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Speaker 3: From your favorite source for Chicago White Sox Talk, delivering news, interviews,
Speaker 3: analysis and more. This is The Sox Machine Podcast with
Speaker 3: your hosts Jim Margolis, James Vegan, and Josh Nelson.
Speaker 4: You know, there was originally I didn't want to come out,
Speaker 4: you know, a couple of weeks before they'd asked me
Speaker 4: to go.
Speaker 5: I just, you know, I kind of wanted to let
Speaker 5: things play out.
Speaker 4: And really, you know, I'd never been out to the
Speaker 4: Midwest for the most part, and i'd never been out
Speaker 4: to Chicago.
Speaker 5: I was very hesitant to go out there. I just
Speaker 5: because I.
Speaker 4: Didn't know what I was getting myself into. But you know,
Speaker 4: the second that I got off the flight, and you know,
Speaker 4: Josh Barfield picked me up from the airport.
Speaker 5: It was.
Speaker 6: I mean, I I was wide eyed the entire week.
Speaker 4: I mean I was there for three days, and you know,
Speaker 4: and I was when I was leaving the field h
Speaker 4: after Montgomery's walk off. You know, I told them I
Speaker 4: wish I could have stayed for another week, but you know,
Speaker 4: the whole experience, you know, being able to go to
Speaker 4: dinner with gets in bar Field, being able to you know,
Speaker 4: I walked, They dropped me off at the hotel right
Speaker 4: after dinner, and I'd sat and I walked around Chicago
Speaker 4: till two am, you know, just trying to understand, you know,
Speaker 4: what it's all about and see everything that has to
Speaker 4: come with it.
Speaker 5: And then you know, the next.
Speaker 4: Day, getting to sit down with Fuller, and then you know,
Speaker 4: walked again for five more hours before the game, and
Speaker 4: then being able to go to the game, meet everybody,
Speaker 4: see the stadium, meet the players, see the dynamic. You know.
Speaker 4: I just I left, you know, you know the next
Speaker 4: morning and called my agent and told him that, you know,
Speaker 4: that's where I want to be, and you know, just
Speaker 4: he's got to do whatever he can to make it
Speaker 4: work because I know that that's where I want to be,
Speaker 4: and I hope that they feel the same way about me, so,
Speaker 4: you know, being able to work it out on the
Speaker 4: long end, I mean, the tiers were all happy tears.
Speaker 5: I'm very excited to be a part of it.
Speaker 4: You know. I fell in love with the city while
Speaker 4: I was out there, and I'm just I'm very excited
Speaker 4: to get back.
Speaker 1: That was Chicago White Sox first overall, big Rock Cholowski,
Speaker 1: which you'll be joining the organization and on Sunday along
Speaker 1: with Landon Tomey, who the White Sox selected thirty fourth
Speaker 1: overall throughout the First Bitch on Sunday's game. So quite
Speaker 1: the weekend for both. Quite the weekend for the Chicago
Speaker 1: White Sox. I'm Josh nel sit alongside Jim Margolis demanding
Speaker 1: Editive Sox Machine and our beat reporter James Vegan who
Speaker 1: is in Philadelphia covering the All Star Game for us
Speaker 1: at Sox Machine. Again, we cannot thank our Socks Machine
Speaker 1: subscribers enough. Thank you for your subscriptions as it allows
Speaker 1: us to send James on the road to be in
Speaker 1: Philadelphia to cover the games for us. And he just
Speaker 1: got a chance to chat with Caleb Botomer, who is
Speaker 1: part of the Futures Game in Philly. It's been a
Speaker 1: very busy weekend for us at Sox Machine. But let's
Speaker 1: start with what happened on the field for the White
Speaker 1: Sox as they sweep the Sacramento Athletics and in very
Speaker 1: convincing fashion, So they get swept James by the Boston
Speaker 1: Red Sox. They only score two runs in those three games.
Speaker 1: Then they turn around and they hold the Athletics to
Speaker 1: just two runs in three games. It really felt like
Speaker 1: the White Sox needed a sweep to rinse out the
Speaker 1: bad taste from the Boston series. And as far as
Speaker 1: like statement series wins go, especially as far as Friday,
Speaker 1: how did the clubhouse feel after that big win against
Speaker 1: the Athletics.
Speaker 5: I mean they won like a million to two or one,
Speaker 5: and Trystan Peters had a cycle, so they were in
Speaker 5: they were in decent spirits. I would say, it's just
Speaker 5: kind of like it's we're looking at this like through
Speaker 5: our lens of like how are the White Sox doing?
Speaker 5: Whereas like Boston is like it's basically the hottest team
Speaker 5: in baseball. Yeah, went and swept the Mets as well.
Speaker 1: What is it now? Nine straight wins.
Speaker 5: I believe so yes, Wow, like eight of ten when
Speaker 5: they were coming into the White Sox, So what is
Speaker 5: it fortunate sixteen or something crazy? Whereas like the A's
Speaker 5: look like they don't want to be around anymore. The Watts,
Speaker 5: Brent Wibrookers of the season like a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 5: and then Nick Kurtz like, has this you know, Malady
Speaker 5: pop up where he's on the I L and he's
Speaker 5: gonna miss the All Star Game, And you had Sean
Speaker 5: Burke openly saying like, yeah, lineup's a little different. Basically
Speaker 5: just challenge everyone. Heaters like trying to make sure the
Speaker 5: bases are clear when Soda Shrum and Langliers are up,
Speaker 5: but otherwise I'm good. You say that I'm good part.
Speaker 5: But that's like the subtext from it, Like this became
Speaker 5: like a lineup that's pretty short in terms of like
Speaker 5: things he really has to worry about. So like in
Speaker 5: some respect, you know, people complain about a team like
Speaker 5: playing people can plain about a team in any form,
Speaker 5: but like you know, playing down to their competition. The
Speaker 5: White talks doing the opposite of that, Like they got
Speaker 5: beat by a team that's plain amazing and they crushed
Speaker 5: the team that wish the break was two weeks earlier.
Speaker 5: So yeah, they certainly look better. Uh certainly, like you know,
Speaker 5: in terms of like the way Martin, Martin and Burke
Speaker 5: like wound up with the same first half so to speak,
Speaker 5: you know, because they existed. I think Burke has a
Speaker 5: little bit more innings, but like they came to it
Speaker 5: in different ways. But Martin pitches in that you know
Speaker 5: series where they look out of sorts because he's kind
Speaker 5: of you know, dragging to the finish and Burke is like,
Speaker 5: you know, pitching out his mind. Uh to get to
Speaker 5: the end. You kind of had like your your starters
Speaker 5: who were you had kind of a flip in the
Speaker 5: namack though, I've no Schultz had to kind of get
Speaker 5: right outing with the A's as well. But yes, it
Speaker 5: looked good. Yes they got Murray coming back. Yes that
Speaker 5: it was like provided to Jolton. You know, they had
Speaker 5: you know, two guys added to the All Star team
Speaker 5: and that was like a lot of excitement and momentum
Speaker 5: as well. There's also like a you could just say like, hey,
Speaker 5: they paid played the team that's playing great, you know
Speaker 5: the hawk else when you play the line they played
Speaker 5: playing awful and you know it's bad and Jonah him
Speaker 5: who was basically cut from the Rangers for not hating
Speaker 5: enough for a catcher last years, like clean up in
Speaker 5: half of these games, and they just look like they
Speaker 5: can't mount anything or really stop anything. Even like JT
Speaker 5: Gin on Sunday, it's having a really good year. I
Speaker 5: wouldn't question that there's ability there, but you watch him,
Speaker 5: it's like this guy is like misfiring wildly with ninety one.
