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Speaker 2: From your favorite source for Chicago White Sox talk, delivering news, interviews,
Speaker 2: analysis and more. This is the Socks Machine Podcast with
Speaker 2: your host's Jim Margolis, James Vegan, and Josh Nelson.
Speaker 3: Hello and welcome to you a new episode of the
Speaker 3: Socks Podcast. I'm Josh Nelson alongside James Vegan and Jim Margolis,
Speaker 3: and this is gonna be a happy episode as we
Speaker 3: record this on Sunday night, July nineteen, twenty twenty six,
Speaker 3: it's the Chicago White Sox won another road series as
Speaker 3: they won two out of three against the Blue Jays.
Speaker 3: There's six games above five hundred, they're fifty two and
Speaker 3: forty six and in this series, the pitching really powered
Speaker 3: this series win for the Chicago White Sox, especially the
Speaker 3: start that we saw on Sunday from Sean Burke. And
Speaker 3: we've been talking about Sean Burke for a bit here
Speaker 3: as he went six and two thirds innings, didn't allow
Speaker 3: a run, only allowed two hits, walked one, he struck
Speaker 3: out five. But what's more remarkable about Sean Burke has
Speaker 3: this has been this heater ever since that appearance against
Speaker 3: the Yankees in which he totally dominated, even though the
Speaker 3: White Sox used an opener. In his last six appearances,
Speaker 3: it's thirty eight and two thirds innings now for Sean Burke.
Speaker 3: He's only allowed twenty eight hits, just six earned runs,
Speaker 3: walking only six and striking out forty seven. He had
Speaker 3: that earned run average in his last six appearance for
Speaker 3: Sean Burke is one point for zero. Just outstanding stuff
Speaker 3: from Sean Burke. And I think that's where I want
Speaker 3: to start the conversation James again, tremendous heater for Sean Burke,
Speaker 3: and he put it on display again on Sunday. What's
Speaker 3: been working for Burke?
Speaker 4: Well, he's throwing a ton of strikes, which is always helpful.
Speaker 4: That's usually the will Aventable analysis that he gives postgame,
Speaker 4: which I always appreciate him not trying to expand outside
Speaker 4: of his lane as like a past hitter. He's just
Speaker 4: usually like, eh, usually when the pitchers throw strikes, that's good. Burke, like,
Speaker 4: especially for the Yankee series, kind of figured out something
Speaker 4: with his delivery. I don't know if we've discussed it
Speaker 4: on here before, but like as far as like the
Speaker 4: timing of his counter rotation and how much he does
Speaker 4: and how he's able to kind of separation a bit
Speaker 4: more with his you know kind of shoulders and hips
Speaker 4: and in a way that give them an extra juice.
Speaker 4: He was struggling with it more a beginning of the season.
Speaker 4: He kind of felt to his tie together, but he
Speaker 4: did have like some nextiffness that he's dealing with him
Speaker 4: was making it a little bit harder for him to
Speaker 4: kind of get the same you know, kind of separation
Speaker 4: he wanted, and he felt like his neck was getting
Speaker 4: stuck when he like kind of brought his arm back
Speaker 4: to a degree. So it's kind of a little bit
Speaker 4: of like getting over not quite an injury. I had
Speaker 4: something of an ilm, but something that like affected him
Speaker 4: early in the season and also kind of finding the
Speaker 4: exact you know, rhythm and timing on it, to do
Speaker 4: it with a lot of command, because when he's throwing hardest,
Speaker 4: he also tends to have his best command. I felt
Speaker 4: Sunday was a little bit more like breaking ball heavy
Speaker 4: and more like that's what he rode to get through
Speaker 4: the game. Like he he topped on ninety eight. It
Speaker 4: wasn't like his basketball as bad. It just wasn't like, oh,
Speaker 4: he's got the eighty percentile version of it all night,
Speaker 4: where he's just like sitting ninety eight ninety nine and
Speaker 4: just like beating people on top rail all the time.
Speaker 4: It seemed a lot less like he had good command
Speaker 4: of all his sinker or his curveball, and his his
Speaker 4: slider and slider was really tight, and even if he
Speaker 4: wasn't any whiffs down there, he was getting kind of
Speaker 4: like these bent over scoop swings that just didn't have
Speaker 4: much behind them. It certainly worked. I thought Toronto's offense
Speaker 4: looked pretty bad all weekend in a way that like
Speaker 4: it certainly doesn't seem like a team's about to turn
Speaker 4: it on. I know there's tons of injuries there for
Speaker 4: why they don't look complete, but in terms of like offense,
Speaker 4: that's clearly not rolling. Maybe he didn't have like his
Speaker 4: biggest heater where he's just like you know, doing f
Speaker 4: you at bats to like you even red hot offenses
Speaker 4: that he's shut down at points during the stretch, it
Speaker 4: did seem like he was executing to a level like
Speaker 4: offense that really isn't getting anything going unless you kind
Speaker 4: of get it, start going, started going for them a
Speaker 4: little bit like with walks and free passes, like whether
Speaker 4: I think he ran into he did well to shut
Speaker 4: them down, so like it wasn't like maximal burke the
Speaker 4: way like maybe other points as the stretch was, but
Speaker 4: still fit in right alongside of like a very long
Speaker 4: stretch of being consistently very good, which you know, if
Speaker 4: you ask, I think I was talking to Sean about
Speaker 4: it previously, is like that's what I've been looking for
Speaker 4: since in college. I've always had these flashes where I
Speaker 4: looked really good and people are not excited about me,
Speaker 4: like long term and my potential, Like what I want
Speaker 4: is like stacking like weeks of it and not having
Speaker 4: hiccups in between. So it's funny because he kind of
Speaker 4: had this point last year where he had back to
Speaker 4: back starts where he walked five guys and he ripped
Speaker 4: off like a stretch of three pretty good ones. So
Speaker 4: I was kind of suggesting to him, like, hey, you
Speaker 4: you went to this before last year, maybe you could
Speaker 4: do the same. But he's obviously kind of turning on
Speaker 4: for a longer period of time in a way that
Speaker 4: you know, he's certainly encouraged about going forward more than
Speaker 4: just like putting the bad taste of those two walk
Speaker 4: heavy autings behind him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you mentioned the Blue Jays offense, James. It was
Speaker 3: a recurring storyline as the White Sox were on three
Speaker 3: different networks, Apple TV than see Just Then and then
Speaker 3: Peacock on Sunday. Just everyone can't believe. I can't believe
Speaker 3: that Vlad Greer Junior has to hit a home run
Speaker 3: in the Rogers Center in the twenty twenty six season.
