Speaker 1: Howard, my husband fell at a construction site. I knew
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Speaker 2: It ain't and law. We're one of the largest filers
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Speaker 2: hurt on the job, in a car accident, or suffered
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Speaker 3: From your favorite source for Chicago White Sox Talk, delivering news, interviews,
Speaker 3: analysis and more. This is the Socks Machine Podcast with
Speaker 3: your hosts Jim Margolis, James Began, and Josh Nelson.
Speaker 4: You see any great airs in the mirror after at
Speaker 4: least last two days.
Speaker 5: They're already there. But yeah, tough couple of games. We're
Speaker 5: really had to grind it. Contributions from everybody, obviously extra endings.
Speaker 5: There's a ton of situational stuff that you have execute
Speaker 5: and guys really executed.
Speaker 6: Welcome, Welcome to the Sox Machine Podcast, part of the
Speaker 6: Foul Territory Network. I'm your host, Josh Nelson. And that
Speaker 6: was White Sox manager Will Vennable speaking Bose game after
Speaker 6: Thursdays two to one win, another extra innings win for
Speaker 6: the Chicago White Sox as they some way, somehow, in
Speaker 6: a very wild way, get a series split against the
Speaker 6: New York Yankees as that concludes their seven game homestand
Speaker 6: they end up finishing three to four, But it looked
Speaker 6: really dour for the White Sox against the New York
Speaker 6: Yankees this week. And joining me, of course on this
Speaker 6: episode is Sox Machines Beat reporter James Sveigan and managing
Speaker 6: editor Jim Margulus and Hello Jensen. We'll start with the
Speaker 6: show about this series split for the White Sox, and
Speaker 6: from my perspective, I'm impressed in the way that they
Speaker 6: were able to win these last two games and really
Speaker 6: demonstrated the resiliency that this.
Speaker 7: Young squad has.
Speaker 6: They had no right really to win on Wednesday thanks
Speaker 6: to back to back home runs in the eighth inning.
Speaker 6: They were just simply being dominated by Yankees starting pitching
Speaker 6: through this series, and that was also true on Thursday
Speaker 6: as the game was scoreless, but in extra innings the
Speaker 6: White Sox were able to grind out those wins, and
Speaker 6: I just found that to be a very impressive performance
Speaker 6: and even more reasons to get excited about this White
Speaker 6: Sox team and be hopeful of what's to come, as
Speaker 6: we're just three games away, four days away from the
Speaker 6: trade deadline for the White Sox and wondering what Chris
Speaker 6: gets will do to help add to this squad. But Jim,
Speaker 6: I'll start with you. What does splitting this four game
Speaker 6: series with the New York Yankees mean for the White Sox.
Speaker 8: It means not losing ground in the central basically holding serve,
Speaker 8: playing a good team, and not getting the doors blown off,
Speaker 8: which is like when first game happened, second game shut
Speaker 8: shutdown at a kind of Cleveland like open to that
Speaker 8: series where they could give up the entire lead and
Speaker 8: one four game swoop and then back to games. Not
Speaker 8: necessarily the prettiest way to do it, but a reminder
Speaker 8: that one, the White Sox are resilient and two, either
Speaker 8: the American League is questionable in high end quality overall,
Speaker 8: or the White Sox are either patient enough or talented enough,
Speaker 8: pesky enough, whatever you want to say to drag teams
Speaker 8: to their level and make them just as frustrated, just
Speaker 8: as you hear a lot of the same complaints about
Speaker 8: fundamentals too aggressive a base running, trying to force issues
Speaker 8: on defense, not hitting with the runners in scoring position.
Speaker 8: I mean, Yankees fans are saying those things about their
Speaker 8: team and X ratings losses. And you know, my one
Speaker 8: of my long running mantras here is no team's problems
Speaker 8: are unique. But I think when you have two teams
Speaker 8: that are right now slated four postseason spots, a possible
Speaker 8: October preview of some kind, it's good to be able
Speaker 8: to either climb up to a team's level or drag
Speaker 8: them down to yours.
Speaker 6: And I can understand from like the White Sox fans
Speaker 6: perspective that maybe are not as impressed because the Yankees
Speaker 6: don't have Aaron Judge or Cody Bellinger the White Sox
Speaker 6: and John Carl stan for that matter. It's not like
Speaker 6: the Yankees offense is at full power. They still can
Speaker 6: be dangerous. Ben Rice has been excellent for them offensively,
Speaker 6: Jazz Chisholm Trent Grisham can provide some off to output. Yes,
Speaker 6: the Yankees at times did struggle to score runs and
Speaker 6: that will be an issue for them while Bellinger's on
Speaker 6: the il and who.
Speaker 7: Knows the situation with Aaron Judge.
Speaker 6: But James still though the Yankees on the pitching side
Speaker 6: of here to be at full strength and the White
Speaker 6: Sox being able to weather that storm long and off,
Speaker 6: especially on Wednesday, and Thursday to scratch out those wins again.
Speaker 6: I even though the Yankees are not a full strength
Speaker 6: I still am impressed by the way the White Sox
Speaker 6: came back and split this series. What is splitting the series?
Speaker 6: What do you think this means for the White Sox
Speaker 6: And what did you hear in the post game conferences
Speaker 6: and the interviews with the players?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it certainly feels better on the like it depends
Speaker 4: on like sequencing, if they like have split these games up,
Speaker 4: or if they had won the first two and certainly
Speaker 4: lost the second two, it certainly has a much different
Speaker 4: feel from it. Whereas like this makes it feel like,
Speaker 4: you know, they show their metal. They came back, and
Speaker 4: I think that's the element of it, and certainly like
Speaker 4: the players aren't shocked or like feel like they've newly
Speaker 4: proven this ability to do this. But I think it
Speaker 4: certainly sends them to Tampa on a better note and
Speaker 4: makes it feel like, all right, we are playing here,
Speaker 4: you know, in our home stadium where they've had so
Speaker 4: much success in a way that's familiar to them. Same time,
Speaker 4: like if the biggest question with the White Sox is
Speaker 4: like starting rotation, they won the two games where you know,
Speaker 4: basically their most successful starters over the season, you know, performed.
Speaker 4: You know, then Noah Schultz only getting through three and
Speaker 4: a third really put them in a situation that, you know,
Speaker 4: it was difficult to n wind up. They didn't do
Speaker 4: well offensively, you know, I think Anthony k look well
Speaker 4: good overall, you know, even like it's kind of a
Speaker 4: weird chopper, as much as he gave up like three
Speaker 4: kind of well hit balls in a row in the
Speaker 4: second inning, like the one that like cashes into runs
Speaker 4: seem pretty fluky.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: And then you have like Martin doing really well to
Speaker 4: recover after a rough first inning, and you know, continuing
Speaker 4: to say afterwards that he feels like he's trending in
Speaker 4: the right direction mechanically. And then to Burke being what
Speaker 4: Burke has been for those last eight starts, and when
Speaker 4: starting pitching is in line, they look a lot more
Speaker 4: competitive and like they can hang with anybody. When it's not,
Speaker 4: it looks a little bit like, oh, well, this team
Speaker 4: was a year early, wasn't it. Throughout that there was
Speaker 4: a huge burden on the bullpen, and they certainly looked
Speaker 4: better in the last two days, you know, with just
Speaker 4: a herculean effer in terms of eleven innings total to
Speaker 4: turn to versus like it's hard for them to get
Speaker 4: the last five and two thirds of a game without
Speaker 4: you know, seeing an emplosion somewhere with Shultz. So I
Speaker 4: feel like you saw the good and bad of the
Speaker 4: pitching at times. I try to and I put it
Speaker 4: in the recap, but like the offense has like certainly
Speaker 4: had some games in the last like six weeks where
Speaker 4: it just like seems like they can't get to a starter,
Speaker 4: or it takes a while, or you know, the drags
Speaker 4: a really late. But I do have to look up
Speaker 4: the numbers and be like, oh, it's the top scoring
Speaker 4: team in the AL. Maybe they have flaws, but like
Speaker 4: literally every team in their compediing against his worse, So
Speaker 4: how much should we freak out about, you know, Tristan
Speaker 4: Peters having a slow start to post All Star Break
Speaker 4: and mcgil vargas like they've earned some trust to get
Speaker 4: right with what they've done. But it's certainly I think
Speaker 4: the first two games had a feel of all right,
Speaker 4: a better team is coming in and kind of assurding
Speaker 4: itself the way they did in the series in New
Speaker 4: York in a way. So for them to push back
Speaker 4: on that, you know, kudos to them, and at this
Speaker 4: point maybe we shouldn't be surprised. Certainly, Sam Mansinacci asking
Speaker 4: him about it this morning or Thursday morning, at this point,
Speaker 4: I was like, do you feel like like you guys
Speaker 4: kind of you know, turned around from at least a
Speaker 4: small bad stretch. And he's like, there's nothing to turn
Speaker 4: around from.
Speaker 7: We're good.
Speaker 4: So I think they feel like they asserted themselves, like
Speaker 4: obviously you have to prove it every single week in
Speaker 4: the majors. But it didn't seem like something was beyond
Speaker 4: or like oh wow, they've shown us this new thing.
Speaker 4: It's more like, oh, yeah, this is even when they
Speaker 4: look bad for two games, Like this is the one
Speaker 4: team in the league that hasn't lost four games in
Speaker 4: a row. I believe still, like they that's crazy. They've
Speaker 4: proven that they will swing around within you know, due time,
Speaker 4: even even after a couple of performances where they look
Speaker 4: pretty shaky.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the White Sox haven't lost for straight this season. Jim,
Speaker 6: there is a time in two twenty four, I don't
Speaker 6: know if they've won four games in thirty days.
Speaker 7: How long was that losing streak?
Speaker 6: Again, like twenty something in or close to twenty twenty one. Wow,
Speaker 6: how much stains can change in a couple of years.
Speaker 6: I love the confidence, though, Jim from Sam Antonacci like again,
Speaker 6: we can be impressed everyone from the outside and still shocked,
Speaker 6: but it's not arrogance for these White Sox young players.
Speaker 6: And Colson Montgomery has mentioned it a few times now
Speaker 6: that maybe they're too young, that they don't know any better.
Speaker 6: But I do enjoy as far as this type of
Speaker 6: confidence of the White Sox beam, especially for them able
Speaker 6: to climb back against the Yankees, and they're gonna need
Speaker 6: it because they got a pretty tough road trip coming
Speaker 6: up that we'll talk about later, starting in Tampa.
Speaker 8: Yeah. I mean you could say they're faking it till
Speaker 8: they make it when it comes to this kind of confidence,
Speaker 8: or you know, not willing to seed anything, and that's fine.
Speaker 8: I mean, as long as they can back it up.
Speaker 8: It's I think the opposite. Not to invoke him unnecessarily,
Speaker 8: but Paige griff would be somebody who tried to fake
Speaker 8: it till he made it, and he did not and
Speaker 8: just sounded delusional to points you couldn't line up what
Speaker 8: he was saying with what you were seeing there's no
Speaker 8: reason to trust him. So I think there's a fine line,
Speaker 8: or at least a line to walk when saying that.
Speaker 8: But yeah, when you never lose four games in a row,
Speaker 8: you know, knock on wood for them. But it's a
Speaker 8: testament to the fact that like, well, why should they
Speaker 8: talk down about themselves or why should they admit it
Speaker 8: if there hasn't been that stretch on paper showing that
Speaker 8: they can really get into a tailspin.
Speaker 6: We'll be talking more about the White Sox starting pitching,
Speaker 6: especially Sean Burke, who was outstanding again on Thursday ten strikeouts.
Speaker 6: After a quick word from our sponsors.
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Speaker 4: What'd you think of Bert Coberl.
Speaker 5: Barke was outstanding? I think you know fastball is again
Speaker 5: working for him, just a ton of confidence with it,
Speaker 5: just in the zone. He's getting swing and miss with
Speaker 5: it and really opening up everything else. I thought, a
Speaker 5: really good cutter again, today's just really get stuck here.
Speaker 5: I also thought, after like the third Fame a fastball
Speaker 5: command was pretty bad.
Speaker 4: I think I love some stuff on the table.
Speaker 5: There's like some longer innings and counts. I was able
Speaker 5: to finish as quick as I'd like to, But the
Speaker 5: cutter is.
Speaker 8: Really good today.
Speaker 6: And then as always breaking down design it's good too.
Speaker 6: That was White Sox manager Will Venable and of course
Speaker 6: Sean Burke speaking postgame on Thursday, again, Sean Burke absolutely outstanding,
Speaker 6: six scoreless innings for the White Sox, ten strikeouts on
Speaker 6: ninety one pitches, And James, it is a bit funny
Speaker 6: to me to hear Will Vennable say that, yeah, Burke's
Speaker 6: fastball again great, and then Sean Burke mentioning to you
Speaker 6: and the other Beat reporters after the game, Yeah, my
Speaker 6: fastball command wasn't all that great in the third and
Speaker 6: fourth inning. But for this, again, this is consecutive starts
Speaker 6: that Sean Burke has struck out ten plus hitters. Just
Speaker 6: absolutely dominating from Burke today. What was the catalyst in
Speaker 6: your point of view watching Burke on the field today, James,
Speaker 6: that led to the success?
Speaker 4: First of all, Venable like understands almost every game for
Speaker 4: the framework of did someone command like was the opposing
Speaker 4: offense able to turn around your fastball? Were we able
Speaker 4: to be competitive or do damage on the fastball? Like
Speaker 4: he that's his like baseline for like every game. So
Speaker 4: if you ask him about like what the offense did well,
Speaker 4: what the pitcher did well on any level, like he's
Speaker 4: he's probably going to like speak to like did did
Speaker 4: they damage the fastball, Did they follow it off?
Speaker 2: Did they whi it?
Speaker 4: And you know, Burke might feel like he left some
Speaker 4: in locations he didn't want to, but he didn't get
Speaker 4: like if you can buy his four singer and sinker,
Speaker 4: you got eight whiffs off of it. And he continued
Speaker 4: to sit ninety five, which was like a slightly above
Speaker 4: like his ear average. It just reflects like his norms
Speaker 4: kind of dragged a bit up from you know, I
Speaker 4: want to say he sat like ninety three point something
Speaker 4: last year even though we knew he's capable of upper
Speaker 4: nineties and really only topped out around like ninety seven
Speaker 4: points something. You know, you know, hum drum on Thursday,
Speaker 4: but has been more consistently having like this just the
Speaker 4: more competitive version of his fastball on the zone, where
Speaker 4: like even if he feels like he leaves the locations,
Speaker 4: like it's not getting hit the way like it would
Speaker 4: when he made mistakes or when it was a little
Speaker 4: bit underpowered. So I think there's something what Venable's saying. Well. Also,
Speaker 4: while like Burke's self standards have just like rocketed up
Speaker 4: in such a way where he's you know, this is
Speaker 4: at least results wise, Like I agree with him some
Speaker 4: like things are a little like spotty in points, but
Speaker 4: like if you look at results in his career, like
Speaker 4: it's a short list contender for one of the best
Speaker 4: starts of his life. It's six coolest Indians against the Yankees,
Speaker 4: but ten strikeouts. He has three double digit strikeout games
Speaker 4: this month, but only five in his career. Like, I
Speaker 4: know he's gotten used to, like, you know, being awesome
Speaker 4: really quickly, but.
Speaker 7: I mean he's a strong.
Speaker 6: Contender James to be American League Picture of the Month.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think, like I haven't looked at it yet,
Speaker 4: but right now, like it looks like someone deserving of
Speaker 4: a vote. He feels like, and it's certainly true in
Speaker 4: terms of like looking like how effective his cutter was,
Speaker 4: Like I think he struck out Grisham and Chisholm with it,
Speaker 4: and I want to say another one. He feels like
Speaker 4: this was a great day of like I was able
Speaker 4: to throw my cutter when I wasn't locating my fastball,
Speaker 4: or just like able to get whiffs off both the
Speaker 4: slider and curve. Like it's like this kind of represents
Speaker 4: if I don't have to lean on one thing. It's
Speaker 4: not like, oh, if I don't have my huge four steamer,
Speaker 4: it's not getting tons of whiff or I'm not doing
Speaker 4: my best curve ball like that dictates my start. The
Speaker 4: fact that you can kind of like go to other
Speaker 4: avenues and still be successful, I think for him is
Speaker 4: what's standing out, Like I have confidence on all my
Speaker 4: pitches right now in a way that he's really touting.
Speaker 4: So the fact that his arsenal has expanded so comfortably
Speaker 4: and he can kind of see it all effective, not
Speaker 4: necessarily so evenly distributed like this start, but so consistently
Speaker 4: can turn to other options and not just be like
Speaker 4: I have to have perfect or great four seamers and
Speaker 4: curves or otherwise it's going to be one and I'm
Speaker 4: gonna you're gonna see me walk, guys. I think that's
Speaker 4: what's standing out to him right now. Same time like
Speaker 4: I think it's it's all kind of contributed, Like his
Speaker 4: delivery is clearly clicked in a way that's allowed him
Speaker 4: to make choices about what he feels like really fits
Speaker 4: in his arsenal. And you know, he's gotten so comfortable
Speaker 4: with his curve and executing against lefties and the cutter
Speaker 4: that if he hasn't outright just abandoned the change up.
Speaker 4: It's like, well, it's really not that important for me
Speaker 4: to get this right. I don't have to force myself
Speaker 4: to throw it in situations where it seems pretty iffy.
Speaker 4: And I think that's what every like super supernater guy
Speaker 4: wants to feel about a change up, like truly a
Speaker 4: choice to ever use it at all. And I think
Speaker 4: he's at that point just because of how strong the
Speaker 4: rest of those arsenal is. So I asked him like
Speaker 4: straight up to like, I know you're quibbling some things here,
Speaker 4: but don't you kind of think this is the best
Speaker 4: baseball you were throwning in your life? And he's like,
Speaker 4: oh yeah. So it's funny because like most guys high
Speaker 4: school or college, you know, maybe they're just dominating in
Speaker 4: ways like they never can replicate in the pros because
Speaker 4: this pros are too hard. But like Burke is very
Speaker 4: much like, yeah, like I was good, I could tell
Speaker 4: I could go to the next level, but like I
Speaker 4: was never as consistent as I want to be. It
Speaker 4: feels like he's these eight outings. They're not technically starts
Speaker 4: because one of them at an opener, but like these
Speaker 4: these eight starts are the most consistent he's really been,
Speaker 4: even though if it's the highest, you know, competition level
Speaker 4: he's face in his career.
Speaker 6: It's funny that you mentioned like he's got other pitches
Speaker 6: in his arsenal because looking at stat cast, podcast listeners
Speaker 6: and watchers, opposing hitters against Burke's fourteen fastball are just
Speaker 6: batting one to eighty against that pitch, and his knuckle
Speaker 6: curve is two two. So I can understand, like, if
Speaker 6: he's feeling a bit iffy James in his start that
Speaker 6: it's not as sharp, or maybe the fastball is too
Speaker 6: middle of his zone, it's too hit a ble that
Speaker 6: I can go to the cutter, you know, after reading
Speaker 6: some of your recent reports about Noah Schultz to like
Speaker 6: try to keep it simple and maybe reducing from a
Speaker 6: six pitch arsenal maybe down to like three for Noah's Schultz.
Speaker 6: It's pretty clear that this fastball, curveball cutter accommodation is good.
Speaker 6: I mean back to back ten plus strikeout outings. So
Speaker 6: I don't know James, if Bert does need to change up,
Speaker 6: for when he will need to change up again.
Speaker 4: I mean, he doesn't really like there are multiple starts
Speaker 4: in the stretch where he hasn't thrown it, and I
Speaker 4: asked him about it and he's like, yeah, I've kind
Speaker 4: of banged it, and like he mentioned throwing it a
Speaker 4: little bit on Thursday, like just as like, but he've
Speaker 4: views it as like not necessarily like a shape that
Speaker 4: he thinks is super necessary in terms of like getting
Speaker 4: something to move away from left eas He views this
Speaker 4: purely as like a speed differential thing to kind of
Speaker 4: mess up timing this whole dynamic that he used to
Speaker 4: have of like you know a lot of these big
Speaker 4: right handers who have big sliders or big curve balls
Speaker 4: have like, oh, I can make everything move it's the left,
Speaker 4: but I can't move and make anything go right away
Speaker 4: from lefties. It's just not really holding him back right now.
Speaker 4: It's not stopping him from getting left handed hitters out,
Speaker 4: So it's it's really it's not like the shape that's
Speaker 4: missing from his profile, especially since he uses a sinker
Speaker 4: so much and even the lefties. And he threw on
Speaker 4: the Spencer Jones that was kind of in a spicy location,
Speaker 4: but he got him to fly out on. He's been
Speaker 4: willing to do that pretty often. I don't think it's like,
Speaker 4: oh man, what am I going to do to get
Speaker 4: anybody to not just kind of look, you know, glove
Speaker 4: side on me over and over. It doesn't seem like
Speaker 4: that's you know, occupying his attention the way it was,
Speaker 4: you know, last year when he's really still figuring things out.
Speaker 6: And Jim, I think with Burke, like the the fastball
Speaker 6: velocity difference. I was listening to the Game of the
Speaker 6: radio and Len Casper and Darren Jackson were talking about
Speaker 6: this point with Burke that when he is in the stretch,
Speaker 6: that's when you start seeing the fastball dip a little bit.
Speaker 6: Where when he's in his wind up he can get
Speaker 6: up to ninety eight and ninety nine. You usually don't
Speaker 6: see those fastball velosies Burke out of the stretch. So
Speaker 6: maybe that's it means pretty key, he's not walking a
Speaker 6: whole lot. He only walked two batters in this outing
Speaker 6: against the Yankees, So maybe that's something that we have
Speaker 6: to take a deeper dive into and if that is
Speaker 6: the difference, and maybe also leading success for Burke is
Speaker 6: just simply not giving away free passes and staying out
Speaker 6: of the stretch as long as possible. But if Game
Speaker 6: one of the postseason were tomorrow. Jim Sean Burke's that starter, right.
Speaker 8: I hesitate to answer this question just because the last
Speaker 8: two guys who had earned this mantle, Jane Smith, I
Speaker 8: just watched him in Charlotte tonight, and.
Speaker 7: How did he look?
Speaker 8: Just doesn't seem to have that same ability to bully
Speaker 8: hitters with the fastball. I think last year when he
Speaker 8: was on his game, like four seemers, Sinkers did the job. Basically.