Speaker 5: This doesn't seem like it's going to work, and then
Speaker 5: sure enough it doesn't. So it it feels like maybe
Speaker 5: they haven't swung so much in the week as much
Speaker 5: as their competition has.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: The White Sox a fifty and forty five, and when
Speaker 1: you compare to where they were at the All Star
Speaker 1: Break last year, Jim, the White Sox are already nineteen
Speaker 1: games better in the standings than they were a year
Speaker 1: ago heading into the All Star Break. So quite a
Speaker 1: few highlights, none bigger than Tristan Peters hitting for the cycle.
Speaker 1: Jim and we talked a little bit about this during
Speaker 1: the live stream when we are leading up to the
Speaker 1: first overall pick, But just how improbable it is for
Speaker 1: Tristan Peters to produce the way that he has for
Speaker 1: the White Sox and now he is an All Star.
Speaker 1: What do you make of this sudden honor for Tristan
Speaker 1: Peters to be part of the American League All Star Team.
Speaker 6: It's surprising on a couple levels. There's just a matter
Speaker 6: that Tristan Peters was acquired for cash by the White Sox,
Speaker 6: and usually those deals don't work for them in any
Speaker 6: meaningful sense. So the fact that he's gone from afterthought
Speaker 6: to even during spring training, more of an extra player
Speaker 6: somebody might see over the course of a season to
Speaker 6: somebody who is suddenly an integral part of everything is
Speaker 6: a shocker. Also, like a shocker that he made the
Speaker 6: All Star team just because he is like kind of
Speaker 6: not a product to wins above replacement, but like everything
Speaker 6: kind of reflects his value. His defense's offense, his doubles
Speaker 6: more than homer power, but he's in a lot of doubles.
Speaker 6: Like everything, He's generating a lot of value in a
Speaker 6: lot of ways. But aside from his average, which is
Speaker 6: over three hundred, nothing really stands out. It's the entire thing.
Speaker 6: So it's cool that as you see some remnants of
Speaker 6: advanced stats versus traditional stats, counting stats et cetera. That Peters,
Speaker 6: who probably would be largely overlooked were it not for
Speaker 6: wins above replacements in other seasons, just because he has
Speaker 6: six homers because of the platoon situation he found himself early,
Speaker 6: didn't really up the counting stats and like the other
Speaker 6: Triple Crown categories, urban hits, like he's even a little
Speaker 6: late on plate appearances for an everyday player. The fact that, yeah,
Speaker 6: you look at the wins above replacement leader board, especially
Speaker 6: for rookies, and he's snuck up on everybody as they're
Speaker 6: trying to figure out replacements for the All Star team.
Speaker 6: It's cool that somebody like him, who is a well
Speaker 6: rounded player who's contributing to the White Sox in so
Speaker 6: many ways, does get recognized like that.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, so looking at Peter's stats so far,
Speaker 1: three ZHO one batting average is Jim mentioned Peters has
Speaker 1: got twenty doubles this year, and he's got three triples
Speaker 1: along with his six home runs, thirty six RBIs, and
Speaker 1: he's got five stolen bases. I mean, he's never been
Speaker 1: that big of a base Steeler, but I think it
Speaker 1: would kind of surprise people if Tristan Peters did find himself,
Speaker 1: Jim hitting ten home runs, but thirty five doubles is
Speaker 1: forty doubles within reach. If Tristan Peters gets and used
Speaker 1: to hit for power that he has in the last
Speaker 1: couple of months.
Speaker 6: Yea possible, especially since there's nobody really challenging is playing time.
Speaker 1: And then the other big highlight on the offensive side
Speaker 1: for the White Sox was the return of munatakamer Kami.
Speaker 1: Not the greatest series, James, you mentioned that the reason
Speaker 1: why the White Sox wanted to bring him up for
Speaker 1: this series before they all start break was to break
Speaker 1: some rust. There's a lot of rust for munatakamer Kami.
Speaker 1: He struck out seven times, he was one four eleven
Speaker 1: this weekend. He did walk twice. He did have an
Speaker 1: RBI on Friday. You were there on Friday. A lot
Speaker 1: was going on for the White Sox on Saturday. How
Speaker 1: did munatakamer Kami look to you?
Speaker 5: Like, yeah, rusty, like on time, Like you know, not
Speaker 5: that he doesn't have swing and miss on the fastballs
Speaker 5: of his own when he's rolling, but like he certainly
Speaker 5: was doing that a lot in a way, like you
Speaker 5: look like not quite up to speed, like this is
Speaker 5: his fifth game in the last like six weeks thing.
Speaker 5: But it's funny, like him talking about the home run derby,
Speaker 5: He's like basically saying, like, the invitation was on the
Speaker 5: table for a while and I was on board, and
Speaker 5: really the only question if I could do it was
Speaker 5: if I got back off the IL before the All
Speaker 5: Star break. So in terms of like motivation to get
Speaker 5: him back, like he wanted to do this thing, like
Speaker 5: he immediately said yes, and you know the added incentive,
Speaker 5: you know, him clearly being in line to be an
Speaker 5: injury replacement for the All Star Game. As another thing
Speaker 5: about being back off the IL, I think, you know,
Speaker 5: he wants to be here, like he certainly he's I
Speaker 5: don't even think it's like is it a selfish thing?
Speaker 5: But it's like he came to the US to like
Speaker 5: basically try to conquer this league, to try to test
Speaker 5: the skill. So being part of the showcase, I think
Speaker 5: to him as part of what he's doing here, maybe
Speaker 5: more so than it's you know this the way we
Speaker 5: see it as like a crowning achievement of a career
Speaker 5: for like a domestic player. So I think some of
Speaker 5: it was like, yeah, let's get some real games in
Speaker 5: you know what, he's healthy. It's been six weeks. He
Speaker 5: got cleared, he ran the bases, and he got through
Speaker 5: like full game fine, but not that like he's using
Speaker 5: these games to get up to speed for the All
Speaker 5: Star Game. But like if he was going to do
Speaker 5: this because he'd be healthy, buy it, he'd want to
Speaker 5: actually like play a little bit and face the live pitching.
Speaker 5: So maybe the positive thing is like the White Sox
Speaker 5: scored a bunch of runs granted against the pitching staff
Speaker 5: that I want to use euphemisms for not wanting to
Speaker 5: be around and not actual terms, but a team that's
Speaker 5: looking pretty run down.
Speaker 6: Looking like the White Sox we've seen, like we've seen
Speaker 6: White Sox teams like that of just crossing days off
Speaker 6: the calendar.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was doom scrolling recently and I saw it
Speaker 5: came across as someone who was sharing the clip from
Speaker 5: twenty four Lenny and getting hit by the practice throw. Yeah,
Speaker 5: he seemed like a notch above those vibes, but like
Speaker 5: not not many. I don't know what a point it is,
Speaker 5: Like it's distracted by so much of the a's are struggling.
