Speaker 1: Socks on thirty fifth is next doors open on the left.
Speaker 2: How's it going, everybody?
Speaker 3: This is your host, Duke Coffin and welcome to the
Speaker 3: Socks on thirty fifth podcast. We are back with another
Speaker 3: exciting episode covering yos Cargo White soxb dot COM's White
Speaker 3: Sox Beat writer Scott Merkins our guest today. A pleasure
Speaker 3: as always have you on, Scott. Thank you for making
Speaker 3: some time for us here.
Speaker 4: That's kind of a high tech opening there. I was
Speaker 4: pretty impressed by that. Isn't that like just some fly
Speaker 4: by night thing? How this that's we've.
Speaker 1: Got to product. You've got some production value on that.
Speaker 5: It's been a while since you've been on, but I
Speaker 5: think we've we've upgraded our setup a little bit.
Speaker 1: I'm impressed. I'm impressed.
Speaker 2: Appreciate coming on.
Speaker 1: Sure, no problem, but glad you guys gonna have me
Speaker 1: getting ready.
Speaker 4: Just before I pack and get ready to go to Texas,
Speaker 4: where I think the mean temperature will be like one
Speaker 4: hundred and seventeen and all three days were there, but
Speaker 4: I remember the first time I went there, I think
Speaker 4: for the new stadium. I stayed at the Sheraton which
Speaker 4: they have since plowed and it's very close to the
Speaker 4: old stadium, so you start walking in that heat and
Speaker 4: you're like, oh, I'm almost there. That he gets to
Speaker 4: the old stadium and realize it's still like a half
Speaker 4: mile to the new stadium, and you're like looking for
Speaker 4: any sort of worker who has a cart that can
Speaker 4: take you the rest of the way because it's just
Speaker 4: so damn out in Texas. But hey, it's July in Texas, right,
Speaker 4: You're not expecting it to be sixty five or seventy
Speaker 4: degrees all.
Speaker 2: I think it was.
Speaker 4: When I looked at the forecast last week, it was
Speaker 4: like in the eighties last week, which is a cold
Speaker 4: snap for Arlington.
Speaker 3: Well, it really does just kind of blow you away
Speaker 3: about the fact that they played in an outdoor stadium
Speaker 3: down there for that long.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's like, you know, I go to
Speaker 4: Las Vegas a lot. I have a lot of friends
Speaker 4: in Las Vegas, a lot of people I know out there,
Speaker 4: and you know, from the beginning they were talking about
Speaker 4: you could never put you. I don't understand how they
Speaker 4: do it at I can't think of the name of
Speaker 4: the Aviator's Ballpark, but it's in summerland, right in the
Speaker 4: heart of like a really nice downtown Summerland neighborhood about
Speaker 4: forty minutes from this, I think, But I just can't
Speaker 4: imagine that you could ever played the game.
Speaker 1: They're same with like Arizona Complex.
Speaker 4: Like I was looking at Drew Thorpe's box score yes
Speaker 4: day and their first pitch was at nine fifty nine,
Speaker 4: which it pretty much has to be right because if
Speaker 4: you play it like one, it's one hundred and fifteen degrees,
Speaker 4: So you got to get it out before before it
Speaker 4: really starts, you know. I'm more I'm all for like
Speaker 4: the ten am starts in the spring training once in
Speaker 4: a while. I think that'd be kind of cool to
Speaker 4: have a couple of businessmen special you know, maybe like
Speaker 4: nine thirty, get it done, let the players have the
Speaker 4: rest of the day, and that kind of thing. And
Speaker 4: I ever saw that was the last day of spring
Speaker 4: training a few years ago when this touched how long
Speaker 4: ago was Brad Keller was with the team before he
Speaker 4: hit it big with the Cubs and got paid. But
Speaker 4: he pitched in and they had an inner squad game
Speaker 4: the last day they were in Arizona, and it started
Speaker 4: at like nine am, but there was no crowd or anything.
Speaker 4: It was just kind of get the innings in, get out,
Speaker 4: let's get on the plane and go to I forgot
Speaker 4: I think they opened it home that year, but so
Speaker 4: that that's about all I can remember.
Speaker 1: But very very rarely will they have anything better.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's It's just a tough time to try to
Speaker 3: play in a full baseball uniform. But as always, I'm
Speaker 3: also joined by Jordan Lazowski and Nick Gower or Nick
Speaker 3: actually got to travel to Colorado, which was probably a
Speaker 3: little bit a little bit cooler than say, what Texas
Speaker 3: is going to be to start the week here.
Speaker 2: But overall, gentlemen, how was How was the last couple
Speaker 2: of days here?
Speaker 1: Good? Nice to have baseball back.
Speaker 5: I mean, baseball wasn't not back, but White Sox baseball back,
Speaker 5: I guess I'll say, so.
Speaker 4: I gotta ask on, uh, you went to Colorado? I
Speaker 4: know we're talking about the White Sox and not the Rockies,
Speaker 4: but I know they have zero pitching right They're pitching
Speaker 4: is a debacco, but they seem to have some offensive
Speaker 4: players on that team that they're starting to develop. But
Speaker 4: I like that Warren Schafer's seems like a good fit
Speaker 4: as a manager there. But Hunter Goodman, like once every
Speaker 4: two weeks has a three homer game. It seems like
Speaker 4: at this point and they look like they've started the
Speaker 4: smble of feet and maybe it looks a little like
Speaker 4: the Socks of the second half of last year, where
Speaker 4: the offense is they and you just got to kind
Speaker 4: of round.
Speaker 1: Out the team. Yeah, yeah, you can kind of see
Speaker 1: the vision.
Speaker 6: I want one of their games against the Marlins when
Speaker 6: I was there at which they they won that game,
Speaker 6: and I remember thinking, like, all these guys have an
Speaker 6: ops like the eight Henders and nine. I know it's
Speaker 6: course willed, everyone's inflated, but even then, it still feels
Speaker 6: like they have a lot more of a formidable line up,
Speaker 6: even beyond Hunter Goodman. So yeah, you can definitely start
Speaker 6: to see, you know, see the team taking shape. I
Speaker 6: don't know if they'll ever get the pitching they need
Speaker 6: over there, but it's still a fun ballpark and hopefully
Speaker 6: things get better for them because they've been at the bottom.
Speaker 1: Of the NLS for a while.
Speaker 4: The one prime they faced at the White six Stone
Speaker 4: is the Dodgers are in that division and will stay
Speaker 4: there unless they realigned, So that's always going to be
Speaker 4: an uphill climb. I mean the Dodgers. I don't know
Speaker 4: what you guys think. I don't think they've played particularly
Speaker 4: you know, inspired dominant baseball this year. And they're still like,
Speaker 4: what twenty seven games over five hundred, So they pretty
Speaker 4: much from like spring training on just play for seeding
Speaker 4: in the postseason, right because they know they're going in
Speaker 4: some form and most likely going to win the division.
Speaker 4: And now they're what thirteen fourteen games up, so they're
Speaker 4: going to win the division. But it's just weird to
Speaker 4: see that kind of dynamic every year where they're just like,
Speaker 4: all right, you know, we're good. We'll see in see
Speaker 4: in October and see what we can do.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, it's crazy that they have that dynamic in a
Speaker 3: sport like baseball with how many games you have to
Speaker 3: play compared to like the NBA, you know you can
Speaker 3: you can get away with like sitting your stars so
Speaker 3: many games because you know you're gonna end up being there.
Speaker 2: Baseball it's quite completely different ball game.
Speaker 3: And I'm glad you brought up Hunter out there in
Speaker 3: Colorado because I think he's one of the more underrated
Speaker 3: catchers in baseball right now.
Speaker 2: You guys, does.
Speaker 3: Play in a very hity hit or friendly ballpark. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't. I don't know how you could convince any
Speaker 3: pitcher into their prime, whether it's coming out of free
Speaker 3: agency or whatnot, to want to go pitch in Colorado
Speaker 3: just because you're you're really you're pitching against yourself every
Speaker 3: time you pitch at home, and it's it's a tough one.
Speaker 1: You know, they didn't go to a World Series, right,
Speaker 1: so it can be done.
Speaker 4: But I hear you that, I don't think Colorado, even
Speaker 4: with that offense behind you, I don't think Colorado is
Speaker 4: like a prime target most high end pitchers, even that
Speaker 4: they're willing to pay. But again, you know, we'll see
Speaker 4: what happens after the whole labor stuff. But uh, money talks,
Speaker 4: and if the right if the right money is out
Speaker 4: there for all you need is one or two to click.
Speaker 1: And you're and you're on your way.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean they're they're still hoping for that
Speaker 3: uh A ball over men as to kind of pop
Speaker 3: out of.
Speaker 1: Nowhere like uh rest pats right.
Speaker 2: But it's great to hear, gentlemen.
Speaker 3: Uh, we got quite a bit to cover yet in
Speaker 3: this episode, and I haven't even got my ad read
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Speaker 3: the ad reads are literally just for us, So thank
Speaker 3: you Joe for supporting the podcast. Scott, you've covered the
Speaker 3: White Socks in two thousand and three, so you've been
Speaker 3: around the ballpark for quite a while. You've gotten to
Speaker 3: see a lot of twists and turns with the clubhouse.
Speaker 3: You got to see kind of where this team was
Speaker 3: before they brought in a guy like Aasiyeen and kind
Speaker 3: of the road that we've rone ever since. Then, where
Speaker 3: does this turnaround we've seen this season rank among the
Speaker 3: most surprising developments that you've covered.
Speaker 4: I mean, it probably would be the most surprising because
Speaker 4: if you look at like two thousand and five, they
Speaker 4: were actually pretty good in Assie's first year, and then
Speaker 4: I believe Frank and Maglio both had injuries and I
Speaker 4: want to say season ending injuries, So they went from
Speaker 4: maybe like one or two games in first place to
Speaker 4: falling behind and garden Hires Twins ended up winning the division,
Speaker 4: So I don't think it was that shocking. Maybe it
Speaker 4: was shocking the dominance they showed in OH five, which
Speaker 4: is still underrated in my opinion. You know, Pillar to
Speaker 4: post first place ninety nine wins, which still ties the
Speaker 4: franchise record eleven and one of the postseason. The one
Speaker 4: game they lost with some was a weird game where
Speaker 4: the Angels flew across the country and Paul Byrd started
Speaker 4: nothing against Paul Bird and you know they beat him
Speaker 4: like three to two in game one of the Alcs,
Speaker 4: and just you know, dominant across the board. They just
Speaker 4: did everything right. I know they had the one no
Speaker 4: team is perfect, and they they saw a fifteen game
Speaker 4: lead go to one and half. But for the most part,
Speaker 4: maybe that the breath of that, the scope of that
Speaker 4: wasn't expected. But they were pretty good in two thousand four.
Speaker 4: Maybe the falloff in two thousand and seven from a
Speaker 4: good team in six was a little stunning, But in
Speaker 4: terms of positive ways, I can't think of a Robin's
Speaker 4: first year they had the similar kind of start as
Speaker 4: Will's team this year did. They were six and thirteen
Speaker 4: under Will this year I think they were seventeen and
Speaker 4: twenty two and Robin's first year and they led for
Speaker 4: We quoted the stat all the time and I can't
Speaker 4: remember now, it's like one hundred and twenty two days
Speaker 4: they had first plays in the Vision and then they
Speaker 4: just ran a gas in September and could hold on.
Speaker 4: And you hope that doesn't happen this year because it
Speaker 4: is a young team that's going to be dealing with
Speaker 4: new stuff. But you saw it a little bit last
Speaker 4: year after the All Star break. You saw the way
Speaker 4: they hit the ball off to the All Star Break.
Speaker 4: You saw these young guys starting to gel together in
Speaker 4: just a short time. And then you can't state enough
Speaker 4: how much Murrakammie would attack on Murrak.
Speaker 1: Commie has made a difference.
Speaker 4: So I would say in the twenty four years i've
Speaker 4: covered it for MLB dot, this is the most surprising
Speaker 4: and not surprising that they're competitive, surprising that they're were
Speaker 4: they fifty one and forty five and or maybe even
Speaker 4: better than fifty two and forty six.
Speaker 1: I want to say yeah, because they had sixty.
Speaker 4: Seven coming out of the break, and you know, a
Speaker 4: playoff team, a very secure playoff team, not like excuse me.
Speaker 4: If they struggle for two weeks, they're gonna be six
Speaker 4: games out.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 4: The AL is not. But this is a good combination
Speaker 4: of the AL is not good this year. You know,
Speaker 4: Tampa was the best team for a while and they
Speaker 4: just got taken apart by the red hot, unstoppable Boston
Speaker 4: Red Sox, who the White Socks got taken down by two.
Speaker 4: But it's a good year for the Socks to jump
Speaker 4: up because they are they are pretty solid. So while
Speaker 4: the AL is not and it's Pinnacle, that's fine for
Speaker 4: the Socks. You know, they're six over and holding a
Speaker 4: one game lead in the division, you know, well ahead
Speaker 4: in the wildcards. So I would to make a long answer, sure,
Speaker 4: I would say this is the most surprising thing I've seen,
Speaker 4: just in the depth of their success, not just that
Speaker 4: they've been good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I did like what you add to
Speaker 3: the five team, because even during our our outing last
Speaker 3: weekend that we had as a as a company, we
Speaker 3: kind of I kind of got I turned into the
Speaker 3: old man of the group and started talking about how
Speaker 3: crazy it was that the five team did what they
Speaker 3: did considering what we did in the off season just
Speaker 3: before that. You know, bringing in a guy like Jermaine
Speaker 3: Die who was considered a failure out with the A's,
Speaker 3: letting a guy like Maglio ordniez Go who is a
Speaker 3: fan favorite, trading Carloss Slee a potential for forty home
Speaker 3: run guy for a leadoff hitter named Scott pit Sednek.
Speaker 3: It all seemed kind of crazy, so seeing it kind
Speaker 3: of go to where it was was.
Speaker 1: Really cool first.
Speaker 4: But I have to say real quick, I heard quite
Speaker 4: a bit of damage done in that suite you guys
Speaker 4: had when you guys were when you guys had the outing,
Speaker 4: just chaos the whole time, you know what, the press
Speaker 4: boxes just three or four down, and we kept hearing
Speaker 4: you know, over the over the walkie talkie from our
Speaker 4: press back tend and get into the suite.
Speaker 1: There's problems going on. No I'm kidding, No, you're lying.
Speaker 3: No, I've done but I want to have to rebuilt
Speaker 3: with Fridge quite a few times.
Speaker 1: That's what it's the airport though.
Speaker 4: I want to something real quick on that five team
Speaker 4: in that My first socks Fest was I want to
Speaker 4: say four, and that was when they had a pretty
Speaker 4: decent team in O three and then lost it down
Speaker 4: the stretch and I think they had seven free agents
Speaker 4: and all seven left. So Socks fans were irate, and
Speaker 4: it was kind of like a verbal fistfight in the
Speaker 4: town hall meeting between the Socks fans and Kenny Williams,
Speaker 4: who did not back down from anything. Kenny was ready
Speaker 4: and Ozzie's first as a manager, So Ozzie's on stage
Speaker 4: for the town hall, Kenny just watching Kenny go. And
Speaker 4: there was one fan who stood up and said, Kenny,
Speaker 4: now that two thousand and four is over, you know,
Speaker 4: making a joke, what are you gonna do for oh five?
Speaker 1: Well, I think he answered that question right.
Speaker 4: He went he won the first World Series in eighty
Speaker 4: eight years, but that SOXS Fest was a beauty in
Speaker 4: two thousand and four because fans were irate, even worse
Speaker 4: than maybe some of the last few years or last
Speaker 4: you know, ten years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can only imagine with this current team, when
Speaker 3: did you first start to believe that they could be
Speaker 3: more than just a rebuilding club, Like was.
Speaker 2: There a game? Was series? You know, you alluded to.
Speaker 3: How how bad the start was, and I feel like
Speaker 3: that's something that doesn't get talked about enough about how
Speaker 3: dire it looked like it was about to start again.
Speaker 3: Where did you see that turnaround really start to take
Speaker 3: off with this team.
Speaker 4: I mean, they got swept twice at home, right by
Speaker 4: Tampa and Baltimore, who both are competitive teams. Baltimore, I think,
Speaker 4: is two out of the wild card in Tampa's as
Speaker 4: the best record in the American League. But even then,
Speaker 4: you know, with the start in Milwaukee, the one and
Speaker 4: five overall start, the six and thirteen start, you know,
Speaker 4: you watched bad baseball for a good part of the
Speaker 4: last I mean, you could even go back to twenty one.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry that twenty one.
Speaker 4: That's a good season, twenty two, which may have been
Speaker 4: more frustrating than the three hundred lost seasons because that
Speaker 4: twenty two team was never in it and never out
Speaker 4: of it. They were never more than five over never
Speaker 4: more than five hunders. So every time you thought, oh
Speaker 4: they're on a run, here we go, they'd lose a
Speaker 4: few and they'd be like, okay, they're out.
Speaker 1: Then they'd win a few. So it was just maddening.
Speaker 4: And then of course Tony got sick during the year,
Speaker 4: which thankfully he's okay. You know, I would say, even
Speaker 4: with the record and there was doubts. There's no question
Speaker 4: there was talking among ourselves like, is this going to
Speaker 4: be a four hundred last season? Can Chris go through that?
Speaker 4: You know, is that part of the rebuild to lose
Speaker 4: four straight one hundred low seaons, which is obviously not
Speaker 4: going to happen now barring a complete collapse. I think
Speaker 4: it was even back at Socksfest. I think you could
Speaker 4: talk about it in the offseason or the end of
Speaker 4: last year. You know, Davis Martin told me that he's
Speaker 4: never been more excited to go into an off season
Speaker 4: to get ready for the next year than he was
Speaker 4: this offseason. Davis is kind of the the ful crumb
Speaker 4: of that clubhouse, along with Mike Vassel, of course, but
Speaker 4: you know he's he had that whole the whole pitching
Speaker 4: staff out to his family's ranch during the offseason and
Speaker 4: just in spring training. I'm sorry, in socks Fest, you
Speaker 4: talk to the guys and you could sense they thought
Speaker 4: something was up.
