Speaker 1: Howard, my dad was te vowed by an utility vehicle
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Speaker 3: It's really great that you're getting him the medical care
Speaker 3: and treatment that he needs right now. These are three
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Speaker 4: From your favorite source for Chicago White Sox talk, delivering news, interviews,
Speaker 4: analysis and more. This is the Socks Machine Podcast with
Speaker 4: your hosts Jim Margolis, James Vegan, and Josh Nelson.
Speaker 1: Welcome to you a new episode of the Soccer Gine podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Josh Nelson. We are recording this on
Speaker 1: Wednesday nights, July one, twenty twenty six. After the Chicago
Speaker 1: White Sox ended up losing on Wednesday to the Baltimore Orioles.
Speaker 1: But they won the first two games and that is
Speaker 1: huge because they finally snap their road series losing streak,
Speaker 1: finally winning a road series since early May back in
Speaker 1: San Diego.
Speaker 5: And this is a good.
Speaker 1: Omen because now the White Sox had the Cleveland which
Speaker 1: is to date the biggest series of the season for
Speaker 1: the Chicago White Sox as they still hold a one
Speaker 1: game lead over the Cleveland Guardians and the American League Central.
Speaker 5: Joining me is Sox Machines.
Speaker 1: Beat reporter James Vegan and managing editor Jim Margolis. And hello, gentlemen,
Speaker 1: Let's start with recapping what happened in Baltimore as the
Speaker 1: White Sox had two easy wins on Monday and Tuesday
Speaker 1: thanks to the offense. And again the White Sox are
Speaker 1: forty five and forty.
Speaker 5: On the season.
Speaker 1: And James, you recently wrote a wonderful feature with it's
Speaker 1: plenty profanity from White Sox hitting coach Derek Showman, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure he is going to enjoy as far as
Speaker 1: those quotes, as he got excited last.
Speaker 5: Time about it. And I found it very.
Speaker 1: Interesting because it continues this line of coaching and thinking
Speaker 1: from Will Venable of leading with empathy and on a
Speaker 1: hitting perspective, not trying to put too much pressure on
Speaker 1: the hitters, allowing them to make stakes, understand that they
Speaker 1: want their A swings and to continue to try to
Speaker 1: do as much damage as possible. Do we get a
Speaker 1: chance to see some of that come to light against Baltimore,
Speaker 1: especially in the first two games of this series.
Speaker 6: I mean, I think it's like something that's like their
Speaker 6: overall methodology, which is very warm or conducive, at least
Speaker 6: they say so to like coming back in terms.
Speaker 7: Of like the players believing, you know, they.
Speaker 6: Not getting discouraged, not kind of getting wrapped up with
Speaker 6: their mistakes, you know, even kind of accepting that in
Speaker 6: getting multiple shots at a starter maybe not even having success,
Speaker 6: or just trying to get to the bullpen of general,
Speaker 6: that there's always kind of opportunities in the game. I
Speaker 6: think Showman's even referenced like telling him about like when
Speaker 6: they're down in big games that they still get paid
Speaker 6: off the at bats that they have late innings, which
Speaker 6: is like, I think a refreshing tone for them to
Speaker 6: take so.
Speaker 8: Well.
Speaker 6: I can't say, like, oh, they had like a pep
Speaker 6: talk in the seventh inning after like bas departed on Monday,
Speaker 6: and like that's why they rallied. I think that their
Speaker 6: general attitude of like moving on from mistakes quickly and
Speaker 6: not necessarily like having a restrictive response to or even
Speaker 6: just like a reactive response like not getting to a
Speaker 6: starter or not getting like offense going early in the
Speaker 6: game and being kind of not doing things that kind
Speaker 6: of facilitate panic or self doubt or just kind of
Speaker 6: like frustration early in the games. I think they view
Speaker 6: that as something that pays dividends broadly and certainly like
Speaker 6: keeps them in a good frame of mind when they're
Speaker 6: down in games. So that's at least what they attribute,
Speaker 6: you know, having have so many comeback wins and having
Speaker 6: so many especially recently, like because they try to slug.
Speaker 6: I feel like they've had some outings recently where the
Speaker 6: starter like has a pretty efficient you know start or
Speaker 6: pretty efficient open to the game where they're getting through
Speaker 6: the lineup once or twice on a limited amount of pitches,
Speaker 6: just because like the Socks are so often trying to
Speaker 6: like blitz strikes that they see early that bad and
Speaker 6: not wait for them, and the fact that that doesn't
Speaker 6: seemingly like build panic in them or see them kind
Speaker 6: of spiral into losing their approach or not like even
Speaker 6: just kind of hunkering down a bit more and working
Speaker 6: account later in games as they adjust mid game is
Speaker 6: something that I guess they at this point view he
Speaker 6: was endemic to what they're doing overall, and like kind
Speaker 6: of the environment they're building for hitters. So yeah, that's
Speaker 6: part of the positive feelings that they have. Also generally
Speaker 6: just they got a lot of pop. They got a
Speaker 6: little left fan of pop and that should play well
Speaker 6: in that ballpark, and it certainly did for a couple
Speaker 6: of games.
Speaker 7: I think we wanted.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think a good example too from White Sox as
Speaker 1: far as the culture that they are building Jim when
Speaker 1: it comes to the offensive side, is allowing young employers
Speaker 1: like Jacob Gonzalez to take islamps. He had a pretty
Speaker 1: lengthy hitless streak, but in the last ten games, Jacob
Speaker 1: Gonzalez has figured out how to hit MLB pitching and
Speaker 1: that is huge, especially in the bottom of the lineup
Speaker 1: where he's batting ninth and he's coming in with these
Speaker 1: big doubles, especially against Baltimore that seemed to be backbreaking,
Speaker 1: where Orioles pitching things that they have a breather here
Speaker 1: because they're facing number nine hitter and they still get hurt.