Speaker 5: But the positive is that, like, hey, the offense tick
Speaker 5: back up again. It was very worrisome against Boston just
Speaker 5: to see them kind of get you know, stopped like that.
Speaker 5: It wasn't because they got murra COMI back that what
Speaker 5: they look like when he's operational. Really, when Teal is
Speaker 5: looking like what he was in the second half last year,
Speaker 5: that doesn't quite happen. Yet. Teal is clearly better than
Speaker 5: what they were getting from offensively catchers already, just by
Speaker 5: means of getting hits in games. But I as much
Speaker 5: as like, man, here's our a offense, it made it
Speaker 5: and then you know, it's never It's not how baseball works.
Speaker 5: You never get everyone just like hot at the same time,
Speaker 5: like David Martin talking about the rotation, like they haven't
Speaker 5: all been hot at the same time at any point
Speaker 5: this year just yet. And it's not a given it
Speaker 5: ever does. But you haven't seen that yet. So theoretically
Speaker 5: hopeful there is still a level that they get to,
Speaker 5: at least in terms of consistency, from getting Murakami, from
Speaker 5: getting Tealed, maybe back up to what we've seen the
Speaker 5: height of their powers.
Speaker 1: Maybe the home run derby helps for Murakami to know
Speaker 1: what it's like to hit a home run again in
Speaker 1: a MLB Stadium since it's been a while.
Speaker 6: An, I mean I did think that with him being
Speaker 6: un impressed the final series, like it was proof that, okay,
Speaker 6: you can't say you're ruined him.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean this is a team that uh, you know
Speaker 5: has Mike Hastle Massle wearing three hats. I said Hassle
Speaker 5: because of all the hats, and celebrates home runs with
Speaker 5: a sex song. So I don't think Home Run Derby
Speaker 5: gets Murakami's mojo going is like any more any less
Speaker 5: scientific than other things they have going on. They welcome
Speaker 5: all all approaches.
Speaker 2: All three, one, two, six million, Andrew Law made personal
Speaker 2: batsank in Law.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a fun Home Run Derby. I do
Speaker 1: like the fact that both Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber
Speaker 1: are participating. I think that's a great idea, especially with
Speaker 1: the Elstar Game being in Philadelphia. It'd be great. If
Speaker 1: you know, we've been comparing the two ever since he
Speaker 1: got on this heater for the White Sox and how
Speaker 1: he started Muna Takomercammy and Kyle Schwarber. That would be
Speaker 1: one heck of a final if those two were able
Speaker 1: to make it that far in the derby and of
Speaker 1: course Schwarber is a well seasoned veteran when it comes
Speaker 1: to the home run Derby, but will be fun to
Speaker 1: see on Monday night for Munatakomerkami how he does in
Speaker 1: the home run Derby. And of course, the White Sox
Speaker 1: returned to action after the All Star break in Toronto.
Speaker 1: We'll talk more about that later in the show. With
Speaker 1: all this offense that happened this weekend, Jim, and it
Speaker 1: seems like whenever sean Berg does start, something fantastic happens
Speaker 1: offensively that overshadows what he does in the mound. But
Speaker 1: it is seven innings, only one earned run, which was
Speaker 1: a home run. Burke didn't walk anyone, he struck out nine.
Speaker 1: He's hitting ninety nine miles per hour with this fastball.
Speaker 1: In his last seven appearances, Sean Burke only has a
Speaker 1: two point nine zero earned run average fifty five strikeouts
Speaker 1: over forty to third innings In his last two starts, Jim,
Speaker 1: sean Berg hasn't walked anyone. It's thirteen innings, twenty strikeouts,
Speaker 1: no walks. I have to admit I did not see
Speaker 1: this coming from Sean Burke, and it just feels like
Speaker 1: this kind of race on who is the best starting
Speaker 1: pitcher for the White Sox, and James mentioned that in
Speaker 1: a moment ago. It kind of feels like, right now
Speaker 1: the baton has been exchanged between Davis Martin Sean Burke.
Speaker 1: If the White Sox need to win a game now,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's got to be Sean Burke, right.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And on one hand, that's probably good just because
Speaker 6: Burke has always been the one who's the better bat misser.
Speaker 6: So if you're looking for somebody to start a postseason game,
Speaker 6: to start a key game, to not be subjected to
Speaker 6: just batted ballock or bad defense or what have you,
Speaker 6: that Burke would be your better bet. So I think
Speaker 6: if you're looking at who's leading this rotation, you rather
Speaker 6: have it be something like Burke. And the fact that
Speaker 6: he's gone and earned that title with just dominating performances
Speaker 6: and he's really looking like he's feeling it out there
Speaker 6: just the way he's Yeah, I kind of judge it
Speaker 6: by and this is he's speaking of unscientific I like
Speaker 6: watching how pictures respond to strikeouts, like I always like
Speaker 6: Dylan sees how he took his jersey into his pants,
Speaker 6: like very like like he was bothered that he had
Speaker 6: to throw the pitches to begin with. Just you're messing
Speaker 6: in my jersey. I can't wait to get back to
Speaker 6: the dugouts. Have my fit look exactly like I want to.
Speaker 6: I like seeing that. It seems like Burke now that
Speaker 6: he's kind of like just looking at center field after
Speaker 6: striking guys out, just turns his back on him. And
Speaker 6: with challenge fastballs, they're like with really good stuff. He's
Speaker 6: not lucking into strikeouts or he's not living hitters out
Speaker 6: guests himself. He's challenging him. Like I like that the
Speaker 6: home run that he allowed was you know it was
Speaker 6: to Soderstrum, but like it's you have a lead, you
Speaker 6: don't want to walk anybody or behind the count, just
Speaker 6: challenge him. He didn't, and he gave him a home
Speaker 6: at that time. But like, for the most part, his
Speaker 6: challenges are working because his stuff, his life. His fastball
Speaker 6: has a lot of hop to it, and then everything's
Speaker 6: playing off the fastball, and it seems like the fastball
Speaker 6: unlocks so many things for him. But you know, he
Speaker 6: spent you know how many years wrestling curveball versus slider,
Speaker 6: versus cutter, and now he's like throwing all three, he's
Speaker 6: throwing the cutter without giving up anything, and now he's
Speaker 6: got two different kinds of sliders, and it just kind
Speaker 6: of all fell into place, and it seems like, you know,
Speaker 6: James's written about this with his mechanics and the fact
Speaker 6: that he's you know, if he's throwing ninety nine, that
Speaker 6: means his mechanics are right. If he's throwing you know,
Speaker 6: ninety four, be struggling to hit like ninety six, that
Speaker 6: means everything else is kind of off. And yeah, he's
Speaker 6: been sitting high nineties for a while now, and yeah,
Speaker 6: based on how he's throwing, this is a guy who
Speaker 6: can lead a rotation even when Davis Martin's better.
Speaker 1: So, James, I don't know, have you gotten any insight
Speaker 1: on how the White Sox could possibly be reshuffling the rotation.
Speaker 1: Everybody's going to have extra days of rest at this moment.
