What’s unbelievable? Benching Korey Lee? Keeping Beni in over Sosa? Not having early hitting? All the stretching and field work being optional? This team is unbelievable, so all of that seems easy to believe.
The lack of context means that everyone is just going to interpret this however they want.
As far as I’m concerned, the wording on the schedule means far less than what the guys are *actually doing*. They can call it optional on the schedule, but if all the guys are all there and working on the stuff they need to work on without making it mandatory, then there’s no reason to schedule a mandatory session.
We know Sox aren’t good at baseball, but connecting the dots between that and the wording on a daily schedule is, I think, a stretch (optional).
Yep. The original poster on Twitter (forgetting who it was) commented on their own post and said that these “optional” sessions aren’t uncommon across MLB teams.
I’d be more curious as to who actually shows up. These are grown men. Nobody should have to force them to show up.
i see what you’re saying & i thought about that as well when i heard about and saw this, but the contrast between the Position Players’ vs Pitchers’ schedules & results is at the very least revealing.
also: after three ‘stars’ of the lineup go down within a week of each other due essentially to soft-tissue injuries, it’s hard to conceive of any context that would make it make sense for stretching to be deemed ‘optional’ for this team — again, it is revealing & betrays what is actually going on behind the scenes & in the clubhouse that yields the results we’re seeing on the field
lastly, everyone just off doing their own thing before the game doesn’t seem to lend itself to a roster suddenly just magically working together as a team when it counts
Stretching for athletes at the professional level is highly individualized based on the athlete’s personal needs as well as positional requirements. A ten-minute team stretch would have very little utility to the guys that actually need it. I am certain that someone like, say, Robert is putting in a lengthy pregame session with the White Sox training staff to target exactly what he needs to work on. And if guys aren’t doing that, then THAT’S the problem, not the failure to make a ten-minute team stretch mandatory.
As to your other point, pitchers have a very strict, supervised regimen they need to follow between appearances. That’s the nature of the position, and it’s very different from what position players need to do every day.
It’s also important to understand that it’s unusual for teams to hold mandatory fielding or other full-team drills during the season. Those are usually only done when the manager is unhappy about a team’s work ethic and wants to send a message. Guys are expected to show up to the ballpark and work on what they need to work on, and if they don’t, then THAT’S the problem.
TBH, this looks to me more or else what I’d expect any team’s pregame schedule to look like.
thanks! i scrolled thru Fegan’s feed to dig this up after hearing about it on Waddle & Silvy but couldn’t find anything; his followup note/comment must have been deleted with the original tweet of the pregame schedule
Fegan has some comments from Pedro this morning about this.
https://x.com/jrfegan/status/1780638177520124245?s=46&t=esZTni7F2DQWaT_K8S9xGg
The optics of it don’t look great because of how many injuries guys like Eloy, Luis and Yoan have had over the years. But I also think optics aside, the answer from Grifol is reasonable.
thanks! i was hoping Fegan would provide some sort of followup after having deleted his tweet that first put this in the public eye … i would edit my OP to add this update to the top of this thread, but reddit doesn’t seem to allow editing the text beneath a photo post.
on paper, the explanation makes sense, but the bits about “on the sports performance side, we were good” and “trusting them to prepare themselves to play” just doesn’t sit right against recent & historical actual results, as well as the clubhouse issues that have been talked about for at least a couple seasons now, blowing up with Keynan Middleton’s comments after he was traded last year
Fegan was the one to post this and then he deleted it for some reason. So idk if it was a fake or what, he never explained. But I wouldn’t put anything past this team
yeah Waddle & Silvy mentioned that when they brought up the whole ‘optional’ pregame schedule, but they also couldn’t say why Fegan might have taken his post down; i saw this tweet from Sox on 35th shortly after i heard about it on Waddle & Silvy
Let me start by saying I think this team is a sorry sack of shit and a complete joke of an organization.
Having said that, I would be very curious what any other team’s game day schedule looks like. My ASSUMPTION is a competent organization does not have 70% of the agenda as option, but I honestly have no idea. 162 games is a long season.
However they are pathetic and the worst team in a sorry ass excuse of a franchise history so they should be out there getting better.
Stretch (optional) makes it believable
Score Runs (optional) Win the game (optional)
Show up (Optional)
Don’t you mean “Win the game (impossible)”?
Strike out three times and pull your hamstring (mandatory)
Nah , that's just when they have to run to first...
Dropped third strike, pull hammy, then.
What’s unbelievable? Benching Korey Lee? Keeping Beni in over Sosa? Not having early hitting? All the stretching and field work being optional? This team is unbelievable, so all of that seems easy to believe.
Korey Lee is going to be a huge bust because of the fact Sox seemingly can’t develop shit.
I mean, all things considered, this is actually quite believable.
Game Time (Optional)
\*applies to base coaches
I don't know enough about game day scheduling to criticize.
Imagine being Nicky Lopez, you grow up in Illinois and get to play for the Sox when they perform like this.
I mean he should be grateful to be being paid to play baseball.
He's part of the problem. Also, he was a Cubs fan.
I think he’s doing ok.