Speaker 1: And in this series against Baltimore. Gonzalez went five for
Speaker 1: a lets been with six RBIs. But when it comes
Speaker 1: to Jacob Gonzalez, Jim Munitzaka Murakami could be returning soon.
Speaker 1: We don't have a definitive date when Munittako Burkami returns,
Speaker 1: but when he does, and with how Jacob Mignzalez has
Speaker 1: been hitting, how do you see Jamgonzalez fitting in with
Speaker 1: the current White Sox roster.
Speaker 9: There's always the caveat that every time we try to
Speaker 9: plot out what a rosterill look like. When a player
Speaker 9: returns from injury, somebody else gets hurt and so you
Speaker 9: never have this confluence of healthy guys that are going
Speaker 9: to spell at the end of Luis an Helicunya like
Speaker 9: Austin Hayes.
Speaker 8: Eversin Pereira, like we've been playing that game.
Speaker 9: With the outfield, so like I'm hesitant to do it
Speaker 9: with any part of the White Sox roster, be it
Speaker 9: rotation or innfield or anything else.
Speaker 8: Because of the way an injury ends up.
Speaker 9: Solving the problem. Well enough, but let's say let's indulge
Speaker 9: your question and say Murakami comes back with nobody else
Speaker 9: missing time, and I think this, You know there are.
Speaker 8: A couple of ways to do it.
Speaker 9: This could finally be the end of Luisan Hellacunya because
Speaker 9: he isn't really playing in the outfield much anymore now
Speaker 9: that Tristan Peters is more or less the everyday center fielder,
Speaker 9: and if he's the backup shortstop, well, you know, my
Speaker 9: Drath and Gonzalez can cover that well enough. And it
Speaker 9: seems like Akunya just right now, he's kind of a bunter,
Speaker 9: especially with the runners on base, like he more or
Speaker 9: less gives himself up, or whether it's he's terrified of
Speaker 9: grounding to a double player, uh you know, the coaching
Speaker 9: staff is, or they just want to get something out
Speaker 9: of his back. They're almost treating him like a pitcher
Speaker 9: when he comes to the play with a runner on base.
Speaker 9: So you could use this as the opportunity to be like, well,
Speaker 9: you know it's Kunya can go out, we will have
Speaker 9: an eight to nine part of the lineup, no matter
Speaker 9: who's pitching. That feels like you can start something for
Speaker 9: the top of the order, you know, because either Gonzales
Speaker 9: will be down there or my draft will be down there.
Speaker 9: So there's that approach, but that requires probably a big
Speaker 9: chunk taken out of my drafts playing time, which some
Speaker 9: people might be okay with because of his platoon splits.
Speaker 9: But I think the White Sox have been generally supportive
Speaker 9: of him or like they you know, they like the
Speaker 9: defense he brings, the overall approach he brings, and aren't
Speaker 9: dismissing him as a platoon player yet. So if that's
Speaker 9: the case, then it seems like probably Gonzales goes down
Speaker 9: just because yeah, a kunya, say what you will about him,
Speaker 9: but the White Sox really don't care how often they
Speaker 9: play him, Like if he plays one day a week,
Speaker 9: it's more or less fine because he's out of options,
Speaker 9: and if they lose him or they try to put
Speaker 9: them their waivers, they might lose him, and that's not
Speaker 9: something they seem like they want to do until it
Speaker 9: gets that points where their hand is forced. And if
Speaker 9: they want Gonzales to play every day, then he can
Speaker 9: go back to Charlotte's and maybe go back to positions
Speaker 9: of need that they can anticipate, be a second base
Speaker 9: or be more of a utility guy versus being somebody
Speaker 9: who's forced in the first base and just wait for
Speaker 9: the next opportunity to pop up. I guess the other
Speaker 9: one would be, you know Andrew Benin Tendy is you
Speaker 9: know DH right now is left handed bats. So if
Speaker 9: you want a Gonzalez to be more of a DH
Speaker 9: or use that really more of a flex spot versus
Speaker 9: Ben and Tendy hogging those bets, that would be another
Speaker 9: way to do it than you relegate Bet and Tending
Speaker 9: to the bench. But you know, everybody seems like they're
Speaker 9: more or less happy with him being the veteran presence
Speaker 9: on the bench, especially since he's playing well with Gritchik,
Speaker 9: you know, being somebody that can swap in and out.
Speaker 9: So it seems like they have a good arrangement there.
Speaker 9: So I would say I would anticipate the most likely
Speaker 9: scenario being Gonzalez goes back down to Charlotte's, but I
Speaker 9: wouldn't necessarily bet on it over Kunya finally getting waived
Speaker 9: or dfad see if he clears waivers, just because they
Speaker 9: could step on the gas and say we want to
Speaker 9: have a threatening lineup no matter what, and we'll see
Speaker 9: how Gonzalez plays when he's playing half the time versus
Speaker 9: most of the time.
Speaker 1: Well, there's Junior Perez who he had a three run
Speaker 1: homer against the Orioles. Is that an opportunity to option
Speaker 1: back to Charlotte without having to lose Luisa Halikunya.
Speaker 9: They could, but just more a matter of like if
Speaker 9: they want, you know, Gonzalez doesn't play the outfield yet,
Speaker 9: so if they're looking to get him at bats, that's
Speaker 9: where I think you kind of run into problems is
Speaker 9: can you know Gonzalez.
Speaker 8: Be on the roster but also get at bats?
Speaker 9: And who's at batsayes he take and I don't think
Speaker 9: he threatens perezes at bats to where you know he's
Speaker 9: in the factoring the discussion.
Speaker 1: Oh they have maybe Jim finally found more bats than
Speaker 1: spots White Sox lineup.
Speaker 7: But they haven't done it yet.
Speaker 6: They have to actually get there, like where comedy is
Speaker 6: like one into two or more weeks away, Like until
Speaker 6: they actually reached that point, they're not more bats than spots.
Speaker 7: It's the problem with like doing this.
Speaker 6: Who happens when somebody goes like pumps back projection is
Speaker 6: that you were never actually overloaded until you.
Speaker 7: Reach the point, which is the whole reason you need covered.
Speaker 1: Sorry, yes, I know that's what Jim mentioned earlier when needs.
Speaker 8: More flustered fashion.
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Speaker 1: Let's talk about the players that we were hoping or
Speaker 1: we thought needed a big series against Baltimore. We know
Speaker 1: about the White Sox starting pitching, and Noah Schultz returned
Speaker 1: and he took the start on when and things were
Speaker 1: going pretty smoothly until the fifth inning, and James, that
Speaker 1: was your pick. White Sox could use some help in
Speaker 1: the starting rotation. They could really use someone to be
Speaker 1: that number five starter in this rotation right now. What
Speaker 1: did you like from Noah Schul to start on Wednesday?
Speaker 6: His slider played for whifts to each handed hitters.
Speaker 7: I guess as well as he could have hoped.
Speaker 6: It obviously didn't carry him through the fifth inning or
Speaker 6: anything like that. But in terms of like showing progress
Speaker 6: or showing the sweeper playing the tops the handed hitters.
Speaker 6: I want to say one like the CSW was pretty good,
Speaker 6: but just in general, like I think it was fourteen
Speaker 6: swinging strikes like that was pretty happy z own for
Speaker 6: him to be in overall, it's just like, especially more
Speaker 6: so if he's like throwing strikes, which he's still not
Speaker 6: doing to his efficient degree, and and it's kind of
Speaker 6: out a character outside of like when he's dealing with
Speaker 6: knee stuff and you've obviously had him miss a bunch
Speaker 6: of time with recurring the stuff last year and kind
Speaker 6: of have it this year. So it's it wasn't exactly like, ah,
Speaker 6: this looks like him top operational gear even outside of
Speaker 6: like not saying like he's not healthy, but just in
Speaker 6: terms of like the Noah Schultz, it's like going to be,
Speaker 6: you know, take be a dynamic part of the rotation
Speaker 6: going forward, and the second half as you're worried about
Speaker 6: like upgrading rotation, would like to see like more or
Speaker 6: less uncompetitive misses in general. And so a little little
Speaker 6: of what he needed and a little like stepping back
Speaker 6: from like what is the baseline profile of what makes
Speaker 6: it work, which is you know, kind of his own
Speaker 6: So but on the one side, I thought like they
Speaker 6: need a good start from him because maybe like the
Speaker 6: bullpen would be needed in the first two games, and
Speaker 6: said it wasn't needed at all really beyond like some
Speaker 6: grand tailor work, so they didn't need him to get
Speaker 6: the six innings to like have a you know, coherent
Speaker 6: plan to end the game and just not doing anything
Speaker 6: offensively took care of that. So at least depends on
Speaker 6: a good place going in Cleveland. So that part of
Speaker 6: like needy Noh Schultz didn't come up as much, But
Speaker 6: I don't know, some good, some bad.
Speaker 5: And that was given me.
Speaker 1: My follow up is what you're hoping to see that
Speaker 1: he can approve upon because he's going to get an
Speaker 1: extra day of rest as the White Sox have Monday
Speaker 1: off after their Sunday game against Cleveland and they'll be
Speaker 1: returning to action at home at rat Field against the
Speaker 1: Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, July seventh. Then Noah Schultz
Speaker 1: right now is projected starter. Is there a milestone or
Speaker 1: what aspect of Noah Schultz's start against the Red Sox
Speaker 1: are you hoping for more improvement?
Speaker 6: James under three Walks, I think is like a probably
Speaker 6: a crude way to say it, but certainly like being
Speaker 6: able to locate the sinker just fast falls a bit
Speaker 6: more and work accounts more like. I think those are
Speaker 6: general things that would work towards you know, you were walks,
Speaker 6: which is more just like tag into a result. But
Speaker 6: I felt like it was kind of there's maybe like
Speaker 6: one of those walks where he's just like, all right,
Speaker 6: you lost a good battle and you don't really fault
Speaker 6: him for it. But I think the rest were just
Speaker 6: kind of like spraying the fastball a bit, which he
Speaker 6: knows he was kind of like up and down with
Speaker 6: control through the rehab process of him being rusty. A
Speaker 6: little bit like that happens, but more so than like
Speaker 6: it's nice to see the whiffs uptick. But like if
Speaker 6: Schultz is like a seven or eight KPRI nine guy
Speaker 6: with like control and like a fifty percent ground ball, right,
Speaker 6: we'd be like, all right, that looks like the guy
Speaker 6: who's coming up as a prospect. Whereas like there's not
Speaker 6: really big precedent of like him being super effective while
Speaker 6: like working Dylan C style where.
Speaker 7: He's walking three to four guys per AUTI got it, all.
Speaker 1: Right, Well, we'll see what Schultz does again. His next
Speaker 1: projected start is against the Boston Red Sox. Next Jim
Speaker 1: Yervick was Colson Montgomery and he hit his twenty first
Speaker 1: home run of the season. He did go two for
Speaker 1: ten against the Orioles with four strikeouts, but he also
Speaker 1: did drive in three RBIs. Is that a satisfying outcome
Speaker 1: for you from Colson Montgomery in this series?
Speaker 9: It's in terms of how it played, Yeah, I mean
Speaker 9: just because the homer was really impressive, you know, in
Speaker 9: those Utah Street violent four hundred and forty footers always
Speaker 9: fun to watch, and you know, one hit a game
Speaker 9: is kind of the baseline for you contributed something, So
Speaker 9: that part worked, I think, you know, kind of bigger
Speaker 9: picture is it fits in Wealth is June in which
Speaker 9: he kind of hit two hundred and he slugged pretty well,
Speaker 9: But he also struck out nearly forty.