Speaker 1: You could sense they thought something different was coming.
Speaker 4: Now. I don't know if they knew Murakami was gonna
Speaker 4: be such a huge impact right off the bat, but
Speaker 4: no pun intended. But I think just spring training you
Speaker 4: saw it in these guys. You saw the way they
Speaker 4: played and you saw that even though the Cactus League games.
Speaker 1: Mean nothing in the long run, really, you know nothing.
Speaker 4: They're fun for the fans out there. It's fun to
Speaker 4: see the players, but you can see the Socks took
Speaker 4: things seriously. They really were ready, they really were working
Speaker 4: to get better, and I mean, I can't think of them.
Speaker 4: I would guess the moment where I thought, Okay, this
Speaker 4: team should be and very well might be a playoff
Speaker 4: team is the Brain Montgomery walkoff because Iglassie has had
Speaker 4: been unhittable the entire year, and you know, for this
Speaker 4: kid in his first game to go opposite field against
Speaker 4: the glass and when he hit it off the bat,
Speaker 4: it didn't look much, but then you could see the
Speaker 4: left fielder it was over his head and you're like, okay,
Speaker 4: this is gonna tie it if nothing else, and then
Speaker 4: it went out. So when that happened, I mean, any
Speaker 4: of the seven walkoffs you could say, really, I mean
Speaker 4: the the Edgar Carroll because the poor guy has had
Speaker 4: such a bad Ragulars season, the home run off Ryan
Speaker 4: Rowlison to beat the Cubs. I think that series kind
Speaker 4: of turned it, and that does a lot with the
Speaker 4: Cubs Socks series, and that you know, the Cubs had
Speaker 4: been the team. The Cubs went to the NLCS last year, right, No,
Speaker 4: they went to the NLDS and lost to Milwaukee. I'm
Speaker 4: sorry they lost in fives Milwaukee. So they've been, you know,
Speaker 4: above the Socks the last four or five years especially,
Speaker 4: and to stand up and you know, you beat him
Speaker 4: three times in spring training, whatever that means. But to
Speaker 4: win that series and to win the way they did,
Speaker 4: and just a great game. I mean, maybe not so
Speaker 4: great for Socks fans when Confordo hit the three run
Speaker 4: homer and.
Speaker 1: The ninth, but I think that kind of put him forward.
Speaker 4: But I would still go to the Braid Montgomery game
Speaker 4: and then we who knew that it actually had a
Speaker 4: bearing on their future too, because Rock Chelowski was at
Speaker 4: the game as well and kind of walked away. I
Speaker 4: will have to ask you, as I talked to him,
Speaker 4: I want to know he said, you know, that first
Speaker 4: night when he had dinner with Jets and Barfield, he
Speaker 4: went walking till two am in Chicago. I don't know
Speaker 4: where the heck he walked for three or four hours
Speaker 4: in the city. It's a good walking city, but Anyways,
Speaker 4: back to the answer, I would say the Braid Montgomery
Speaker 4: homer or the home run by Carol off Rolison to
Speaker 4: beat the Cubs.
Speaker 6: Yeah, those are definitely two great moments in a very
Speaker 6: exciting season so far. And you were talking a little
Speaker 6: bit just now to about the clubhouse impact, you know
Speaker 6: what Davis Martin was saying, and I think it's worth
Speaker 6: talking a little bit about Will Vennible. You know, as
Speaker 6: obviously the manager upside the clubhouse. It's no secret that
Speaker 6: Venable has been pretty different from some prior White Sox managers.
Speaker 6: So for what you've seen, you know, when you've talked
Speaker 6: with him, and just you know, obviously covering the team,
Speaker 6: what is it about Venable that makes him different from
Speaker 6: those other managers the White Sox they've had.
Speaker 4: I love his accountability. I love his not laid back,
Speaker 4: but even Keel that's better than laid back. Even Keel
Speaker 4: approach Ember talking to one on one last year and
Speaker 4: he said how when he started just his first year,
Speaker 4: there were some things he wasn't doing that he eventually
Speaker 4: found out by talking to his players they wanted him
Speaker 4: to do. They wanted him to kind of set the
Speaker 4: tone for every series. So he's been doing that, and
Speaker 4: I think that he is just the perfect leader.
Speaker 1: I mean, they nailed that. They've had so many things.
Speaker 4: I don't know if they'll ever have a better week
Speaker 4: in the gats rebail unless they win the World Series
Speaker 4: and they have had this last week. But I think,
Speaker 4: you know, hiring Will was just the grand slam they
Speaker 4: needed at that point. He's the perfect kind of co
Speaker 4: pilot with Chris Getz and the front office and his staff.
Speaker 4: He's got his staff in there right now too. You know,
Speaker 4: he came in and nothing against the guys that are
Speaker 4: there before. They are were very good too, but he's
Speaker 4: got the guys he wants. And I just think his demeanor,
Speaker 4: his approach, his inclusive approach where it's not you know,
Speaker 4: his way or the highway. He listens to kind of
Speaker 4: everyone and just a good guy overall. But you know,
Speaker 4: he's tough too. I mean, if things happened, he addresses
Speaker 4: him so. But I think there's there's a sense of
Speaker 4: accountability from him that you know that there. I forgot
Speaker 4: which game it was, but there was a game they lost,
Speaker 4: and he maybe they ended up walking it off, but
Speaker 4: he said afterwards about yeah, I didn't put so and
Speaker 4: so in a good position.
Speaker 1: That's on me.
Speaker 4: I got a good bed and you believe it though
Speaker 4: you know, you don't look at it as like media talk.
Speaker 1: It's actually something that he believes in, something he follows
Speaker 1: through on. So excuse me. That has been a tremendous
Speaker 1: higher for the white sex. Tremendous.
Speaker 5: I think you mentioned it to the when you say,
Speaker 5: like the accountability, yes, but also like what you just
Speaker 5: said there, which is you can you can sense when
Speaker 5: he says something, you're like, oh, I believe it. When
Speaker 5: he says it's not just coach speaker, manager spig like,
Speaker 5: there's something about the way he says it. And again
Speaker 5: it's credit to him that makes me like, okay, I
Speaker 5: believe you actually believe what you're telling me right now,
Speaker 5: which goes a long way for fans.
Speaker 4: And he challenges these guys and then he's willing to adapt.
Speaker 4: He talked to I thought it was I don't know
Speaker 4: if I ever used it, but it's so great. I
Speaker 4: never used it as a story. But he talked recently
Speaker 4: about at the beginning of the year, when they didn't
Speaker 4: know a lot about Tristan Peters, they knew he could
Speaker 4: bunt so much to Jordan's glee, they bunted a lot
Speaker 4: with Tristan Peters and he was a he was a
Speaker 4: tremendous but he might might be the best butter in baseball.
Speaker 1: Whatever that gets you at this point.
Speaker 4: But then they started to see this guy can hit,
Speaker 4: you know, this guy can really hit the ball with authority,
Speaker 4: and they slowed down on the bunting with him and
Speaker 4: they'd let him swing away. And I think the same
Speaker 4: thing with Sean Burke. For a while, they thought because
Speaker 4: Burke's had struggles in the first inning, the opener and
Speaker 4: just you know the matchups too, there was an opener
Speaker 4: that benefited him. Now he's one of the best starters
Speaker 4: in the America League over his last six starts. No
Speaker 4: more opener. So you know, it's not a hard fast
Speaker 4: thing that he has. He believes in something, and if
Speaker 4: you show him otherwise, he's willing to adjust. But I
Speaker 4: agree with you, Jordan, that fans fans at this point,
Speaker 4: the Sacks fans have seen a lot and they know
Speaker 4: the difference between lip service first, the real McCoy and
Speaker 4: and Will Venabo is real.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, And to follow up on something you had mentioned
Speaker 5: before about where Rock walked. Apparently someone in our chat
Speaker 5: said he walked all the way from Rush to the river,
Speaker 5: which is quite the lock.
Speaker 4: So JD that uh is it is a it's a
Speaker 4: good walking city though, it really is. If you're you know,
Speaker 4: you gotta be careful ever where you go, but it's
Speaker 4: a really good walking city.
Speaker 5: So and you know, speaking of rock and you had
Speaker 5: mentioned like, hey, until they win a World Series, it's
Speaker 5: going to be hard to have better weeks than what
Speaker 5: Chris Gets had this past week. I guess talk a
Speaker 5: little bit about, you know, just the current operation under
Speaker 5: Chris Gets. You know, there's been to talk about some
Speaker 5: of the changes made in the front office, maybe things
Speaker 5: you don't see as much on the field. You've been
Speaker 5: there for a long time. You've seen a lot of
Speaker 5: different managers, a lot of different rebuilds, rebuild two point
Speaker 5: oh three point zero for whatever number they've gone through,
Speaker 5: Like you've seen a lot. How is maybe what he's
Speaker 5: doing different than maybe what some of his predecessors had
Speaker 5: done as well?