Speaker 3: I don't know what's going to be happening to the
Speaker 3: Blue Jays after this series, and maybe they will end
Speaker 3: up selling even though they don't want to throw in
Speaker 3: the towel yet. And unfortunately, Jim, the one loss for
Speaker 3: the White Sox is a tough loss because Davis Martin
Speaker 3: was good. I mean, he only allowed one run, which
Speaker 3: was on a C and I single from George Sprainer.
Speaker 3: He went five to two thirds innings, allowed four hits,
Speaker 3: he only walked two, and he struck out five. And
Speaker 3: in that start against the Blue Jays, he left after
Speaker 3: throwing eighty five pitches. And Jim this is something we
Speaker 3: talked about recently before the All Star break and how
Speaker 3: Davis felt exhausted. He's already at one hundred innings for
Speaker 3: the season and checking it. The last time Davis Martin
Speaker 3: threw more than ninety pitches was in his start against
Speaker 3: the Atlanta Braves back on June tenth. Do you think
Speaker 3: it's wise for the White Sox to maybe limit Davis Martin,
Speaker 3: maybe make him more of an eighty five pitch type
Speaker 3: of starting pitcher right now, to try to conserve some
Speaker 3: energy for later in the season.
Speaker 5: I think it's a couple things.
Speaker 6: One is the energy components and him, you know, not
Speaker 6: maybe not looking as strongest over the last month or so.
Speaker 6: But there's also been a lot of low scoring starts
Speaker 6: for more Martin, or at least not a whole lot
Speaker 6: of run support. You're looking at like nineteen over his
Speaker 6: last eight starts, last two games, they have not scored
Speaker 6: a run for him. So I think it's a matter
Speaker 6: of a little bit in terms of times through the
Speaker 6: order penalty that Martin he tends to be strongest at
Speaker 6: the started games, tends to be more susceptible to loud
Speaker 6: contact at the end of games or end of his starts.
Speaker 6: Not uncommon for pitchers. That's why there's a whole phenomenon
Speaker 6: or you know, labeled.
Speaker 5: Theory behind it.
Speaker 6: But you know, given that he has this kind of
Speaker 6: susceptibility to extra base hits a second or third time
Speaker 6: through as it gets towards the end, and him pitching
Speaker 6: in a lot of games that are still close, or you know,
Speaker 6: trying to keep the White Sox within striking distance or
Speaker 6: trying to make sure that the opponent doesn't get back
Speaker 6: in it because it's only like a one or two
Speaker 6: run game. I think that makes will Venable more proactive too,
Speaker 6: to go to the bullpen, especially when his bullpen's well
Speaker 6: rested and coming out of the brake and having a
Speaker 6: wide array of relievers to choose from. I think he's
Speaker 6: probably opting for caution, So I don't think it's necessarily
Speaker 6: an automatic that, no matter how well he's pitching, no
Speaker 6: matter the margin, if he gets eighty five pitches, Venable
Speaker 6: is going to look to pull the plug. But I
Speaker 6: think just the way it's been going, with lack of
Speaker 6: run support and just the sense probably the Venable could
Speaker 6: see maybe envision Martin giving up an extra base hit
Speaker 6: when he really doesn't want one, really can't afford one,
Speaker 6: and be kicking himself if he pulled the plug one
Speaker 6: bat or too late.
Speaker 5: I think when everything's.
Speaker 6: Lined up to where he has relievers to choose from
Speaker 6: that he trusts, it's probably pretty easy for him to
Speaker 6: go to Martin or go away from Martin sooner rather
Speaker 6: than later, especially, you know, if there are knock on
Speaker 6: effects of him looking fresher maybe down the line by
Speaker 6: saving him high stretch pitches when he doesn't have to
Speaker 6: throw them.
Speaker 7: Well.
Speaker 3: Jim mentioned relievers podcasts, watchers and listeners, and one of
Speaker 3: those relievers that's also on a heater and maybe has
Speaker 3: caught everyone's attention recently is Jordan Hicks. He pitched another
Speaker 3: scoreless inning in this series against the Blue Jays. Hicks
Speaker 3: and his last seven appearances, it's eight scoreless innings, but
Speaker 3: it's not just eight scoreless innings. It's only allowing two hits.