Speaker 8: The changeup was there, curveball was there. He had some
Speaker 8: breaking pitches to show, but it's mainly just relentless fastballsack, attack, attack,
Speaker 8: and the velocity isn't bad, but it's more like ninety
Speaker 8: four versus ninety six. And he tops out at like
Speaker 8: ninety six ninety seven and gets into bad counts to
Speaker 8: where when they're expecting it, they can you hit line drives.
Speaker 8: So he's not so much a factor right now. Then
Speaker 8: Davis Martin was that guy and you looked like he
Speaker 8: was on an automatic All Star berth and possible Cy
Speaker 8: Young votes, and then he hits this rough patch. So
Speaker 8: now it's Burke, and so I'm tempted to try to
Speaker 8: sidestep this in terms of like a sports illustrated jinks
Speaker 8: or anything like that, to where you're catching somebody their
Speaker 8: high point and then regression kicks in. But yeah, I
Speaker 8: mean it's pretty obvious just in terms of how he's
Speaker 8: mitigating everything. Just he's not giving up walks, he's striking
Speaker 8: out guys. The contact that he's giving up is staying
Speaker 8: in the park mostly, So he's controlling all three peripherals
Speaker 8: the kind of breech Roy outcomes, and so when you
Speaker 8: have that going for you, you can kind of get
Speaker 8: by with the a single whether he has a little
Speaker 8: bit of a lossy dip in the stretch, you can
Speaker 8: get by with lesser stuff when you're still forcing hitters
Speaker 8: to string together quality plate appearances against a pitcher who's
Speaker 8: locating both fastball and breaking balls and kind of at
Speaker 8: will in either count. That really isn't a fastball count necessarily.
Speaker 8: So yeah, at this point, he's pitching like a postseason starter.
Speaker 8: And when you look at what Martin's done of late,
Speaker 8: although he bounced back very nicely after the rough first inning,
Speaker 8: and then you f k, who's kind of somebody who
Speaker 8: battles through five I would say was probably the way
Speaker 8: they characterize him. Then I think, yeah, it's Burke and
Speaker 8: then distant second.
Speaker 6: Right. Now, well, where to take a quick break for
Speaker 6: more words from our sponsors. But coming up after the break,
Speaker 6: we're going to take a look around the American League Central,
Speaker 6: update the standing, see how the other teams are doing
Speaker 6: in the division, and preview this key road series of
Speaker 6: the White Sox. They head to Saint Petersburg, Florida to
Speaker 6: face the Tampa Bay Rays next on the Sox Machine podcast.
Speaker 6: Now taking a look around the American League Central, and
Speaker 6: the Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins both won their series.
Speaker 6: The Guardians won two out of three against the Reds.
Speaker 6: The Minnesota Twins were down three to nothing in their
Speaker 6: third game against the Royals, two outs, bomb the ninth inning,
Speaker 6: two strikes and Cody Clemens hits a walk off grand
Speaker 6: Slam to win that series for the Minnesota Twins. And
Speaker 6: the Detroit Tigers ended up losing their series to the
Speaker 6: Baltimore Orioles. They were up seven to nothing in Trek
Speaker 6: School's last start, maybe the last start with the Detroit
Speaker 6: Tigers based on recent rumors. They were up seven to
Speaker 6: nothing and they ended up losing that game. So a
Speaker 6: really painful series loss for the Detroit Tigers when you
Speaker 6: take a look around the American League Central standings as
Speaker 6: an update before heading into this weekend, the Chicago White
Speaker 6: Sox still lead with the fifty seven to fifty one record,
Speaker 6: their two games ahead of the Guardians. We're fifty six
Speaker 6: at fifty four to Minnesota Twins have battled back to
Speaker 6: being five hundred. They're fifty five and fifty five, just
Speaker 6: three games back at the White Sox. The Tigers are
Speaker 6: seven games below five hundred at fifty one to fifty eight,
Speaker 6: and the Kansas City Royals are forty six and sixty four.
Speaker 6: They are a distant last place right now, they're twelve
Speaker 6: games back of the Chicago White Sox. A lot could
Speaker 6: change here, guys, between now and the trade deadline, and
Speaker 6: this gives me an opportunity to promote our next episode.
Speaker 6: Jim Margulus and I will be recording a new episode
Speaker 6: on Friday, in which I'll be pitching some of my
Speaker 6: ideas that the White Sox can make as far as
Speaker 6: trades before the deadline. Will also be sharing your trade
Speaker 6: ideas as well, so hit us up on social media
Speaker 6: or most your trade ideas that you like to see
Speaker 6: the White Sox make before the deadline. I guess we
Speaker 6: can call this the mid season plan Project, Jim, where
Speaker 6: our listeners and our followers on Sox Machine can make
Speaker 6: their which is as well to see what they want
Speaker 6: to when Chris gets to accomplish before the August third deadline.
Speaker 6: And of course again watch our friends over at fil
Speaker 6: Territory for their live show on Monday, as we'll have
Speaker 6: Ken Rosenthal, Aj Prazinski Aeric Kratz breaking it all down
Speaker 6: when trades do happen. But I have to ask you, Jim,
Speaker 6: I look at the standings the Minnesota Twins.
Speaker 7: They are still there.
Speaker 6: The fact that they're three games back of the White
Speaker 6: Sox has me a little itchy, especially now the White
Speaker 6: Sox have six straight games against continuing this Ale East
Speaker 6: part of the Gauntlet where they visit Tampa get a
Speaker 6: day off before heading to Boston.
Speaker 7: Are you a believer in the Minnesota Twins.
Speaker 8: I guess I should be because I haven't been a
Speaker 8: believer in them and they keep making me look dumb.
