career sentence.

Edit:saw pez's post and realized I originally said "bulls fan" instead of player. :laugh:
 
Last edited:
Bulls might be better than i thought. I was very down on them after the past month. P williams still needs to play better though. Strong games by demar and ayo with dragic doing some nice work off the bench. Vuc beast on the boards
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kaners Bald Spot and Pez68
WS are interviewing Ozzie Guillen? I thought you WS fans want the team to get better but Reinsdorf seems to want to bring out of the garage and wiped off the bust and showcase the fans.
 
HeisenBaez said:
WS are interviewing Ozzie Guillen? I thought you WS fans want the team to get better but Reinsdorf seems to want to bring out of the garage and wiped off the bust and showcase the fans.
Click to expand...

Maybe Reinsdorf has decided to apply the Stan Bo playbook, of recycling past players, on managerial hires.
 
HeisenBaez said:
WS are interviewing Ozzie Guillen? I thought you WS fans want the team to get better but Reinsdorf seems to want to bring out of the garage and wiped off the bust and showcase the fans.
Click to expand...
I believe it was reported that Ozzie said no interviews have happened or are scheduled. Honestly - I don't think anyone knows what the hell is going on. There's a lot of people that pretend to be insiders (particularly on Soxtalk) and none of them seem to be right more often than an average fan guessing would be. I think we just need to sit back and see what happens.

I do wonder what's up with Soxfest being cancelled without reason. Is this an indication that they expect an irate fanbase at that time and just don't want to deal with it? We may be in for a long winter if they are going to spend it protecting Jerry's bank account instead of making the team better.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom