Speaker 1: Socks on thirty fifth is next doors open on the left?
Speaker 2: What is going on? White Sox fans. I think we're live.
Speaker 2: Welcome to a live midweek kind of preview, pope pre
Speaker 2: show or pregame episode, hopefully pregame episode of the Socks
Speaker 2: on thirty fifth podcast. Duke is out today. I am
Speaker 2: your host Jordan Zowski for the day. Nick Gower as
Speaker 2: always good to see you and filling in for Duke
Speaker 2: Brett Hafner. Gentlemen, this is a Good Vibes Only podcast,
Speaker 2: and I want to make sure of that from the
Speaker 2: start to hammer that home. I know both of you
Speaker 2: were at the game on Tuesday, Brad Montgomery's debut. That
Speaker 2: kind of sparked the idea for this pregame show before
Speaker 2: the series finale. Good Vibes Only, you guys talk about
Speaker 2: your experience that day. I know that kind of helps
Speaker 2: in the question of how you're doing, which I assume
Speaker 2: is pretty good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean for sure, And that's like you said,
Speaker 3: that's kind of what inspired this idea. I just want
Speaker 3: to talk about this team right now. And I know
Speaker 3: we do a podcast every Sunday, or we recorded every Sunday,
Speaker 3: I should say, but it's like, when the vibes are
Speaker 3: this good, I want to talk about them more than
Speaker 3: just once a week. So that's very, very different from
Speaker 3: the last few years. But yeah, the game Tuesday was awesome.
Speaker 3: I mean one of those games where and I never
Speaker 3: really felt like we were going to win until the
Speaker 3: game ended, honestly, kind of similar not in terms of
Speaker 3: the score or anything, kind of similar vibes to the
Speaker 3: Edgar Carroll walk off against the Cubs and another game
Speaker 3: that I was at this year where it's like two
Speaker 3: you know, walk off home Rouns in the bottom of
Speaker 3: the tenth after you lost the lead. So yeah, I
Speaker 3: just can't say enough about how energetic the fan base
Speaker 3: is right now and just how into the games people are.
Speaker 3: Like one of one of my complaints going to games
Speaker 3: from the more you know down years is that everyone's
Speaker 3: like scrolling through Instagram rules or whatever, and I no
Speaker 3: one's really paying attention. That's not at all the case anymore,
Speaker 3: at least where I'm sitting, like everyone just locked in
Speaker 3: all the time. And yeah, it just feels really good
Speaker 3: to have a winning, a first place team. But Brett,
Speaker 3: I know you were there as well obviously, so what
Speaker 3: were your takeaways.
Speaker 4: You know, we're a good Vibeses only podcast today, but
Speaker 4: for the first seven or eight innings of that game,
Speaker 4: I was just how are we in this game? I
Speaker 4: was so frustrated, just because, as long talked about on Twitter,
Speaker 4: you know, there were some questionable decisions blah blah blah
Speaker 4: blah blah. But it was just so cool to see
Speaker 4: the fan response to Brade Montgomery. Honestly, every time he
Speaker 4: came up to the plate, like it was one of
Speaker 4: those things where again there is energy that has not
Speaker 4: been felt in many years, and hey, like fans were
Speaker 4: energetic for him just beyond the first at bat. I've
Speaker 4: seen many debuts over the last few years where they
Speaker 4: get a nice little clap for the first at bat
Speaker 4: and then the rest of the game they're just a
Speaker 4: normal White Sox player. But no, it was a special night.
Speaker 4: And from my vantage point, Nick, you can tell me
Speaker 4: how you were from yours mine. I was sitting in
Speaker 4: the upper deck kind of behind home plate. I thought
Speaker 4: his home run was a line out the entire way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I did not. It just totally got me off guard.
Speaker 3: Me too, I thought it was best case scenario, would
Speaker 3: double off the wall, But I agree.
Speaker 1: I thought it was.
Speaker 3: I thought it wasn't hit hard enough honesty to be
Speaker 3: a home run. I don't know if you've noticed this,
Speaker 3: but they used to up until this season, they would
Speaker 3: have EXE will say a launch angle instantaneously when contact
Speaker 3: is made in center field. Now they don't put it
Speaker 3: up until after the play is over, which is annoying
Speaker 3: because I would use that as a crutch, like I
Speaker 3: would know immediately if it was going to be a
Speaker 3: home run or like a Warden Trive fly ball. Now
Speaker 3: I had I've lost that superpower and I'm just guessing
Speaker 3: with everyone else.