Speaker 8: Percent of the time.
Speaker 9: So four strikeouts and ten played appearances is a lot,
Speaker 9: and you just wonder how long that can continue. Like
Speaker 9: he's been contributing while doing that, So it's not a
Speaker 9: case where you're sounding any alarms necessarily, but it's kind
Speaker 9: of like the long time to go on striking out
Speaker 9: forty percent of the time and think like, is it
Speaker 9: gonna get better or is it going to have to
Speaker 9: pay the price of having so many empty plate appearances
Speaker 9: to where you're gonna see a kind of pronounced slump
Speaker 9: that you know requires some intervention besides.
Speaker 8: The odd game off.
Speaker 9: So it's okay, just at some point, you know you'd
Speaker 9: like to see him you break this strikeout Jaggie's been on.
Speaker 8: And produce more. You raise the average a little bit.
Speaker 9: But if he's able to somehow go one for five
Speaker 9: or a game and hit the occasional homer, like that's uh,
Speaker 9: it's hard to bank on a two hundred average playing
Speaker 9: that well or that practically, but you know he's he's
Speaker 9: found a way to do it so.
Speaker 8: Far in his career.
Speaker 1: Is this an Adam Dunn hitting profile? But it actually
Speaker 1: can play shortstop a fewer walks.
Speaker 8: So it's a case where yeah, it's yeah, there's.
Speaker 9: There's more of a hit tool, but it's also like
Speaker 9: the hit tools tested more because he goes out of
Speaker 9: the zone more, and I think he's trying to. You
Speaker 9: can see him thinking long with pictures and pictures getting
Speaker 9: to him because like they're gonna tack me high and
Speaker 9: then they go higher than high and somehow it you know,
Speaker 9: he ends up chasing out.
Speaker 8: So yeah, and it's he's a work in progress.
Speaker 9: Still, like he said in James Post the show and
Speaker 9: post like when I'm struggling, I'm adjusting and just been Yeah,
Speaker 9: I guess you could just say there's been a lot
Speaker 9: of adjustments lately. But fortunately, you know, playing shortstop and
Speaker 9: not having like the numbers are down, but he hasn't
Speaker 9: had like the huge hitless slump, but he had one
Speaker 9: in the middle of the month. But lately it's just
Speaker 9: been like one hit a game mostly, and that's fine.
Speaker 9: It's just it's you know, it's not great for the
Speaker 9: season numbers, but as it plays for a shortstop kind
Speaker 9: of like Tristan Peters in center field, Like if he's
Speaker 9: playing a good center field and he comes up with
Speaker 9: a single, uh you know, that's something that will keep
Speaker 9: his value afloats until he uh you know, it gets
Speaker 9: on a heater.
Speaker 1: Well, again, it is twenty one home runs or Coleson Montgomery,
Speaker 1: he's on pace to maybe get to forty home runs
Speaker 1: this year. Only one White Sox shortstop in franchise history
Speaker 1: has hit twenty five or more home runs Pop quiz
Speaker 1: do you remember who that shortstop is?
Speaker 7: Jim?
Speaker 8: Is that Ron Hanson?
Speaker 5: No, okay, more recent, Jose James. It is Jose Valance.
Speaker 7: It's Jose Valentine. Josh, thank you, James, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 5: Jose. Jose did it three times.
Speaker 1: Nobody else for White Sox shortstops has hit twenty five
Speaker 1: home runs.
Speaker 9: Hanson topped out at twenty, but it was a nineteen
Speaker 9: sixty Ford old Comisky Park so had played really big.
Speaker 8: Yeah, end up being his seven point seven war season.
Speaker 1: Uh Wanner Reba came close. Alexi Ramirez came close. Tim
Speaker 1: Anderson came close, but Coles Montgomery just needs it four
Speaker 1: more and he joins very rare company in White Sox
Speaker 1: franchise history.
Speaker 5: And then my pick was Tristan Peters.
Speaker 1: Tristan had a solid series, went four for twelve against Baltimore,
Speaker 1: solid performance. I thought that he was going to be
Speaker 1: the one to maybe help carry the offense and set
Speaker 1: the table for top of the lineup with his performance
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the lineup, but that ended up being
Speaker 1: Jacob Gonzalez again, Jacob Gonzalez picking up six RBIs in
Speaker 1: that series win against the Baltimore Orioles, so good series
Speaker 1: win for the White Sox. Also a cap tip, I
Speaker 1: thought that Sean Burke looked really strong as well Jim
Speaker 1: on Monday, and he seems to be on a heater
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's he's helped stabilize the rotation. I think he's
Speaker 9: been the if not a number two started the way
Speaker 9: you classically think of one, at least number two started
Speaker 9: this rowation needs behind Davis Smartin, I think Athony k
Speaker 9: is been. Yeah, he's pitched more like a number four
Speaker 9: than number three, but he's kind of a number three
Speaker 9: right now because Eric Fetti needs know whether it's opener supporter,
Speaker 9: whether he's like about to go five inning. It's like
Speaker 9: he's more of a number five as a number four.
Speaker 9: So everybody's kind of like one slot down in this rotation.
Speaker 9: But like we talked about with the mid season grades,
Speaker 9: it's it's worked so far, it hasn't been the problem,
Speaker 9: and every turn where it's it doesn't get exposed or
Speaker 9: you don't feel that cumulative effect of like.
Speaker 8: One guy disappointing, another guy disappointing.
Speaker 9: Because they're all pitching slightly above their pay grades.
Speaker 8: That's basically a win.
Speaker 5: Well for the White Sox.
Speaker 1: They made their way from Baltimore to Cleveland on Wednesday
Speaker 1: to get ready for a very important four game series
Speaker 1: against the Cleveland Guardians. The Guardians won their last game
Speaker 1: against the Texas Rangers. They're currently forty five and forty two,
Speaker 1: so they are just a game back of the Chicago
Speaker 1: White Sox, even though the White Sox have two games
Speaker 1: in hand in their last ten games. The Guardians are
Speaker 1: four and six at home this year. Even though they're
Speaker 1: one of the few teams of the American League that
Speaker 1: has a winning record on the road, their home record
Speaker 1: is just twenty two and twenty so they're not seeing
Speaker 1: the same level of success like the White Sox have
Speaker 1: or even like the Tampa Bay Rays. For the season series,
Speaker 1: the Chicago White Sox currently lead that against the Guardians,
Speaker 1: as the White Sox won that last series at raid Field,
Speaker 1: winning two out of three. Your probable pitchers for this series.
Speaker 1: Thursday night, it is Davis Martin against Slade Socni. Friday
Speaker 1: night it's Anthony k against Gavin Williams. Saturday it's Sean
Speaker 1: Burke against Parker Messek, and then on Sunday we'll see
Speaker 1: if there's an opener, But right now it is Eric
Speaker 1: Fetti against Tanner, Biby and James with these games beating Cleveland.
Speaker 1: Run prevention is a big factor in how these games
Speaker 1: go between the Guardians and the White Sox. So many
Speaker 1: defensive blunders in Cleveland over the years have cost the
Speaker 1: White Sox games, and right now opposing teams are only
Speaker 1: scoring three point ninety two runs per game against the
Speaker 1: Guardians in Cleveland.
Speaker 5: But I think one.
Speaker 1: Of the bigger factors and the way that Will Venable
Speaker 1: has to manage this series is how does he use
Speaker 1: his best bullpen weapons in Grant Taylor and Sean Newcom.
Speaker 1: Do you have any insight or any thoughts on how
Speaker 1: he could use those two in these four games.
Speaker 6: Well, if I've learned anything from writing about his strategy,
Speaker 6: I think he will use them aggressively.
Speaker 5: Josh, you kind of use him often, I'd be.
Speaker 6: Sur I don't think with like necessarily special consideration, like
Speaker 6: you're talking about, like these a lot of lefties that
Speaker 6: they'll probably stretch out over the course.
Speaker 7: Of the order.
Speaker 6: Zana the Lotter, you know, Watson's been a menace. Mazarta,
Speaker 6: Cooper Ingle they called up even you know Kwan has struggled,
Speaker 6: but it seems like he's still regularly Stephen Quanta against
Speaker 6: the White Sox. Taylor and Newcomb are both being multi
Speaker 6: inning presence usually are your answer to them trying to
Speaker 6: stagger out their lefties, Like all right, I'm just going
Speaker 6: to like.
Speaker 7: Wipe out a whole.
Speaker 6: Slate of like you know, time to the order of
Speaker 6: them coming up and leverage and so because both they
Speaker 6: offer that function to them rather than like trying to
Speaker 6: be super targeted with get as many as you can,
Speaker 6: like one Brian Hudson outing. I think on top of
Speaker 6: like that, generally, like their approaches like if they have
Speaker 6: a lead, they if a win in sight, they're going
Speaker 6: to like go aggressively at it rather than like conserve
Speaker 6: resources for like say they're up five to two and
Speaker 6: try to protect like that lead over the last like
Speaker 6: two innings and there's like ultimate lefties. I think he'd
Speaker 6: sooner it's like, hey, let me just put Grant Taylor,
Speaker 6: who's great against left he's at this and salt this
Speaker 6: game away, rather than like, oh, I'm worried about like Saturday,
Speaker 6: and I don't want to use Grant too much. We're
Speaker 6: gonna actually go to make Sir Anthony Demingaz, like go
Speaker 6: into the teeth of this. I don't think they're gonna
Speaker 6: play that conservation game, so I don't think that.
Speaker 7: I'd be surprised.
Speaker 6: Maybe there's a little like half of your consideration for
Speaker 6: it if like the situation allows or if like the
Speaker 6: certainly if the game like opens up in another inning,
Speaker 6: like if you're gonna go for two for Newcomber Taylor
Speaker 6: and like the SoCs score three and like in between
Speaker 6: like what would be his two innings, maybe you back
Speaker 6: off there for future thing. But I don't think that
Speaker 6: they would necessarily sacrifice or take like undue risk for
Speaker 6: the idea of like oh we want Taylor or newcome back.
Speaker 7: On Sunday sort of situation.
Speaker 6: I think what would be consistent with them would be,
Speaker 6: all right, here's the opportunity, let's go for it at
Speaker 6: full force and take this twin and because I mean
Speaker 6: another if, I don't think it really enter their strategy.
Speaker 6: But maybe like a back your mind thing is like
Speaker 6: they only need a split from this to leave Town
Speaker 6: with the lead in the division, So maybe don't over complicated.
Speaker 5: That's a good point. These were tight games at rate Field.
Speaker 1: I'm imagining that these are still going to be tight
Speaker 1: games in Cleveland. So that's why I'm I'm more wondering
Speaker 1: about how often Taylor is used in this upcoming series.
Speaker 1: Ken they use him in two of the four games, Jim,
Speaker 1: because if they can, then I think that gives them
Speaker 1: an opportunity when they do use him, that they can,
Speaker 1: as James point out, walk out with a split. But
Speaker 1: it'd be not in the White Sox favor of course,
Speaker 1: if they use Grant Taylor and they end up losing
Speaker 1: that game. So this is where I am curious to
Speaker 1: see and how the White Sox handle as far as
Speaker 1: these late inning situations coming out of the bullpen, and
Speaker 1: maybe we'll see just exactly how much confidence they have
Speaker 1: left in Syriante Domingas.