Speaker 1: I don't know if Davis Martin's going to be a
Speaker 1: late addition to the All Star team. If he's not,
Speaker 1: and we talked about was that it'd be very late,
Speaker 1: be very late, right, but with him needing extra rest
Speaker 1: because he feels gassed. With the way that Burke has
Speaker 1: been throwing could the White Sox Like I, maybe it's
Speaker 1: just you soon to be wanting to set your rotation
Speaker 1: up for the postseason, but everybody's got more rest than usual.
Speaker 1: Does Burke start that first game for the White Sox
Speaker 1: after the break?
Speaker 5: It is too soon to start ordering your rotation for
Speaker 5: the postseason to that point, like as far as like
Speaker 5: maximizing who needs the rest. Burke has been saying like
Speaker 5: on off the record repeatedly like I feel great, I'm
Speaker 5: recovering better than any point in my year, and certainly
Speaker 5: like the way like his after his last start, He's like,
Speaker 5: I don't want to break. I want to keep going.
Speaker 5: I'm rolling like someone even like friendly suggested to him
Speaker 5: like a happy to like, you know, get a few
Speaker 5: days off. He's like no, so like he's in a
Speaker 5: really good spot right now. So like the idea of
Speaker 5: like him being to someone who like seems like the
Speaker 5: most closed mouth in terms of needing to get fed. Uh, sure,
Speaker 5: I would agree with that. The last time I talked
Speaker 5: with both, I spent all my energy geeking out out
Speaker 5: about how Jordan Hicks looks recently. So I did not
Speaker 5: have been looking good in order my bad on that
Speaker 5: I get caught up on my own fascinations. But in
Speaker 5: terms of what you're putting down with, like who looks
Speaker 5: like they are ready to go, I think Burke certainly
Speaker 5: fits that. Bill Anthony cay Is, you know, one be
Speaker 5: pretty consistent, has below all year and certainly has been
Speaker 5: healthy all year and has a pretty good you know,
Speaker 5: inning space from last season. So I think he's right
Speaker 5: up there with him. But Burkers, you know, he's been
Speaker 5: sitting ninety nine for like six seven innings for you know,
Speaker 5: three four or five starts now, and yeah that you
Speaker 5: feel good about that for sure.
Speaker 1: And someone that impressed over the weekend Shane Smith for Charlotte.
Speaker 1: So maybe the White Sox will have an option internally
Speaker 1: to help out with the starting rotation. We'll know more
Speaker 1: about what the what will Vetible wants to do with
Speaker 1: the starting rotation later this week after the All Star break.
Speaker 1: But man Sean Burke has just been on a heater
Speaker 1: and as far as cap tips, yeah, Jordan Hicks, he
Speaker 1: was lights out again on Sunday and I think he
Speaker 1: didn't throw He threw fourteen bitches James twelve for strikes.
Speaker 1: I think his first ten pitches that he threw on Sunday,
Speaker 1: we're all strikes. Hicks is just throwing one hundred miles
Speaker 1: an hour past everybody in that athletics lineup. Now, I
Speaker 1: know you mentioned a few times already. Yes it's the
Speaker 1: a's But is there like a different mentality for Jordan
Speaker 1: Hicks right now where he's just going to moving forward
Speaker 1: just challenge hitters with velocity.
Speaker 5: Uh, it's a mechanical thing, so okay, mentality comes from
Speaker 5: that and the confidence and whatnot. But they he was
Speaker 5: lower arm slot earlier in the year and like they
Speaker 5: were like he was really excited about that, Like this
Speaker 5: feels more natural. This is what they think is going
Speaker 5: to like, you know, give me more sink But clearly
Speaker 5: we saw the results were right there, like he have
Speaker 5: some like his first thing and you come out bee
Speaker 5: hundred that I would like probably if you brought him
Speaker 5: out for a second time, like you'd probably see him
Speaker 5: dip a little bit, or you weren't seeing one hundred
Speaker 5: every time and obviously spraying the sweeper and he wasn't
Speaker 5: really like using a forur seingmer at all. Is almost
Speaker 5: all sinkers and not to believe the point we saw
Speaker 5: Jordan Hicks, he was not good at the start of
Speaker 5: the season. Most in terms of control. His heart hit
Speaker 5: rate was very low, Like as much as he had
Speaker 5: to like do challenge fastballs, ball behind the count like
Speaker 5: all the time, Like it didn't lead to a lot
Speaker 5: of home runs during a hard contact or anything like that.
Speaker 5: To his credit, while everything else was kind of blacking off.
Speaker 5: Then he goes on the il as well, so it
Speaker 5: didn't necessarily keep him healthy. So now he's not quite
Speaker 5: as high as he's been in other parts of his career.
Speaker 5: But they're like he thinks he like he wanted to
Speaker 5: go up a little bit higher, and that was like
Speaker 5: feedback they said that they got from him, and they
Speaker 5: tried it out. We're seeing the results, but like to
Speaker 5: break it down, we're seeing the four seemer come back,
Speaker 5: and he thinks it's playing like he's getting right on
Speaker 5: it in a way where it's an effective pitch that
Speaker 5: he's comfortably using out of the higher slot. The sinker
Speaker 5: is sinking less. There is a sacrifice, but it's canceled
Speaker 5: out by the fact that there's now two fast balls
Speaker 5: you have to cover. So like the fact that like
Speaker 5: he's getting a little less drop on it is counteracted
Speaker 5: by the fact that people are like cheating up with
Speaker 5: their barrels to get on the hiater. He feels like
Speaker 5: the the slider's uh, you know, a bit more later
Speaker 5: action and getting whiffs and obviously he's you know, I
Speaker 5: think he's walked one person since coming off the il
Speaker 5: so in the zone rates are pretty similar, but zone
Speaker 5: rates aren't really would tell you what walk he's getting
Speaker 5: out accounts he's able to attack the zone. It looks
Speaker 5: a lot better. And you know, his last outing, he
Speaker 5: hit one on one point six max out like the
Speaker 5: he felt like he was at him and through the
Speaker 5: process even without like not hitting it that it wasn't
Speaker 5: he wasn't getting to his top velo because he didn't
Speaker 5: feel good or you didn't have health. He felt that
Speaker 5: was in there and now we're seeing it in there.
Speaker 5: Like he it one on one point six gets rounded
Speaker 5: to one o two on the you know broadcast. But yeah,
Speaker 5: I think he gotta. I think that's a gimme territory.
Speaker 5: If you're hitting one on one point six, that you'r
Speaker 5: your best velow is back. You know, one on one
Speaker 5: one oh five would be great. But he didn't promise
Speaker 5: that he thought or like he's at one hundred and
Speaker 5: one oh one again and it looks like he's doing that.
Speaker 5: And you know, the basic file up question I asked
Speaker 5: that the bow van Venables, like Jordan Hicks has pitched
Speaker 5: in leverage before, he's done a little bit of closing
Speaker 5: even before. Like doesn't this like they pitched him in
Speaker 5: the six and e of a blowout again, which the
Speaker 5: last came in the first half. I don't know how
Speaker 5: much you can really assign like roles to that too much,
Speaker 5: Like doesn't a Hicks that looks like this reinsert himself
Speaker 5: into your leverage group and that's not to be Oh,
Speaker 5: the real trade deadline addition is Jordan Hicks pitching well again,
Speaker 5: you know, the real freedom is the friends we met
Speaker 5: along the way something like whatever, Like I wouldn't say that,
Speaker 5: doesn't this guy like insert himself into this leverage mix
Speaker 5: where we're talking about this is you know, more than
Speaker 5: just Sir Anthony Demingez trying to get him back and
Speaker 5: then Sewan Newcomb, Grant Taylor and Brian Hudson and then
Speaker 5: the rest is kind of mixing him matching where you
Speaker 5: you know, see a fit or could match up the
Speaker 5: works for it. So they have generally been like, yeah,
Speaker 5: why not. We certainly explore that we haven't necessarily seen
Speaker 5: and maybe there hasn't been the best opportunity for it.
