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Speaker 4: From your favorite source for Chicago White Sox Talk, delivering news, interviews,
Speaker 4: analysis and more. This is The Soxs Machine Podcast with
Speaker 4: your hosts Jim Margolis, James Speagan, and Josh Nelson.
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, welcome to a special edition episode of The
Speaker 1: Sox Machine Podcast. I'm your host, Josh Nelson, and this
Speaker 1: is our twenty twenty six mid season Grades episode, as
Speaker 1: we'll be giving out our grades for White Sox hitters,
Speaker 1: starting pitchers, leavers, also grade manager Will Venable and White
Speaker 1: Sox churnal manager Chris Skeetz. We also have a bonus
Speaker 1: topic as well that we'll be talking about during this episode.
Speaker 1: But before we give out our grades, here is White
Speaker 1: Sox manager Will Venable when asked about what he wants
Speaker 1: to see the team approve upon in the second half
Speaker 1: of this season.
Speaker 5: Oh, we have a lot of things that we're working on,
Speaker 5: the things that are important on a daily basis for
Speaker 5: us and how we are attacking hitters and you know,
Speaker 5: trying to get count levers and maintain count leverage throughout
Speaker 5: games offensively and continue to put us out in a
Speaker 5: position to make good swing decisions and then drive the
Speaker 5: baseball and then you know, make it plays defensively. So
Speaker 5: really all the same stuff we've been working on, and
Speaker 5: now the focus is a little bit different. We have
Speaker 5: the all start breaking in a couple weeks here, and
Speaker 5: really for us now, you know, focus is that, you know,
Speaker 5: not let that be a distraction or grote focus on
Speaker 5: the present.
Speaker 1: Now I'm joined by Sox Machines, be reporter James Vegan
Speaker 1: and managing.
Speaker 2: Editor Jim Margolius, and hello, gentlemen.
Speaker 1: The first half of the Chicago White Sox in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six has been the best surprise possible for this team.
Speaker 1: And this is how far the White Sox have come
Speaker 1: from their preseason projections on Fangrafts. Before opening day, Fangrafts
Speaker 1: projected the White Sox to have a sixty eight to
Speaker 1: ninety four record and a one point two percent chance
Speaker 1: to reaching the postseason. Now, at the midseason point, fangrass
Speaker 1: is projecting the White Sox to finish seventy nine and
Speaker 1: eighty three, so eleven more wins, and their playoff chances
Speaker 1: have reached almost thirty five percent.
Speaker 2: It's thirty four point nine percent.
Speaker 1: But if you just do the basic math when looking
Speaker 1: at MLB dot com slash standings, the White Sox are
Speaker 1: on pace to finish eighty five and seventy seven, And
Speaker 1: Jim Margulist is the season were to end today, the
Speaker 1: Chicago White Sox would have the second seed in the
Speaker 1: American League postseason, a buye from the wildcards, so we
Speaker 1: can watch the wildcard games without worry and have home
Speaker 1: field advantage for the divisional series. I can't believe I'm
Speaker 1: saying this about the White Sox. That's how special the first.
Speaker 2: Half has been.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how else summit other than this
Speaker 1: is the best surprise possible. But do you have any
Speaker 1: way of summing up on the first half of the
Speaker 1: Chicago White Sox this season, Jim.
Speaker 6: I think the numbers do a pretty fair job in
Speaker 6: terms of the postseason probability and the White Sox being
Speaker 6: in first place and with the offense they're doing it with.
Speaker 6: My question would be is if they somehow get the buye.
Speaker 6: Would you count it as the White Sox like first
Speaker 6: postseason series victory since two thousand and five? Like just
Speaker 6: getting to the second round. They've only done that once
Speaker 6: and that was the year they won it all. So
Speaker 6: like it does feel like it could be breaking new ground,
Speaker 6: even though they technically didn't do anything to get there.
Speaker 6: But I still would think they have to take that.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't count it.
Speaker 1: They didn't play anyone, but still it would be a
Speaker 1: first of franchise history.
Speaker 7: The key to the real reward of flitting a playoff
Speaker 7: series is not advancing. It's humiliating, destroying the will of
Speaker 7: another team. If there's no vanquished foe, if there's no suffering,
Speaker 7: what have you really accomplished? That is true, feel worse
Speaker 7: about themselves.
Speaker 2: Well again, as we record this mid season.
Speaker 1: Grades Recap episode, only four teams in the American League
Speaker 1: have a winning record, so it's been a down year
Speaker 1: for the American League. But hey, somebody's got to have
Speaker 1: a winning record. Why not the White Sox. And they're
Speaker 1: still on base to have a very strong two that
Speaker 1: twenty six season and a huge improvement in win total.
Speaker 1: They have it opportunity to win twenty plus more games.
Speaker 1: Almost did that last year as they won nineteen more
Speaker 1: and right now they're on base to win twenty five
Speaker 1: more from last year. So with our mid season grades,
Speaker 1: we asked you as well to participate. If you follow
Speaker 1: us on Twitter at Sox Machine. You can also follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at Sox Machine Underscore Josh. We bosted
Speaker 1: Twitter bowls to get your guys' grades for the position
Speaker 1: groups that I'll be sharing as well, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: be first handing out our mid season grades for the
Speaker 1: White Sox hitters. So James, I will start with you,
Speaker 1: what grade would you give White Sox hitters after the
Speaker 1: first half.
Speaker 7: I'm in a weird position to give grades because I
Speaker 7: went to Montessori elementary school and we didn't really like
Speaker 7: get letter grades until like junior high. And then he
Speaker 7: went to CBS and you get like pure letter grades
Speaker 7: and there's no nuances, there's no pluses or miss to them.