Speaker 8: So perhaps now is the time to get on the
Speaker 8: bandwagon and try to sink it. They're another team. I
Speaker 8: think that when you look at the components of it,
Speaker 8: the starting Rote is kind of okay but top heavy,
Speaker 8: and Joe Ryan's been struggling as of late. The bullpen
Speaker 8: has been kind of a mess all a year. But
Speaker 8: they're getting by on hitting and having a modular lineup,
Speaker 8: and you know, Byron Buxton has been in out of
Speaker 8: the lineup, but they've been able to compensate for it,
Speaker 8: and they have a pretty deep attack, and they have
Speaker 8: some guys off the bench like Royce Lewis has come
Speaker 8: back from Triple A and he's helped. So they've been
Speaker 8: able to rotate guys in and out. Uh and it's
Speaker 8: been pretty effective in scoring runs. It's just a matter
Speaker 8: if they give up a lot of runs as well.
Speaker 8: So if they can you know, bash their way enough,
Speaker 8: then perhaps it is a way to hang around five
Speaker 8: hundred in this kind of uneven imbalanced or I guess
Speaker 8: balance in terms of just like nobody there are no
Speaker 8: good teams right now or no great teams in the
Speaker 8: American League, so they're in the white Sox of Ain
Speaker 8: of Hell Raisers. I think that can just make a
Speaker 8: team miserable pitching wise, and you hope that you just
Speaker 8: bruise them enough. If you're the Twins to I guess
Speaker 8: lose their senses a little bit, or lose their confidence
Speaker 8: and get by on sheer brute force. It does make
Speaker 8: me think, like, you know, the conversations that we've had
Speaker 8: about the Twins over the last couple of years, and
Speaker 8: I was always, i guess not enamored with Rocco Baldelli,
Speaker 8: not thinking was a terrible manager, but just it felt
Speaker 8: like the Twins had gotten stale, just with the front
Speaker 8: office and with Baldeli there, and seemed like problems just
Speaker 8: kept being the same problems the way we saw it
Speaker 8: the White Sox, how sometimes their problems would repeat upon
Speaker 8: themselves and it just seemed like nobody was really solving
Speaker 8: problems where they were just kind of throwing different shape
Speaker 8: or same shaped solutions at it. You know, maybe they
Speaker 8: change the names, but nothing had really changed fundamentally about
Speaker 8: the mix and they just had this low ceiling about them.
Speaker 8: And I think that's probably the previous pole Ads as well,
Speaker 8: kind of setting that tone. But I think you have
Speaker 8: a new poll Ad in charge, you have a new manager,
Speaker 8: you have a new GM, and yeah you might get
Speaker 8: some of that, you know, like we saw at the Phillies,
Speaker 8: just a little bit of a shakeup just with having
Speaker 8: different people in charge, having new people, I guess decision
Speaker 8: makers assessing the situation, trying to put their hands on
Speaker 8: it and seeing what they can do with it. And
Speaker 8: it might not be like a long term solution, like
Speaker 8: this isn't resulting in a great Twins team, but it's
Speaker 8: resulting in a better one, and I think it's a
Speaker 8: feistier one or one with more power that when you
Speaker 8: have teams that aren't pitching well like the Royals bullpen.
Speaker 8: It was funny. I was watching that game, or I
Speaker 8: was watching the White Sox, but I was following on
Speaker 8: Blue Sky and Craig Brown, who's ran about the Royals
Speaker 8: for a long time, watches Noah Cameron throw eight scoreless innings.
Speaker 8: He's like, let's watch the Royals bullpen blow this, and
Speaker 8: sure enough, like even he couldn't believe how they blew it.
Speaker 8: Like they had the first two outs like Lucas ersag
Speaker 8: got the first two outs, and then they had three
Speaker 8: of the next four hitters on two strikes, so at
Speaker 8: three times they were one strike away from ending it
Speaker 8: and give up a walk off Grand Slam. So against
Speaker 8: teams that have these flawed pitching staffs, I think they
Speaker 8: can just you know, kind of the death Star porch
Speaker 8: is like, just fire missiles into it and blow it up.
Speaker 8: Just with the deep lineup that they have, So yeah,
Speaker 8: I am taking them more seriously now, just because you know,
Speaker 8: with Buxton being hurt, like I thought, okay, he's been
Speaker 8: you know, his hips really been bothering him. You have
Speaker 8: Joe Ryan who's looking shaky like this is kind of
Speaker 8: the lynchpin of their rotation and of their lineup. And
Speaker 8: even when they're not on their game, they're still winning,
Speaker 8: they're still scoring runs. So yeah, you have to take
Speaker 8: them seriously now.
Speaker 6: And the Minnesota Twins head to Seattle, so they have
Speaker 6: a series against Seattle Mariners, which the Mariners are still
Speaker 6: in the thicket things, and the America League Quests before
Speaker 6: they head back to Kansas City. So that's the next
Speaker 6: six games for the Twins and again the White Sox.
Speaker 6: We talk about the race series in a moment. Three
Speaker 6: at Tampa, three at Boston. Again, my neck is feeling
Speaker 6: a little itchy. I was expecting the Minnesota Twins, I
Speaker 6: have one of the worst records in Major League Baseball,
Speaker 6: but CAP tip to them to be able to weather
Speaker 6: their storms.
Speaker 8: As well.
Speaker 6: Derek Shelton has done a very good job. It is
Speaker 6: a surprise, just as surprising as the White Sox have been,
Speaker 6: so have been the Minnesota Twins.
Speaker 7: And four days away.
Speaker 6: Let's see if Trek School does get dealt in how
Speaker 6: that impacts the Detroit Tiger said, this does become a
Speaker 6: three team race still in the America League Central, but
Speaker 6: that makes this different gym. Instead of White Sox, Guardians, Tigers,
Speaker 6: it's White Sox, Guardians and Twins. We'll see what happens,
Speaker 6: of course after Monday, but the Chicago White Sox boarded
Speaker 6: they're playing and they are headed to Saint.
Speaker 7: Petersburg, Florida. Will also be sitting James.