Speaker 5: They've either been not scoring at all so they're trailing
Speaker 5: against Boston or obliterating the Athletics, So the second half
Speaker 5: will really show it. But I think it has to
Speaker 5: be like we're all seeing this. I think it has
Speaker 5: to be tested at some point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Sir. Anthony Dominguez also pitched another scoreless outing for
Speaker 1: the White Sox, so if those two can get back
Speaker 1: on track, that definitely helps out the end of the
Speaker 1: bullpen for the White Sox. Additional cap tips so the
Speaker 1: offensive side. Brady mcgomery went two for four on Sunday,
Speaker 1: hit a home run and drove in for RBIs. Jim,
Speaker 1: I mean, we just continue to rave about Miguel Vargus
Speaker 1: five for twelve this weekend, three doubles and a home
Speaker 1: run and three RBIs. I'm just we're running out of
Speaker 1: things to say, but we have to do our due diligence.
Speaker 1: They'll tip our cap to him, because it's like, again,
Speaker 1: so much happened this weekend. It's like, oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: Miguel Vargas almost hit for five hundred, and he had
Speaker 1: four extra base hits in this series.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the home run was off a position player, but
Speaker 6: he's had so many warning track flies or just missed it,
Speaker 6: or you see like the follow through and from the
Speaker 6: center field camera or briefly optimistic until you see like
Speaker 6: the head slump right before the camera cut and you
Speaker 6: realize like, oh, you didn't get enough of it, and
Speaker 6: it goes like three hundred and forty feet, so he
Speaker 6: left center. So he's had enough of those, I think
Speaker 6: to where he could take a position player just throwing
Speaker 6: junk and go to town just to get the homer
Speaker 6: that he missed from previous swings and make up for it.
Speaker 6: But yeah, the other hits were valid, slash key important,
Speaker 6: driving the ball, adding runs on the board, adding them
Speaker 6: to his stats. All good.
Speaker 1: And on Saturday, Chase By drought of the game winning
Speaker 1: hit his Cols Montgomery scored in first base. It was
Speaker 1: the only run scored. Drafts RBI double was clutched and
Speaker 1: Andrew Bennett, and he went two for seven. He had
Speaker 1: two doubles and he walked twice, drove in four. He
Speaker 1: scored four runs. So when Venettendi got on base, he
Speaker 1: was scoring. So great weekend for the White Sox. Again
Speaker 1: they are fifty and forty five heading into the All
Speaker 1: Star break and again those All Star festivities happening in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: But also this weekend was the Major League Baseball Draft,
Speaker 1: and if you follow us on Soxx Machine, we've been
Speaker 1: covering this draft every week since mid February. We've been
Speaker 1: posting a lot of video content. More will be coming
Speaker 1: your way as the MLB Draft is finally over. The
Speaker 1: White Sox had twenty one picks in the twenty rounds
Speaker 1: and in the end, James Vegan I spent all this
Speaker 1: time and we knew back in December he's gonna be
Speaker 1: Rock Schlowski at landed Toby and look what happened and
Speaker 1: landed to me with the first two picks for the
Speaker 1: White Sox. You got a chance to chat with Rock,
Speaker 1: and we heard Rock at the beginning part of this podcast,
Speaker 1: and it really sounds like until like mid June when
Speaker 1: he came to Chicago for the first time, he was
Speaker 1: still uncertain about the White Sox. But it was that
Speaker 1: I guess recruiting trip him staying with the White Sox
Speaker 1: a couple of days that not only did it convince
Speaker 1: the White Sox that Rock was the direction, but also
Speaker 1: convinced Rock that this would be a good spot for him.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, we have now demonstrated value of their
Speaker 5: big week against the Dodgers and Braves that they apparently
Speaker 5: sold Rock Scholowski on the organization during the process, you know,
Speaker 5: he talked about the team atmosphere like I feel like
Speaker 5: I've been hearing more and more initially organically and now
Speaker 5: they all say it and they are self sustaining, but
Speaker 5: like they refer themselves as like a college atmosphere in
Speaker 5: the club house in terms of kind of the interpersonal
Speaker 5: connection and certainly like the emphasis on like scrappiness and
Speaker 5: like these hard nose plays, and you know, almost to
Speaker 5: a degree, probably their celebrations they aren't like all like
Speaker 5: doing helmet taps or anything like that, but it feels
Speaker 5: like that's not far off from their dugout at this point.
Speaker 5: So he mentioned liking that, Like I asked him, like,
Speaker 5: especially because like he had such a central leadership role
Speaker 5: on the on UCLA, like is this how you'd want
Speaker 5: You're like, you're is this what you tried to like
Speaker 5: facilitate And he seemed to like vibe with that. But
Speaker 5: for me, my angle was obviously him mentionally like how
Speaker 5: much he you know, connected Ryan Fuller, And it was
Speaker 5: like very like, what's it like New York Times wedding
Speaker 5: page meet cute description, like it was supposed to be
Speaker 5: a forty five minute lunch, but then they found themselves
Speaker 5: talking for hours sort of saying, but the larger takeaway
Speaker 5: is that you have and I think it's unique, and
Speaker 5: you know, probably in a moment where we're less inclined
Speaker 5: to trust what the white socks are doing, maybe troubling
Speaker 5: how much she's like, I don't how often do you
Speaker 5: hear first overall pick where they're talking about fixing a swing,
Speaker 5: both surely repeatedly, not like it wasn't even Fuller the
Speaker 5: one doing it, but like gets and Shirley talking about like,
Speaker 5: we really think their offense components that we can improve,
Speaker 5: and the part of them being willing to say that
Speaker 5: so openly, where you know it's even like kind of
Speaker 5: known that they're going to be altering a two strike approach,
Speaker 5: if not junking it entirely already, is because they got
Speaker 5: so much buy in from him about what plan they presented,
Speaker 5: and to some degree, like that's the way the wind
Speaker 5: has been blowing for a while. You need people you
Speaker 5: bring in the organization to be down with what your
Speaker 5: player development plan is. It just feels new for the
Speaker 5: White Sox to be like one in tune with that,
Speaker 5: but also like impressing people or getting comments on how
Speaker 5: they're pressing people with it. So I think, obviously time
Speaker 5: will tell, and you know you, we probably had our evaluation.
Speaker 5: That's certainly heard from other scouts and other teams that
Speaker 5: like liked Emerson more. But at least their process seems
Speaker 5: more defendable in a way. Even if this feels like
Speaker 5: the draft class, like a White Sox front office from
Speaker 5: twenty twelve would pick where it's the I was the
Speaker 5: Hall of Famous son and the college the super polished
Speaker 5: college favorite that everyone said was the number one pick
Speaker 5: the whole time. It seems like who they would have picked. Yeah,
Speaker 5: like back in like old baseball perspective days, we'd like
Speaker 5: do free agent predictions and then compare it to Randy
Speaker 5: the random number generator, which was just an algorithm that
Speaker 5: picked the team, and Randy usually outperformed us a little bit.