Speaker 7: So like when I got like a ninety percent, like
Speaker 7: ninety point zero zero in Spanish, to me, that was
Speaker 7: the perfect grade because I had exerted no extra effort
Speaker 7: and still got the maximum outcome. Created weird efficiency goals
Speaker 7: Notre Dame very weird grades. Do I grade them on
Speaker 7: a scale? Do I grade them like the Dodgers because
Speaker 7: I feel like any like based on like any expectations
Speaker 7: or you know, certain people anticipating like the worst outfield
Speaker 7: and franchise history. It seems like they're obviously in a
Speaker 7: in the sense that they could have multiple All Stars
Speaker 7: of their an above average offense, that they were leading
Speaker 7: division because of their offense, more or less that they
Speaker 7: have on their infield alone, a successful drafts and develop story,
Speaker 7: a successful marquee free agency signing, and a successful like
Speaker 7: raise the value of a post pipe prospect acquired through
Speaker 7: your like internal development system, making a player better than
Speaker 7: he was with the Dodgers like that they have too
Speaker 7: many like A's We didn't think they could get to
Speaker 7: like way, like oh, Edgar Carro backed up in a
Speaker 7: big way. Haven't gotten what they thought at Austin Hey
Speaker 7: in some sort of scale that you know, really has
Speaker 7: weighted like under under any sane person would like Tristan
Speaker 7: Peters is giving of like the best Louise Roberts season
Speaker 7: that they've gotten in the three years all they could
Speaker 7: have wanted from Louise the last two years is from
Speaker 7: a guy who's got DFA by the Rays and you
Speaker 7: paid a couple thousand dollars for or whatever it was.
Speaker 7: They've kind of hit the A. It's an A. I
Speaker 7: don't like what what would I be holding up? What
Speaker 7: would I expect? Wanted to go right for it not
Speaker 7: to be an A? Like you didn't keep Eversonbrera healthy.
Speaker 7: You get a beat and plus like there's no there's
Speaker 7: no Louis on HELICOUNA. If it's working, it's taken off
Speaker 7: a while and it still seems like maybe you know
Speaker 7: good bench players kind of what you're hoping for at
Speaker 7: this point. Yeah, the minuses have been more than canceled out.
Speaker 2: I would argue, Jim, what great would you give the
Speaker 2: White Sox setters.
Speaker 6: I also had an a becase I looked what I
Speaker 6: gave each of these units for the first quarter to
Speaker 6: make sure I wasn't just like pulling grades out my button,
Speaker 6: had some kind of standards I was adhering to for
Speaker 6: the course of the season. I had them at B
Speaker 6: plus in the first quarter and over the second quarter,
Speaker 6: So games like forty one through eighty one, we'll say
Speaker 6: top five offense in terms of WRC plus top seven
Speaker 6: terms of like fangrafs wins above replacements, all the components
Speaker 6: are pretty solid, and most of that's come without Munatakamurakami,
Speaker 6: who was out like at game fifty seven, I believe,
Speaker 6: so most that second quarter where they're a top five offense,
Speaker 6: is without the player who is underpinning seemingly the revolution
Speaker 6: of the first quarter. So you see everybody picking up
Speaker 6: the slack. You see like Randall Gritchick coming out of nowhere,
Speaker 6: and yeah, like Austin Hayes didn't quite work right away.
Speaker 6: So here's Randall Gritchick. And now you have that right
Speaker 6: handed quarter outfielder, the veteran that you're counting on, just
Speaker 6: by a different name, in different look, but kind of
Speaker 6: the same purpose and same you know, Bracket I suppose
Speaker 6: in terms of just where he was in the free agentier.
Speaker 6: So yeah, I mean, what more could you want given
Speaker 6: the circumstances, given the background, given just the extensive histories
Speaker 6: that we've been working with for the incumbents, and also
Speaker 6: just the the track records of the newcomers that allowed
Speaker 6: them to be found by the White Sox, be it
Speaker 6: Peters or Gritchick or anybody else.
Speaker 1: I also give the White Sox an A when you
Speaker 1: look at the overall season. They still currently rank fifth
Speaker 1: after the first half when looking at weighted runs create
Speaker 1: a plus on Fangraphs, which is very impressive.
Speaker 2: They're at one hundred and five as a team, and.
Speaker 1: The Dodgers still lead as far as Major League Baseball
Speaker 1: in that category as a team. But the fact that
Speaker 1: of the White Sox are still a top five offense, Jim,
Speaker 1: I'm with you. The White Sox get an A. On Twitter,
Speaker 1: seventy three percent of our followers gave the White Sox
Speaker 1: hitters an A. So everyone's in the same page when
Speaker 1: it comes to the White Sox offense. It's a big
Speaker 1: reason why they're in the position that they are after
Speaker 1: the first half this season.
Speaker 2: Now to the starting pitchers.
Speaker 1: And we know this will be our seventh consecutive podcast
Speaker 1: that we mentioned this. Yes, the White Sox could use
Speaker 1: another starting pitcher before the trade deadline, but Jim, what
Speaker 1: grade would you give the first half White Sox with
Speaker 1: the starting pitchers?
Speaker 6: Well, to follow up on the first quarter, I gave
Speaker 6: him a bee. Feels like they're in that territory right now.
Speaker 6: It feels, you know, and we have had this conversation
Speaker 6: about the depth and about like you know, James just
Speaker 6: mentioned you talk about with Eric Fetti, just how carefully
Speaker 6: they've had to manage him to get like adequate results.
Speaker 6: Anthony k providing a reminder in his last outing of
Speaker 6: just how he could go wrong, and then Noah Schultz's
Speaker 6: coming back and he handle the fifth starter spot roll
Speaker 6: that being fluxed, and you see like all the ways
Speaker 6: it can go wrong from here to where like if
Speaker 6: I give him a bee again, you know, within a
Speaker 6: few weeks, so that could look foolish. Now they need
Speaker 6: two starters of the deadline instead of one. But if
Speaker 6: you look at it in terms of what they accomplish
Speaker 6: and just kind of seal it off, say that was
Speaker 6: first half. That was you know, what you could hope
Speaker 6: for for the first eighty one games. Nothing about that,
Speaker 6: you know, what happens afterwards will change what their value
Speaker 6: was for the first eighty one games. I still think
Speaker 6: they're in that B territory because like Martin was great,
Speaker 6: Burke was good, which was it feels like a big
Speaker 6: development for them, especially with him stabilized the last couple
Speaker 6: of times out when you didn't necessarily think he might
Speaker 6: stick K has been fine. Fetti's been useful for what
Speaker 6: they signed him for.
Speaker 7: So like, as a.
Speaker 6: Unit, they're doing okay. I think they're punching above their weight.
Speaker 6: Now it's just a matter of the reinforcements, and the
Speaker 6: reinforcements were not what the White Sox thought they were
Speaker 6: going to be.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't.
Speaker 6: Seem like a problem for this exercise of grading what
Speaker 6: they did in the first half and what they did
Speaker 6: over the second court of the season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good point, Jim, because this is like
Speaker 1: two different conversations when talk about the White Sox starightning pitchers.
Speaker 1: One part of the conversation what have they done in
Speaker 1: the first eighty one eighty two games of the season.