Speaker 3: Walking one, striking out fourteen for a reliever to only
Speaker 3: allow three base runners over his last seven appearances. Yes,
Speaker 3: that is doing the job. And you could read more
Speaker 3: as far as what's been helping with Jordan Hicks on
Speaker 3: soxsmachine dot com. As James wrote an excellent feature on
Speaker 3: Sunday about the the adjustments that Jordan Hicks has been
Speaker 3: making and James with Hicks pitching this well and looks
Speaker 3: like that he has some of his premium stuff back
Speaker 3: that we've seen when he was coming into the league,
Speaker 3: especially with the Saint Louis Cardinals, this bullpen looks a
Speaker 3: lot stronger when Jordan Hicks has his premium stuff right.
Speaker 4: It's a one more leverage guy stronger. And in terms
Speaker 4: of like I think maybe during their most successful stretch
Speaker 4: of the season, you felt like they had Taylor, Hudson,
Speaker 4: Nukom and Domingez is kind of like the four guys
Speaker 4: they were cycling through. Tyler Davis had pop it there
Speaker 4: a little bit with their matchup like worked right now,
Speaker 4: you probably don't really have Sir Anthony quite yet on
Speaker 4: that circle where you're not giving him like any opportunity
Speaker 4: gets that's kind of leverage at this point, it seems
Speaker 4: like it's very tailored to him, and that's not necessarily
Speaker 4: like a big demerit it's it's certainly down from closer,
Speaker 4: but it's something that's you know, not clearly in considerations
Speaker 4: like Brian Hudson getting slate ce lefties. I feel like
Speaker 4: maybe deming is a step down from that. But one,
Speaker 4: if you have Hicks in that mix, you kind of
Speaker 4: now have that same level of flexibility between you know,
Speaker 4: options late that you want. I would say as far
Speaker 4: as like by the time you get to the postseason,
Speaker 4: which is obviously what they're shooting for at this point,
Speaker 4: one you have to account like Hicks already missed the
Speaker 4: month with injury this season. He throws extremely hard. Like
Speaker 4: you can't just be like, oh, we got our four
Speaker 4: in mid July and like we're good now. Demincus can
Speaker 4: get back when he can. I would say, you really
Speaker 4: want there, like especially postseason wise, to go like five
Speaker 4: six deep into guys you feel like you can trust
Speaker 4: at least in certain situations. That's a real separator that
Speaker 4: time of year for navigating those series when they get
Speaker 4: really tight. So getting Tomnus back to the level, adding
Speaker 4: some of the deadline, someone like Tan McDougall, Hagen Smith,
Speaker 4: just other options and kind of stepping forward, Trevor Richard's
Speaker 4: being suitable and not Homer prone, you know, those are
Speaker 4: those are they're like maybe small, like kind of on
Speaker 4: the horizon candidates to step up. So I think it's important.
Speaker 4: It certainly makes navigating the next couple of weeks, as
Speaker 4: you it makes the process of getting Sir Anthony Deming
Speaker 4: is right a bit less. You know, everything's writing on
Speaker 4: every appearance. If you have another reliable writing you can
Speaker 4: go to for kind of these middle to high leverage
Speaker 4: opportunities that aren't necessarily grant tailors. I think that's important
Speaker 4: as far as like, hey, this is like a deadline addition,
Speaker 4: and you don't need to add stuff with the bullpen
Speaker 4: or the bullpen's as deep as it needs to be.
Speaker 4: I don't think we're quite there. I think there's still
Speaker 4: a lot of room for Tan McDougal or Hagen Smith
Speaker 4: or other kind of members of Charlotte or you know,
Speaker 4: even Shane Smith, who knows where like it comes up
Speaker 4: with the you know, just generally their top level pitching depth.
Speaker 4: There's still a lot of room for that to come
Speaker 4: in and make themselves very useful, because I think it's
Speaker 4: kind of unsettled as far as like leverage ladder outside
Speaker 4: of like those four or five guys.
Speaker 3: Well, James mentioned as far as adding to the pitching staff,
Speaker 3: and on Sunday during his USATA column, Bob Nigale had
Speaker 3: a note about the White Sox in which that he
Speaker 3: wrote that the Chicago White Sox have sent Nick Costettler
Speaker 3: their special assistant to keep tams on New York Mets
Speaker 3: starter Clay Holmes, who recently has begun his rehab assignment
Speaker 3: after breaking his right fibula back on May fifteenth, and
Speaker 3: James mentioned a Jim the White Sox could still use
Speaker 3: some bullpen help. Maybe that comes internally. But despite these
Speaker 3: strong pitching performance, and this is the conversation that every team,
Speaker 3: whether you're on the vergic attending or you're on the
Speaker 3: edge of selling, needs to answer, the White Sox still
Speaker 3: need pitching help, right, They still need to make a
Speaker 3: move before the trade deadline.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, just.
Speaker 6: Hagen Smith made a start, so he's theoretically pitching again.
Speaker 6: Shane Smith has been back from his rehab stint. But
Speaker 6: they're all kind of varying degrees of shaky, and.
Speaker 5: You look at just how Eric Fetti.
Speaker 6: Has been carefully managed to make sure that he doesn't
Speaker 6: have to go more than two times through the order.
Speaker 6: Noah Schultz will be hitting career highs and innings and
Speaker 6: he's still looking to find his most consistent form. So
Speaker 6: there really isn't anybody, you know, outside of like the
Speaker 6: top three starters who is like guaranteed to take a
Speaker 6: start or as close as guarantees you can get for
Speaker 6: a pitcher over the rest of the season and you know,
Speaker 6: handle five innings with any regularity. So yeah, they need starters.
