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If you listen to Red Line Radio or have ever been within like... 100 feet of me, you'd know that I can't stand how Jerry Reinsdorf runs the White Sox. That doesn't mean I dislike Jerry Reinsdorf the human, as he's by MANY accounts a truly great and loyal man. I can separate the two.
I say this frequently on our show. Jerry Reinsdorf is the BANE of this championship window. I think it may have taken a turn for the worse after the season when Hahn gave his post season presser, fired Renteria, and said "we're looking for a new aged, analytical mind" (paraphrased) which at the time pointed to AJ Hinch. A few days later, they hired Tony La Russa.
If you mean to tell me that Rick Hahn made that comment and turned around and hired Tony LaRussa a few days later on his own accord, you're an insane person. That was a Jerry Reinsdorf hire through and through.
But even then... I don't hate it. Theoretically, the team should have been so stacked from an individual talent perspective that it shouldn't matter who the manager is. To this day I don't really care about LaRussa managing the team because the pure talent top to bottom on the team should be enough to coast to a division crown this year. Again.
It hasn't been. The players - namely Grandal, Abreu, Pollock, Eloy, Moncada - haven't performed at all. They've been BRUTAL. That's nobody's fault but theirs - everyone on the planet can look at their tools and say, "yep. That's a stud." but they haven't been. There's a reason every one of them have either been all stars, MVP candidates or top 10 prospect at one point. Because they're god gifted tools are that good.
But they haven't lived up to their potential this year and some would even argue last year. That's on the players and nobody else but the players.
At the same time, however, there were CLEAR HOLES UP AND DOWN THE ROSTER THIS WINTER. The White Sox NEEDED guys (plural) to drill RHP. Pollock has been good lately, but he's one guy they acquired to serve that purpose. They still are dog shit against even the most mediocre pitching.
They also are worried about money. To me, that's disgusting. DISGUSTING. After the whole world got gutted due to the pandemic, after years of trotting out pathetic payrolls during the rebuild, and after whiffing/passing on players that would have been perfect fits for this championship window while using money as the excuse for doing so, we are now at a point where the club is burning another year of this core and not doing anything to complement it.
- Leury Garcia shouldn't be in the league, let alone gifted a 3 year deal
- Letting Carlos Rodon walk with zero QO attached to him
- Josh Harrison the patented over the hill waste of money
- Vince Velasquez the same
- Johnny Cueto (who's been good in 3 starts)
I mean, what are we doing here? And people want me to blame Hahn SO badly, and I would if I thought he was the main perpetrator. He's obviously struck out on a few deals, but why on earth would he repeatedly say money wasn't going to be an issue for signing the best of the best free agents when it would be?
I choose to believe he was told it wouldn't be and then got the rug yanked from under his feet. There's NO WAY, as the only front office exec who talks to the media, that Rick Hahn would feed himself to the wolves of the fanbase like that. There's just no way. It makes no sense.
And that's reason 1 billion I can't stand how Jerry Reinsdorf operates his org and why I constantly say, "baseball needs more Steve Cohens that treat their teams like toys and are hellbent on victory"
I will continue to call it as I see it. I look at this team under the strongest microscope and that's why I blame Reinsdorf and his manager TLR - not Hahn - for this poor roster construction. Hahn wouldn't have signed all of those pre-arb extensions that he did if he knew he wouldn't be able to complement them with stud free agent signings.
Not Josh Harrison or Leury Garcia
Oh, and the whole Yasmani Grandal thing was the product of Carl being a complete drunken douche, per usual. The dude has RAKED until this year under this deal, and there's still ample time for him to turn it around this year. It's not like he was inked to an 8 year, $184MM deal (IYKYK). It was a 4 year deal at $18MM a pop or w/e. He's been fantastic through 2+ years of it and his approach is still good. He's just struggling at squaring balls up right now and very, very badly. I do think he turns it around soon. We'll see. If not, their hands are wiped clean from him next year.
I guess that was an AWFUL signing though. Grotesque. Franchise changing.
Carl is such a loud and obnoxious clown