Speaker 9: I'm guessing Taylor would be, you know, two innings if
Speaker 9: they have a lead, one inning if they're behind. He
Speaker 9: needs to get some work because he hasn't thrown in
Speaker 9: five days, and then keep them available for their back
Speaker 9: to back or two out of three games with the lead,
Speaker 9: you know, trying to really prioritize that. I think with Dimingas,
Speaker 9: I'm curious if they still go to him in the
Speaker 9: sixth inning or seventh inning, you know, versus the bottom
Speaker 9: of the order if they try to work him in
Speaker 9: earlier in a game, versus having it being the last
Speaker 9: line of defense or having to be back to buy
Speaker 9: like a Chris Murphy or something like that in the
Speaker 9: you know, in a closer type situation, if they've already
Speaker 9: used Taylor and they want to Writey in there. So yeah,
Speaker 9: I think it's probably a bigger series for figuring out
Speaker 9: the dimingas thing in the fly versus Taylor.
Speaker 8: I think the Taylor usedage is pretty solid and he's.
Speaker 9: Been really good as of late, so where it should
Speaker 9: be pretty if not paint by numbers because they've used
Speaker 9: him unconventionally, but at least you know what he's gonna
Speaker 9: you know what he's going to enter based on leads
Speaker 9: and part of the lineup.
Speaker 8: But I think Domingas is more the mystery.
Speaker 1: Well for the Guardians, Chain Lauder has returned for them
Speaker 1: and he's currently on a ten game hitting streak. We
Speaker 1: did not see him in the series against the White Sox,
Speaker 1: and we used to be worried about Rosier Emirez and
Speaker 1: Stephen Kwan, but it feels like with the rookies that.
Speaker 5: The Guardians have Jim.
Speaker 1: We spent a lot of time talking about the White
Speaker 1: Sox rookies and how they have been excelling. But Dulauder,
Speaker 1: Khalil Watson, Travis Bizana, these three really feel like the
Speaker 1: big threats against White Sox pitching this weekend.
Speaker 8: It was kind of that story last year.
Speaker 9: It's sneaky how it happened, but I was looking at
Speaker 9: the Guardians splits against the White Sox. Last year, Jose
Speaker 9: Ramirez had a three ninety four ops against the White Sox.
Speaker 9: Last year, Stephen Kuan had a five h seven ops
Speaker 9: against the White Sox. They drew still drew their share
Speaker 9: of walk so I think game to game he had
Speaker 9: bats were tough. And also Ramira stole six bases and
Speaker 9: six attempts, so like he made himself a nuisance even
Speaker 9: though he wasn't hitting like, he maximized the times he
Speaker 9: was on bass to where it didn't feel like the
Speaker 9: White Sox really got one over on him. But when
Speaker 9: he get who did the damage was among the four
Speaker 9: digit ops's, it was David Fry, Kyle Manzarto. But then
Speaker 9: in the number two spot, Jen Kenzie Noel, Who's I
Speaker 9: think in triple.
Speaker 8: A right now he's out of the Guardians organization. And
Speaker 8: then CJ Cafus.
Speaker 9: Number one, who is not who is he played himself
Speaker 9: out of the mix, is on the forty men roster.
Speaker 9: But in Triple A he went off for the time
Speaker 9: that he was so like Khalil Watson coming up and
Speaker 9: immediately proving himself of pain even though he can't draw
Speaker 9: a walk in the majors. Like that fits right in
Speaker 9: with the Cafus thing of like CAFs didn't play that
Speaker 9: well last year, but he played well against the Socks.
Speaker 9: And there's always somebody, you know, whether it's whack the mole,
Speaker 9: whether it's h you know, exhausting all the resources to
Speaker 9: face the big guns and then they just.
Speaker 8: Ease up or just.
Speaker 9: You know, you know, just the way it shakes out
Speaker 9: is a lesser hitter getting more favorable pitches to hits
Speaker 9: in high leverage situations when they think they're out of
Speaker 9: the woods. So it's it's I think the games didn't
Speaker 9: have stakes last year, so I think that's probably, you
Speaker 9: know the reason why it wasn't so granular in terms
Speaker 9: of whether Ramirez or Kwan or trying to figure out
Speaker 9: who made a series or who broke a series open
Speaker 9: for the Guardians. But I think now that we're paying
Speaker 9: closer attention, it's worth looking at that and saying, well,
Speaker 9: you know, Quand still a pain.
Speaker 8: But also you know it's when it comes.
Speaker 9: To the Guardians, they managed to Maybe maybe it's a
Speaker 9: case of they just game plan against the White Sox
Speaker 9: really well, or it just happens to be luk And
Speaker 9: because it's a division opponent and you see these guys
Speaker 9: so many times, it's inevitable that somebody without a track
Speaker 9: record is going to make themselves a pain. Like even
Speaker 9: like Austin Hedges is playing really well this past month,
Speaker 9: he's man just step up and be somebody who is
Speaker 9: maybe not a the sample's too small to call him
Speaker 9: the bats, but he's no longer like an automatic out
Speaker 9: in a ninth spot. They're finding ways to get their
Speaker 9: three or four run a game even without Ramiros.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Patrick Bailey hasn't been much of a factor for
Speaker 1: the Guardians, mostly because pitchers love throwing to Austin Hedges.
Speaker 1: And to your point, Jim Hedges has instead of trying
Speaker 1: to hit a home run every time at the play,
Speaker 1: he's just trying to get on Bay so he's getting
Speaker 1: a lot more production offensively than normal. Not a very
Speaker 1: good offensive catcher still, but he's still producing defensively.
Speaker 7: For the Guardians, he's.
Speaker 6: Got a one o two WRC plus on the year
Speaker 6: after homering today. Not to undercut your point entirely, but.
Speaker 5: That's is that a career high for Austin Hedges.