Speaker 6: Down there to cover that series for US because, in
Speaker 6: a very weird way, if the season were to end
Speaker 6: the day, the Rays would be the number one seed
Speaker 6: and the White Sox would be the number two seed.
Speaker 6: Could this be a potential American League Championship series?
Speaker 7: Preview?
Speaker 6: Well, the White Sox are sorry. The Rays a sixty
Speaker 6: four and forty four this year.
Speaker 7: They won their.
Speaker 6: Last two games. They're eight and ten in their last ten.
Speaker 6: They have been dominating at home this year. The Rays
Speaker 6: are forty and sixteen. They win one game against the
Speaker 6: White Sox this weekend, and they already clinch a winning
Speaker 6: record for this season at home in early August. That's
Speaker 6: how dominating the Rays have been at home. So this
Speaker 6: is going to be a tough test for the White Sox.
Speaker 6: You're pitching problems for this series. Friday night, this is
Speaker 6: a six to ten pm Central Time first pitch. Nick
Speaker 6: Martinez will take the ball for the Rays against Eric
Speaker 6: Favetti for the Chicago White Sox. On Saturday, this is
Speaker 6: a three ten pm Central Time start. It's Drew Rasmussen
Speaker 6: for the Rays against Noah Schultz. Tentatively right now, we'll
Speaker 6: see if there's any adjustments by the White Sox, but
Speaker 6: the plan is for Noah Schultz to make that start
Speaker 6: on Saturday, and then on Sunday one ten I'm sorry,
Speaker 6: twelve forty pm Central time start, it's Griffin Jacks, the
Speaker 6: former Minnesota twin out pitching for the Rays, and it'll
Speaker 6: be Anthony k to go on Sunday. So big series
Speaker 6: for the White Sox to see if they can do
Speaker 6: what other teams have really struggled to do, which is
Speaker 6: try to win a series in Saint Petersburg James, you
Speaker 6: will be there as you are covering this series between
Speaker 6: the White Sox and Rays.
Speaker 7: What's the biggest.
Speaker 6: Storyline that you'll be following over these next three games.
Speaker 4: It's funny when I was at the All Star Game,
Speaker 4: Jason Starr came up to me and said, like, I
Speaker 4: can't wait for the Rays White Sox ALCS and we
Speaker 4: can proceeded to banter about it for a bit, which
Speaker 4: my proposal is that it's somehow one sets a record
Speaker 4: for most openers used in ALCS, and like Brian Hudson,
Speaker 4: somehow like becomes like the record holder for like most
Speaker 4: starts in a single ALCS because he opens like three
Speaker 4: games or something ridiculous. He sounds like he's looking forward
Speaker 4: to it. Based off that description, I feel like they're
Speaker 4: easy answers to this or chief answers. I should say
Speaker 4: one is trades. Obviously it would be what we're I
Speaker 4: feel like we really committed to the series for is
Speaker 4: in case something like that happens. We're were welcoming new
Speaker 4: people into the clubhouse. Obviously the deadline is until the
Speaker 4: day after, but you know, certainly it socks have multiple
Speaker 4: needs in a seller's market like this. Who knows how
Speaker 4: many if they'll be able to check all those boxes,
Speaker 4: but if they are, likely one of them will come
Speaker 4: a little early before the last day. We'll see. Second
Speaker 4: one is I have been led to believe we're probably
Speaker 4: gonna be finding out assignments for draftees on Saturday, most
Speaker 4: notably Rock Chalowski number one overall pick As you mentioned,
Speaker 4: you're around these parts, so these are not storylines pertaining
Speaker 4: to the series per se, but they're out there. I
Speaker 4: think Noah Schultz certainly stands out to some degree just
Speaker 4: because this rotation spot is the most in question, or like,
Speaker 4: how do maybe there The Rais offense doesn't necessarily outside
Speaker 4: of Junior Camonaro, Jonathan Aronda, like Yandi Diaz doesn't have
Speaker 4: like these huge names on it to like invoke fear.
Speaker 4: But they're obviously able to match up a lot and
Speaker 4: move on the bases and do a lot of things
Speaker 4: like if you're create, if you're walking guys, or just
Speaker 4: kind of creating problems for yourself, and in ways that
Speaker 4: struggling starters can that they can really be a pack
Speaker 4: of branas on you rather than just kind of overwhelm
Speaker 4: great pictures all the time. So that stands out. I though,
Speaker 4: am curious, like, can they this is like an elite
Speaker 4: pitching team. Can the White Sox hit them? Like Drews
Speaker 4: Asmissen has been awesome, Griffin Jackson really good since movings
Speaker 4: of the rotation like these are not I don't think
Speaker 4: any of these matchups you really look like the pitching matchups.
Speaker 4: Nick Martinez is obviously be an effective and getting we contact,
Speaker 4: and you've certainly seen like uh pictures face the White
Speaker 4: Sox and like challenge them the zone a lot and
Speaker 4: get weak contact and kind of kider Montero their way
Speaker 4: through like scoreless innings in the blink of an eye,
Speaker 4: and you know, do they have ways of combat? Brian
Speaker 4: Weathers certainly seemed like he kind of did that just
Speaker 4: getting weak contact below the zone. Uh, for seven innings
Speaker 4: on Sunday? Can they hit this team? They kind of
Speaker 4: need to get here for It's weird to like the
Speaker 4: twenty twenty one White Sox are very much like you
Speaker 4: guys should win a division and thus all the season
Speaker 4: is about, like, all right, how are they going to
Speaker 4: stack up in the playoffs? So what's their record against
Speaker 4: winning teams? They were so clearly going to win the
Speaker 4: whole time that like I feel like beyond just that
Speaker 4: team not having nearly like the good vibes of this one.