Speaker 1: And I'm with you, the White Sox starning pitchers get
Speaker 1: a bee because of what we've seen Davis Barin accomplish,
Speaker 1: Anthony Kay that big may that he had, and Sean
Speaker 1: Berke coming strong as of late. If there is a
Speaker 1: unit that I think we are all agreement on that
Speaker 1: could start fading in the second half, it is the
Speaker 1: starting pitcher. So while we can say they get a
Speaker 1: letter of Grade B for the first half, that does
Speaker 1: not necessarily mean that everything, all the ducks are lined
Speaker 1: up for them to still be a B unit in
Speaker 1: the second half. I do think that they do need
Speaker 1: to find some external help to help bolster this starting rowation.
Speaker 2: But I am with you.
Speaker 1: I give the White Sox a B after the first half. James,
Speaker 1: how about you? What grade would you give the White
Speaker 1: Sox starting pitchers?
Speaker 7: I mean, I'm inclined to stay in the same tier
Speaker 7: tier with a bee. I just want to mention how
Speaker 7: frustrated I am that a team leading the league and
Speaker 7: opener usage means that looking at like they're starting pitching
Speaker 7: split performance and their bullpen split performances like totally muddled
Speaker 7: samples like I can't get like beyond like and naturally
Speaker 7: they're like both middle of the road and both like
Speaker 7: roughly the same like era in a way like yeah,
Speaker 7: it's because it's the same pictures just intermingled with each other.
Speaker 7: It's of course it's the same thing. These samples are ruined.
Speaker 7: There's no information to drop on, so.
Speaker 6: Chocolate, your peanut butter, peanut butter in your chocolates.
Speaker 7: Get the great entirely on vibes and just kind of
Speaker 7: makes this entirely sports radio segment in total yeah, blurt,
Speaker 7: like you've almost swapped, Like I mean, I don't think
Speaker 7: anyone could have like the leap of Davis Martin. No one,
Speaker 7: you didn't expect any member of the rotation necessarily performed
Speaker 7: that well over the first half. But it's it's almost
Speaker 7: like the swap you've made from like him stepping forward
Speaker 7: to like Shane Smith bottoming out where he struggled in
Speaker 7: that option and now.
Speaker 3: Is hurt and.
Speaker 7: You like not to give him like a zero for
Speaker 7: the season because obviously the injury is unpreventable to agree,
Speaker 7: but like you've gotten really no real value out of him,
Speaker 7: like grating for their first half. That said, like k
Speaker 7: I think is like held serve as much as you
Speaker 7: could kind of hope for based on the signing, Like
Speaker 7: the same for Fetti, Like definitely some like rickneyediness in
Speaker 7: terms of like evaluating them and like is this a
Speaker 7: playoff starter? How would they get through a game? I
Speaker 7: like this more as like can't it's more of like
Speaker 7: they look like they've they've been fine as far as
Speaker 7: like getting you to the finish line through the first
Speaker 7: half so far, Sean Bert taking like what's a more
Speaker 7: reasonable single year step up? But still a step up
Speaker 7: I think is a positive or rotation that I'd want
Speaker 7: to lean toward B. But like you expected this juncture
Speaker 7: of the year to feel a bit better about like
Speaker 7: what you know, the second like the follow up was
Speaker 7: going to be like expected like Tanner, McDougal and Higgins
Speaker 7: Smith and you know, obviously no Schultz raring to go,
Speaker 7: and you know, maybe Schultz can jump on that, but
Speaker 7: certainly having the knee flair up in the season, there's
Speaker 7: a lot reason to be a little questioning of like,
Speaker 7: all right, was it gonna look like in the second half?
Speaker 7: The depth is just not quite built up to like
Speaker 7: where you thought you could be, Like, well, if we
Speaker 7: get a good half season out of k a good
Speaker 7: half season at Petty, we're sitting pretty because we're going
Speaker 7: to have Drew Thorpe, sure, Tanner, McDougall, Hagan, Smith, Jonathan
Speaker 7: Cannon looking like you know, re earning a spot something
Speaker 7: like that, Like you just haven't seen like this, this
Speaker 7: depth bubble up like this. Mason Adam has become that
Speaker 7: guy I think certainly around me where he's useful and
Speaker 7: provides like good starts down the stretch for the major
Speaker 7: league team, But also isn't like the high ceiliing option
Speaker 7: who becomes a stalwart and like drives the bust of
Speaker 7: the rotation for a while. It's the probably asking much
Speaker 7: of him. You know, he's obviously overformed every step to
Speaker 7: get here, but to be reasonable's that's having him more
Speaker 7: than a spot starter depth rather than you know, your
Speaker 7: top hundred prospects that you hope we're gonna become impact
Speaker 7: guys down the stretch. Maybe that comes to the bullpen.
Speaker 7: Maybe that affects like the grade of the next section.
Speaker 7: But it's the same thing basically, Jim is saying, in
Speaker 7: a more rambling version of it's been a bee based
Speaker 7: on like the results they turned in, but you can
Speaker 7: see a tin towards certain things need to step up
Speaker 7: to sustain that. In the next quarter.
Speaker 1: Well, the next unit is the White Sox relievers the bullpen,
Speaker 1: and before we do that, the fanable for starting pitchers.
Speaker 1: Fifty seven percent of you also agree with us giving
Speaker 1: the White Sox starting.
Speaker 2: Pitchers a B grade.
Speaker 1: For the relievers, I can start here when you look
Speaker 1: at war according to fan grafts or the White Sox
Speaker 1: relievers middle of the pack. They rank sixteenth to Major
Speaker 1: League Baseball at two war when you look at wins
Speaker 1: probability added WPA, the White Sox currently ranked as a
Speaker 1: unit for relievers twenty second in Major League Baseball. I'm
Speaker 1: going to give the White Sox relievers a C. Even
Speaker 1: though Sean new Comes pitched really well and Grant Taylor
Speaker 1: at times has pitched really well. I'm still uneasy about
Speaker 1: Sir Anthony Domingus. I'm still uneasy on some of the
Speaker 1: other arms that are part of the White Sox bullpen.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that they do figure out the high leverage
Speaker 1: situation as the second half continues, especially as far as
Speaker 1: the next quarter of the season before the trade deadline.