Speaker 6: You know, it becomes a matter of like who you
Speaker 6: push shout if everybody's healthy. But between Fetti being somebody
Speaker 6: that they have to mitigate and then Schultz, you know,
Speaker 6: probably somebody they want to bake and rest for at
Speaker 6: some points. If he's looking like somebody who is going
Speaker 6: to be part of postseason rotations or postseason pitching staffs,
Speaker 6: then yeah, they definitely.
Speaker 5: Need an extra arm.
Speaker 8: They need it.
Speaker 6: And this goes back to the conversation about offense, Like
Speaker 6: more arms than spots basically is what you're looking for.
Speaker 5: On the pitching side.
Speaker 6: You can always use more guys than actually have, especially
Speaker 6: on the pitching side.
Speaker 5: That's why they say you never can have.
Speaker 6: Enough pitching, and the White Sox don't really have enough
Speaker 6: pitching right now. They're doing a great job, but spreading
Speaker 6: it out like as immaculously can. It's like the perfect combover.
Speaker 6: Like at certain angles you're like, oh, you know, that's
Speaker 6: they're doing great, and then some other angles or if
Speaker 6: the wind catches them the wrong way, you're like, huh,
Speaker 6: you need some more there. So I think that's kind
Speaker 6: of where they're at right now.
Speaker 3: Well, the White Sox pitching again only allowed five runs
Speaker 3: this weekend against the Toronto Blue Jays. That goes a
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Speaker 3: And the White Sox had a huge offensive outburst in
Speaker 3: their Friday night win against the Blue Jays where they
Speaker 3: scored twelve runs and then on Saturday facing old nemphasis
Speaker 3: Shane Bieber. Not a fun time, but they were able
Speaker 3: to manage to squeeze out some more runs on Sunday
Speaker 3: thanks to big hits from Colson and Bryden Montgomery as
Speaker 3: both of them really stepped up offensively, and for Colson
Speaker 3: Montgomery in his series against the Toronto Blue Jays, Montgomery
Speaker 3: went four for eleven. He did hit a home run
Speaker 3: on Sunday, that's his twenty fourth of the season. Also
Speaker 3: had a basis clearing double in Friday's big win, drove
Speaker 3: in for RBIs and Jim. I know that there is
Speaker 3: a lot of strikeouts. There's quite a bit of swing
Speaker 3: and miss in Colson's game, but his ability to generate
Speaker 3: the big hits like we saw this weekend against the
Speaker 3: Blue Jays, do those quiet those swing and miss concerns.
Speaker 5: Comes to his overall game.
Speaker 6: You know, there was the ball that got under his glove.
Speaker 6: As you start to try to figure out like whether
Speaker 6: he's truly a plus shortstop or if you know he
Speaker 6: is when his back is perfectly healthy, but whether that's
Speaker 6: acting up on him or not.
Speaker 5: He's got some like natural either wrinkles in his games.
Speaker 6: Things to manage things that can Yeah, the back flares
Speaker 6: up on him, the strike out right flares up on him.
Speaker 6: There's a lot of things to manage to where when
Speaker 6: you're talking about Coulson, like you kind of have to
Speaker 6: update your priors on a week to week basis because
Speaker 6: the picture could have changed dramatically or since the last
Speaker 6: time we talked about him. So I think there is
Speaker 6: a certain level of maybe not fatigue but just the
Speaker 6: amount of effort that goes in talking about Coulson and
Speaker 6: thinking about Coulson that maybe other players don't have. The
Speaker 6: thing is, though, right now, you know, as he's making
Speaker 6: the league minimum and his pre ARB and everything like that,
Speaker 6: you don't want to let that color your judgment of
Speaker 6: him too much because he might have some frustrating tendencies
Speaker 6: or he might not be, you know, the traditional middle
Speaker 6: of the order hitter because of his ability to be
Speaker 6: pitched to sometimes. But he's tying up precious few resources
Speaker 6: when it comes to the money he's making the players
Speaker 6: he's blocking or not blocking, so he's a valuable player
Speaker 6: to have in the mix no matter what. There could
Speaker 6: come a point as the shortstops come up. We'll see
Speaker 6: what happens with Rock Chelowski when the White Sox get
Speaker 6: him in the system, and you know what kind of
Speaker 6: timeline he puts himself on over the next six baseball months,
Speaker 6: and that could maybe change exactly where he fits in
Speaker 6: and whether he's a fixture in the middle of the
Speaker 6: infield or in the.
Speaker 5: Middle of the lineup, et cetera.
Speaker 6: But right now, given where the White Sox are, as
Speaker 6: a pleasant surprise, given that no matter how bad he looks,
Speaker 6: he does have these bounce back games or bounce back
Speaker 6: series to where he is one of your more dynamic
Speaker 6: hitters in the field, to where you just kind of
Speaker 6: have to ride the snake right now and be okay
Speaker 6: with it and you make peace with it. I think
Speaker 6: the same thing with Murakami as he gets his timing back,
Speaker 6: as you know, he's got the plus plate discipline that's
Speaker 6: starting to materialize and walks, but the timing still isn't there.
Speaker 6: But the White Sox weren't expected to contend this year,
Speaker 6: and when they're contending, they're contending with guys who are
Speaker 6: flawed enough to where like the everybody still considered them
Speaker 6: like a year away from contending.
Speaker 5: So I think this is.