Speaker 4: Well? I think first of all, the last rebuild under
Speaker 4: Rick and Kenny gets a lot of criticism because he
Speaker 4: only won two playoff games, but they did, you know,
Speaker 4: get to the playoffs in the in the COVID year
Speaker 4: in twenty and they did win the division by a
Speaker 4: good margin in twenty one.
Speaker 1: So you can't, I think I do this too much
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 4: You can't just as miss the last rebuild is, oh
Speaker 4: it didn't work, you know it did it didn't. Now,
Speaker 4: ultimately you want to win the World Series, right, or
Speaker 4: you want to get to the World Series, or you
Speaker 4: want to get to the Alcs. That didn't happen, and
Speaker 4: then guys did not pan out, whether it was injuries
Speaker 4: or underperformance or whatever it was. I think Chris has
Speaker 4: really he tore it down to as someone told me,
Speaker 4: you know, he kind of tore the house down to
Speaker 4: the studs and then realized the house had some rot
Speaker 4: and on top of that so he had to rebuild
Speaker 4: it even more. So he has just rebuilt everything, and
Speaker 4: you know, he's got a great infrastructure in there. I
Speaker 4: think he's done a great job of maybe the organization
Speaker 4: was getting a little insular, and he's hired some great
Speaker 4: guys who have a little bit of a connection to
Speaker 4: the Socks but are outside that have you know, Josh
Speaker 4: Barfield and Jin Wong and Gene Watson and Paul Yannish
Speaker 4: does a tremendous job as a minor league director. David
Speaker 4: Keller has been phenomenal on the international side. Mike Shirley,
Speaker 4: you know, has been there, but you know now in
Speaker 4: charge of the draft. So I just think it's a
Speaker 4: really good group together, and they focused on small things,
Speaker 4: you know, a performance side sports science that maybe weren't
Speaker 4: focused on as much in the past and has made
Speaker 4: a difference. I mean, ultimately, the guys have got to respond, right,
Speaker 4: and that's what this team has done. I mean, this
Speaker 4: is the only team in baseball that has not had
Speaker 4: a losing streak longer than three games, which is pretty
Speaker 4: amazing for a team that had three straight seasons of
Speaker 4: hundred plus losses. So that's their biggest thing right now.
Speaker 4: But I think gets is just from top to bottom
Speaker 4: build a stronger organization.
Speaker 5: It's nice to hear about some of the inside pieces
Speaker 5: of it too, like hey, you know, realizing, hey, you
Speaker 5: got to tear it down to the studs, which to
Speaker 5: your point, where can get it? And they did that too,
Speaker 5: but it was more so understandabay just tearing it down
Speaker 5: and repeating what I just watched happen isn't necessarily going
Speaker 5: to get a different result this time exit.
Speaker 1: And you have to understand too.
Speaker 4: And one of the other reporters, a veteran reporter, said
Speaker 4: to me a while ago, you know things it gets
Speaker 4: is getting a lot of praise now because the team
Speaker 4: is doing so well. People weren't raving quite as much
Speaker 4: about Chris last year when the team was on its
Speaker 4: team was thirty two and sixty five of the All
Speaker 4: Star break, right, even though you knew the younger guys
Speaker 4: either had just come up or.
Speaker 1: Were on their way.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean, winning is the cure off for everything, right.
Speaker 4: No one was crushing the last rebuild during twenty twenty
Speaker 4: and twenty twenty one. It was twenty two, and then
Speaker 4: twenty three of course went completely sideways. Then we won't
Speaker 4: even talk about twenty four, but uh it was and
Speaker 4: that was really under that was under Chris anyways.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think I win or lose.
Speaker 4: I just think he's done a good job of really
Speaker 4: strengthening the whole organization and looking beyond kind of just
Speaker 4: the surface, right.
Speaker 5: And I do remember when they first decided to hire
Speaker 5: him or to promote him. I guess you'll say it.
Speaker 5: He didn't have a lot of fans in the or
Speaker 5: friends in the fan base either. So it's it speaks
Speaker 5: to a lot of the change that he's been doing
Speaker 5: on Like you said, winning cures everything, Like it doesn't
Speaker 5: matter what everybody's initial reaction might have been to him.
Speaker 1: The wins are what.
Speaker 4: Winners and exciting baseball, right, And yeah, I understood why fans.
Speaker 4: I mean, I like Chris. I covered Chris when he
Speaker 4: was a player. Chris another another Michigan man. I had
Speaker 4: to get at least one Michigan reference in here. You know,
Speaker 4: he was Uh, I covered him. You know, it was
Speaker 4: O nine when he was he was named starting second
Speaker 4: basement in spring training, which I've joked about that that
Speaker 4: was the happiest I've seen him until they got the
Speaker 4: number one pick in the draft lottery last year that
Speaker 4: that surpassed it. But yeah, he was part of that
Speaker 4: last read build that didn't work right that ultimately, you know,
Speaker 4: he was the minor league director and some of those
Speaker 4: guys didn't pan out. So I get that fans are like, oh, geez,
Speaker 4: you know, we just switched over and now we're not
Speaker 4: even gonna do a search. But inside, I think people
Speaker 4: didn't think Chris was kind of the air apparent, and
Speaker 4: he's done a good job since he's taken over. I mean,
Speaker 4: even even during the losings. No one wants to go
Speaker 4: through what they went through in twenty four. Obviously that
Speaker 4: was a debacle, but even in the losing times, I
Speaker 4: think he's had a goal for the future. I think
Speaker 4: the future as maybe kind of a little bit surprising
Speaker 4: that I don't think he thought they'd be here in
Speaker 4: twenty six, maybe twenty seven for sure, twenty eights, but
Speaker 4: I don't think he thought they'd be sitting on July.
Speaker 1: Was state of the twentieth or the nineteenth gonna be
Speaker 1: in twenty tomorrow?
Speaker 4: One game up in the AL with sixty sixty four
Speaker 4: the Central sixty four games to play well, you.
Speaker 3: Know, And I think the biggest thing, and like I
Speaker 3: don't want to beat a dead horse onto this, but
Speaker 3: the biggest thing I always think of with Gets and
Speaker 3: what he's done with this organization is it doesn't feel
Speaker 3: like we're trying to replicate any other organization in baseball.
Speaker 3: It truly feels like Chriss came in with a vision
Speaker 3: of how he wants to run it, and he's brought
Speaker 3: in the guys to support that. It's not a situation
Speaker 3: where like say, when we jumped into our rebuild with
Speaker 3: rickhn and he immediately brought up kind of alluded to
Speaker 3: doing what the Cubs just did to build their World
Speaker 3: Series roster. We're not seeing that, you know, We're not
Speaker 3: seeing them trying to replicate what the Tampa Bay Rays
Speaker 3: are doing or replicate what the Baltimore Orioles just got
Speaker 3: done doing, which is really refreshing in a game of
Speaker 3: baseball where there's there's a lot of that around the league,
Speaker 3: where teams are kind of trying to copy what other
Speaker 3: teams are doing because they see success. And then by
Speaker 3: the time you realize it's not going to work, it's
Speaker 3: too late. You just burned five years.
Speaker 4: No, I agree, and I think things have gone his way,
Speaker 4: you know, I mean he got No one was sure
Speaker 4: that Venable would take this job, and you know, coming
Speaker 4: off the twenty four season, obviously, because he had turned
Speaker 4: down a couple other options to interview. I think the
Speaker 4: year before, right, I think it was the Mets in
Speaker 4: Cleveland he had turned down. No one was certain they
Speaker 4: would get that number one pick overall, which made a
Speaker 4: huge difference. And then all these guys they've called up
Speaker 4: in granted they're at the early even you know, a
Speaker 4: guy like Colson who's played a full season. Now, they're
Speaker 4: at the early stage of the career. And we saw
Speaker 4: some good things from Moncata and Jimenez and for sure,
Speaker 4: I mean Tim for God's sake, you know, at the
Speaker 4: earlyast age of their career. So there's a lot to go,
Speaker 4: a lot to develop. But what you've seen so far
Speaker 4: has worked for him pretty much across the maybe not
Speaker 4: across the board, but has this season across the board
Speaker 4: has worked for him.
Speaker 5: In one of those moves that you know you mentioned
Speaker 5: things working for him. One of those has certainly been
Speaker 5: Miguel Vargus. Could talk a little bit about the players
Speaker 5: on the field doing things as well as where we
Speaker 5: had just talked about kind of behind the scenes. I'll
Speaker 5: be one who has some tweets he probably should delete
Speaker 5: about Migal Vargas and the trade at that point, I
Speaker 5: have podcasts that I should probably delete about my opinion.
Speaker 5: He has made kind of a one to eighty I
Speaker 5: think maybe in fans' minds the very least, and developed
Speaker 5: in one of the team's most important players. What have
Speaker 5: you noticed about covering him over the past three season
Speaker 5: in terms of how he's changed both as a hitter
Speaker 5: but also maybe as a leader in the clubhouse as well.
