Kirkwood wrote:
Is what? What exactly is he building on the Southside? Why is he comfortable with a manager that doesn't know how to manage? Does Don Cooper have more pull than Hahn? Why is he considered safe when the Sox staff leads the MLB in walks and is 27th in ERA and summer just started. How could he think depending on John Danks, Andre Rienzo, Erik Johnson, or Scott Carroll would be a good idea? The bullpen? Woof.
Does his vision totally disregard baseball IQ, basic fielding and baserunning competency? When does the Michigan Man start getting asked questions? Where's the accountability? The South Side is the smart baseball fan. How could they be so stupid to buy Hahn's bullshit?
He didn't rely on Rienzo or Carroll. Neither were on the team at the start of the season and both only pitched due to injury. They absolutely had to give Johnson his shot. Unfortunately, his velocity is way down, indicating an injury. Danks could pitch in just about any team's rotation and had been lights out for the better part of two months before yesterday.
His one glaring mistake, if you want to call it that, was not backing up Paulino with multiple veterans.
You can only hide guys like Rienzo and Noesi for so long. Maybe a team can live with one guy like that in the rotation for the year. Two sinks a team.
The Sox should have been sunk the day Garcia was hurt. If you look at the posts from that day, people were despondent. They lost a middle of the order batter on a thin team AND it moved Viciedo/De Aza from platoon to both being starters.
The Sox have had a remarkable run of injuries this year with Abreu, Eaton, Gillaspie, Beckham, Garcia, Jones, Lindstrom, Paulino and Johnson. That's 40%+ of the roster down for significant time in less than half a year. This created a situation where, when it was time to pad the record during a weak point in the schedule, they were playing lesser talents and battling just to stay .500.
Now, on the road and against stronger teams, it was highly forseeable that they would lose games.
Hahn's vision has been fantastic! They have young guys who look like cornerstones in place at several key positions. They have significant money coming off the books in the off season. They have a team with a great attitude.
They gave me my fun this year. I expect the rest to be a drag but the arrow is pointing way up for this team.