Speaker 6: The weird in between patch the White Sox are in
Speaker 6: right now where Montgomery still has these rough edges to
Speaker 6: try to smooth down, but also he's very important to
Speaker 6: them winning right now, and he'll, yeah, I think the
Speaker 6: calculus is that he'll put more on the table than
Speaker 6: he'll take off it. And I think that's you know,
Speaker 6: when it comes to White Sox and being having a
Speaker 6: front line offense and then having some issues behind it
Speaker 6: and building depth. You just kind of have to take
Speaker 6: all of the plus contributions you can and then try
Speaker 6: to figure out how to mitigate it, either with lineup balance,
Speaker 6: with days off, with the kind of players you target
Speaker 6: at the trade deadline.
Speaker 5: A lot of ways can do that.
Speaker 3: My favorite at bat for this series happened on Sunday
Speaker 3: with Andrew Bennettendee stand in second base and the White
Speaker 3: Sox were up two to nothing and Braden Montgomery was
Speaker 3: at the plate. And we're still learning a lot about
Speaker 3: Branda Montgomery. Montgomery's still learning about major league pitching. But
Speaker 3: against Traya Savage, Brada Montgomery was down in that count,
Speaker 3: zero to two, and Y Savage challenged him with a
Speaker 3: fastball up and out of the zone that Brada Montgomery
Speaker 3: was able to fight off. I thought that was a
Speaker 3: good sign. That was a tough pitch. It was a ball,
Speaker 3: but Montgomery stayed alive in the bat, and he stayed
Speaker 3: alive and he was able to pull through with an
Speaker 3: RBI single to center field to extend the White Sox
Speaker 3: lead to three to nothing. And in this series for
Speaker 3: Brada Montgomery against the Blue Jays, he went four for twelve.
Speaker 3: He had a double, he had a basis clearing triple
Speaker 3: and Friday's big win. He had five RBIs over the weekend.
Speaker 3: In his last four games, Bradon Montgomery has nine RBIs.
Speaker 3: He's been quite the run producer for the Chicago White
Speaker 3: Sox and James. It's just a thirty two game sample
Speaker 3: for Braida Montgomery and in his last four games, as
Speaker 3: I mentioned, it is nine rbi, so he's cut coming
Speaker 3: through in the clutch for the White Sox.
Speaker 9: A meanion is.
Speaker 3: Basicallygue baseball debut. He had a walk off home run
Speaker 3: against the Atlanta Braves. What are your thoughts about Montgomery's
Speaker 3: overall game that we've seen so far.
Speaker 4: I think he's exactly like a ninety nine WRC plus
Speaker 4: after Sunday is you mentioned that at bat I think,
Speaker 4: especially coming up from what he did at double A
Speaker 4: and triple A, like contact rate and striking out was
Speaker 4: kind of a concern, and to see him, he's looked
Speaker 4: more like certainly some of his swings and just like
Speaker 4: the nature of a swing, it just looks like this
Speaker 4: incredibly like jacked person, like making himself into a human
Speaker 4: sling shot to hit the balls like as hard as possible.
Speaker 4: There's still some swings that look like that, but there's
Speaker 4: a lot more like hittability and adjustability than like maybe
Speaker 4: you would have thought based on how much he struck
Speaker 4: out in the minors and what his contact rates are.
Speaker 4: He's running like well above all that right now, and
Speaker 4: you're also seeing him like it's not someone who's just
Speaker 4: the types of hits that he's had is a lot
Speaker 4: of like flicking doubles to either left or right side,
Speaker 4: kind of hitting the ball where it's pitched, or taking
Speaker 4: advantage of those situations to poke something through the infield,
Speaker 4: or you know, kind of flatten his barrel out to
Speaker 4: get something to the top of the zone. It's not
Speaker 4: just someone who's like I'm just trying to do groove
Speaker 4: a swing whenever possible the math is going to work
Speaker 4: out in my favor, which like the shape of his
Speaker 4: production and just kind of like the nature of like
Speaker 4: his looking at like how much he's geared, like so
Speaker 4: much of a swing for just like maximum physical output
Speaker 4: all the time kind of takes you by surprise. But
Speaker 4: I think he's been doing that really well throughout his
Speaker 4: early stretch. Has certainly been swinging the miss. There's certainly
Speaker 4: been like you know, he's hit three home runs, but
Speaker 4: only probably the one off of Kate Smith. It felt like, oh,
Speaker 4: this is him like absolutely squaring up a fastball and
Speaker 4: like annihilating it. The rest have been like kind of
Speaker 4: wall scrapers in ways that like weren't like necessarily like, oh,
Speaker 4: he got fully into one. So I feel like we
Speaker 4: almost haven't gotten to see his power in some huge
Speaker 4: way where it's just like a stretch where he's just
Speaker 4: in the ball like super hard all the time, even
Speaker 4: though like his exit pollacies just are kind of high,
Speaker 4: because like that's what a swing is. I feel like
Speaker 4: we're seeing him kind of punch the ball over the
Speaker 4: yard in a way that you wouldn't necessarily ascribe to
Speaker 4: scene to his game, let alone how he keeps himself
Speaker 4: afloat while kind of really still getting the hang of it.
Speaker 4: So I think defense talking about a total game like one,
Speaker 4: he's kind of hit some like doubles even without like
Speaker 4: necessarily like hitting the ball to the wall all the time,
Speaker 4: just because like he's a pretty good base runner. It's
Speaker 4: not like what's emphasized for him, but he's still clearly
Speaker 4: pretty fast because he's pretty young, he's gonna he's pretty
Speaker 4: bulky he's gonna like slow down as he gets older,
Speaker 4: but like he's still pretty springy right now, and you know,
Speaker 4: can can stretch hits for extra bases, can get the
Speaker 4: triples defensively, Like it's not like he's you know, Tristan
Speaker 4: Peters or like that's what's going to be like this
Speaker 4: huge value driver necessarily because as a corner of field defender,
Speaker 4: but he is like fleet of foot, he does have
Speaker 4: good reads. It's clearly like a natural outfielder. The arm,
Speaker 4: you know, he's had a couple that got away, he's
Speaker 4: been charged with errors, and we haven't necessarily seen like
Speaker 4: a ton of like you almost have seen fewer outfield
Speaker 4: assists or big plays with his arm than like Riku had,
Speaker 4: because I think Brandon Montgomery had looks the part of
Speaker 4: the guy you don't run on right off the bat.