Speaker 5: But no, I was surprised.
Speaker 4: Yeah, me and some others up in the section that
Speaker 4: I was sitting in, we were like, that couldn't have
Speaker 4: been that hard off the bat, right, And that's something
Speaker 4: that I actually ran into our fellow coworker Tim Moran
Speaker 4: on the red line afterwards, and we were like, there's
Speaker 4: no way that was above like ninety five and I
Speaker 4: think it was ninety eight, let alone.
Speaker 1: But you know, I thought it was.
Speaker 4: I thought it was a line drive the whole time.
Speaker 4: Thought it was just gonna be okay, nice piece of hitting,
Speaker 4: but it gets caught for an out, but left Fielder
Speaker 4: kept running. I'm like, no way, And it didn't really
Speaker 4: kind of grasp me the reality of what had happened
Speaker 4: until kind of looking at Twitter afterwards and seeing how
Speaker 4: historic that game was, and so Nick, myself and Tim
Speaker 4: we were all there. This guy Jordan, he didn't find
Speaker 4: himself there, but you know what, that's fine.
Speaker 1: He was gabbing about it on Twitter. Though.
Speaker 2: Yes, I will always talk about everything.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 2: What people don't understand is I am doing this on purpose.
Speaker 2: I am doing you all a favor when it comes
Speaker 2: to player debuts because I was at every single one
Speaker 2: of the ones for the last rebuild. Monkata sees Copek.
Speaker 2: We see how that worked out. So I am doing
Speaker 2: everybody a favor. I'm staying far away from the debuts.
Speaker 2: That might change depending on one thing we will talk
Speaker 2: about when it comes to this weekend's rotation, because I
Speaker 2: will be there Friday Saturday, so that might change. But
Speaker 2: I have been staying far away from all of these
Speaker 2: debut for a good reason. I am doing you all
Speaker 2: a favor. So you're welcome, is what I'm trying to
Speaker 2: get at.
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess all all that, but I don't
Speaker 3: know if I buy it if we're being honest. But whatever,
Speaker 3: here's what I will say.
Speaker 5: Now, go ahead, you can pile on Brett. Go ahead.
Speaker 4: If we get a certain picture who gets called up
Speaker 4: and you're there and he stinks it all up.
Speaker 1: I think we know where to point our fingers to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like at a certain point I tried to tell you, guys,
Speaker 2: I guess maybe let's start there before we get too
Speaker 2: far in, though, I want to make sure I do
Speaker 2: the host duties. Be sure to subscribe to the Sacks
Speaker 2: on thirty fifth podcast Apple, Spotify, YouTube, subscribe to us
Speaker 2: on YouTube. We're really trying to grow it there, so
Speaker 2: please continue to look out for stuff there anywhere you
Speaker 2: get your podcasts. Also following us on social media Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
Speaker 2: at socks on thirty fifth and socks on thirty fifth
Speaker 2: dot Com is the website, so make sure to follow
Speaker 2: our stuff there as well. I see people in the
Speaker 2: chat who are saying they were season ticket holders during
Speaker 2: the Moncata era two. So much heartbreak, you see, I'm
Speaker 2: trying to save you from that. Let's start with the
Speaker 2: series that is coming after today, since we still don't
Speaker 2: know if they're actually going to play tonight's game.
Speaker 5: Against Braves the Dodgers.
Speaker 2: Based on how things are shaping up, Sean Berk Eric
Speaker 2: Fetti should probably be the first two that we expect
Speaker 2: to pitch during the series. There is an open spot
Speaker 2: on Saturday. Will Benable was very transparent before today's game.
Speaker 2: We don't know who is going to be there. A
Speaker 2: bunch of internal option. Might be a bullpen date, it
Speaker 2: might be the aforementioned Hagen Smith. I don't know how
Speaker 2: you guys feel about that. I know Hagen Smith has
Speaker 2: become a very divisive topic on White Sox Twitter. We
Speaker 2: know there have been some recent armslat changes. Again, I
Speaker 2: guess I'll start with that. I think we all kind
Speaker 2: of feel generally good about him. But do the armslat
Speaker 2: changes do the results kind of do anything for you?
Speaker 5: There?
Speaker 2: Are you just kind of like, I just want to
Speaker 2: see him at this point and then we can make
Speaker 2: those judgments.