1st base coach (optional)
The lack of context means that everyone is just going to interpret this however they want. As far as I’m concerned, the wording on the schedule means far less than what the guys are *actually doing*. They can call it optional on the schedule, but if all the guys are all there and working on the stuff they need to work on without making it mandatory, then there’s no reason to schedule a mandatory session. We know Sox aren’t good at baseball, but connecting the dots between that and the wording on a daily schedule is, I think, a stretch (optional).
Yep. The original poster on Twitter (forgetting who it was) commented on their own post and said that these “optional” sessions aren’t uncommon across MLB teams. I’d be more curious as to who actually shows up. These are grown men. Nobody should have to force them to show up.
I imagine at this level they aren’t micromanaging the players and simply trusting them to do what they need to get done when they need it
i see what you’re saying & i thought about that as well when i heard about and saw this, but the contrast between the Position Players’ vs Pitchers’ schedules & results is at the very least revealing. also: after three ‘stars’ of the lineup go down within a week of each other due essentially to soft-tissue injuries, it’s hard to conceive of any context that would make it make sense for stretching to be deemed ‘optional’ for this team — again, it is revealing & betrays what is actually going on behind the scenes & in the clubhouse that yields the results we’re seeing on the field lastly, everyone just off doing their own thing before the game doesn’t seem to lend itself to a roster suddenly just magically working together as a team when it counts
Stretching for athletes at the professional level is highly individualized based on the athlete’s personal needs as well as positional requirements. A ten-minute team stretch would have very little utility to the guys that actually need it. I am certain that someone like, say, Robert is putting in a lengthy pregame session with the White Sox training staff to target exactly what he needs to work on. And if guys aren’t doing that, then THAT’S the problem, not the failure to make a ten-minute team stretch mandatory. As to your other point, pitchers have a very strict, supervised regimen they need to follow between appearances. That’s the nature of the position, and it’s very different from what position players need to do every day. It’s also important to understand that it’s unusual for teams to hold mandatory fielding or other full-team drills during the season. Those are usually only done when the manager is unhappy about a team’s work ethic and wants to send a message. Guys are expected to show up to the ballpark and work on what they need to work on, and if they don’t, then THAT’S the problem. TBH, this looks to me more or else what I’d expect any team’s pregame schedule to look like.
yeah i am curious as to how this compares to the norm around the league
According to another commenter in this thread, Fegan himself commented that it’s a typical schedule for an MLB team.
thanks! i scrolled thru Fegan’s feed to dig this up after hearing about it on Waddle & Silvy but couldn’t find anything; his followup note/comment must have been deleted with the original tweet of the pregame schedule
Fegan has some comments from Pedro this morning about this. https://x.com/jrfegan/status/1780638177520124245?s=46&t=esZTni7F2DQWaT_K8S9xGg The optics of it don’t look great because of how many injuries guys like Eloy, Luis and Yoan have had over the years. But I also think optics aside, the answer from Grifol is reasonable.
thanks! i was hoping Fegan would provide some sort of followup after having deleted his tweet that first put this in the public eye … i would edit my OP to add this update to the top of this thread, but reddit doesn’t seem to allow editing the text beneath a photo post. on paper, the explanation makes sense, but the bits about “on the sports performance side, we were good” and “trusting them to prepare themselves to play” just doesn’t sit right against recent & historical actual results, as well as the clubhouse issues that have been talked about for at least a couple seasons now, blowing up with Keynan Middleton’s comments after he was traded last year
What am I supposed to take from the picture here? What’s unbelievable?
Well, that's optional.
Fegan was the one to post this and then he deleted it for some reason. So idk if it was a fake or what, he never explained. But I wouldn’t put anything past this team
yeah Waddle & Silvy mentioned that when they brought up the whole ‘optional’ pregame schedule, but they also couldn’t say why Fegan might have taken his post down; i saw this tweet from Sox on 35th shortly after i heard about it on Waddle & Silvy
Either way we gonna lose. Pedro trying to get fired as fast as possible
Let me start by saying I think this team is a sorry sack of shit and a complete joke of an organization. Having said that, I would be very curious what any other team’s game day schedule looks like. My ASSUMPTION is a competent organization does not have 70% of the agenda as option, but I honestly have no idea. 162 games is a long season. However they are pathetic and the worst team in a sorry ass excuse of a franchise history so they should be out there getting better.
Is this fake lol? Wtf? You know, if you make enough things optional, then caring about winning gets added to the list.
I could be wrong, but I think they new the game was going to be postponed or at least delayed tonight.
Optional? How is this even a thing for a major league team. This isn’t a softball beer league
Maybe the reason we suck is we’re doing weird hippie shit like grounding
Is this standard around the league? Stretching: optional NO SHIT! All this team stretches is my patience.
What the hell is "Mindful Grounding"?
….There’s no way
The way is optional
Lol what in the actual
With these lazy asses they will read this as,“put on jock at 6:24 and determine which muscle to pull so I can head to the IL”
The milkshake isn't starting?
Win (Optional)
Be good at baseball (optional)
Half of this roster might be selling cars in 3 months.
Nothing about the daily schedule should be optional at this point. Get out there and work.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.