Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
The Sox Clean House. F**k Alex Cora and A.J. Hinch.
Good Morning Chicago! A day after I sat with a blank screen in front of me and not much Chicago-related news to cover, the White Sox cleaned house and Bulls Head Coach Billy Donovan began to do the same.
So let’s get into it.
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A.J Hinch and Alex Cora Can Fuck Off
Credit: Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle
Excuse my language. It appears this incoming opinion is somehow at odds with the majority of Sox fans, but why in God’s name would the White Sox hire A.J. Hinch or Alex Cora?
Let’s start with Cora, who went from being the Houston Astros bench coach and playing a large part in the biggest team-led scandal of this century to managing the Red Sox and overseeing a team using Apple Watches to steal the other teams’s signs.
This dude has less integrity than the muffled-voice caller on your voicemail telling you that you owe $10,000 dollars to the IRS and that you need to wire that through Western Union to him personally.
At least that guy may be down on his luck and need your money more than you do.
But no, Alex Cora was handed one of the best jobs in all of sports partly due to the unforgivable baseball sins he committed in Houston, then continued to allow similar sins to take place in Boston, despite having some of the best talent in baseball at both stops.
He had an embarrassment of riches and still stopped at the Apple Store on his way to work to turn the Genius Bar into his own personal organized crime den.
He also had the audacity amidst all of the underground bullshit he was pulling to call out other players, such as Marcus Stroman, for “competing a certain way that some people don’t like.”
Now he’s been suspended for one measly year and we’re ready to hand over the keys to a promising franchise to this loser? Give me a break.
When someone acts incorrectly — which young players are known to do — what legs will he have to stand on when he urges them to straighten up? And how exactly has he earned a second chance?
Were Mookie Betts, Chris Sale, Craig Kimbrel, J.D. Martinez, Andrew Benintendi, David Price, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Xander Bogaerts not enough?
Apparently not for Mr. Cora.
And still after it all, did he take accountability for it? Not really. Instead, he assured us that him and Carlos Beltran were not the only ones to blame for the scandal.
"Out of this whole process, if there is one thing that I completely reject and disagree with is people within the Astros organization singling me out, particularly (fired and suspended general manager) Jeff Luhnow, as if I were the sole mastermind,” Cora told ESPN. “The commissioner's report sort of explained, in its own way, what happened. But the (Astros players) have spoken up and refuted any allegations that I was solely responsible.”
Congratulations, someone else bought the trash cans. Shut up.
The guy is responsible for nearly ruining the integrity of one of the best games the United States to offer, and he couldn’t even bring himself to accept ownership.
“Well it’s not like they just won because he cheated, they would have been good anyways!”
Uh, yes, that’s not a very good point. Each team would have been good without cheating, and they did it anyway. If you encourage your team to cheat, you should be banned from the game. If you allow your team to cheat, you’re still a coward and do not deserve a chance to manage again.
Speaking of cowards, here comes A.J. Hinch to the plate! Your trash can is in position sir.
This fucking guy.
He knew to the full extent what his scumbag players were doing and didn’t have the balls to tell big bad Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve to stop trying to undermine Major League Baseball.
Him and Cora were all good with their players destroying the careers of opposing young pitchers just so they could get salary raises and enjoy the feeling of undeserved, expensive champaign being poured on them that was won in part due to cheap, foul play.
Get the fuck out of here with all of that.
“But they have championship experience!”
Yes, championship experience in the way that the Russians have a COVID-19 vaccine and I got an A in high school spanish when I had 100 multiple choice answers printed on the back of my school ID.
The idea that winning a championship with a bevy of talent and cheating strategies bundled up in your back pocket next to your line up card is something to celebrate still is ludicrous.
Oh, before I forget, remember when Hinch was first asked about the alleged (at the time) sign stealing, and had a chance to be a leader? This is what he said:
“Man, I’m glad you asked that question, and I thought it would come up today,” Hinch said to reporters. “And we talked about this the other day. And, in reality, it’s a joke.”
Then, when it turned to be not even close to a joke, he cried and whined about he threw a few futile temper tantrums to try to get his players to stop, and he just couldn’t!