Speaker 4: I mean, I will say that I really enjoy that
Speaker 4: I've seen the strikeout numbers kind of tick up a
Speaker 4: little bit recently. You know, we're still seeing lack of
Speaker 4: getting deep into games. Some of that, you know, with
Speaker 4: pitch counts are by design, but ultimately we're not seeing
Speaker 4: you know, six or seven inning outings at this point.
Speaker 4: I will say, though, like my kind of thing when
Speaker 4: it comes to Hagen Smith is that like kind of
Speaker 4: when is the right time. They've been aggressive in promoting
Speaker 4: all these other prospects throughout the entire year, and it's cool.
Speaker 4: We've had twelve guys come already. Hagan Smith is probably
Speaker 4: gonna end up being the thirteenth. I don't know what
Speaker 4: at this point.
Speaker 1: What what do you plan on saving him for?
Speaker 4: I mean, I know that we're starting to get health
Speaker 4: back of guys like Shane Smith and Tanner McDougal, but
Speaker 4: you know, it kind of seems like there's an opportunity
Speaker 4: with a guy like Noah Schultz on the IL.
Speaker 1: So I think that I saw someone tweet about this earlier.
Speaker 4: You're really throwing him to the wolves here against the Dodgers,
Speaker 4: if that's what they decide to do. But it's a
Speaker 4: great test to see if he can still be putting
Speaker 4: hitters away at the end of the day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree that There are really two thoughts I
Speaker 3: have on this. The first one is that in a
Speaker 3: recent I Think with MLB Network interview, Chris Ketz shared
Speaker 3: some thoughts on the strategy behind when he promotes guys
Speaker 3: like Riku Neshida being promoted on that Monday Memorial Day
Speaker 3: Day game against the Twins after a long road trip
Speaker 3: that was intentional to try to inject energy in the team.
Speaker 3: Brandon Montgomery one kind of similar, you know, coming into
Speaker 3: a really tough stretch. So I wouldn't be surprised if
Speaker 3: Hagen Smith gets promoted for the Dodgers series, just because
Speaker 3: it is a really tough stretch and you know, having
Speaker 3: someone that's that, you know, electric when he's right on
Speaker 3: the mound to watch, could you know, inject more energy
Speaker 3: into the team. So I like it from that point
Speaker 3: of view, and also like, yeah, it would be throwing
Speaker 3: him to the Wolves in terms of the Dodgers being
Speaker 3: a great lineup, But Hagen Smith is the kind of
Speaker 3: picture of where you could debut him against the Dodgers,
Speaker 3: or you could debut him against like, you know, an
Speaker 3: al Central team out the Twins or Royals or somebody.
Speaker 3: And I'm not sure if the stat line would be
Speaker 3: that different, solely because I feel like his problem, if
Speaker 3: he has an any problem in his debut, it is
Speaker 3: going to be that he'll walk like six batters, and
Speaker 3: I think that would happen no matter who he's facing.
Speaker 3: But he's the kind of picture whose stuff is good enough.
Speaker 3: And even if he walks six batters, he could be
Speaker 3: like Blake Snell and you know, only a lot one
Speaker 3: or one or two runs still strike out seven plus.
Speaker 3: So I kind of feel like he's a little bit
Speaker 3: insulated from the opponent just because of the type of
Speaker 3: picture he is and his his command issues in a
Speaker 3: way kind of neutralize the fact that it's a tough lineup.
Speaker 3: But that being said, now that I'm saying that, so
Speaker 3: we get called up against the Daughters and give up
Speaker 3: like four home runs.
Speaker 1: So, Jordan, what do you think.
Speaker 5: My thing is too?
Speaker 2: With always the armslots and lowering it. You know where
Speaker 2: I'm kind of going to go with this. I hate
Speaker 2: that the lower armslot kind of leads to an east
Speaker 2: west profile more, meaning it's like, hey, you're working on
Speaker 2: one plane consistently. I haven't seen enough pitch metric data
Speaker 2: on it. Baseball Savon kind of has some, but not
Speaker 2: a ton. I'd like to see it at the big
Speaker 2: league level before I start making any judgments on that.
Speaker 2: It's something I at least think about from that standpoint.
Speaker 2: That being said, I do agree, like at a certain point,
Speaker 2: and it does kind of get into a question that
Speaker 2: a fan has that we'll talk through later. At a
Speaker 2: certain point, you kind of have to see what guy's got, right, Like,
Speaker 2: you can only protect him for so long. We talked
Speaker 2: about the need to continue to churn through this roster
Speaker 2: because you don't have complete studs on either in your
Speaker 2: rotation or in your bullpen that are just mainstays outside
Speaker 2: of a few so you have to continue to churn
Speaker 2: and move it and try different things. And my opinion
Speaker 2: on it is Hagen Smith becomes that next iteration of it,
Speaker 2: and I don't know if it sticks. I don't know
Speaker 2: if maybe he's a three inning guy and it's a
Speaker 2: piggyback type situation. I don't know, I think. I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't know how you guys feel about this way.