Speaker 7: I would imagine, yeah, have a good amount.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think you could add this WRC plus of
Speaker 6: the previous three years together, which is not mathematical, and
Speaker 6: it would still be below one o two.
Speaker 9: So for correct it would be twenty seven plus twenty
Speaker 9: one plus forty eight, so forty eight plus forty eight
Speaker 9: ninety six.
Speaker 5: Wow, good for you, Austin Hedges. Let's not have a
Speaker 5: big weekend against the White Sox. Who needs a big series?
Speaker 1: For the White Sox, so James, I will start with
Speaker 1: you in order for the White Sox to at least
Speaker 1: get a series split or maybe win this series against
Speaker 1: the Guardians, who needs a big series?
Speaker 6: So this is from the White Sox perspective, who needs
Speaker 6: to shine rather than like, yeah, who needs this big series?
Speaker 6: Like in a you know, Gill from the Simpsons type
Speaker 6: of desperation and the job to the workplace perspective.
Speaker 1: Is there someone right now in the White Sox that's
Speaker 1: in a Gill situation?
Speaker 6: That's certainly just the way I interpreted the question last week,
Speaker 6: So now I've been questioning my process. I think with
Speaker 6: all the leftings we've talked about in the batting order,
Speaker 6: tall ass since he just faced them pretty recently. But
Speaker 6: I think Anthony Kay having especially with you talking about like, oh,
Speaker 6: how are they going to meet out the Grant Taylor
Speaker 6: to get through this? Kay getting them through six or
Speaker 6: seven even would or certainly just matching the effectiveness of
Speaker 6: the Hado his last time out, given that they'll probably
Speaker 6: be figuring out how to open for Betty or maybe
Speaker 6: even Burke as well.
Speaker 7: Just being their only left handed starter in that.
Speaker 6: Mix, I think that continuing to be play as an
Speaker 6: advantage would probably be big for them, especially coming off
Speaker 6: a rough one in Kentas City that said, don't.
Speaker 7: Really see the same. They have some lefties in the bullpen.
Speaker 6: They have a couple Heron and Sebrowski are certainly good,
Speaker 6: but like certainly with Kate Smith or just kind of
Speaker 6: like a lot of the meat for Holderman, what's his face?
Speaker 6: Seawn Armstrong who close it out. They're one win in Chicago.
Speaker 6: Those are guys who I think you need a Benintendi
Speaker 6: that looks hot against them. Certainly Lengths is out a
Speaker 6: bit more, whereas like you would expect Ritchick to be
Speaker 6: more of the situational weapon randomly ties the game off
Speaker 6: of Kate Smith maybe, but more like they're more limited
Speaker 6: opportunities to really use him. Both with like the right
Speaker 6: hand starters primarily from from Cleveland and not as many
Speaker 6: at least left handed relievers as the White Sox offer,
Speaker 6: So Ben Andttenni is probably someone there's a bit more
Speaker 6: perspective on is like where is some surprise offense gonna
Speaker 6: come from?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I like those picks.
Speaker 7: Left handed people, left handed people.
Speaker 5: I like those picks. How about you, Jim who needs
Speaker 5: a big series for the White Sox.
Speaker 9: Maybe not in terms of needs, like it's gonna be uh,
Speaker 9: you know, awful if he doesn't get it, but like
Speaker 9: Kyle Teal, just hoping to see steady progress from him,
Speaker 9: just because I think Drew Romo has been really rough
Speaker 9: watching him when he has to play, and so I
Speaker 9: think just Teal progressing, you know, building on.
Speaker 8: A decent start.
Speaker 9: I think to his uh season, like you more strikeouts
Speaker 9: than you used to seeing, maybe not running as you know.
Speaker 9: I can't tell if it's it's him being a little
Speaker 9: bit slower or just being cautious, well him being cautious,
Speaker 9: or whether it's just the kind of you know, Eloy
Speaker 9: Jimenez effect of just like watching somebody run all out
Speaker 9: and just bracing for something to break apart on him
Speaker 9: to where it's more painful watching him run than he's
Speaker 9: actually sensing. But yeah, yeah, I think he's still playing
Speaker 9: through some rust or some restrictions. So I think just
Speaker 9: building on what he's done so far to continue working
Speaker 9: towards being like number one catcher at the White Sox
Speaker 9: need be with no interruptions, would go a long way,
Speaker 9: because I think Romo is really and Carol's been off
Speaker 9: to a slowish start with Charlotte, so kind of has
Speaker 9: to be the guy because I think the two catchers
Speaker 9: they have on the depth chart beside him are not
Speaker 9: cutting it right now, so this heal return.
Speaker 8: Has to stick.
Speaker 5: That's disappointing for Caro. I hope he figures it out.
Speaker 1: It's starting to become almost like a lost season for him,
Speaker 1: right Jim kind of I know there's still half a
Speaker 1: season left to go.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's a case where you know Romo is there
Speaker 9: because you know, kind of like the Kunia thing, he
Speaker 9: doesn't have.
Speaker 8: To play, and you know, Caro just needs a bats.
Speaker 9: He needs the most play appearance as possible to get
Speaker 9: on track, So it makes sense for him if he
Speaker 9: lights up Triple A won't necessarily guarantee success, but at
Speaker 9: least it'll show that he's in a better place.
Speaker 8: And you know right now he's not doing that.
Speaker 9: So yeah, lots lots of time for him to to
Speaker 9: get right in Charlotte hopefully. So that's why I think
Speaker 9: Teal just maintaining this track of decent starts showing flashes
Speaker 9: just has to. I think study outs the swing and
Speaker 9: miss a little bit, but otherwise but a pretty good
Speaker 9: start for them all together.
Speaker 1: For me, I'm going with Sam Antonacci. He was a
Speaker 1: big factor the last time the White Sox and Guardians played.
Speaker 5: He still knew the left field and James.