Speaker 4: So I think he's all the tools have kind of
Speaker 4: been there in a way that are encouraging. You're seeing
Speaker 4: a bit more hit ability, and it's still kind of
Speaker 4: a sense of like this is clearly his first thirty games.
Speaker 4: He hasn't really gotten going yet. So the fact that
Speaker 4: he's been able to look like he's a quality contributed
Speaker 4: to lineup without Well still being clearly in a very
Speaker 4: early stage of his major league development. I think it's
Speaker 4: all encouraging, even if it's not like, oh, he's the
Speaker 4: rookie of the year. Now McGonagall sucks and all will
Speaker 4: be brought to heal. I think it's still been largely encouraging.
Speaker 7: Well.
Speaker 3: In the ninth inning too, with runners on first and
Speaker 3: second and nobody out, Braydon Montgomery made a nice sliding
Speaker 3: catch that Clement did tag up from second to third,
Speaker 3: but Taylor was able to get the game ending double plays,
Speaker 3: So yeah, Montgomery. Both Montgomery's on Sunday really flashed their
Speaker 3: potential for the White Sox and again helped clinch that
Speaker 3: road series win for the White Sox. They're six and
Speaker 3: four and their last ten road games, so maybe, just
Speaker 3: maybe the White Sox are figuring out how to win
Speaker 3: on the road. We're going to take a look around
Speaker 3: the American League Central because now we can do this.
Speaker 3: We're approaching game one hundred, so this stuff now matters
Speaker 3: for the Chicago White Sox. We're in the midst of
Speaker 3: a divisional race.
Speaker 9: Hold before well lots of losses. James earlier taking a
Speaker 9: look at the America League Central standings, and the White
Speaker 9: Sox are still in first place at fifty two and
Speaker 9: forty six. The Guardians are a game back, the Twins
Speaker 9: are forty nine to fifty one. They're four games back,
Speaker 9: The Tigers are forty six and fifty three, and the
Speaker 9: Royals are starting to sink. They are forty and sixty.
Speaker 9: And when you take a look around what happened this
Speaker 9: weekend in the Central Pittsburgh and Jacob Gonzalez, thank you,
Speaker 9: buddy did. The White Sox are real solid, winning two
Speaker 9: out of three in Cleveland. Maybe Pittsburgh feels like they
Speaker 9: should have swept the Guardians as their bullpen collapsed on Saturday,
Speaker 9: costing them a win. The Minnesota Twins lost their series
Speaker 9: against the Chicago Cubs, and the Tigers won their series
Speaker 9: against the Angels. But just to do a little bit
Speaker 9: of a heat check again, when looking at the AL
Speaker 9: Central standings, to me, it's still I'm always now paying
Speaker 9: attention to what Cleveland is doing, Jim, because it's not
Speaker 9: that big of a lead. But I still don't have
Speaker 9: a good sense of what Detroit's going to do. And
Speaker 9: they've been playing a lot better baseball as of late,
Speaker 9: and that is a veteran team and they've done this before.
Speaker 9: They have pulled off miracle runs post August to find
Speaker 9: themselves in the postseason. And I still can't make sense
Speaker 9: of what's going on with the Minnesota Twins. So Cleveland, Minnesota, Detroit,
Speaker 9: which team worries you the most?
Speaker 3: From a White Sox perspective?
Speaker 6: I think I would rate Cleveland first, Detroit second, Minnesota third,
Speaker 6: Cleveland because of just the wins they've already banked. And
Speaker 6: you know, speaking of teams that have done it before,
Speaker 6: have done it with less talents or with the talent
Speaker 6: that's been older or more flawed, like you're seeing younger.
Speaker 5: Players who are supposed to be fixtures.
Speaker 6: Being integrated into this offense. They do have a good
Speaker 6: farm system either which to pull from or to trade from,
Speaker 6: so they can add if they ever feel like adding.
Speaker 6: The Tigers are you know, I think they're one of
Speaker 6: the best pitching teams in the league, especially since like
Speaker 6: the you know, last month and a half or so
Speaker 6: where they've really turned it on, and a lot of
Speaker 6: that was without Scooball So if he's back and they
Speaker 6: remain committed to him and committed him being in the
Speaker 6: rotation for the rest of this year and not wanting
Speaker 6: to cut their legs out from under them, and then
Speaker 6: he's gonna be part of it. It's gonna be tough
Speaker 6: to score runs against. And the young players are performing
Speaker 6: like you want to, like in terms of like Dingler
Speaker 6: and mcgonagale, like they are exactly the young players you
Speaker 6: want it spend a lot of other weird failures or
Speaker 6: injuries along the way that have have hurt them, but
Speaker 6: like they have a couple of fixtures that look to
Speaker 6: be dangerous for.
Speaker 5: A while as well, So they have.
Speaker 6: Some Yeah, they're they're kind of Cleveland like, but I
Speaker 6: think you're probably a little bit deeper on the pitching
Speaker 6: side at least with like frontline talents.