Speaker 2: I feel like they should be open to a variety
Speaker 2: of different things and maybe they don't have to dead
Speaker 2: set him on a starter right away if they feel like,
Speaker 2: you know, there's maybe still a gap between where they
Speaker 2: want him to be and where he is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, and they've shown the flexibility with other
Speaker 4: pitchers you know, on the staff to give him a
Speaker 4: variety of different roles, and I think that kind of
Speaker 4: applying that philosophy towards Hagan Smith might not.
Speaker 1: Be a bad idea. So I feel like at this point,
Speaker 1: why not.
Speaker 3: Yeah, now I'm on the same page. I mean, they
Speaker 3: called up a Joe Rock the other day. He hasn't pitched,
Speaker 3: I don't think, but he's another guy. I mean, I
Speaker 3: know they're both lefties, so it might negate it a
Speaker 3: little bit, but he's another guy who can give you,
Speaker 3: you know, two to four innings if you want to,
Speaker 3: So they could be creative about it. They could even
Speaker 3: I mean probably not Sandling because they just sent him down,
Speaker 3: but they could even bring up somebody else from TRIPAA
Speaker 3: if they wanted to. You have a couple pretty fungible
Speaker 3: relievers in the Major League bullpen right now. I Chris
Speaker 3: Murphy for example, where you could probably send him down
Speaker 3: and don't have to worry about it too much. So yeah,
Speaker 3: they can be creative for sure. I mean, I think
Speaker 3: it would be kind of cool a month or two
Speaker 3: from now if Hagen Smith and Tanner McDougal would piggyback
Speaker 3: off each other in the Majors throughly three or four
Speaker 3: innings each that kind of thing. But we're obviously he's
Speaker 3: not healthy right now. Doogal so well to wait for that,
Speaker 3: But I totally agree being open to different kinds of
Speaker 3: roles with the picture like Smith, you almost kind of
Speaker 3: have to be because if you plan on him going
Speaker 3: six innings and he has control issues in the second
Speaker 3: inning and can't get out of it, you need to
Speaker 3: have that time be either way.
Speaker 2: So let me ask this because I think it's a
Speaker 2: good natural transition to where I maybe want to go
Speaker 2: with kind of continuing our conversation today. You mentioned a
Speaker 2: McDougal and kind of the injury idea behind it and
Speaker 2: trying to still ease guys back in but also get
Speaker 2: value out of all of them. Another big reason we're
Speaker 2: doing this podcast today is because the White Socks are
Speaker 2: in sole possession of first place and at the June eleventh,
Speaker 2: and I don't think any of us expected that. So
Speaker 2: take a moment to really think about what I just said.
Speaker 2: From there, though, yes, what sixty seven games or so
Speaker 2: win of the season. League's taking notice. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of talk about trade deadline stuff. Again, we'll get into
Speaker 2: that with some of the fan comments. If you're just
Speaker 2: joining throw your comments in the chat or your questions
Speaker 2: in the chat, and we'll try to get to as
Speaker 2: many of those as we can at the end of
Speaker 2: the show. Regardless, Fangrafts is currently having the White Sox
Speaker 2: sit at a twenty five percent chance to.
Speaker 5: Make the playoffs. How do you feel about that number?
Speaker 5: Too high?
Speaker 1: Too low?
Speaker 2: I mean, there's the obvious impact of Mooney, Teal Schultz, McDougall,
Speaker 2: maybe Hagen Smith, maybe Shane Smith. I don't know, Like
Speaker 2: there's a lot of unknown still and again we're kind
Speaker 2: of in the middle of the gauntlet of Hey, you're
Speaker 2: at least taking two of three from the Braves.
Speaker 5: Then you've got the Dodgers and the Yankees. Like where
Speaker 5: does that number feel to you? Too high? Too low?
Speaker 5: Just right?
Speaker 2: Like where where let's check the vibes at a certain
Speaker 2: point here?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean to me, it feels too low. Like
Speaker 3: if you put a gun to my head right now,
Speaker 3: I would probably say they were going to make the
Speaker 3: playoffs if I'm just being honest.