Speaker 1: But this is the unit that I do circle that
Speaker 1: I think can get better with internal options, especially if
Speaker 1: the White Sox do you decide to move Tanner McDougal
Speaker 1: if he is healthy into the bullpen. That could be
Speaker 1: a lot more velocity coming out of the White Sox
Speaker 1: bullpen as well. If Sir Anthony Domingus gets himself back
Speaker 1: on track, then all of a sudden, that back end
Speaker 1: of the bullpen for the White Sox looks a lot stronger.
Speaker 1: So while I am concerned about the starting pitching fading
Speaker 1: for the White Sox. They don't have that same concern
Speaker 1: on the whole fading as a unit from the White
Speaker 1: Sox relievers, but after the first half, I still give
Speaker 1: them a CEE. James, what grade would you give White
Speaker 1: Sox relievers.
Speaker 7: I'd probably say be out of spite to your review.
Speaker 7: Taking objection with calling Brant Taylor pitching sub three e
Speaker 7: RA with awesome peripherals as good at times, I think.
Speaker 3: Yes, he is too much time bad like three outings
Speaker 3: for someone who's averaging like on pace for like eighty
Speaker 3: innings and striking out thirty five percent of hitters.
Speaker 7: Like he's just generally been awesome. And this is what
Speaker 7: a very very good release season looks like. Seawn Newcomb's
Speaker 7: been like one hundred and twenty percent of what you
Speaker 7: could hope delivering, like like a three win bullpen season,
Speaker 7: Like that's been an amazing signee, Like Brian Hudson becoming
Speaker 7: a leverage guy certainly the sort of thing you need
Speaker 7: to you know, find yourself in a division race. Surprisingly, Yeah,
Speaker 7: the back end has been shaky, Yeah, Jordan Hicks has
Speaker 7: been a roller coaster. Sir Anthony Demingez has you know,
Speaker 7: blown out says, but they they've been middle of the
Speaker 7: pack and certainly in terms of like their expectations of
Speaker 7: like kind of just on the hunt for guys who
Speaker 7: look like viable big leaguers that they have something that
Speaker 7: looks like just like a leverage core of a team
Speaker 7: that fights for a wild card spot caliber, like yeah,
Speaker 7: it needs to be upgraded to the deadline, but like
Speaker 7: it's obviously been like the bones of a decent bullpen
Speaker 7: when they really like as much as they spent something
Speaker 7: on it, like it wasn't like some huge spendings for
Speaker 7: you or even like close to like twenty twenty two
Speaker 7: levels of investment of like finding leverage believers, I think
Speaker 7: it's been pretty good, probably like B minus, like given
Speaker 7: like some of the struggles, but the data you're drawing
Speaker 7: from also is well Sean Burke and Eric Fetty starts
Speaker 7: and you know, removing some scoreless Grant Taylor openings, uhich
Speaker 7: just maybe why you're underrating him his performance on the season.
Speaker 7: So yeah, like their their flawed. They need to add
Speaker 7: and you know, I think we've seen like a bunch
Speaker 7: of projects like not work out there uh in some way,
Speaker 7: but from what iffness there is on like starting pitching reserves,
Speaker 7: Like maybe some of those options that we're not quite
Speaker 7: sure could contributed to the rotation, like Hegan Smith or
Speaker 7: Dan McDougall, maybe those become assets at the bullpen where
Speaker 7: I feel like almost a little bit more of their
Speaker 7: better position to you know, shuffle in some better options
Speaker 7: or some interesting guys that don stretch, Like, is there's
Speaker 7: something to this hiary rte upsurge. You know, maybe we
Speaker 7: can find out at some point, you know, I never
Speaker 7: say never, what if we say, see Peyton Pellette like
Speaker 7: effectively other bulpalzo is you know, look really good and
Speaker 7: now was rehabbing. So uh, I feel like maybe there's
Speaker 7: easier to score and see some like options just because
Speaker 7: like the bar is lower for you know, guys who
Speaker 7: could help and round out to a bullpen that looks
Speaker 7: more like five or six deep down the stretch than
Speaker 7: you know, three or four deep in getting by the
Speaker 7: way they have been up to this point, so I
Speaker 7: want to be kind of I think they've gotten made
Speaker 7: it work, maybe more impressively than it looks. And obviously
Speaker 7: they've been bailed out by the offense, like you know,
Speaker 7: having lots of comebacks and stuff like that. But there
Speaker 7: are four games over. They're supposed to be like a
Speaker 7: ninety last team. I think the bullpen's been okay, all.
Speaker 1: Right, Jim, break break the tie between James and I.
Speaker 1: What grade would you give the White Sox bullpen?
Speaker 6: What if I split the difference, which is I had
Speaker 6: him at C plus.
Speaker 7: For the first quarter?
Speaker 6: Still kind of feels like a C plus bullpen, just
Speaker 6: because of the Domingo's thing looming over everything, especially if
Speaker 6: Taylor goes to innings. What's the plan for the late
Speaker 6: innings if he and newcomer not available on you know,
Speaker 6: for the day following that day, and it is, you know,
Speaker 6: just one of those things where you do have to
Speaker 6: navigate it, and their feelings can be hurt, con tensions
Speaker 6: can arise. But I think the bullpen is taking shape.
Speaker 6: I think Trevor Richards is a pretty nifty pick up
Speaker 6: for somebody who can handle innings that aren't important, which
Speaker 6: matters when you have guys that you treasure in those
Speaker 6: high leverage situations like Taylor and Newcome and Brian Hudson.
Speaker 6: For anybody who can step in and preserve even like
Speaker 6: when Tyler Davis is going good and the White Sox
Speaker 6: started liking him, like Trevor Richards picking up two winnings
Speaker 6: in the game that's gotten away from him, preserves Tyler Davis,
Speaker 6: preserves you know, two other pictures from coming in, and
Speaker 6: that helps a lot for just keeping availability open. So
Speaker 6: I think they're above average. I think if you count
Speaker 6: C plus above average, I think technically they feel like
Speaker 6: they're just on the right side of mediocre. But yeah,
Speaker 6: just feels like they're not in their final form yet
Speaker 6: and feels like they're one arm away, whether it's Mingas
Speaker 6: riding the ship, even if he has more of a
Speaker 6: set up guy than a true closer, because Grant Taylor
Speaker 6: is more of that guy, or you know, McDougall Smith,
Speaker 6: Ben Peeples, another guy's been killing a triple A for
Speaker 6: the entire year basically, and we'll see if the White
Speaker 6: Sox add to the forty Man in any points. But
Speaker 6: they have options to flesh it out further, but it
Speaker 6: doesn't quite feel entirely settled yet to where there's that automatic,
Speaker 6: you know, sequence of you know, their their Plan A,
Speaker 6: and then if Plan A has been worked hard the
Speaker 6: last couple days, the Plan B feels a little bit
Speaker 6: murky in a way that's maybe like a a B
Speaker 6: bullpen doesn't. That's kind of where I'm at right now.