Speaker 5: And then twins.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I don't it seems like they can win Slugfest.
Speaker 6: They can, they can hit, They can hit with runners
Speaker 6: and scoring position. They have a few ways of getting you,
Speaker 6: so like they're probably gonna make it painful, Like I
Speaker 6: think they just they tend to have the pitching staff
Speaker 6: elopes as well that hurt them and make it just
Speaker 6: as painful for them. So I think they're they strike
Speaker 6: me more as a team that he can't write off,
Speaker 6: they could probably play a great spoiler.
Speaker 5: Uh, and they look like they're just gonna.
Speaker 6: Cause chaos, like it's gonna be a bar fights against them,
Speaker 6: to where you know you're locked up with the Guardians
Speaker 6: and the Tigers all of a sudden, where that chair
Speaker 6: come from and the Twins through it. That's kind of
Speaker 6: the role they strike me as playing. But given the
Speaker 6: American League, and just like watching the Red Sox win
Speaker 6: thirteen in a row when they look like they're going
Speaker 6: to be sellers, I mean, it's not just Central, it's everywhere.
Speaker 6: And you know, with the White Sox playing Toronto, like
Speaker 6: I thought, winning two out of three against Toronto and
Speaker 6: just keeping them at Bay and keeping one, you're reducing
Speaker 6: the amount of teams that are below five hundred but
Speaker 6: could theoretically make a run based on the talent they
Speaker 6: have on hand and what they've done before. I think
Speaker 6: these series wins against those kind of teams are just
Speaker 6: as important in trying to clarify the picture as much
Speaker 6: as these head to head wins against Cleveland, even though
Speaker 6: you know those obviously help. But given that the White
Speaker 6: Sox got swept in the Tigers and then helped Detroit
Speaker 6: get get back into it. I don't think you can
Speaker 6: give these teams on the periphery extra life if you
Speaker 6: can avoid it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, door Sea on Yahoo Sports wrote a great column.
Speaker 3: It was about the Boston Red Sox and their run,
Speaker 3: which Jim just mentioned now is thirteen straight wins for
Speaker 3: the Red Sox, so I don't feel so bad about
Speaker 3: the White Sox getting swept by the Red Sox. Everyone's
Speaker 3: getting swept by the Red Sox right now. But he
Speaker 3: had a great ending to that column where it just
Speaker 3: feels like in the American League, one good week can
Speaker 3: radically change the outcome of your season right now and
Speaker 3: for everyone in the American League Central, a team goes
Speaker 3: five and two, White Sox go two and five, then
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, the standings flip on its head.
Speaker 3: So that's why the series win for the White Sox
Speaker 3: is big, especially they gain a game on Cleveland in
Speaker 3: the standings and the White Sox road trip now continues
Speaker 3: to Texas.
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Speaker 3: Now, the Chicago White Sox head to Arlington, Texas as.
Speaker 3: The Texas Rangers this season are still in first place
Speaker 3: in the America League West. They are fifty and forty nine.
Speaker 3: They lost their last game. In their last ten games,
Speaker 3: they are five and five in Arlington this season, they
Speaker 3: are twenty four and twenty two. You're pitching problems for
Speaker 3: this series. On Monday, it will be Jacob de Gram
Speaker 3: for the Texas Rangers and it's Eric Fetti. We'll see
Speaker 3: if he actually gets to start or we'll learn what
Speaker 3: opener the White Sox will use in front of Eric Fetti,
Speaker 3: but it's expected that Fetti will get the bulk of innings.
Speaker 3: On Tuesday night, it is Kumar Rocker for the Texas
Speaker 3: Rangers against Noah Schultz for the White Sox. So that's
Speaker 3: a fun matchup between two young pitchers. And then on Wednesday,
Speaker 3: it's Cal Quantrill for the Rangers against Anthony Kay who'll
Speaker 3: be making his second start in the post All Star break.
Speaker 3: And I have to say, gents, we deserve a little
Speaker 3: pat on the back because in our last episode when
Speaker 3: we talked about the keys to this series for the
Speaker 3: White Sox, we all nailed it. The White Sox lefties
Speaker 3: had to come through. We talked about Cole sit and
Speaker 3: Brayden doing that. The White Sox starting pitchers had to
Speaker 3: set the tone. Davis Martin, Sean Berg definitely did that.
Speaker 3: So for the Texas Rangers series, James Vegan, what is
Speaker 3: the key for the White Sox if they're going to
Speaker 3: win another road series?
Speaker 4: I mean after the you know my sage insight that
Speaker 4: they needed to score runs to beat the Blue Jays.
Speaker 4: I'm suggesting something similar. This is like kind of the
Speaker 4: I don't know, the certainly the best performing members of
Speaker 4: the rotation at large. Obviously David Spartan has had his scuffles,
Speaker 4: but him and Sean Berk are like, you know, the
Speaker 4: two prettiest stat lines for the season, And certainly Burke
Speaker 4: is pitching very well right now. This is the series
Speaker 4: without them. I think both ky has been pretty steady.
Speaker 4: It might be unfair to lump them into this group,
Speaker 4: but like, how sustainable does fetty like continue to be
Speaker 4: like if it requires kind of opening usage like into
Speaker 4: the second half, but like he's obviously been pitching effectively
Speaker 4: with it. But they tend to be kind of these
Speaker 4: starts where venables not trying to get through the order
Speaker 4: with him more than twice. I think he's perfectly happy
Speaker 4: to be like, these are four decent ones. Let's move on.