Speaker 1: Really, I've talked about this.
Speaker 5: That is kind of wild. I don't time, I don't
Speaker 5: mean to catch off. I don't mean to cutch off.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, No, I mean other I read lot. I've
Speaker 1: said this before. I read a lot of what other.
Speaker 3: Teams say about us just because I'm curious, and they
Speaker 3: all think, well, look at that rotation, like Davis Martin
Speaker 3: seems like he might be fine, but the wheels are
Speaker 3: about to fall off there. And that might be true.
Speaker 3: But you kind of just said in Jordan, there are
Speaker 3: so many options coming up soon between Smith, McDougall, maybe
Speaker 3: Shane Smith even becomes an option later in the second half.
Speaker 3: And then you have guys like Mason Adams Drew Thorpe
Speaker 3: that are currently working back from injury that could also
Speaker 3: play a factors. So, and then there's the trade market, right.
Speaker 3: So my opinion is that the offense is good enough
Speaker 3: that it can withstand, you know, less than average part
Speaker 3: in starting pitching, and the bullpen I think is underrated
Speaker 3: because Grant Taylor, Sean Newcombe, Ryan Hudson, and st Anthony
Speaker 3: Domanga is less so Domanga's but those first three guys
Speaker 3: especially are all very dependable guys out of the bullpen,
Speaker 3: and I don't really think there's that much floopy stuff
Speaker 3: going on with their numbers that would lead me to
Speaker 3: believe that they're going to fall off a cliff or
Speaker 3: anything like that. So the Fangrafts thing, I've looked into
Speaker 3: their projections and they basically are projecting that every single
Speaker 3: hitter on the White Sox is going to vast regress
Speaker 3: and have like a WRC plus below one hundred, even
Speaker 3: Vargas and Montgomery like like between now and the rest
Speaker 3: of the season. They're basically saying they're all going to
Speaker 3: be blow outrig hitters. I just don't think that's going
Speaker 3: to happen. I mean, maybe I'm drinking too much kool Aid,
Speaker 3: but I'm not saying this team's going to win the
Speaker 3: division and get a first run buy or whatever they're
Speaker 3: in line to do right now. But I think it
Speaker 3: very well could be a playoff team, especially with Tila
Speaker 3: Murakami back. Ideally within the next you know, three to
Speaker 3: four weeks. The LINEU wouldn't really have a single hole
Speaker 3: in it at that point. So I'm, yeah, I'm drinking
Speaker 3: the kolid. I think twenty five is too low. I'd
Speaker 3: probably say like fifty to sixty if I had to
Speaker 3: put a number on it.
Speaker 2: It's so hard to write with the projections piece of it,
Speaker 2: because it's like, yes, these projections are built off of, Hey,
Speaker 2: what is fan refs think these players are going to do?
Speaker 2: And like, I get it, there's been some inconsistency with Vargas' career.
Speaker 2: You don't know what Murakami is going to be long term,
Speaker 2: Like you had a couple good months of data, but
Speaker 2: you don't have long term data to base it off of.
Speaker 2: And that's why it's so hard to to take that
Speaker 2: number and feel any certain way about it, because you're
Speaker 2: you've got a team that has twelve guys making their
Speaker 2: major league debuts. There's not a lot of data debase
Speaker 2: it all off of. And that's whereas like I don't
Speaker 2: know what to say, Brett, what say you?
Speaker 1: Well, I happen to.
Speaker 4: Be looking at Baseball Reference earlier and they have some
Speaker 4: really interesting odds for us. They have sixty one percent
Speaker 4: to have stocks to make the playoffs. And here's the
Speaker 4: deeper one that kind of blew my mind.
Speaker 1: A little bit.
Speaker 4: They're given the Socks a thirteen percent chance to make
Speaker 4: the league championship series.
Speaker 5: That feels high.
Speaker 1: That feels that feels hid high.
Speaker 4: Okay, But honestly, I think between where fangrafts and kind
Speaker 4: of where like Nick and Baseball Reference, it I feel
Speaker 4: like I'm kind of in the middle of those two,
Speaker 4: so but kind of like in like the thirty five
Speaker 4: forty percent. You know, it's just I find myself really
Speaker 4: going back and forth here between the fact that we're
Speaker 4: performing without probably our two two better hitters on the
Speaker 4: team in Kyle Teal and Murakami. Right now, like we
Speaker 4: are finding ways to win ball games. We're scoring, We're
Speaker 4: scoring at were you know, we're I think we were
Speaker 4: scoring like four point something runs before Murakami got hurt,
Speaker 4: and now we're scoring five and a half per game
Speaker 4: since Murakami's been hurt.