Speaker 2: But I think we're all in agreeance.
Speaker 1: This unit could be better with internal options in the
Speaker 1: second half of this season, where in the star pitching
Speaker 1: side there's not that many starts, there's not many internal
Speaker 1: options the White Sox have left.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'll say I'm in agreement since that came up
Speaker 6: in the comments. Uh Fred Durst coined agreements and I
Speaker 6: always like that phrase is because like he came up
Speaker 6: with that and it seemed to have stuck. But yeah,
Speaker 6: they've been like they have enough to where you can
Speaker 6: keep swapping parts out and feel like they're not just flailing.
Speaker 6: It feels like they can make considered choices.
Speaker 1: The fan pull on Twitter, fifty two percent of you
Speaker 1: gave the White Sox relievers a C grade for the
Speaker 1: first half. Moving over to manager and general manager, we
Speaker 1: start with the manager, Will Venable. This is where I
Speaker 1: am very much against on how the fans voted for
Speaker 1: this on Twitter, and I'm starting to see on social
Speaker 1: media a little back and forth between White Sox fans.
Speaker 1: But Jim, I'll start with you, what grade would you
Speaker 1: give Will Venable after the first half, I.
Speaker 6: Would say in a just four or if they've won
Speaker 6: more games than your thoughts from the talent that they
Speaker 6: had entering the season, and they like playing for him,
Speaker 6: they're responding to a whole bunch.
Speaker 2: Of usages and.
Speaker 6: Yeah, deployments in game changes, et cetera. That we're not
Speaker 6: part of the White Sox fabric. And also we're not
Speaker 6: necessarily part of like why they came of the White
Speaker 6: Sox are like in the case of like Agritchik coming
Speaker 6: over because he was like the White Socks were the
Speaker 6: best option, but it wasn't because like he had his
Speaker 6: choice of three or four teams and thought the White
Speaker 6: Sox are the best fit for him and integrating them well,
Speaker 6: Like Domingas is the only kind of wards on this,
Speaker 6: and that's because like of his own doing of walking
Speaker 6: you know, heat off guys and late innings. So that's
Speaker 6: something that Dimingas has to settle more than venable. But yeah,
Speaker 6: I mean you can nitpick some inventable strategy like the
Speaker 6: infield in the first inning. Still not a huge fan
Speaker 6: of that. I think they are maybe a little bit
Speaker 6: aggressive with I wish the hitters had more say in
Speaker 6: abs a little bit more, but overall, Like, I think
Speaker 6: he does a good job of explaining his thought processes.
Speaker 6: I think there's like a consistent through line. I think
Speaker 6: the expectations have been conveyed well to the team and
Speaker 6: the roster and integrating new players, integrating rookies, which I
Speaker 6: think is can always be tricky for a manager. So yeah,
Speaker 6: I think based on it's kind of a results oriented assessments.
Speaker 6: But I think when the results have outpaced preseason expectations
Speaker 6: to this regard, and everybody's happy, and you see Mike
Speaker 6: Vassel in a dugout with a wand and a sorcerer's
Speaker 6: cap and everybody's having a grand old time, then I
Speaker 6: think you have to say, like, yeah, Venable's doing a
Speaker 6: great job of just letting this happen, even if you
Speaker 6: don't give him credit for like being the guy responsible
Speaker 6: for it. He's not getting the way or he's not
Speaker 6: saying no, or he's not trying to impose his will,
Speaker 6: Like it's possible that like his case, like his will
Speaker 6: is taking the shape and so you know, it's it's
Speaker 6: too hard for me to separate the results from you know,
Speaker 6: the manager, especially like for half of a season sample size,
Speaker 6: and given what he had to work with last year.
Speaker 6: I don't think you can apply what he had last
Speaker 6: year to this year necessarily to say like it didn't
Speaker 6: work last year at work this year.
Speaker 1: You know it's I would.
Speaker 6: Take this year's results over last. I think last year's
Speaker 6: results were irrelevance based on the talent he had to
Speaker 6: where Yeah, it's it feels like an A until he
Speaker 6: starts like putting players in position to fail, which I
Speaker 6: don't think he has.
Speaker 2: I am with you.
Speaker 1: This is where I disagreed with the fan. The fan
Speaker 1: bull is forty eight percent B now forty six percent
Speaker 1: did vote A. The six percent of you that voted C.
Speaker 1: I need to hear your reasons on why you would
Speaker 1: give will vennabule ac if it is will Ben usage
Speaker 1: again to bring this up, and why I'm right and James'
Speaker 1: is rawn. Yes, the White Sox have three very good
Speaker 1: relievers who are having outstanding seasons. Five of them kind
Speaker 1: of need to step up their game, but four of
Speaker 1: them are limited talent wise, but it will get better.
Speaker 1: I still think he's doing well with the decision making
Speaker 1: of the bullpine, but you could disagree with me.
Speaker 2: That's fine. The Bun team, I know that upsets a
Speaker 2: lot of you. The opener has been helping.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it'd be great if the White Sox had five
Speaker 1: guys that you could count on for six innings, but
Speaker 1: they just don't have that currently on hand. And the
Speaker 1: fact that we're talking about he first placed White Sox
Speaker 1: team after the first half the season. I don't know
Speaker 1: how this isn't unanimously an a but it's Chicago sports,
Speaker 1: and some Chicago sports fans must always hate the coach
Speaker 1: no matter how well the.
Speaker 2: Team is performing.
Speaker 1: James, you get a chance to talk to Will Venable
Speaker 1: many times, what would you give him for a grade
Speaker 1: in the first half?
Speaker 7: I guess to defend our fans, so I guess I'm
Speaker 7: just trying to play Devil's advocates to you every time. Like,
Speaker 7: what I'm trying to say is like a fans process
Speaker 7: the manager through tactics like in game. Yes, like they're not.
Speaker 7: It's just there's it's so hard from a distance to
Speaker 7: calibrate like the other things he's doing. So that viewpoint,
Speaker 7: I obviously think is limited, but it's what's real and
Speaker 7: tangible from the go off of So while from a
Speaker 7: communications standpoint, I appreciate and probably overrate his tactics just
Speaker 7: because like he's the best manager I've dealt with in
Speaker 7: terms of like communicating them and like demonstrating like a
Speaker 7: logical through line of like the philosophy behind all of them.
