Miguel Cabrera Told Reporters, "We Don't Pass Signs To Hitters. Get The Fuck Out Of Here" And That's Total Bullshit

We'll start here: in the middle of the game last night, apparently Nick Madrigal warned Lucas Giolito that the Detroit Tigers were stealing signs. 

Now, I'll give the Tigers the benefit of the doubt - I'm assuming Madrigal meant they were relaying signs from 2nd base or elsewhere on the field and that he didn't think they were banging trash cans from a video monitor in the dugout. If this is what Madrigal meant, then there is absolutely no problem with what Detroit was doing and there is absolutely no problem with Madrigal warning Gio. 

Beyond that, if the White Sox weren't mixing up their signs well enough, the Tigers would be flat out dumb not to relay the signs to the hitters, assuming there are no binoculars/cameras/whatever in the stadium to do so. That's just gamesmanship and there's nothing at all wrong with it. That's why I think it's total bullshit that Cabrera is saying, "we don't play that game." He's too smart of a baseball player not to.  He's pissing on our heads and saying it's raining. No shot is he telling the truth here. They absolutely were relaying signs.

This ain't the first time the White Sox have thought this about Miggy, either. Let's rewind back to the Chris Sale days:

Sale and the Sox thought they were stealing signs back then too, but with binoculars or by some other illegal means. I wouldn't be shocked in the least if they used to steal signs with tech or with people piping in on the catcher's nuts with binoculars back then, but in 2021 when the penalties are very clear for what happens when a team steals signs illegally, they probably reverted back to old school methods. That's why I think Madrigal was spot on. Again, not mad at Miggy or anyone else if they were in fact relaying signs via legal means, but Miggy can fuck off with the "we don't play that game" shit. Get outta here man.

The White Sox played a dog shit game last night on top of it. They threw up a stinker, plain and simple. I don't REALLY care that they threw up a stinker because stinkers happen, but it sucks when an awful team like Detroit has 5 errors then surrenders 4 walks and 8 hits and your team only scores 2 runs while going 0-13 with RISP. 

Gotta make them pay, simple as that. 

Beyond that, the managing was…. Bad. This is one of the most cringeworthy things I've ever seen come out of a manager's mouth:

The entire stadium knew Gio was running on fumes the few batters before he was pulled. There was a point in the game where he had one of Detroit's shitty hitters 0-2 and he couldn't finish him until the 12th pitch of the at bat. Now, he did end up finishing that hitter but he should have been yanked then and there. TLR shouldn't have waited until the 7th inning when Gio walked the lead off hitter and surrendered a bomb. He should have given the ball to the pen that everyone thought was the strength of the team. 

That said, his non-pull of Gio is a hind sight move. TLR fucked up, but if Gio got the hitters nobody's talking about it today. Still, it doesn't take a HOF baseball person to know Gio should have been pulled, but I'll give TLR the benefit of the doubt there, but a good manager doesn't leave Gio in to let that happen to him. Plain and simple.

The disgusting part of the tweet to me was the "we were looking for a single out of Leury/Hamilton" part. Ummmmm wtf? Those two hitters are just not good. At all. They had absolutely no business hitting in that part of the game. Pinch hit Vaughn, Hamilton, Frank Thomas, me, anyone else. It infuriated me to no end that those two came up with runners on late in the game. Who in the fuck looks for "singles"? They're going to strike out just as much as Vaughn or Collins but at least those two have the potential to run into pitches and go yard. In fact I'd say their chances of hitting a gap are as good as Garcia/Hamilton hitting a single. That's how little confidence I have in those two players.

There were other Tweets floating around talking about how unhappy the players are with TLR:

I know this is a burner account, and people seem to think it has credibility, but in this instance I'll say this and you should all take my word for it: the White Sox have an awesome clubhouse. The players all have great heads on their shoulders and are really, really good at baseball. They know the scoop with TLR and are not immune to getting mad at their boss/manager just like you and I aren't immune to getting mad at our boss/manager. But there isn't any "turmoil" or anything in the clubhouse. I'd say there prolly is with Hahn and Williams as far as TLR is concerned, yeah, but the players are the ones hitting, fielding and pitching. They know that they're going to have to win in spite of the manager and have the talent to do so. That's also the case with a lot of other teams. 

What I'm getting at is this: they can't blame Tony for going 0-13 with RISP last night and scoring 2 runs when the Tigers tried to hand them the game 100 different ways. Sure they can be pissed at a few moves, but they have to play better too. There is blame on all sides, from the players, to the manager, and to the front office for giving the manager the ability to even consider starting Nick Williams before he was DFA'd or Leury Garcia seemingly every single night. If Hahn is pissed (which he should be) then he should pull a Billy Beane and not even give TLR the chance to start Carlos Peña aka Leury Garcia. Ship him the fuck outta there and get better players. 

I was annoyed. The team is too good for this kinda shit to be a weekly occurrence. Clean it up from top to bottom and go win 5 in a row against a dog shit Detroit team and mediocre Cleveland team. They have the talent to do so, time for them to nut up top to bottom. 

Stop fucking hitting Garcia and Hamilton late in games.