Speaker 5: I feel like, Josh, you could like, did all this
Speaker 5: work and all this like background to have this understanding
Speaker 5: of the class and like median score Collar probably would
Speaker 5: have like you couldn't outperform them, You couldn't match them, maybe,
Speaker 5: but like there's no like you're their accuracy with the
Speaker 5: first two picks, you could you could not hope to outperform.
Speaker 1: Well, I get it was worth it then, Jim to
Speaker 1: go to Arlington, to go to Omaha, to go out
Speaker 1: to the suburbs of Chicago, to stop at Marriot Catholic
Speaker 1: to watch Land and Tony, and stop at the original
Speaker 1: Rilios to bring back my wife her favorite pizza in
Speaker 1: the area. It was all worth it for us at
Speaker 1: Socks Machine to put in all this effort.
Speaker 6: Stick about how much money you saved us with.
Speaker 1: Photos and videos and yes, yes that's true. Yeah photos,
Speaker 1: Yeah they're not.
Speaker 6: We not have to use tokens for our photo wire
Speaker 6: nor binding b roll. He took care of all of that,
Speaker 6: So thank you.
Speaker 1: You are very welcome. Well, it is something that you
Speaker 1: know I wrote Jim. You know the cases for in
Speaker 1: cases against what James mentioned was the case against rocks
Speaker 1: Zlowski is that he is not as polished offensively as
Speaker 1: we thought. Last December But with James's reporting and what
Speaker 1: he heard from like White Sox personnel and the front office,
Speaker 1: Mike Shirley and Chris gets about the adjustments that they
Speaker 1: want to make with Rock. You pay attention to the
Speaker 1: minor leagues every single day, and we don't know yet
Speaker 1: podcast listeners where Rock is going to be and when
Speaker 1: he will start his minor league career with the White Sox.
Speaker 1: But I feel like this is something that we will
Speaker 1: have to pay attention to, is how is he doing
Speaker 1: when he is facing two strikes and how he is
Speaker 1: faring when he's facing much better pitching. If I had
Speaker 1: the guess, I'm sure it's with Winston Salem and Hia
Speaker 1: initially to start. Maybe you give him a little bit
Speaker 1: of a leash because he's joining a minor league team
Speaker 1: in August and we wait to see how he's really
Speaker 1: faring to start twenty twenty seven. But at least we
Speaker 1: can all identify now what the White Sox are trying
Speaker 1: to work on with him, and that's far easier in
Speaker 1: my opinion, to see on how he transitions from college
Speaker 1: to professional baseball knowing what we're supposed to be looking
Speaker 1: at on the adjustments that they want him to make.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think there's enough noise or weirdness with college
Speaker 6: players like pro debuts to where you don't put a
Speaker 6: whole lot of stock in what he does. If he
Speaker 6: goes to Winston Salem for the rest of the year,
Speaker 6: I think I'd really be judging what he does after
Speaker 6: a full off season of work. I think he should
Speaker 6: be able to work with White Sox coaches over the winter,
Speaker 6: like even if there is lockouts, because I don't think
Speaker 6: he's subject to it if I have it right, So
Speaker 6: you know, they should be able to, you know, have
Speaker 6: some off season consultation and a normal winter in that regard,
Speaker 6: and then go to an affiliate in April, and that's
Speaker 6: probably when i'd start judging him. But yeah, no, it's.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I think the work that you did in terms of
Speaker 6: like comparing him versus Grady Emerson versus bon Lackey, like
Speaker 6: that's going to be valuable down the road no matter what,
Speaker 6: just for you kind of the historic perspective as we
Speaker 6: evaluate this draft class, you know, two three, five years
Speaker 6: down the line of just what were people thinking at
Speaker 6: the time, how were these people seen at the time,
Speaker 6: And then you know the fact that you said that
Speaker 6: you know, I don't know if I was approached like
Speaker 6: it might have to work on it. Then you have
Speaker 6: Mike Shirley and you know Chris got saying like, yeah,
Speaker 6: it's got to work on it. Like all right, at
Speaker 6: least I'm not crazier. At least you know, they're not
Speaker 6: trying to sell something that that I was seeing that
Speaker 6: we're setting off my alarm. So I think everybody, you know,
Speaker 6: even if you'd liked Emerson more for that particular pick,
Speaker 6: I think everybody can come away satisfied seeing the same
Speaker 6: thing and just having either different confidence or just you know,
Speaker 6: they have me maybe some internal confidence based on just
Speaker 6: what they know, you know, in discussions amongst themselves under
Speaker 6: the hood, et cetera. You know what they can do
Speaker 6: to go about it, and all the conversations they had
Speaker 6: before the pick about how open he is to it,
Speaker 6: Howard I got heard it work in the WABS.
Speaker 5: My boss doesn't believe me.
Speaker 2: Ake in Law has over one hundred attorneys and stuff
Speaker 2: ready to work for you. If you've been hurt on
Speaker 2: the job in a car accident or suffer the medical mistake,
Speaker 2: call three one two six million.
Speaker 1: Well out of the twenty one players selected, and we're
Speaker 1: writing recaps on all the picks that the White Sox
Speaker 1: have made on soxmachine dot com. So if you're busy
Speaker 1: this weekend with family vacations and you're just catching up again,
Speaker 1: go to soxsmachine dot com and read as far as
Speaker 1: our retire covers them will be draft. We also have
Speaker 1: other videos as well. I cut together thanks to James
Speaker 1: to get the interviews with Chris Getz and Rock Schaalowski,
Speaker 1: getting both of them to talk about the journey and
Speaker 1: how the White Sox and Rock Shallowski ended up knowing
Speaker 1: that they were a great fit for both the White
Speaker 1: Sox and Schelowski himself. You can check out that video
Speaker 1: again on YouTube dot com Slash Sox Machine. But out
Speaker 1: of all the lawyers that were drafted and getting a
Speaker 1: chance of being the zoom conversations with Mike Shirley James,
Speaker 1: which player or players are you intrigued and who the
Speaker 1: White Sox drafted over the weekend.
Speaker 5: I am either cheating or being selfish. I am saying
Speaker 5: Wine Gardner because I've seen White Gardener. He was at
Speaker 5: Super sixty and he was like they a lot. It's
Speaker 5: all like seeing them collect measurables and a lot of
Speaker 5: it is like how important is this? Like you know,
Speaker 5: you watch like certainly like the extreme ends or the
Speaker 5: like the you know of the sixty yard dash. You
Speaker 5: know you kind of notice it a little bit, but
Speaker 5: like you watch like a bunch of guys like run
Speaker 5: fifty times, like over and over again, or like or
Speaker 5: even try to rerun times to like try to bump
Speaker 5: it up the vibe. You're like, what are we doing?