Speaker 1: Obviously smaller sample.
Speaker 4: Size, but the team is continuing to show that we
Speaker 4: are not just We're not just the Bash Brothers at
Speaker 4: this point.
Speaker 1: We can do that.
Speaker 4: We can be the Bash Brothers, but we can be
Speaker 4: you know, a line to line, pole to pole kind
Speaker 4: of team, which is being able to showcase all those
Speaker 4: different kinds of hitting has been super cool. But I
Speaker 4: would say that, you know, it's getting likely er by
Speaker 4: the day, and that is what is making this really
Speaker 4: stupidly fun, because it feels like with every win, with
Speaker 4: every kind of successful game of baseball they play, it's
Speaker 4: like this is this is still real. This is not
Speaker 4: some fever dream, you know, fake insanity run because they're
Speaker 4: playing competent baseball in many different ways.
Speaker 5: And that's the hard part of.
Speaker 2: Being like an unbiased fan who's trying to like objectively
Speaker 2: think about the game.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: Because we entered this season, I think all of us
Speaker 2: were kind of like, you know what, we'll evaluate as
Speaker 2: we go. We're trying to be objective. We know this
Speaker 2: is going to suck. It just hopefully it's going to
Speaker 2: suck less than last year. Now we're getting into games
Speaker 2: where you think about like Tuesday Night, where just berating
Speaker 2: the bunting strategy behind it, and you're like, well, what
Speaker 2: I feel this way if this team was ten games
Speaker 2: fifteen games below five hundred and no, probably not.
Speaker 5: I probably wouldn't say a thing about it.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, it's like, Okay, you have
Speaker 2: those thoughts about a baseball game, right, you get frustrated
Speaker 2: when those things happen. But at the same time, here's
Speaker 2: me on the other end, Like I don't know if
Speaker 2: I can say, like with fifty to sixty percent confidence
Speaker 2: that the Socks are making the playoffs. So it's really
Speaker 2: hard to kind of balance those two ideas of, Hey,
Speaker 2: there is some objectivity I have to place on evaluating
Speaker 2: the team, But how much do I about I agree
Speaker 2: twenty five is probably low. I'm not at fifty percent yet.
Speaker 2: I'm probably closer to Brett in the thirty forty. And
Speaker 2: I think Sean Anderson, when we talked with him a
Speaker 2: couple weeks ago, kind of said it, well, we kind
Speaker 2: of have this discussion a little bit. Play Cleveland first.
Speaker 2: Getting this far Without playing Cleveland, I want to see
Speaker 2: how the White Sex match up against who, for all
Speaker 2: intents and purposes, is probably the only team that is
Speaker 2: really going to make a run at the division other
Speaker 2: than the White Sox. If you can go in that
Speaker 2: first series look really good, maybe take two of three
Speaker 2: and really set the tone for how you're going to play,
Speaker 2: then maybe I feel better about Hey, now we're forty
Speaker 2: fifty percent. If they're keeping toe to toe, I personally
Speaker 2: don't view this nine game stretch against this Gauntlet to
Speaker 2: be anything more than Hey, a nine game stretch against
Speaker 2: the Gauntlet. Tell me how they do against Cleveland, and
Speaker 2: then I'll start having more of those discussions. But Brett,
Speaker 2: to your point, it's fun to be where this team
Speaker 2: is at I just I don't know if I'm ready
Speaker 2: yet to flip the switch for this is fun too.
Speaker 2: Now I have expectations to where even the bad moments
Speaker 2: hurt way more. I have to be ready to flip
Speaker 2: that switch. I don't think I am yet.
Speaker 1: It's gonna hurt. I'm just like I feel like I'm waiting.
Speaker 4: I'm waiting for just like you know, and I guess
Speaker 4: kind of the Murkcammie injury that kind of felt that way,
Speaker 4: a little bit of just like ooh, something happened, like
Speaker 4: the magic kind of disappeared for only like two seconds,
Speaker 4: which was great, but in the moment, it hurt real bad.
Speaker 4: You know. It feels like because we're coming off of
Speaker 4: so many hundred lost seasons in a row, we're waiting
Speaker 4: for it. But I don't know, man, it's fun to
Speaker 4: relish in the fun.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I really like the point you made bright
Speaker 3: about how they can beat you in so many different ways.