Speaker 4: So with that and Noah Schultz, you know, being kind
Speaker 4: of the not wild what's the right term, like certainly
Speaker 4: a focal point like week to week, like can this
Speaker 4: guy establish himself? Can he kind of build some momentum
Speaker 4: where one he's not just like someone like does he
Speaker 4: need to be replaced on the rotation like on an
Speaker 4: immediate level versus two of is he going to kind
Speaker 4: of insert himself as like one of their best starters
Speaker 4: down the stretch in a way where like he realizes
Speaker 4: some of the upside that he seems to have long
Speaker 4: term in a way that immediately kind of forces him
Speaker 4: to the forefront of this rotation. Those are kind of
Speaker 4: things you're watching every time out with him in a way.
Speaker 4: So I just kind of think, like those two starts
Speaker 4: are are really like there's a lot wrapped up. There
Speaker 4: would be a lot of how we feel about this
Speaker 4: team going forward will be dictated by how those first
Speaker 4: two go. I don't know if it'd be better to
Speaker 4: lean in my story by saying, like Jordan Hicks, like
Speaker 4: throwing like two out of three games and like doing
Speaker 4: lockdown leverage work will be the key to the series.
Speaker 4: But it's already out. I can't pump it anymore, so
Speaker 4: I'm just gonna go the easy roude of just focus
Speaker 4: on kind of the two maybe like uncertain unsettled spots
Speaker 4: of the rotation, and you know what they can dictate
Speaker 4: about what needs to happen in the next couple of
Speaker 4: weeks to that end.
Speaker 3: Jim, how about you, what's going to be the key
Speaker 3: to the series for the White Sox.
Speaker 6: Feels kind of similar to the Toronto series and that
Speaker 6: they're facing, well if Bieber turned out to be overwhelming
Speaker 6: for them or shut them down, but they are facing
Speaker 6: Jacob de Gram, who's having a pretty good Jacob de
Speaker 6: Gram season in terms of his ability to wrack up strikeouts.
Speaker 5: A little more homer prone, I think now.
Speaker 6: But still you know, he's able to limit the damage
Speaker 6: because the amount of bats he misses. But while he
Speaker 6: gets strikeouts, Quantrill doesn't. Rocker really hasn't. So you're looking
Speaker 6: at kind of a similar plan of trying to outlast
Speaker 6: one starter if you can't.
Speaker 5: Get to them.
Speaker 6: But ideally they'd like to rack up some runs on
Speaker 6: the ground. But I think they're looking at they have
Speaker 6: a couple of starters who don't miss bats, and the
Speaker 6: White Sox, you know, as we saw, when their lefties
Speaker 6: get rolling and when they start to just ambush and
Speaker 6: have those like six plate appearances that all of a
Speaker 6: sudden lead to three, four or five runs before the
Speaker 6: pitcher can get settled, like they have a couple of
Speaker 6: guys that can theoretically do that too. I think Quantrill's
Speaker 6: been pitching pretty well for his peripherals this year. Rocker,
Speaker 6: given his entire history basically since he was drafted, in
Speaker 6: terms of how much he's had to overcome or how
Speaker 6: varied the reads have been, like, he's having a fairly
Speaker 6: stable season, I think pretty Yeah. I think he's surprising
Speaker 6: me by just how like normal his season has been
Speaker 6: compared to like all the outcomes that could have sprung
Speaker 6: from it, but they're gettable, and so I think it's
Speaker 6: kind of similar to where like it seems like that,
Speaker 6: you know, the Rangers are having up a lot of runs,
Speaker 6: so the White Sox can get in on that's while
Speaker 6: they have their back end the rotation going, because you know,
Speaker 6: based on who opens, or how long they try to
Speaker 6: go with Fetti or what version of Schultz shows up,
Speaker 6: they will need to score runs.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: On the pitching sign for me, I think the key
Speaker 3: is we know the bullpen is going to be used
Speaker 3: to James piggyback on James's point, with Fetti and Schultz
Speaker 3: going to the first two games, the White Sox are
Speaker 3: going to need some help from the bullpen, or they're
Speaker 3: going to need to take on quite a few innings.
Speaker 3: So I'm looking at like what production of the White
Speaker 3: Sox can get out of Chris Murphy and Tyler Schweitzer
Speaker 3: in the next couple of games. If they do take
Speaker 3: on multiple innings, can they put up zeros if they
Speaker 3: can buy time for the White Sox offense, especially in
Speaker 3: lading games of White Sox need to charge if they
Speaker 3: are struggling a little bit against these starters. It will
Speaker 3: also help guys to see mu to Takomer or Kami
Speaker 3: hit for power. He got the double against the Blue Jays,
Speaker 3: maybe a couple feet away from hitting his first home
Speaker 3: It'd be great to see Murakami finally get into a
Speaker 3: pitch and hit a home run since returning to the
Speaker 3: White Sox. He's still at twenty, but he did a
Speaker 3: good job getting on base. He walked three times in
Speaker 3: this series against the Blue Jay, so adding those two hits,
Speaker 3: he got on base five times. It would be great
Speaker 3: if Murrakami can finally get into that home run power.
Speaker 3: And we know how streaky he can be, as he's
Speaker 3: already had one streak this season of hitting a home
Speaker 3: run in five straight games. It just make the lineup
Speaker 3: a lot more lethal. To end this road trip, hopefully
Speaker 3: another road series win for the Chicago White Sox, but
Speaker 3: we'll be recapping that series through the White Sox and
Speaker 3: Rangers later this week, which you'll be able to listen
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