Speaker 5: Is this really? Or seen in field drills of guys
Speaker 5: who aren't at stick where or just watching them hitpp
Speaker 5: and like it doesn't necessarily like you can see them
Speaker 5: like smoke the ball a bunch of times, but are
Speaker 5: you really like seeing how much their ability to move
Speaker 5: the barrel across his own from from coach pitching, so
Speaker 5: the shortcoms but through that Winegardner was just like, well
Speaker 5: look at that little freak move, Like that guy is
Speaker 5: super fast. He's one of like the fastest guys in
Speaker 5: the certainly in the dash. But just like you do,
Speaker 5: like everything he was doing it was like at higher
Speaker 5: speeds and it was like kind of like he was
Speaker 5: gangling away where like you could see like projection in it,
Speaker 5: but also just made like the way he moved around
Speaker 5: like a little weird, just like weird looking, and so
Speaker 5: like he caught my eye. He didn't necessarily like oh,
Speaker 5: this guy's like super refined or like close or like
Speaker 5: polished or anything like watching like Santarelli take BP or
Speaker 5: something like that, but it stood out and wait like
Speaker 5: it was an interesting project, and like the round it's
Speaker 5: at certainly is like in that realm of like I'm
Speaker 5: trying to think of the right name. Is it James Beard?
Speaker 5: It was the Speeds there I always where like am
Speaker 5: I just saying the cookbook? Yeah? Together? And then James
Speaker 5: was fourth round? Right, this this is obviously later around,
Speaker 5: but it feels like what if you just got like
Speaker 5: a really toolsy, fast guy, like someone who looks like
Speaker 5: a physical freak kind of bit you think of them
Speaker 5: more as like how they convert them, you know, on
Speaker 5: the football field, as like they know their return punts
Speaker 5: or something like that, or in basketball like they're they're
Speaker 5: all loose balls and hustles or something like that. They
Speaker 5: obviously have some confidence and it's almost like I want
Speaker 5: to say, Ryan Fuller is like Pucci, but like there's
Speaker 5: some in all the picks they like, especially in a
Speaker 5: position player. You it's the logical question you want to think,
Speaker 5: like what does Fuller think of this? And that was
Speaker 5: like an example where Schillery pull it out like they
Speaker 5: think they can do something with this hit tool, which
Speaker 5: is what the fact that the one thing that's kind
Speaker 5: of missing that makes everyone feel like this is a
Speaker 5: little scary prospect. They kind of have to be pretty
Speaker 5: high on him to have him be one of the four, uh,
Speaker 5: you know, prep picks that they went for. But in
Speaker 5: terms of like where there's so much investment in top
Speaker 5: of this draft and obviously they spent a lot of
Speaker 5: value on the top of the draft for this to
Speaker 5: be kind of more of a interesting wild card that
Speaker 5: they played. I think Cameron Johnson's more the what yeah
Speaker 5: early referred to as their lottery ticket, But this is
Speaker 5: kind of maybe a more souped up version of that
Speaker 5: of like this could be like a fun energic even
Speaker 5: if like the hit tool doesn't come all the way around.
Speaker 5: This could be like an Akunya like presence on the roster,
Speaker 5: where like, if he's not being overstretched offensively for a
Speaker 5: long stretch of time, you'll watch him do stuff like
Speaker 5: steal second and pop up in one move and advance
Speaker 5: that started in a while pitch and be like, ah,
Speaker 5: that's pretty neat to have someone who can do that
Speaker 5: on the roster. That's gonna come in handy and sometime,
Speaker 5: or you know, someone who can absorb a one hundred
Speaker 5: and five min hour line drift. But Coon, you looked
Speaker 5: awesome in the A series, like not like huge offensive
Speaker 5: ceiling awesome, but like, oh, this guy's physically very talented.
Speaker 5: I get why they weren't rushing out the door to
Speaker 5: part with this wine garden. You're watching him move around,
Speaker 5: you could get like kind of similar es of like, yeah,
Speaker 5: having someone who's super fast and twitchy could definitely prove
Speaker 5: useful in some form down the road.
Speaker 1: How about you, Jim, which players did the White Sox
Speaker 1: draft catch here or intrigues you the most?
Speaker 5: Well?
Speaker 6: Mentioning the Fuller connection anytime anybody's taken from Connecticut jumps
Speaker 6: out to me because Aaron Hill, Birmingham meeting coach, also
Speaker 6: from Connecticut. You mentioned that de Pino came from Connecticut
Speaker 6: like his territory, Ryan Fuller territory, and so tenth rounder
Speaker 6: Matthew Boucciero fits that bill, although he struck out like
Speaker 6: sixteen times and twenty six plate appearances in the Draft League,
Speaker 6: so like it's not necessarily huge things. But just I
Speaker 6: see Connecticut, I think, like, Okay, Bradon will come. We
Speaker 6: saw him at Vanderbilt when I tagged along with you
Speaker 6: for that series against LSU, and he kind of reminded
Speaker 6: me of Avi Garcia a little bit, just in terms
Speaker 6: of huge guy, pretty good speed, doesn't look like the
Speaker 6: other players in the field, but I think just more
Speaker 6: swing and miss in the game. I think, like a
Speaker 6: little bit more. The hit tool isn't what Avi had,
Speaker 6: so like that would be a big project, I think
Speaker 6: for him in the twelfth round. I think Vultuko is
Speaker 6: like a good first picture taken the third round. I
Speaker 6: think he's pretty interesting from what I saw, But I
Speaker 6: think like it's kind of cheating to say Land and
Speaker 6: Tony uh in terms of how I'm interested, But I'm
Speaker 6: just I'm fascinated by this whole process that led to him,
Speaker 6: and it's it annoys me to see it people saying
Speaker 6: it's destiny. It's like, it's not destiny. You traded the
Speaker 6: thirty to acquire the thirty fourth pick, You worked for this.
Speaker 6: This is not something that just fell into your laps
Speaker 6: like using the nineteenth round, like, oh, I guess this
Speaker 6: is what we want all along. No, it's you specifically
Speaker 6: traded a useful major league player to acquire Land and
Speaker 6: Tony and just the way people are talking about it,
Speaker 6: and just like the mathematical odds are kind of being
Speaker 6: set aside right now because like Gonzalez in his present
Speaker 6: state of being, Yeah, I would say useful major leaguer,
Speaker 6: whether he's a second division starter or more of a
Speaker 6: role player on the bench, kind of filling in different positions.