Speaker 4: See, I think what you're saying both can be true, right,
Speaker 4: I mean when he came to the Socks. Now, granted
Speaker 4: he came to the worst team in baseball history by losses,
Speaker 4: he left from a team that was gonna win a
Speaker 4: World Series when he didn't get a ring for and
Speaker 4: I get that he was not happy, but he was
Speaker 4: not good, right, I mean you can say that the
Speaker 4: numbers back it up. I mean, it wasn't like he
Speaker 4: had forty five at bats. He'd played, you know what,
Speaker 4: close to one hundred and eighty hundred and seven, maybe
Speaker 4: even two hundred plate appearances that time.
Speaker 1: But he was I remember going.
Speaker 4: To talk to him at the end of that season
Speaker 4: they were in San Diego when they had broken the record,
Speaker 4: and just talking about looking into us is And even
Speaker 4: then he was he was always a nice guy, but
Speaker 4: even hesitant about talking, like, you know, let's just finish
Speaker 4: this out and move on. And I think he's put
Speaker 4: in the work and he's just a great dude. I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, it's funny he was talking. I remember him
Speaker 4: talking to me at Socks Best about he's friendly with
Speaker 4: Yamamoto and when Murakami signed, Yamamoto text him and said, hey,
Speaker 4: take care of my guy. He's a good dude and
Speaker 4: ah he's a pretty good hitter too, which he kind
Speaker 4: of understood that one, I think, and Vargus did exactly that.
Speaker 4: Like throughout spring training you saw those two, you know,
Speaker 4: kind of together. But I think everyone reached out to
Speaker 4: him and made him part of the group, my Drath
Speaker 4: and Colson and everyone else. But Vargas has just become
Speaker 4: a force, you know. I mean, he is a slugging force.
Speaker 4: And he told me early on last year when he
Speaker 4: was splitting time more, he knew he was a third baseman.
Speaker 4: He said he would be able to play handle that
Speaker 4: position if they put him there, and he has done
Speaker 4: just that. So you know, it's been a great story.
Speaker 4: And I mean everyone knows the image I wrote about
Speaker 4: this when he made the All Star team, the image
Speaker 4: of him sitting in the dugout after the Socks had
Speaker 4: lost their twenty first straight game in Oakland and looking
Speaker 4: just despondent, right, and why wouldn't you right?
Speaker 1: He wasn't he had just come to this team. They
Speaker 1: were terrible.
Speaker 4: He had left the Dodgers, the only team he knew
Speaker 4: and now, you know, you see him when the walk
Speaker 4: off home run against Detroit, going nuts as he's rounding
Speaker 4: the bases. So it's success well earned and well deserved.
Speaker 4: And he is I mean, there's a lot of leaders
Speaker 4: in that clubhouse. I think Davis because he's the quote unquote,
Speaker 4: well he is not quote unquote. He is the most
Speaker 4: white Sox service time of anyone at the big league level,
Speaker 4: which is kind of crazy. He's kind of the folk
Speaker 4: crum of that team, kind of the vocal leader. But
Speaker 4: there's so many in there do so many different things.
Speaker 4: You know, Bargas Mike Vassel's role has been you know,
Speaker 4: kind of immeasurable, but he's been, you know, so much
Speaker 4: fun to have around. But Bargas just has changed everything,
Speaker 4: and I think it's sustainable. You know, He's just been
Speaker 4: a great player. And I'm glad that it was interesting
Speaker 4: because the day that he got selected, we were in
Speaker 4: Cleveland and one of the first things he said was
Speaker 4: there should be more guys with me. So it was
Speaker 4: good that Murakami and Tristan Peters got to go with
Speaker 4: him to uh Philadelphia.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think in my brain I blocked out the
Speaker 5: twenty one straight losses. So you're saying that, I was like, oh, wait,
Speaker 5: they did do that. That wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 4: So there was a stretch that year and you don't
Speaker 4: want to keep you know, want to really go to this,
Speaker 4: but two things. They were four and forty one over
Speaker 4: a forty game forty five game stretch that year.
Speaker 1: And here's the stunning thing. You know, how good they've
Speaker 1: been at home this year?
Speaker 4: What are they twenty Well, they you know, they got
Speaker 4: it knocked a little bit by losing three to the
Speaker 4: unbeatable Red Sox.
Speaker 1: But I want to.
Speaker 4: Say they're twenty five and eight their last thirty three
Speaker 4: at home.
Speaker 1: They had a stretch they were one and twenty nine
Speaker 1: at home that year.
Speaker 4: That's almost unfathomable, right, I mean, you should be able
Speaker 4: to win like five. Easy for me to say, I
Speaker 4: don't play, but I mean, just out of law of
Speaker 4: averages and numbers, out of a thirty game stretch, you
Speaker 4: should win eight, ten at the least, right. So yeah,
Speaker 4: it was a year that I understand. If you want
Speaker 4: to Blackhawks, I think a lot of the socks. People
Speaker 4: and fans have blocked that season out at this point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, that's that's it's a tough one. It's one
Speaker 3: that we're going to try to all forget as soon
Speaker 3: as we can. But I think what was a really
Speaker 3: good image, and it shows a lot of the guys
Speaker 3: who were selected the All Star Game this year particular,
Speaker 3: is that picture of the three of them just kind
Speaker 3: of walk in arm in arm. I think that just
Speaker 3: shows you know, maybe that was just for a photo op,
Speaker 3: but that shows pretty tight.
Speaker 1: Shows are tight tight.
Speaker 4: But you know, me being a little bit older than
Speaker 4: you guys and a little more you know, get off
Speaker 4: my lawn type of attitude. The first thing I thought is,
Speaker 4: I wonder if they told them to walk arm in
Speaker 4: arm into the outfield, you know, and that kind of
Speaker 4: thing to shoot the picture. That's the first thing that
Speaker 4: crossed my mind. But I'm suspicious like that. So even
Speaker 4: if they did, that's how they feel anyway, So it's
Speaker 4: it's not out of the ordinary. I'm sure they had
Speaker 4: done that some other time that they just didn't get
Speaker 4: a picture. But let's just assume they did that and
Speaker 4: they were the photographer happened to be right there just
Speaker 4: happen as it happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's just let's just keep rolling with the positive vibes.
Speaker 2: It's not it's nice. Gotta have that around for one.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 3: So, you know, you kind of discussed about Miguel Vargas
Speaker 3: kind of bringing up the fact that like he's he's
Speaker 3: a third base when he feels comfortable there, and overall
Speaker 3: it's been a really good it's been a really good
Speaker 3: time over with him at third base.
Speaker 2: You feel really comfortable with him there.
Speaker 3: That kind of brings me to what is the organization's
Speaker 3: kind of evaluation of Coles Montgomery right now? Do you
Speaker 3: do they think do they see him right now is
Speaker 3: like the full time, long term shortstop because it's really
Speaker 3: shortstop er third base really feels like for Colson right now?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna I think.
Speaker 4: You know, when you when you first heard about he
Speaker 4: was first getting close to the majors, you heard a
Speaker 4: lot of third base just because of his size and
Speaker 4: that kind of thing. But I think, just like Miguel
Speaker 4: at third he's kind of owned shortstop right He's had
Speaker 4: a few moments here and there, but every shortstop does,
Speaker 4: and they've been more recently like the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: But I mean, you only have one guy at short right.
Speaker 4: So the thing that will and every organization I think
Speaker 4: back to, like the twenty sixteen Cubs as a team
Speaker 4: that I watched a decent amount of you gotta have versatility, right.
Speaker 4: How many positions did Chris Bryan play on that team
Speaker 4: that year, even though he was a third baseman. And
Speaker 4: I think that's one of the things that Socks very
Speaker 4: much value is guys who you know, Sam Antonaci will
Speaker 4: start and left, go to second, go back out to right,
Speaker 4: go back to left, you know. So I mean you
Speaker 4: have guys like that, So I think Colton is a
Speaker 4: shortstop until further notice. But you know, you got Chilowski,
Speaker 4: you got a bunch. I mean, you guys know, for
Speaker 4: the longest time they had the toughest time getting middle infield.
Speaker 4: Is now they're loaded with guys who appear to be
Speaker 4: front end middle infielders. I mean, Caleb Bonnomers killing in
Speaker 4: the mine you got to do at the next level.
Speaker 4: Billy Carlston just came back today. He's another one. You know,
Speaker 4: we can go as deep as Kyle Lode's and how
Speaker 4: your your own and that kind of thing. But they
Speaker 4: have a lot of options down there, and Colson is
Speaker 4: the guy doing it at the level that counts right
Speaker 4: now though, And he's been very good defensively and very
Speaker 4: steady I think overall at that position, and of course
Speaker 4: has a you know, forty five home runs and a
Speaker 4: little over one full.
Speaker 6: Season of baseball. Yeah, so kind of working our way
Speaker 6: around the infield. I mean, I guess we'll skip second base.
Speaker 6: I'm a big mindraft fan, but we can skip how
Speaker 6: Murakami he talked to about him a little bit in
Speaker 6: the beginning. But from you know, obviously we all can
Speaker 6: see how how effective is on the field. We can
Speaker 6: tell what a difference he makes, even just his name
Speaker 6: being in the lineup, even like his last week or so,
Speaker 6: he's not hitting that much, but you can just tell
Speaker 6: the impact he makes. But kind of off the field
Speaker 6: or in the clubhouse, what have you learned about Murakami
Speaker 6: this year? He kind of as a person as a
Speaker 6: teammate that you might not get just from watching a game.