Speaker 3: Like earlier in the season it was home runs after
Speaker 3: home runs. Now it's like they can win these two
Speaker 3: to one games against you. They can get on base.
Speaker 3: I mean, one of the reasons I feel so strongly
Speaker 3: that they're actually a good team is because I spend
Speaker 3: a lot of time looking at you know, like the
Speaker 3: underlying metrics more for offense than pitching of the offense
Speaker 3: is what's more impressive to me, And pretty much every
Speaker 3: player on this team that's that's hitting well is doing
Speaker 3: so one way that I think is sustainable. Like Sure
Speaker 3: Vargas and Coolson Montgomery might end up playing worse than
Speaker 3: they are right now, but their current profiles don't have
Speaker 3: any big red flags from them. The only player on
Speaker 3: the White Slacks where I look at his underlying metrics
Speaker 3: and he's probably going to fall off unfortunately, as Tristan Peters,
Speaker 3: and I do still think he's a good player. Even
Speaker 3: if he falls off, like he's a great defender, he
Speaker 3: still has value. I don't think he's like a three
Speaker 3: hundred hitter with the one twenty WRC quels. I hope
Speaker 3: he personally wrong, but there's just so much to like
Speaker 3: about the offense that everyone wants to focus so much
Speaker 3: on the lack of pitching depth, which I hear you on,
Speaker 3: but it's also like I could see this team in
Speaker 3: July August when the weather's hot at home games, like
Speaker 3: you know, comfortably hitting two home runs a game and
Speaker 3: just outscoring in these high scoring games.
Speaker 1: So I'm I'm optimistic personally.
Speaker 2: I do like you're point to about just the sustainability
Speaker 2: of how they're playing.
Speaker 5: It comes back to, you, know, how.
Speaker 2: Backed in your results are, like retainable. I guess habits
Speaker 2: there's a better way to say that. But like, hey,
Speaker 2: if you're got a three hundred batting average and you're
Speaker 2: running a four hundred babbit, okay, now we got to
Speaker 2: talk about that. But hey, if you're being really disciplined
Speaker 2: in the zone, making good swing decisions, taking your walks,
Speaker 2: and hitting the ball out of the ballpark, Okay, now
Speaker 2: that starts to look a bit better. And that's where
Speaker 2: I feel good about it. I continue, maybe just how
Speaker 2: my mind works to focus on the pitching staff, Like
Speaker 2: at a certain point you have to make sure you're
Speaker 2: either consistently churning that or adding a little bit to it.
Speaker 2: I just don't think this current iteration is going to
Speaker 2: keep the wheels turning forever. Like you're gonna have to
Speaker 2: continue to be active, continue to be smart. Doesn't mean
Speaker 2: you need to add somebody every single time, but it
Speaker 2: means you have to continue to churn through things. One
Speaker 2: way they're doing that on the offense though, is ever
Speaker 2: since Pereira is back, he's in the lineup tonight, assuming
Speaker 2: they get the game in. For those of you who
Speaker 2: are wondering about the weather, I don't know. It's sunny
Speaker 2: here and I'm in the suburbs, but it gets nasty fast.
Speaker 2: They bring back Everson Pereira, trade Derek Hill to the
Speaker 2: Phillies for a couple of prospects.
Speaker 5: I don't know how you guys feel about that.
Speaker 2: It's not a flashy move, right, but number one, it
Speaker 2: kind of helps ease against Hey, is there any Tristan
Speaker 2: Peter's regression that comes? And number two gives you a
Speaker 2: true power bat off the bench or for tonight in
Speaker 2: the lineup. But gentlemen, how do we feel about the
Speaker 2: Derek Hill trade that brought back a couple of prospects.
Speaker 4: I am gonna tip my cap to Derek Hill and
Speaker 4: say thank you for your service. You know, he was
Speaker 4: fun to have around. There were some cool pinch hit
Speaker 4: like moments the Derek Hill game where he hit the
Speaker 4: go ahead home run and made the diving catch in
Speaker 4: the ninth That was awesome. And I think that you
Speaker 4: know now we got him from waivers last year. He
Speaker 4: was probably gonna get deffaide if no one wanted him,
Speaker 4: and now we get two prospects out of it. So
Speaker 4: Derek Hill, thanks for your service.
Speaker 1: It was great, haven't you. Yeah?