The best ability is availability. The second best is accountability. This dude is available for good reason and should remain that way due to his sheer lack of the latter ability.
If the White Sox want to hire one of these spineless clowns, they should go for it. But they should know that when they do, they will officially be no better than the ones that were complicit in the cheating in the first place.
“You’re telling me you wouldn’t sign George Springer?”
I wouldn’t feel good about it. But at least he hasn’t been running his dumb mouth like Alex Bregman and Carlos Correa. And if George Springer joined the team — and stick with me here — he’d just be a part of it. He wouldn’t be running the entire goddamn operation and be the effective face of the organization.
For other managerial options for the Sox, continue reading.
And please feel free to comment if you want to argue, I’ll be here all day:
Top Candidates
Other than Cora and Hinch, who are unfortunately the clear favorites for the job, the White Sox list of potential candidates has some interesting names.
It will not be Ozzie Guillen, if you were wondering. Rick Hahn refused to bring up names in regard to the vacancy Tuesday, but purposely put any Ozzie rumors to rest. In the social media era, I imagine that Ozzie would fair less well in his second go around.
Hell, in his last managing job it only took him a few weeks to tell the citizens of Miami that he thought Fidel Castro was one heckuva guy.
For now, he’ll be left to speak broken english on the broadcast about Sox losses in a colorful manner. At this stage, that feels about right.
The two other most likely candidates in my mind are Ron Washington and Sandy Alomar Jr.
Washington is currently the third base coach of the Atlanta Braves. He was one of the finalists for the Braves job the last time they had a vacancy. He managed the Texas Rangers to back-to-back World Series during his 8-year stint with the team, one of which was stolen by a miracle David Freese performance, which unfortunately is one of the best baseball highlights of all time.
Most notably, Washington is the infielders coach portrayed in “Moneyball,” the man who works with Scott Hatteberg to acclimate him to first base.
“It’s incredibly hard.”
It’s a bit of a surprise that Washington has not gotten a managing job since 2014, when he left the Rangers. I doubt it has anything to do with why he left that job, which was because of an extramarital affair he was having.
Are any of the guys on this list not cheaters? God damn.
Still, Washington is one of the most respected baseball coaches — and particularly infielders coaches — in the last few decades. He’s older but his time with the Moneyball A’s and his success in Texas not too long ago leads me to believe that he’d do just fine.
Alomar Jr. checks all the boxes. He played catcher in the league, has managing experience, and is bi-lingual. He’s served as the Cleveland Indians manager while Terry Francona has been out with health issues and also served in an interim role in 2012.
The last name on the list is Tony La Russa. Yes, the 76-year-old Hall of Famer who hasn’t managed since 2011.
As you may know, La Russa — before his Cardinal fame — got his managing start with the White Sox. He was the youngest manager in the league at the time — just 34 years old —and won a Coach of the Year award.
Then, he was fired by his former teammate, Hawk Harrelson.
Yes, Hawk was the GM of the Sox back then. I imagine he had to be refrained from firing people every single time the White Sox lost a game.
The Sox, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, will reach out to La Russa about the position. This feels like Jerry Reinsdorf — who has always said he regrets allowing Hawk to fire La Russa in the first place — trying to make amends.
I sincerely doubt it will happen, but the consideration is striking enough to make it worthy of a mention.
Who Gave the Reinsdorfs Smelling Salts?
Every person you’ve heard speak on a webinar or conference for work over the last six months or so has probably touted some “silver lining” of the pandemic. The advancement of some sort of technology (usually theirs), the recognition of some line of work (usually theirs), or the fact that people call their grandparents more now on Zoom as opposed to over the phone.
Those are all to some extent bullshit. The only true silver lining that has legitimately, somehow risen out of COVID-19 is that the Reinsdorfs have woken up and realized that they own two sports teams and have been okay with them being embarrassments to their respective leagues over the last decade.
Perhaps Jerry has been watching a lot of news and keeps googling his own age after he hears about the dangers to folks 65 and older. I’m not sure. But both the Bulls and White Sox have made significant organizational changes over the the last year that have made complete sense, which is still not something I’ve gotten used to.