Speaker 4: He reminds me of a bray you and that Jose
Speaker 4: braw had a very set routine, which most really good
Speaker 4: players have that and didn't like to deviate from it
Speaker 4: like if you wanted to talk to a bray you
Speaker 4: one on one, you would go to Billy Russo doesn'ch
Speaker 4: a great job in media relations and with interpreting everything.
Speaker 4: And you'd say him like on a Monday, I want
Speaker 4: to talk to Jose and then he'd get you like
Speaker 4: Wednesday or Thursday, which is fine as long as it's
Speaker 4: a steady thing. Mr Kami is the same kind of way.
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously he missed thirty five games, which is
Speaker 4: tough for him, but you know, he's got a whole
Speaker 4: separate set of media that's just covering him pretty much
Speaker 4: every day. You know, when Rikup was up for a
Speaker 4: little bit and at both of them, but it's basically
Speaker 4: him every day. We've learned that he's a big fan
Speaker 4: of the Midday, right that became an international story for
Speaker 4: a while there in spring training in the end of
Speaker 4: right before spring training started, it right after socks Fest,
Speaker 4: and he just fits in perfect. I will I will
Speaker 4: say this that he he never bought into this rebuild
Speaker 4: stuff you'd ask him in spring training about, you know,
Speaker 4: and he expected to win. He came here wanting to win,
Speaker 4: and I from what I understand, his team did win.
Speaker 4: But did not win consistently. So it wasn't like he
Speaker 4: came from a Japanese seemed that won like ten titles,
Speaker 4: you know. But he's just I don't understand how so
Speaker 4: many teams, because so many teams could have benefited from right.
Speaker 4: I understand that first base is a position that a
Speaker 4: lot of teams have guys set, and very talented guys set.
Speaker 4: But for what he ended up signing with the White
Speaker 4: t axing me what a great deal for both of them.
Speaker 4: For Murakami, what he thought was going to be kind
Speaker 4: of a lower pressure situation to come in and show
Speaker 4: how good he was, and he did that from the
Speaker 4: first three games of the season, right. And then for
Speaker 4: the Socks, it was a guy who has come in
Speaker 4: and helped their lineup, helped their presence, and opened up
Speaker 4: an area where they were pretty much barren, the Pacific
Speaker 4: rim just in terms of scouting, in terms of media attention,
Speaker 4: in terms of marketing, Brooks Boyer, I think he's been
Speaker 4: over there three times already, so he's racking up those
Speaker 4: frequent flyer miles with a trip from Chicago to Japan.
Speaker 4: But you know, before that, it was Shingo and Angucci
Speaker 4: tremendous dudes who had a hand in the five World Series,
Speaker 4: especially Gucci that year. Shingo was kind of a cult
Speaker 4: hero the year before with his frisbee and mister Zero
Speaker 4: and everything else, and then fukudome right was the only
Speaker 4: other guy and he barely He was there for twenty
Speaker 4: games or something like that. So I never really got
Speaker 4: to know him, nor Sox fans knew him more from
Speaker 4: playing against him across town. So I mean, he just
Speaker 4: changed the franchise overall. It's hard for me to say
Speaker 4: like his personality because we don't get you know, in
Speaker 4: spring training we got a little more interaction with him,
Speaker 4: we don't get as much during the season. Seems like
Speaker 4: a very focused, driven guy who believed this team was
Speaker 4: going to win. From the first moment he sat it
Speaker 4: the Conference and Learning Center rad Field and held up
Speaker 4: a pair of the White Sox. So I think he knew,
Speaker 4: you know, what he could do for this team, and
Speaker 4: he once he got to know this team, he really
Speaker 4: knew what they were about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 6: I don't know if you've seen there's this this picture
Speaker 6: that went viral this week of It's from Sean Burke's
Speaker 6: instaground but it's like Chase Mydrath and Murakami and somebody else.
Speaker 6: They're like shirtless on a boat eating pizza together.
Speaker 1: I saw that, I did.
Speaker 4: I guess they came back to Chicago right after the
Speaker 4: All Star Game, right, yeah, right, So, yeah, he's one
Speaker 4: of the guys. And credit to the not that they
Speaker 4: would do anything otherwise, but credit to the right. You know.
Speaker 4: I remember we were joking with my draft during spring
Speaker 4: training about he was trying to learn like a couple
Speaker 4: of Japanese words a day to you know, have a
Speaker 4: conversation or at least didn't understand it more. And they've
Speaker 4: made him feel part of the team, you know, which
Speaker 4: already had a really solid nucleus building since.
Speaker 1: He came in for sure.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so this has been you know, a pretty pretty
Speaker 6: good vibe podcast or topic so far. So kind of
Speaker 6: keeping that going, What would you say has been your
Speaker 6: favorite storyline or you know, favorite story to write, favorite
Speaker 6: story to cover this season outside of the team being
Speaker 6: good in general.
Speaker 4: There's been so many this year, which is different because
Speaker 4: the last couple of years, no offense to the guys
Speaker 4: who were playing hard, but you would kind of look
Speaker 4: for something before the game and then a lot of
Speaker 4: times just plug the score, especially in the end of
Speaker 4: you know, twenty four.
Speaker 1: Aside from when they were breaking the record, there wasn't a.
Speaker 4: Ton And the biggest thing is there were a lot
Speaker 4: of guys who were playing in you know, for their livelihood,
Speaker 4: but they weren't going to be a part of the
Speaker 4: Socks past that year, so it was kind of hard
Speaker 4: to build features or build stories. And then I mean
Speaker 4: just so many fun things like Ron Kittle getting married
Speaker 4: by Jerry Reinsdorf. That was tremendous. You know, the midat
Speaker 4: stuff just took off. That was tremendous. You know, some
Speaker 4: heart warning warming things. The young girl who did the
Speaker 4: I forgot what it's called the run around the bases,
Speaker 4: Mighty Melanie. I can't remember her last name, but she's
Speaker 4: battling a form of cancer and the players kind of
Speaker 4: embraced her. She was one thing I'll say about I
Speaker 4: noticed about Mura Comi too. He is tremendous with kids, tremendous,
Speaker 4: you know. I saw him talking to her. There was
Speaker 4: a game in San Diego where Gordon Beckham was filling in,
Speaker 4: and he's got two younger sons.
Speaker 1: I want to say, they're four and two or.
Speaker 4: Five and three, And I remember after a Friday night
Speaker 4: game he had brought them in and they talked to them,
Speaker 4: and mur Commy like knelt down tweet so he could
Speaker 4: be on their level, and they just looked at him
Speaker 4: like the giant is talking to us. You know, this
Speaker 4: is so cool, but I wish there was it something
Speaker 4: else I could just Vargas' story has been great, you know,
Speaker 4: just tremendous, so many good ones. I'm gonna probably hit
Speaker 4: myself after we get off this. I'm gonna say, like, oh,
Speaker 4: I thought a three more, but those are just some
Speaker 4: of them, and just the team itself, you know, the
Speaker 4: team itself has been I enjoyed talking to Chris in
Speaker 4: the off season for like thirty minutes about the whole
Speaker 4: process that got Murakami to Chicago. That was a great
Speaker 4: story to write with and he was very forthright, just
Speaker 4: as he was with Jesse Rodgers and the draft story there,
Speaker 4: but talking about how even at the winter meetings they
Speaker 4: didn't think they had a shot at him, and it
Speaker 4: came about like a week before the posting period. They
Speaker 4: had assumed that Friday night Will was in New York
Speaker 4: with his family, so Will was on at like twelve
Speaker 4: thirty in the morning. They finished, and there's no like leeway.
Speaker 4: You have to have everything done by the posting period.
Speaker 4: So Chris had to get some of his friends who
Speaker 4: were in the medical profession to help get the physical
Speaker 4: done right away. So just and then that was when
Speaker 4: Chris mentioned about how moone when they gave a tour
Speaker 4: of the facility, he said, you know, no bdet So
Speaker 4: they ended the midday. And that still, I think is
Speaker 4: one of my the fact that in talking to one
Speaker 4: on one in the spring training I found out that
Speaker 4: and this says you a little bit more about him
Speaker 4: as an athlete. His cheap food is ramen. That's his
Speaker 4: cheap food. Like most people would eat that is like uh,
Speaker 4: look at that and like, oh it's good, but it's
Speaker 4: too healthy. I'm like, no pizza, no hamburgers, Nope, Romen
Speaker 4: is his cheap food. So that was fun, so many fun.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's just been such a great year to
Speaker 4: write all this stuff, all the draft stuff. Talking to
Speaker 4: Mike Shirley, you know, when we were in Anaheim about
Speaker 4: a month or six weeks before the draft and hearing
Speaker 4: him break down the whole process and how things were,
Speaker 4: you know, leading up into that, and how they were
Speaker 4: looking not just for a guy who was great, but
Speaker 4: a guy who could help them win a championship. You know,
Speaker 4: there's a lot of great guys you can take at
Speaker 4: one one, but I think Chelawski has that extra edge.
Speaker 1: So I could go on and on.