Speaker 7: Not necessarily because he has a philosophy behind all of
Speaker 7: them and the others didn't, but maybe the others like
Speaker 7: even just routed towards defensiveness when asked about it more
Speaker 7: and just it wasn't as clearly understood, like how interconnected
Speaker 7: everything was. So there's I have a bias to be like, well,
Speaker 7: I always know. I usually know ahead of time, even
Speaker 7: if I don't agree why he's doing it, just from
Speaker 7: watching it.
Speaker 2: Like it.
Speaker 7: I feel like I was asking, like in the game
Speaker 7: thread to readers in a defensive way, and maybe I
Speaker 7: thought they were overacting. But also is like curiously, like
Speaker 7: I watch him and I talked to him enough about this,
Speaker 7: so like I know why Niel this moves And you
Speaker 7: were saying, like question about his bullpen management today, like
Speaker 7: what's not clear? I think like it's it's like I've
Speaker 7: been watching this machine work for a bit and like
Speaker 7: it does that during when this happens, it does like
Speaker 7: it's all just very like kind of laid out, so
Speaker 7: we're like, even when it doesn't work out or it's
Speaker 7: not something like is my gut is sync to do
Speaker 7: I kind of like, well, I know they do that
Speaker 7: because they do that, and that kind of provides like
Speaker 7: to me, it just limits to my degree to which
Speaker 7: like you always kind of have the biggest reactions to
Speaker 7: the thing you don't understand, and I so really like
Speaker 7: don't understand why he did something at all, and usually
Speaker 7: when I question, it fits in the place pretty quickly.
Speaker 7: That said, I would almost probably try to give my
Speaker 7: grit he entirely removed out of the tactical question just
Speaker 7: to be like team plays hard for him and year ten,
Speaker 7: it seems like that's kind of.
Speaker 2: You.
Speaker 7: You entered the job with a lot of ideas, like
Speaker 7: what's really going to manage matter manager wise? Is it
Speaker 7: like tactics that like make us pull our hair out,
Speaker 7: or is it you know, not having any like scandals
Speaker 7: in the clubhouse or stuff like that, or what is
Speaker 7: it just seems like this team plays connected, they play hard,
Speaker 7: they model his identity. They just that he has buy
Speaker 7: in and that's not something that's just gonna like be
Speaker 7: consistent year to year. Let alone, like his whole tenure,
Speaker 7: but like right now in terms of valuating his job
Speaker 7: of how he did in this first half, like the
Speaker 7: team plays balls out, he's getting the most out of him,
Speaker 7: because that's kind of that's just become more clear, like
Speaker 7: that's just job one A of what he really needs
Speaker 7: to accomplish, especially as you get so many any of
Speaker 7: these strategies being determined by like what the team's model says,
Speaker 7: his job is really to communicate to them and explain
Speaker 7: how that affects them and why that's gonna do it.
Speaker 7: I think for that, like there have been some blips
Speaker 7: here and there in terms of like guys cranky after
Speaker 7: opener usage or obviously Sir Anthony you know, has talked
Speaker 7: about being miffed about like his role a little bit
Speaker 7: and certainly surprise and you know him being especially using
Speaker 7: the term surprise, like that reflects back on communication. So
Speaker 7: it's not a perfect grade. It's more just like the
Speaker 7: results saying, you know, the way the team, the players
Speaker 7: talk about the team in general indicate that he's got
Speaker 7: a pretty good passing grade on that for them and
Speaker 7: how they see him. Even if we've seen like that,
Speaker 7: it's not one hundred percent based on some things that
Speaker 7: popped up. I think overall the product is like, this
Speaker 7: is a team that bought in. This is a team
Speaker 7: that's like with the program they're doing, and they're getting
Speaker 7: the benefits of that in the results of just like
Speaker 7: how much everyone's like, Yeah, this is my role in
Speaker 7: the team, and I believe in the same and I'm
Speaker 7: gonna do this. That's not automatic. Seen some years without
Speaker 7: it around here, and you might see some in the future,
Speaker 7: but certainly working right now.
Speaker 1: If you had first half grades for Major League Baseball,
Speaker 1: I Will Venable would be my American League Manager of
Speaker 1: the Year.
Speaker 2: So that's where I disagree with the fifty four percent.
Speaker 1: Who did not give Will Venable an A. But hey,
Speaker 1: it's your guys' first half grade. At least I didn't
Speaker 1: have to put an f on any of these polls.
Speaker 1: That's a nice change of pace from the last few
Speaker 1: years that we've done this. And then the final grade
Speaker 1: to give out is Chris Gaetz and the White Sox
Speaker 1: front office. James, how would you grade Chris Getz and
Speaker 1: the front office so far after the first half?
Speaker 7: So like, this is another tricky one. Like if you're
Speaker 7: a fan viewpoint, you're what do you usually grade a
Speaker 7: GM on. It's probably off season moves that he did
Speaker 7: to improve the team or in season moves that he
Speaker 7: did to improve the team, and how effective you are.
Speaker 7: And I think there's obviously some wins. K is passing
Speaker 7: grade for what you wanted out of him. Shaw Newcomb's
Speaker 7: like this, you know, big A, Sir, Anthony Dominguez is
Speaker 7: probably a C or lower right now. You know, probably
Speaker 7: really trending towards D in terms of like first half,
Speaker 7: like not a D for forever or never going to
Speaker 7: redeem himself, but in terms of what you got for
Speaker 7: the first half, certainly not good. I think there's swings
Speaker 7: from that. But are you is that why they're good?