Speaker 4: We just spent all that year kind of picking them apart,
Speaker 4: Like after the good first half, it's like, oh, are
Speaker 4: they really that good? Are they really going to stack up?
Speaker 4: Are they really going to do more than just win
Speaker 4: this bad division? Whereas like the White Sox win this
Speaker 4: bad division, like it's you know, one hundred and thirty percent,
Speaker 4: like grade on your class, Like it's such an a
Speaker 4: like we put up a picture of you afterwards, like
Speaker 4: assessing them, like are they got to prove their playoff worthy?
Speaker 4: The like doesn't feel like fair yet for like how
Speaker 4: we should judge them. But at the same time, they're playing,
Speaker 4: you know, the best record in the AL. Want to
Speaker 4: see if they prove their playoff worthy. They seem like
Speaker 4: they're a much different team than the team that faced
Speaker 4: the Rays earlier in the season Ulyast in terms of
Speaker 4: like what we think they're capable of. So let's see
Speaker 4: if they can handle elite pitching Teamsin's you know, Colson
Speaker 4: Montgomery Miguel Vargus have both been probably a little bit
Speaker 4: cold since the All Star break. The best version of
Speaker 4: seeing them kind of fixed things probably involves, you know,
Speaker 4: getting right against you know, a difficult stretch here that
Speaker 4: they have coming up. So you ask, biggest storyline? I
Speaker 4: listed five?
Speaker 6: Yeah, Jim, the X factor for the White Sox, other
Speaker 6: than score more runs than the Rays, what do you
Speaker 6: think would be the big that will determine if the
Speaker 6: White Sox are able to find any type of success
Speaker 6: against Tampa or maybe even pull off the surprise and
Speaker 6: win the series against the Rays in Saint Petersburg.
Speaker 8: Yeah, James took my answer a little bit, but I
Speaker 8: can elaborate on it. With the pitching they're facing, the
Speaker 8: specific into pitching they're facing with Nick Martinez and Drew Rasmus,
Speaker 8: and in particular, like they have really high arm angles
Speaker 8: like overhead slots, throw a lot of fastballs up in
Speaker 8: the zone. Even though Martinez throws more sinkers, he's okay
Speaker 8: with using sinkers up in the zone also as a
Speaker 8: change up. So we've seen the White Sox against these
Speaker 8: pittures with the I guess they'd call him Verdi with
Speaker 8: the Astros, with the Mariners, we've seen them struggle against
Speaker 8: that particular kind of pitture because at least last time
Speaker 8: I check on SACas, they have the highest approach angle
Speaker 8: in the game as a team, just with their batpath
Speaker 8: to where they can get above them. So we've seen
Speaker 8: them swing and miss, We've seen them hit a ton
Speaker 8: of pop ups at times, and I think Martinez and
Speaker 8: Rasmussen are probably the way they're built can exploit that
Speaker 8: pretty well. So if the White Sox are going to
Speaker 8: adjust to these teams, that can maybe either see them
Speaker 8: in the postseason or plan to face them and you know,
Speaker 8: arrange their pitching staffs wdardingly. This would be a good
Speaker 8: opportunity to show, even if they don't like thump them,
Speaker 8: just showing that they can put up more fights, get
Speaker 8: their bats up, get their barrels flatter to do some damage.
Speaker 8: And I think I'm also looking at this in this
Speaker 8: regard facing a couple of writings and Tristan Peters. He's
Speaker 8: scored for forty two in the second half so far,
Speaker 8: so you can kind of see what he contributed to
Speaker 8: the offense by what he's not contributing right now in
Speaker 8: terms of having that contact based approach. The line drives
Speaker 8: the the I guess when it comes of bad balls,
Speaker 8: the non easy outs, like the line you know when
Speaker 8: Colson Montgomery makes now and it tends to be a
Speaker 8: fly ball, a pop up, so he has to hit
Speaker 8: the ball pretty square to get what he wants out
Speaker 8: of the contact, whereas with Peters, you know, and Antonachi
Speaker 8: is another guy who does this, so he can move
Speaker 8: the ball around the field, mishit the ball and still
Speaker 8: fine grass because of just how much ground they have
Speaker 8: to cover. So I think he's valuable, and I think
Speaker 8: the way he's struggling right now shows just what the
Speaker 8: White Sox are missing. So if the White Sox have
Speaker 8: a good weekend in Saint Petersburg, I'd imagine it's because
Speaker 8: he's doing something to help.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Peters right now looks like he's swaying with a
Speaker 6: sixty ounce bat like it just looks either maybe he's
Speaker 6: a bit fatigue for how much that he's been playing.
Speaker 6: The bat does look a little slow. But hey, you
Speaker 6: had you had the walk off walk that helped the
Speaker 6: White Sox win on Thursday. So we'll see what kind
Speaker 6: of series happens between the White Sox and the Rays.
Speaker 6: But that will do it for this episode of the
Speaker 6: Sox Machine Podcast. Again, we'll have a new episode for
Speaker 6: you guys over the weekend, as Jim and I will
Speaker 6: go through my crazy trade ideas before the August third
Speaker 6: trade deadline, and again pitch your ideas to us as well,
Speaker 6: which we'll be sharing those in the show either the
Speaker 6: comments section at soxmachine dot com, in the YouTube section
Speaker 6: at YouTube dot com slash sox Machine, or hit us
Speaker 6: up on social media as we're on all the social
Speaker 6: media platforms at sox Machine. You can follow us also
Speaker 6: in Instagram and in Blue Sky. James again we'll be
Speaker 6: in Florida covering this series. You can follow him at
Speaker 6: j Rfigan and of course you can follow me at
Speaker 6: socks Machine Underscore Josh. But again that'll do it for
Speaker 6: this episode of the sox Machine podcast. Thank you guys
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Speaker 7: I'm Josh Nelson. Thanks for listening and watching.