Speaker 4: I know you don't want me to go on it,
Speaker 4: but I mean just that's just some of the things
Speaker 4: that that, you know, I can think of off the
Speaker 4: top of my head.
Speaker 5: You know, one guy I want to ask about out
Speaker 5: and you know, you bring up a lot of great
Speaker 5: stories and guys just contributing up and down the lineup. Actually,
Speaker 5: someone commented this in our chat too, about Sam Antonacci
Speaker 5: and some love that he gets from Socks fans, but
Speaker 5: maybe it feels like maybe he doesn't get the same attention.
Speaker 1: Around the league.
Speaker 5: I guess what have you heard from other beat writers
Speaker 5: about him or just the organization about how much they
Speaker 5: probably love him and some of the numbers he's been
Speaker 5: able to put up from the leadoff spots.
Speaker 4: People love Sam around the league, they asly and that
Speaker 4: was another fun story. I had talked to him about
Speaker 4: being hit by a pitch thirty nine times last year
Speaker 4: between all the different levels and how his mom got
Speaker 4: mad at him because she's like, you're gonna get hurt,
Speaker 4: and his attitude was like, well, you know, he's kind
Speaker 4: of like a really he's got a California attitude, but
Speaker 4: he's from downstate Illinois. Maybe maybe they're one of the same,
Speaker 4: who knows, but he he's from Springfield, right, So he said, well,
Speaker 4: you know, I told her she's wrong, and that's just
Speaker 4: his way of getting a base. And I think it
Speaker 4: is fun to see the battle between Anthony K and
Speaker 4: Sam Antonaci. Who's gonna have more hit by pitches before
Speaker 4: the years. They're tired at eighteen right now. But I
Speaker 4: mean he is the kind of player you have to
Speaker 4: have for winning teams. He just does when you say
Speaker 4: he does all the intangibles, it kind of maybe lessons
Speaker 4: what his ability is. But he you know, you saw
Speaker 4: him at that Moonshot on Friday. He's a good player too.
Speaker 4: I mean he's playing solid left field defense. And the
Speaker 4: guy started playing it in the basically the game before
Speaker 4: the Spring Breakout game and was frustrated in that Spring
Speaker 4: Breakup game when I talked to me after this because
Speaker 4: he had misplayed a couple in that game, but he
Speaker 4: has you know, made more, he has made more beneficial
Speaker 4: plays and had plays go awry on him so far.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I agree with you. I think, you know,
Speaker 4: should be more in the talk of Rookie of the
Speaker 4: year if that even matters to him. But essential guy
Speaker 4: to that lineup, guy you cannot lose because he does
Speaker 4: so much and does so much well yeah, I mean
Speaker 4: he is. He is just a constant presence.
Speaker 3: He can tell throughout that entire that entire clubhouse as
Speaker 3: somebody who everybody just kind of rallies around. We actually,
Speaker 3: we got really lucky during fest and we actually got
Speaker 3: to talk to him just kind of as a quick interview,
Speaker 3: and I remember asking him just just my basic read
Speaker 3: off the kid was how big is the chip on
Speaker 3: your shoulder? And like you can just kind of see
Speaker 3: a little bit of intensity in his eyes. He kind
Speaker 3: of looked at me and he's like, I don't have
Speaker 3: I don't have a chip on my shoulder, Like there's
Speaker 3: there's none, And might have been one of the biggest
Speaker 3: lies I think I've ever heard. But I love that
Speaker 3: he plays with that attitude and he has this attitude
Speaker 3: that he doesn't have this giant chip on his shoulder
Speaker 3: because you see it every single time he's out there
Speaker 3: and he plays because he has always just gun like
Speaker 3: guns to the wall every single time he's out on
Speaker 3: the field, and I think, I think the entire team
Speaker 3: responds to it.
Speaker 4: This is one quick side note is I was talking
Speaker 4: to him in a group after the final game of
Speaker 4: the first before I'll start break, when they beat the
Speaker 4: A's nine to one, and I mentioned to him that
Speaker 4: they were thirty two and sixty five last year and
Speaker 4: he didn't He's like, really, he had no clue or
Speaker 4: that bad. And then I said to him, you know,
Speaker 4: with sixty seven games left, how about any started like
Speaker 4: kind of cackling a little bit, and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 4: I've asked, like maybe some weird questions that pass, but
Speaker 4: that was And then he said, yeah, sorry, man, the
Speaker 4: whole six you know, the whole sixty seven, think the
Speaker 4: whole six seventh things. So clearly the pressure is not
Speaker 4: getting to the White Sox at least at this point
Speaker 4: in July.
Speaker 1: That's for sure.
Speaker 3: That's great, I guess outside of the good vibes here
Speaker 3: because I feel like this has to be the big
Speaker 3: question that really has to be asked with how we
Speaker 3: feel with how the organization currently feels around this, about
Speaker 3: this core, about how well they've played this year. What
Speaker 3: do you think their mindset is going into this deadline,
Speaker 3: Like do they feel like they owe they owe it
Speaker 3: to this current clubhouse to you know, get some reinforcements,
Speaker 3: get some pitching help, whether that be in the rotation,
Speaker 3: the bullpen, or you know, I think I think all
Speaker 3: of this would take both. But where do you think
Speaker 3: this front office kind of stands, because you know, you
Speaker 3: don't want to chance the idea of maybe breaking up
Speaker 3: you know what you have in the clubhouse currently, but
Speaker 3: with a competing team that might have a chance here,
Speaker 3: does this front office take into consideration like really making
Speaker 3: a big move to kind of speed things along with
Speaker 3: this rebuild.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I think Chris has said that, right,
Speaker 4: Chris has said that they've earned the right to be
Speaker 4: considered contenders, and they are contenders.
Speaker 1: They're not even contenders, they're a playoff team.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: So, but again, I think he's so meticulously built this
Speaker 4: and gone through the struggles to get to this point.
Speaker 4: They're not gonna drop everything just to have a shot
Speaker 4: to you know, maybe win the AL.
Speaker 2: This year.
Speaker 4: I mean, you've only win the years ahead of. That's
Speaker 4: one of my biggest things about but I don't like
Speaker 4: rebuilds is you only have the season ahead of. And
Speaker 4: you saw with Kansas City, right, Kansas City a couple
Speaker 4: of years ago spent wisely in the offseason. They went
Speaker 4: from fifty six wins to eighty six wins. I think
Speaker 4: they won a playoff series and they haven't really got
Speaker 4: close to that and the two years after, so you
Speaker 4: never know, You're never guaranteed. You saw that with the
Speaker 4: Socks rebuild right where. I mean, the Cubs rebuild had
Speaker 4: a you know, a great a seminole championship and never
Speaker 4: got back to the World Series again after that, So
Speaker 4: you just never know. You never know what's going to happen.
Speaker 4: So I don't think he'll tear apart in the team.
Speaker 4: I do think, as you saw with the Jacob Gonzalez move,
Speaker 4: there are certain players that he's looking at that but
Speaker 4: I think they're looking for guys for the most part
Speaker 4: who can help them now and help them in the future.
Speaker 4: So I mean, you know, examples of let me give examples,
Speaker 4: because who knows what it's going to be, you know,
Speaker 4: But like a red debt meurs comes to my guys
Speaker 4: who have contractual status beyond this year. So we'll see
Speaker 4: what happens. We'll see what he does. And you know,
Speaker 4: he's very aggressive. He's made some great I mean, the
Speaker 4: pro Scouts deserve huge praise this year for some of
Speaker 4: the guys they've added that quote unquote look on the
Speaker 4: margins and have been huge additions. You know, Grit Chick
Speaker 4: Derek Hill was tremendous and still doing well for Philadelphia.
Speaker 4: They've just been some you know, Brian Hudson another guy
Speaker 4: they brought in, they got rid of and they brought
Speaker 4: back and look, you know, he's been as valuable as
Speaker 4: almost anyone in the bullpen this year. So I think
Speaker 4: they're gonna remember also they're going to get at some
Speaker 4: point Tanner McDougal is going to come out and be
Speaker 4: part of that bullpen. Shane Smith is in the mix
Speaker 4: as another starting possibility. He was the opening day starter,
Speaker 4: so he wasn't All Star last year.
Speaker 1: The ability is there.
Speaker 4: And then you know, I do think Hagen's missed and
Speaker 4: I know he struggled in his one inning tonight, but
Speaker 4: his biggest thing is throwing strikes, and I think if
Speaker 4: they can get him to a point like Colson last
Speaker 4: year where he's throwing strikes, you may see him as
Speaker 4: you know, kind of a bullpen or kind of a
Speaker 4: you know, short starter bullpen type of guy for the
Speaker 4: rest of the year. So there is some help within
Speaker 4: the system. I do think Chris will go outside to
Speaker 4: help this team in that sense too.
Speaker 5: I like the controllable piece of it. I think that's
Speaker 5: kind of where I think all of our heads have
Speaker 5: been out of times. And I know your six seven stories, like,
Speaker 5: all right, you gotta have guys who are just fit
Speaker 5: in that clubhouse too, apparently, because it's apparently a very
Speaker 5: unique clubhouse that they've got.