Speaker 1: We know that big wall in Cleveland sometimes plays a
Speaker 1: factor for new left fielders playing there for the first time.
Speaker 1: Maybe not as severe as Fenway, but I feel like
Speaker 1: Samon Tenachi has come a long way playing outfield defense James,
Speaker 1: Like he's new to this position, and you got a
Speaker 1: chance to watch him in first employ the position more
Speaker 1: than I have. Is this a position that you think
Speaker 1: he can stick at rather than it still kind of
Speaker 1: feels like break glass in case of emergency for the
Speaker 1: White Sox this year having Sam Tanaci play left field,
Speaker 1: But I feel like the more he plays there, the
Speaker 1: more I'm confident in his ability to stay there long term.
Speaker 6: It's going, I guess, about as well as I would
Speaker 6: have expected. Like I think physically he has the tools
Speaker 6: of like a left fielder, and he like kind of
Speaker 6: plays max effort all the time. So in terms of
Speaker 6: like guys you can rotate out there on a whim,
Speaker 6: I think he's gonna do about as good a job
Speaker 6: as as any one who kind of takes it like
Speaker 6: mid season as much as he did. Like that said,
Speaker 6: like his metrics aren't like amazing or anything like that,
Speaker 6: and he's definitely like figuring out his routes as he
Speaker 6: goes in a way, and I think he's just like
Speaker 6: any new outfielder.
Speaker 7: Would you kind of worry like how.
Speaker 6: He's going to deal with like unconventional charms which could
Speaker 6: happen through him in Cleveland or just giving the fact
Speaker 6: that he gives you max effort all the time, which
Speaker 6: is great and to his benefit long term obviously is
Speaker 6: that you know, he's going to try to dive in
Speaker 6: situations where maybe like he can be more conservative and
Speaker 6: that's the right play or overthrow the cutoff man and
Speaker 6: stuff like that. So I think it's going to be
Speaker 6: like a process. I don't And certainly, if he's a
Speaker 6: four hundred OVP guy, then I guess he could play
Speaker 6: whatever he wants, so you don't really have to worry
Speaker 6: about it. But like it's still not like a traditional
Speaker 6: left field profile. So I don't know if like that's
Speaker 6: what they want to do with that position long term necessarily,
Speaker 6: or if you know, if you more strength to require
Speaker 6: more players out there in the corner out feel long term,
Speaker 6: I don't know how necessarily does he like start to
Speaker 6: demand like second base at bats from like Chase my
Speaker 6: drop at some point down the road. I know I
Speaker 6: actively pushed against like people trying to put him together,
Speaker 6: But in terms of like two three years out, I'm
Speaker 6: just saying it's a scenario that like plays out. I
Speaker 6: don't think he's like oh man, he's actually great at
Speaker 6: this right off the bat. Let's just give him left
Speaker 6: field and forget about it indefinitely. But in terms of
Speaker 6: like if he started out there like next year, I
Speaker 6: don't think that'd be crazy either, just because like.
Speaker 7: He's only going to kind of get better at it
Speaker 7: with time.
Speaker 6: And if he plays the average out there while being
Speaker 6: like a great one of the best leadoff men in
Speaker 6: the league, then yeah, that could be a home for him.
Speaker 6: You know, that's been true for many of kind of
Speaker 6: like a hit first, good base runner, a leadoff man
Speaker 6: who it didn't necessarily translate to defense. One Pierre comes
Speaker 6: to mind, even if that's not a perfect COLMP for
Speaker 6: multiple reasons, or Shannon Stewart stuff like that. So yeah,
Speaker 6: kind of, but also not like it's not been such
Speaker 6: an unambiguous success that like you can't imagine a moving
Speaker 6: there from ever either.
Speaker 1: Well, as long as he gets on base, he still
Speaker 1: comes up with the big hits late in the games,
Speaker 1: like he did against the Guardians last time these two
Speaker 1: teams played. I think Samontanachi can be a big factor
Speaker 1: in this four game series.
Speaker 5: For the White Sox. It's a big one.
Speaker 1: Again to James's point, if they split with Cleveland, they
Speaker 1: still have first place in hand in the American League
Speaker 1: Central before arriving to their final homestand before the All
Speaker 1: Star Break when they welcome into Boston Red Sox, who
Speaker 1: are still a messy team and the Sacramento Athletics who
Speaker 1: just recently got some bad news as Brent Rooker is
Speaker 1: going to miss the rest of the season. So there's
Speaker 1: a way that if the White Sox can at least
Speaker 1: get a series split, they could still have I think
Speaker 1: favorable outcomes at home. They could be first place heading
Speaker 1: to the All Star Break, the first place Chicago White
Speaker 1: Sox with the first pick overall, and they will be
Speaker 1: draft fun times right now for the Chicago White Sox.
Speaker 1: We'll see how they start the month of July in Cleveland.
Speaker 1: But that will do it for this episode of the
Speaker 1: Sox Machine podcast. Thank you guys so much for listening.
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Speaker 1: believe you are going to be visiting the Bourbenham Barons
Speaker 1: this weekend.
Speaker 9: I will taking the drive down sixty five checking in
Speaker 9: on roster.
Speaker 8: It scotten a few twet here and there.
Speaker 9: Good opportunity because I know that when since Salem comes
Speaker 9: later in the month or a middle of the month,
Speaker 9: and then Charlotte comes to Nashville at the end of
Speaker 9: the month, so I should be able to see three
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Speaker 1: right Jim, because they're still above five hundred.
Speaker 9: Yeah, as long as they have a winning record. It'll
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Speaker 5: It is a White Sox inch closer.
Speaker 1: I can't believe I'm saying this to the postseason in
Speaker 1: twenty and twenty.
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Speaker 1: Chicago White Sox baseball, alongside James Vegan and Jim Margulus.
Speaker 5: I'm Josh Nelson. Thanks for listening and watching