Speaker 6: Fascinated to see how he handled shortstop and pitched on
Speaker 6: a part time role and just kind of rolling bouncing
Speaker 6: around between different positions. Really want to see what he
Speaker 6: does there. But he's basically like a median to good
Speaker 6: outcome for the thirty fourth pick. You know, he was
Speaker 6: taken in fifteenth I think overall when he was taken,
Speaker 6: so like that's a little bit disappointing, especially given how
Speaker 6: he started his pro career, but in the form he
Speaker 6: currently is, like that's you know, for a thirty fourth
Speaker 6: overall pick, it's pretty good that you're getting a useful
Speaker 6: major leaguer. Out of a thirty fourth pick. That's kind
Speaker 6: of a median to good outcome. And they're taking that
Speaker 6: and saying, well, we're rolling it into Land and Tony
Speaker 6: rolling it into a high school pick, even though we
Speaker 6: just saw the value of having Gonzales as a reserve
Speaker 6: bats to fill in if you Murakami goes down, or
Speaker 6: like if Colson Montgomery's back finally acts up too much,
Speaker 6: like Gonzales could fit in there too, And they're taking
Speaker 6: that layer protection away to roll into Tony, And just
Speaker 6: like everybody's cool with it, and I'm you know, it
Speaker 6: struck me as like and you are not. Well, I
Speaker 6: mean like it's just a lot of confidence to be
Speaker 6: putting into a high school pick who's uh, you know
Speaker 6: in the you know, competitive balance round. And yeah, perhaps
Speaker 6: he'll be well equipped to handle it because he's the
Speaker 6: son of a Hall of famer and you know that
Speaker 6: he just has that kind of exposure to the game
Speaker 6: and that polish and that just knowledge of how the
Speaker 6: gears of professional baseball work. We saw all like Gavin
Speaker 6: Sheets just in terms of how you know, he had
Speaker 6: this kind of I think composure to him that I
Speaker 6: think served him well during a lot of bad times
Speaker 6: and asked to do what he wasn't supposed to do. Uh,
Speaker 6: And he had this just kind of sense that he
Speaker 6: knew what he was supposed to be saying and doing,
Speaker 6: and where he was supposed to be and what kind
Speaker 6: of like mindset he was supposed to be in all times.
Speaker 6: And I can see Tony benefiting from the same thing.
Speaker 6: But it's like you're you're banking on Tony being better
Speaker 6: than Jacob Gonzalez when Jacob Gonzalez is an okay outcome,
Speaker 6: And it's just it's a fascinating bets. I think I
Speaker 6: don't necessarily have a Yeah, I guess I have a
Speaker 6: small problem with it, But I guess I have a
Speaker 6: problem with the way. It's like the probabilities aren't necessarily
Speaker 6: being discussed in a way that you're you're you're It's
Speaker 6: it's a gut feel play, I think, in a little
Speaker 6: bit to feel like you can take what you had
Speaker 6: in Gonzalezes and trade up and get somebody who's a
Speaker 6: better long term fits in, a more dynamic player. And
Speaker 6: he might be, but it's a considerable risk they're taking
Speaker 6: and doing so I think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of like we're gonna trade Derek Hill,
Speaker 1: and then Everson Brera has a concussion, and now it's
Speaker 1: Junior Perez, who still doesn't look like he's major league ready.
Speaker 5: We'll see how Brea took bat in practice this weekend.
Speaker 5: That's good both him and Hayes could go on rehab
Speaker 5: after the All Star Breaker. Think heyes, is a little
Speaker 5: bit ahead of Prayerra, but like okay right after, but
Speaker 5: just since we brought him up as much as Prera immediately,
Speaker 5: like Wiley Coyotes slamming into a wall, like after they
Speaker 5: made a trade of banking on the idea that he'd
Speaker 5: be death feels like some sort of lesson in fate.
Speaker 5: It does seem like he's on his way back.
Speaker 1: For me, with the way that things worked out to
Speaker 1: pick forty one cole pro Sac. The more that I've
Speaker 1: been watching as far as his showcases and especially in
Speaker 1: how he excelled in those showcase games, reminds me of
Speaker 1: like a left handed hitting version of Caleb Bonnemer. And
Speaker 1: I don't think he's going to be a catcher. I
Speaker 1: think from the zoom calls that you have with Mike
Speaker 1: Shirley James that the plan is for him to be
Speaker 1: at second or third base. He's got a really strong
Speaker 1: throwing arm, but I was impressed by his left handed swing.
Speaker 1: There's obviously no way that the White Sox could have
Speaker 1: gotten both Tony and pro Sec if they did not
Speaker 1: make that trade with Pittsburgh. So I'm wondering if that's
Speaker 1: the way that the White Sox would have a retort
Speaker 1: to your analysis about trading with Pittsburgh, Jim is, if
Speaker 1: we didn't do that, then we would have just had
Speaker 1: landon Tomi at pick forty one. So we like to
Speaker 1: have both Land and Tomy and Cole pro Sec looking
Speaker 1: at the long term future for the White Sox rather
Speaker 1: than Jacob Gonzalez and Land and Tomi. And I think
Speaker 1: time will tell whether or not if that decision making
Speaker 1: was flawed, But I do like what I see from Prosec.
Speaker 1: I'm a bit surprised that he got to the White
Speaker 1: Sox at pick forty one. Bull Check bulcheck o from Georgia.
Speaker 1: Just watch how he performed. It is yes, it is
Speaker 1: joy bull check go.
Speaker 5: Top so far it has.
Speaker 1: If you he watch his performance against Texas which is
Speaker 1: on YouTube. Fifteen strikeouts, one walk, Easy to fall in
Speaker 1: love with him? Watch his previous start against Mississippi State
Speaker 1: in super Regionals, and you could see where the flaws
Speaker 1: would be coming. And again I strongly recommend to read
Speaker 1: James's Day one recap because it seems that with these
Speaker 1: college pitchers the White Sox took, We're going to hear
Speaker 1: a lot from Brian Vanister maybe in the spring training
Speaker 1: seem effect ships as far as teaching these guys how
Speaker 1: to throw sinkers and these kick changes so they have
Speaker 1: a pitch that's not that could tail away from lefties.
Speaker 1: I think that's going to be pretty key. But I
Speaker 1: do like these college arms that they selected their betting
Speaker 1: on velocity, especially with Camra Johnson will see if he
Speaker 1: signs and il money defending champions with Oklahoma. I'm guessing
Speaker 1: he's going to sign with the White Sox. As a junior,
Speaker 1: he could hit ninety nine miles an hour from the
Speaker 1: left side. The walk rate is astronomically high, so he
Speaker 1: is a project that the White Sox will have to
Speaker 1: work on. As far as control, I'm thinking he's going
Speaker 1: to be more reliever, but there's so few lefties who
Speaker 1: throw that type of heat of ninety nine miles an
Speaker 1: hour that maybe the White Sox can get some type
Speaker 1: of value out of him in the upcoming draft.
Speaker 6: I will say, seventeenth rounder at kru McChesney saw the
Speaker 6: name Krew, I thought he's from Utah, and he's from Utah.
Speaker 1: There you go, well done again. We'll have all the
Speaker 1: recaps as far as the MLB draft and when they
Speaker 1: do sign and we get those signing bonuses, the White
Speaker 1: Sox can spend up to twenty one million dollars without
Speaker 1: any penalty as far as the overage when you take
Speaker 1: into consideration that five percent overage over their signing bonus pool.
Speaker 1: So we'll know sooner than later how much Rock's going
Speaker 1: to sign for, how much Land and Tony's going to
Speaker 1: sign for. We'll be reporting that on soxmachine dot com.
Speaker 1: But I hope you guys enjoyed all of our coverage
Speaker 1: for the twenty twenty six MLB draft And now it's
Speaker 1: time for me to create copies of all of my
Speaker 1: Google sheets and start working on the twenty twenty seven
Speaker 1: m WEILLB draft for the White Sox, which will be
Speaker 1: hosted in Chicago. But that will do it for this
Speaker 1: episode of the Sox Machine podcast. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for listening. And watching. If you haven't subscribed to
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Speaker 1: You're for all of things Chicago White Sox Baseball alongside
Speaker 1: Jim Marglst and James Vegan. I'm Josh Nelson. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening and watching.