Speaker 1: Going on there.
Speaker 4: It's a great cut, you know, even last year. I
Speaker 4: wrote a story last year when they were in Tampa.
Speaker 4: Out of the break they went, you know, six and one.
Speaker 4: They swept, the Pirates killed, the Pirates, didn't get skeens,
Speaker 4: but they crushed. The Pirates won two or three at
Speaker 4: Steinbrenner and then beat the Cubs beat just pummeled him
Speaker 4: Naga in that first game at raid Field, and I
Speaker 4: wrote about how they celebrated every win, even last year
Speaker 4: when they only had sixty of them We'll always just
Speaker 4: preach that that every one of the major leagues is
Speaker 4: a big thing and you got to celebrate it. And
Speaker 4: they're really good at celebrating group things and individual things overall.
Speaker 1: You can see it the dog.
Speaker 4: I mean, they're not the only team that has fun, obviously,
Speaker 4: but it's just been a different brand of baseball since
Speaker 4: really this, you know, after the All Star break last year,
Speaker 4: but even more so this year with all the guys
Speaker 4: they've added in.
Speaker 5: So Mark, before we let you go, this has been awesome.
Speaker 5: First of all, we do have one last thing we
Speaker 5: want to do.
Speaker 2: Ok.
Speaker 5: I was told it could not be a Michigan n
Speaker 5: D football debate, so I will defer away from that.
Speaker 5: You've been covering the team since two thousand and three.
Speaker 5: I don't know if you've ever heard of sporkle, but
Speaker 5: there are those are like quizzes that can be made.
Speaker 5: We wanted to see, you know, you are a fountain
Speaker 5: of information. We wanted to see if you could remember
Speaker 5: the opening day lineup, who played where? From the first
Speaker 5: team you ever covered the two thousand and three Whites.
Speaker 1: You think you can do it.
Speaker 5: So the thing you asked, what year I started? Yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, I I snuck it in there. The first
Speaker 5: question also said you started in two thousand and three.
Speaker 5: I was a little sneaky.
Speaker 4: About it, but I think you can do it. I can't,
Speaker 4: but I'll okay. So first base is Canerco.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 4: Okay, DH's big heard Frank Thomas yep. Right field is Maglio.
Speaker 4: Left field I think is Carlos Lee it was third
Speaker 4: base would be Joe Creedy. Maybe this is easier than
Speaker 4: I thought. Center is Aaron rowand UH catcher I think
Speaker 4: is a Levo? Is that right?
Speaker 1: It's not a Levo, not Alevo, son of a gun Well.
Speaker 1: Starting pitcher is Burley.
Speaker 5: Burley was the starting pitcher.
Speaker 4: That that's a safe answer for like nine of nine years, right.
Speaker 4: Who would be the uh second and short second and
Speaker 4: short shortstop is Valentine?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 4: Second base is way too early forgets. Who is the
Speaker 4: second basement on that team?
Speaker 1: You gotta give me credit. I did pretty well here.
Speaker 5: I was gonna say I would give you a pass
Speaker 5: if you did not get the second basement. When I
Speaker 5: put this together, it's like, who was that.
Speaker 4: That would get indiference to my glory here? These are
Speaker 4: some pretty seminal names in White Sox history right that
Speaker 4: you shouldn't forget. Why, uh catch, no catcher is not
Speaker 4: four dice. He was gone already at that point. I
Speaker 4: think I don't really cover Brooks four days. Uh geez,
Speaker 4: who is the catcher?
Speaker 7: It's not a Levo Sandy Almer. It is Sandy Allen
Speaker 7: Sandy Almer. Okay, oops, so that just sec on the second.
Speaker 7: It's not Roberto Almer. He got traded for in that season.
Speaker 1: So was he got so so.
Speaker 5: Roberto Alomar replaced this guy as the starting second basement.
Speaker 5: This guy started about seventy games or so.
Speaker 1: I should know this. And I did give me the
Speaker 1: initials dj.
Speaker 3: D J.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, not Darren Jackson, not that DJ.
Speaker 2: I thought this was the one I struggled heavily on
Speaker 2: when I did this.
Speaker 1: My goodness, this is terrible. I can't remember it. I'm
Speaker 1: going to any one more clue. Is there any other
Speaker 1: clue you give me? Yeah?
Speaker 5: Let me pull up his uh baseball reference and see
Speaker 5: where else he played. He played for the Padres, the Reds.
Speaker 5: He came up with the Yankees. His first season was
Speaker 5: nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 1: Okay, he's getting me, Yes, I can't believe you got it.
Speaker 1: That's it. That's it. D Angelo leventis there we go.
Speaker 2: Believe you got that.
Speaker 1: When you said the Yankees that got me. That that
Speaker 1: did it for me right there. That's incredible and in
Speaker 1: two twenty five.
Speaker 5: Times and you're like, oh, I don't know, flew through
Speaker 5: most of them and needed one hint for D'Angel.
Speaker 4: But what I remembered like that three team was pretty good.
Speaker 4: I think they finished with whatever they were. I remember
Speaker 4: they were leading down in April and then they lost.
Speaker 4: They split with the Twins, and the Twins went off
Speaker 4: after that. That was the Paniagua series, which didn't work
Speaker 4: out so well. And then so I remember once I
Speaker 4: once I said, oh I can't do it that, I'm like,
Speaker 4: oh wait a second, these are still all the good
Speaker 4: guys who were part of it. I think Rowan might
Speaker 4: have Rowan and Creedy might have gone back down that year,
Speaker 4: or was it was it earlier.
Speaker 1: Rowan and both both Rowing and.
Speaker 4: Creedy you look up, both Growing and Creedy came up
Speaker 4: to the majors, went back to the minors, and then
Speaker 4: came back and started.
Speaker 3: Because I's gonna say, I'm pretty positive and O three
Speaker 3: Creedy would have been kind of bounce and bouncing little
Speaker 3: bit I was. I was surprised when I guess Creedian
Speaker 3: he was the guy because I knew that.
Speaker 4: Those are the examples they always sorry, those are the
Speaker 4: examples they always give when they send guys down. It's like, well,
Speaker 4: Creani and Rowan went down and look what they did.
Speaker 4: You know, so I'm pretty proud of myself quit an accomplishment.
Speaker 5: That was impressive. I was six years old for that team.
Speaker 5: Also Sidney Brown and our chat also new Dan Angela Jmenez.
Speaker 5: When I put that together, I don't know, it was
Speaker 5: AI like getting me on this one. I wasn't sure impressive,
Speaker 5: but that was impressive. No, Mark, thank you so much
Speaker 5: for your time. I guess most people know where to
Speaker 5: find you, like the chat clearly has loved having you here.
Speaker 5: If there's anything you want to plug, some of your
Speaker 5: latest work, anything like that, the floor is yours being out.
Speaker 4: I'll be in the intense heat of Texas for the
Speaker 4: next three days, leaving tomorrow morning, but you can find
Speaker 4: me at Twitter at Scott Murkin, Chaisacks dot com, MLB
Speaker 4: dot com. My newsletters drop on Wednesdays and Saturdays, so
Speaker 4: sign up and following.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. It's been a real pleasure, yo, and.
Speaker 2: Those are always worth a read.
Speaker 3: Man, It's always a pleasure having you on here, Scott,
Speaker 3: I mean even gutting a big Michigan man and all.
Speaker 1: But I'm going to overlook it.
Speaker 5: I'm so willing to overlook it, just because you're such
Speaker 5: a good dude.
Speaker 1: But not too many people i'd overlook it for.
Speaker 3: I'm willing to overlook it considering I have to be
Speaker 3: on this podcast with a notre dame mark every single
Speaker 3: every single one.
Speaker 4: Well see, that's that would be a tougher thing for
Speaker 4: me to do. But the same thing for Jeorde Jorans.
Speaker 4: It's a good dude that I can eh, No, I
Speaker 4: can overlook it.
Speaker 3: But on that note, ladies and gentlemen, that's all we
Speaker 3: have this week for the Socks on thirty fifth podcasts. Again,
Speaker 3: big ups to Scott Murkin from MLB dot com for
Speaker 3: being on here.
Speaker 2: Be sure to subscribe to.
Speaker 3: The podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and everywhere else to
Speaker 3: get your podcasts. A big shout out to the YouTube
Speaker 3: chat for being really.
Speaker 2: Active in this one.
Speaker 3: Obviously, when we have someone with the celebrity of Scott
Speaker 3: marking on here, just naturally brings in all the viewers.
Speaker 3: Also be sure to check out the website Socks on
Speaker 3: thirty fifth dot com I'm as well as following us
Speaker 3: on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as soas on thirty fifth
Speaker 3: to stay up to date with Yo Chicago White Sox.
Speaker 3: This has been Duke Coughlin, joined by Jordan Slowski, Nick
Speaker 3: Hour and of course Scott markin We'll be back well,
Speaker 3: Me and Jordan Me, Jordan and Nick will be back.
Speaker 3: Scott will be traveling with the team next week as
Speaker 3: we cover another week of White Sox baseball.
Speaker 2: Thank you and go Socks, Go
Speaker 1: N D, and go Socks, Go Blood.