We all knew Jim Boylen had to go, and most of us knew Ricky Renteria had to go. But did any of us think that not just one of them, but both of them, would be gone heading into next season? I certainly didn’t.
Even past that, did anyone think that Gar Forman, John Paxson (mostly), and Don Cooper would all be removed from their posts?
All of those five guys fit the bill as people the Reinsdorfs absolutely refuse to fire — people they like who have been ‘loyal’ (didn’t have opportunities for jobs elsewhere) and who get along well with ownership.
Who gave Jerry and Michael the smelling salts? What do we owe the awakening to? The Bulls have one of the top 10 or 12 coaches in the league — who they dug into their wallets to acquire — and hired one of the best executive prospects in the league to lead that search.
The Sox are one of the best young teams in the league and will have their pick of the litter for both the manager and pitching coach positions.
It is not an over exaggeration to say that the White Sox managerial position is one of the best jobs in the league.
The roster is loaded with young talent, they play in Chicago, and the fans have seen one playoff appearance in the last 12 years. The fans are ready for that to change, and certainly have World Series aspirations, but the risk/reward analysis for a manger there is quite appealing.
Ricky Renteria is just not the guy. The players like him, and that’s worth a lot, especially in today’s game where analytics drive a lot of the decisions being made on the field. But his decisions over the last couple of years have been so maddening — and just frankly asinine — that it was too much to gloss over anymore, especially for a team that needs that margin of error shrunk down now.
Some of those silly mistakes or errors in judgement don’t matter when you’re winning 62 or 67 games, but when you’re in a best of three playoff series, or need to win just one or two games to win the division in your last eight, they become magnified.
Just like Joe Maddon a year ago, Ricky’s upside was no longer enough to justify his downside. This is absolutely the correct move.
On Don Cooper’s end, he should be remembered fondly on the South Side. There’s a reason why the Sox announced each move as mutual partings and not firings — because they respect Cooper and Renteria.
The fact of the matter is, and there’s no shame in this, the game has likely passed Cooper by. Since 2002, when he took over the Sox pitching staff, a lot has changed in the game of baseball. A lot.
When your young pitching is failing to develop (see Reynaldo Lopez, Carlos Rodon, Carson Fulmer, etc.), and your success stories like Lucas Giolito have been open about the fact that they sought multiple outside coaches to aid them with their turnarounds, it’s a pretty glaring sign that a change needs to be made.
Cooper can sleep easy at night knowing that he played a part in bringing a World Series to the city of Chicago for the first time in 88 years, and that his pitching staff had one of the most dominant playoff runs on record.
These decisions aren’t easy, and for some reason they’re particularly hard for the Reinsdorfs. But in the end, it’s the right move, and it signals the Sox are finally headed for the ceiling that their players have set for them, and not for the low ceiling that their organization has long held them to.
Renteria is a tough one just because he’s a good guy and people like him, as I mentioned before. But his in-game managing has been absolutely brutal, enough so that even casual baseball fans could notice it.
It’s keeping Dallas Keuchel in the game when he’s way past 100 pitches in a 9-0 game. It’s yanking the wrong pitchers and replacing them with the wrong ones as well. It’s making ridiculous lineup decisions that seem obviously wrong to everyone else but him.
In the end, if no one in the organization could mitigate that recklessness, it was time for him to go.
If you’re wondering why the Bulls are also featured here, it’s not just because I like talking about the Bulls and Sox in tandem. Billy Donovan began cleaning house today on his own staff, which is another good sign that the strings are starting to be pulled by the right people in Chicago.
I’ll get more in the weeds with the Bulls moves later this week.
Until then, enjoy the beautiful weather the next two days, comment on the newsletter, spread the word — and remember that you, me, and everyone else has STILL GOTTA COME THROUGH CHICAGO!
You cheated on your Spanish Test?
Hiring Cora or Hinch would take a fairly likeable team and make them extremely hateable. And am I looking for something to hate on the southside? Maybe. I think Hahn will ultimately get it right and go with someone who isn't going to bring a negative light to a loaded roster. As for the smelling salts drop off at the Reinsdorf residence, that question starts and ends with Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Uncle Jerry didn't like how he looked in the Last Dance and decided to start slinging around some of that money to try and show he's not a cheap ass.