Speaker 7: Is that why they're overperforming? Or is Chris get this
Speaker 7: like evaluation based on like organizational health or all? Does
Speaker 7: he get credit for like everything Ryan Fuller has accomplished,
Speaker 7: like offensive Side or Derek Shruman because he broughtably these
Speaker 7: people in, he hired them and empowered them like the
Speaker 7: GM more than like he's making individual evaluations or he's
Speaker 7: like going to some secret workout where he sees when
Speaker 7: he's Takamer Comedi's like, uh, swing get demonstrated and decide like, aha,
Speaker 7: I see an All Star. Like that's not really how
Speaker 7: their evaluations work in this place. It's more of like, yeah,
Speaker 7: he I think already at the time we could have said,
Speaker 7: like he accurately assessed their risk analysis, where this is
Speaker 7: a move that people feel excited about and don't really
Speaker 7: are willing to accept the downside of whate better we're
Speaker 7: going to do. I think that rationale probably fit how
Speaker 7: the Socks fans felt about the team at the time
Speaker 7: more than is like obviously it worked out as well
Speaker 7: as it possibly could, but it's more just like evidence
Speaker 7: of self aware decisions, and I think you could give
Speaker 7: them credit for that down the line. So I don't know,
Speaker 7: should I just evaluate him in offseason moves or should
Speaker 7: I evaluate him towards like what he's done for the
Speaker 7: organization or what strides they made? Is he a stand
Speaker 7: in for the organization itself? It could be a very
Speaker 7: multi layered question, but just in terms of like what
Speaker 7: do we think this team was going to be. We
Speaker 7: wrote a preseason article about Socks Best where he's saying,
Speaker 7: how about nineteen more wins this year as like a
Speaker 7: way to pop up the crowd, and it's simultaneously, how
Speaker 7: sad is it You're trying to sell him a six
Speaker 7: seventy nine win season, and how sad this is it
Speaker 7: that that was decently ambitious. The next seventeen the next
Speaker 7: nineteen win improvement is gonna be hard on the first.
Speaker 7: So maybe he's been a little over ambitious to even
Speaker 7: say that they're overperforming that so you kind of have
Speaker 7: to be like, by any expectation we had going to
Speaker 7: the season, I think it's an a just because they're
Speaker 7: the wins, the losses was the standings say, they're they're
Speaker 7: better than we could have expected. So it seems like
Speaker 7: a ninety percent of outcome and CPS, that's an A
Speaker 7: second point zero zero.
Speaker 1: How about you, Jim, what great would you give Chris
Speaker 1: Getz to the White Sox runt office As to the
Speaker 1: first half.
Speaker 6: It almost seems like pass fail is more of a
Speaker 6: better system for this just because.
Speaker 7: Of yeah, the thumbs down from Gladiator.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the preseason outfield like did not shake out, Like
Speaker 6: Acunya was not good in center and they thought he
Speaker 6: could play there and uh, you know Austin Hayes, you
Speaker 6: know the injuries that he had, Uh he had once again. Uh,
Speaker 6: and that's something that's, if not coulda been predicted at
Speaker 6: least for scene. And you know, even I kind of
Speaker 6: did it reflectibly. So like here comes a calf jury
Speaker 6: and then eastrain his calf and it's you know, that
Speaker 6: was a risky bets for them to like anchor the outfield,
Speaker 6: and you know Jared Kellening didn't work out and Everson
Speaker 6: Praira's been hurt and you know those are the kind
Speaker 6: of the plan a for the outfield the first wave.
Speaker 6: And yet like Sam Antonacci's been fine and left and
Speaker 6: like the second coming of Tony Phillips at least from
Speaker 6: one side of the plates at the top of the order.
Speaker 6: And Tristan Peters has been a revelation.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 6: Just so that's and then Braid Montgomery comes up. Now
Speaker 6: all of a sudden, you have an outfield left to right.
Speaker 6: I feel like, yeah, that's an outfield.
Speaker 7: So does he get.
Speaker 6: Credit for the outfield that showed up halfway through it?
Speaker 6: Is he kind of get a credit for the outfield
Speaker 6: he tried to put together in the first place. I
Speaker 6: will say, like the in season moves that he's made
Speaker 6: in terms of timing of promotions, having a plan for
Speaker 6: usage I think has been pretty sound, Like you can
Speaker 6: think through it with them. You can think through venables
Speaker 6: ideas for how players should be used, Like Braid Montgomery
Speaker 6: comes up. Maybe could have waited a little bit more,
Speaker 6: but also like, yeah, he's your best option for every
Speaker 6: day play. You have a way to give him some runway.
Speaker 6: You can put them towards the Bob in the order.
Speaker 6: If it doesn't work out, we can maybe look at
Speaker 6: the deadline and see what you can do to offset it.
Speaker 6: But it gives you an idea of he gives you
Speaker 6: information to work with when it comes to whether to
Speaker 6: put resources towards their outfielder, So sure bring them up.
Speaker 6: Same thing with Jacob Gonzale is like perfect fit first base.
Speaker 6: Like maybe not defensively first base because he didn't have
Speaker 6: much experience there, but in terms of need left handed
Speaker 6: bats who has some plate discipline and maybe some some power.
Speaker 6: He's filling the spot of a guy who's left handed
Speaker 6: with play discipline and power. That's the same shape put
Speaker 6: him in that those you know don't expect him to
Speaker 6: be hit fourth every game, but yeah, I mean like
Speaker 6: that's a good spot for Jacob Gonzalez to come in
Speaker 6: like Sam Antonacci. Yeah, left field is new to him
Speaker 6: pretty much, but otherwise he had earned it, and you
Speaker 6: know he's played his way into more playing time in
Speaker 6: his stabilized left field. So I think the in season
Speaker 6: solutions have I think been in then Randall Gritchick another
Speaker 6: one where just they you know, Reese McGuire didn't work out.
Speaker 6: I didn't understand that signing, but Gritchick, Yeah, that one
Speaker 6: worked out. So is it the case where you ding
Speaker 6: him for McGuire as much as you credit him for
Speaker 6: Gritchick or do you say, like, hey, uh, good to
Speaker 6: go to that well again if it didn't work out
Speaker 6: the first time. So that's why I think, Yeah, it's
Speaker 6: case where putting a fine letter grade on it a
Speaker 6: little tricky.
Speaker 1: So I'll just say easy pass, Okay, that's fine, I'll
Speaker 1: accept that buy out fans sixty seven percent of fans
Speaker 1: gave Chris Getz in the White Sox front office an A.
Speaker 1: I think his time is going to come on August third.
Speaker 1: There's two big things coming for GMS.
Speaker 2: One, how do you handle the MLB Draft?
Speaker 1: Now see that with the number one overall pick, you
Speaker 1: could be the first place Chicago White Sox with the
Speaker 1: number one overall pick. How do you handle that weekend
Speaker 1: with the will be draft and then August third trade deadline?
Speaker 1: How do you help this team? Like his big moments
Speaker 1: are definitely coming. But I do approve and I think
Speaker 1: you make really good points, Jim with the in season
Speaker 1: moves and being very anti Rick Hahn of whatever, Let's
Speaker 1: give these rookies a try, like, don't worry about service time,
Speaker 1: Let's not continue to shop on the waiver wire. Let's
Speaker 1: throw these guys into the fire and see what they
Speaker 1: can give us. And right now they haven't drowned. So
Speaker 1: it's been working out for Chris Gatz in the White Sox.
Speaker 6: One thing about that will be interesting about this deadline
Speaker 6: is this is probably the most synergistic manager GM pairing
Speaker 6: the White Sox have had in a deadline where they've
Speaker 6: been adding quite some time. Yes, yeah, maybe ever like well,
Speaker 6: especially recently in terms of the uh you know Rick
Speaker 6: Renturia and Rick Han being at odds during the twenty
Speaker 6: twenty season, and then Tony la Russa not being Rick
Speaker 6: Han's choice, and then uh, you know, Griffole being a dud,
Speaker 6: and then you know Chris gets not being interested in
Speaker 6: propping up Griffole if he was tasked like carrying him
Speaker 6: over to a season where they had no hope. But
Speaker 6: it seems like they've been lockstep in terms of, you know,
Speaker 6: how much they support each other. So I am curious
Speaker 6: how that manifests itself going into the deadline and how
Speaker 6: much they push for it and say, you know, if
Speaker 6: you know Renteria wanted a starting pitcher in Han didn't
Speaker 6: give it to him. If you have that situation again
Speaker 6: where Venable says like we could really use this or
Speaker 6: I'm at wits end trying to figure out this and
Speaker 6: the price is maybe higher than gets would like to
Speaker 6: pay ideally, like how does that work? Open end new question?
Speaker 6: You know, just don't know because we've never seen a
Speaker 6: general manager and manager get along like this in quite
Speaker 6: some time. Maybe Robin Ventura Kenny Williams, you know that
Speaker 6: kind of the start of that might have been like
Speaker 6: the last time they liked each other so much, open
Speaker 6: communication with again, like Ventura is completely new to it,
Speaker 6: so you know he's yeah, he might have been you know,
Speaker 6: deferential to where like he didn't have us say, really
Speaker 6: curious to see how it works out.
Speaker 1: Do you have any insight on that James as far
Speaker 1: as how the synergy could work between Gets Inventable heading
Speaker 1: to August third, I don't know what you mean, but
Speaker 1: like if Vnable goes to Gets and says, we need
Speaker 1: a starting pitcher, Chris, can you give me another starting pitcher?
Speaker 7: I think they're already talking about that reality and what
Speaker 7: they need on a regular base. I don't I don't
Speaker 7: think it'd be a Gets is like monicle falls off
Speaker 7: in his office, but na Will gives him this news.
Speaker 7: So like, I think they already like municate to a
Speaker 7: level where their needs are probably already pretty spoken, if
Speaker 7: that's what you mean. At the same time, like Venible
Speaker 7: like kind of defers or at least talks about like
Speaker 7: deferring to like what they're going to do and what
Speaker 7: the front office is going to look for. And they
Speaker 7: have this like all acquisitions department that they use and
Speaker 7: like the model that they're targeting. So like it's not
Speaker 7: like you've seen a lot of acquisitions that are like, oh,
Speaker 7: that's Venable's guy that he wanted. They don't seem like
Speaker 7: they make that acquisitions those acquisitions more. Maybe that's I
Speaker 7: don't know, if I they certainly have synergy They certainly
Speaker 7: endorse each other when they talk about it, But is
Speaker 7: that about like just the more industrialized way they go
Speaker 7: about adding players rather than like a power struggle or
Speaker 7: you know, bringing up names and patting them around as
Speaker 7: their process more than necessarily. I'd say, like this is
Speaker 7: the synergy of like I don't even know if like
Speaker 7: the really the mechanism is that fickle as far as
Speaker 7: like being dependent on their relationship, Like obviously if it
Speaker 7: goes bad, that could have hurt it. But they're not
Speaker 7: just like batting back and forth names between each other
Speaker 7: as much as like options are coming up and being
Speaker 7: considered by like a lot more model driven analysis.
Speaker 6: Now, Yeah, I think maybe like one area could be
Speaker 6: like Braidon Montgomery, who's been fine, but just the case
Speaker 6: of like, you know, depends how he looks at between
Speaker 6: now and the deadline, if like Venable says like I
Speaker 6: don't know if he's got this year and you know,
Speaker 6: gets to the front office saying, well, we think you
Speaker 6: can do exus here and we don't really want to
Speaker 6: spend resources that you Montgomery could.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's like one.
Speaker 6: Situation I think on the roster, I think starting pitching
Speaker 6: is glaringly obvious now Taylor is good enough to handle, Like, Yeah,
Speaker 6: I think you don't have the typical closer conversation because
Speaker 6: like the White Sox don't necessarily need to get a
Speaker 6: closer from outside, They just need to handle the closer
Speaker 6: business within. Yeah, maybe with more finality if if Domingus
Speaker 6: continues to struggle, But yeah, maybe right field might be
Speaker 6: the one where, you know, maybe if Peters agresses a
Speaker 6: little bit, like you have some weaknesses in the outfield,
Speaker 6: a little bit to where you could maybe see ad
Speaker 6: or not d being more of an open debate.
Speaker 1: Numb percent of the folks on social media gave Chris
Speaker 1: Getz an a and then our bonus topic most pressing
Speaker 1: need at the trade deadline and fans again for the
Speaker 1: seventh consecutive podcast, Yes, the White Sox need starting pitching
Speaker 1: help sixty five percent. So that is the most pressing
Speaker 1: need for the White Sox for the trade deadline is
Speaker 1: starting pitching help, and we'll continue to keep an eye
Speaker 1: on that market. Sonny Gray looked really good for the
Speaker 1: Boston Red Sox on Sunday against the New York Yankees.
Speaker 2: He's been really strong this year.
Speaker 1: The Tigers been playing a lot better does that mean
Speaker 1: Derek Schoolball is not out there in the trade market.
Speaker 2: Hopefully we get a little bit more clarity.
Speaker 1: On who are the sellers and who are the teams
Speaker 1: that are just topping their toe in the seller's market,
Speaker 1: so we have a better understanding of what the targets
Speaker 1: could be for the White Sox and the starting pitching
Speaker 1: front before the trade deadline. But again, it's a lot
Speaker 1: more fun to talk about the possibilities for the White
Speaker 1: Sox buying in the last three years talking about who
Speaker 1: could the White Sox sell, so don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about that this season, and that in itself is a blessing.
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