Speaker 3: I think Brett put it well. That was one of
Speaker 3: the moves because we got him and it was pretty
Speaker 3: late in the season. It was like August or September
Speaker 3: last year. And when I saw the mortification of every
Speaker 3: thinking like just why, like why are you wasting a
Speaker 3: forty man spot on this guy? And then why are
Speaker 3: you keeping him on the forty man the full winch,
Speaker 3: I was actually annoyed, and then he won me over
Speaker 3: this season. He wasn't that flashy like you guys said,
Speaker 3: but he played his role well. He played good defense,
Speaker 3: he's fast, he could get hits off of lefties like
Speaker 3: he fulfilled his purpose. And it's unfortunate because we could
Speaker 3: have used players like Derek Hill a lot over the
Speaker 3: last decade and now we have this weird problem where well,
Speaker 3: Gritchik is hitting too well to get rid of him,
Speaker 3: so obviously you'll keep him. And we had to send
Speaker 3: down Nishida. I know know Sheiet's numbers weren't great, but
Speaker 3: I still would have liked him to get a bit
Speaker 3: more of a shot. We just can't afford it. The
Speaker 3: team is too good. So yeah, I don't have the
Speaker 3: highest of hopes for the prospects we got, but it's
Speaker 3: better to get something than nothing, like you said, And
Speaker 3: Perera obviously was quite impressive early on in the season.
Speaker 3: So I'm excited to have him back out in center
Speaker 3: field tonight, like you said, assuming the game happens, because
Speaker 3: he's one of those guys too, where we were talking
Speaker 3: before he got hurt. I mean we tumultively. We were
Speaker 3: all talking about whether this was like going to be
Speaker 3: like a masterpiece gets move like that Everson Pereira just
Speaker 3: show up and become like a long term outfield solution.
Speaker 3: And I mean, maybe it's way too early to say,
Speaker 3: but I want to. I want to see him play
Speaker 3: all summer and make that discrimination. So he definitely adds
Speaker 3: needed power against left handed pitching, because we saw that
Speaker 3: lineup against Chris Sale last night. They scratched across a
Speaker 3: couple of runs. But Matt, that was not a very
Speaker 3: good looking lineup on paper.
Speaker 2: I know, you get to some of these games where
Speaker 2: it's like, cool, we got all these left handed prospects
Speaker 2: and cool, awesome, can't wait, and they're like, oh shit,
Speaker 2: there are major league left handed starting pitchers that will
Speaker 2: absolutely carve you because they're pretty good.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think the Pereira the Hill move is interesting from
Speaker 2: the prayer standpoint. I think it was nice to be
Speaker 2: able to get anything for a guy you were going
Speaker 2: to be fa like that. That was the alternative. You
Speaker 2: found a desperate Phillies team who needed a Adolas Garcia replacement.
Speaker 2: And sometimes things just go your way if you're in baseball,
Speaker 2: if you're a GM whatever. That's one of those things
Speaker 2: that just went Chris gets his way, probably saved to
Speaker 2: Cunya a little bit, though. I know he has been
Speaker 2: hitting a little bit better recently and just naturally opened
Speaker 2: up a spot. But to your point, Nick, like there
Speaker 2: wasn't going to be an easy there's I think they're
Speaker 2: out of easy moves right like at this point because
Speaker 2: bringing Moone back well, I guess one last easy move
Speaker 2: is probably moving Drew Romo back down for Kyle Teal.
Speaker 2: That's probably your last easy move what they do when
Speaker 2: Mooney comes back. If Gonzalez continues to hit well, I
Speaker 2: don't know. Acunya isn't exactly a foregone conclusion if he
Speaker 2: continues to do smart things on the base paths, right Like,
Speaker 2: so it's becomes a little bit more challenging with each
Speaker 2: move moving forward for this team, which is a great
Speaker 2: problem to have. And tip your cap to Derek Hill, though,
Speaker 2: and tip your cap to Chris Getz for capitalizing on
Speaker 2: the situation because at the end of the day, Nick,
Speaker 2: like you, they made that move. I remember doing like
Speaker 2: our preseason prediction like I don't need to see Derek
Speaker 2: Hill on this roster, and I'm like, all right, you
Speaker 2: know what, Derek Hill did a pretty good job for
Speaker 2: the role he he was asked to play. So I
Speaker 2: have one more question for you guys before we get
Speaker 2: into fan questions. So those of you who are listening,
Speaker 2: if you have not submitted a question you would like
Speaker 2: us to get to, please do so. Now between the
Speaker 2: end of the Brave series the start of the Dodgers series,
Speaker 2: these next let's just say, these next four games, right, like,
Speaker 2: what is the measure of success to you guys? Maybe
Speaker 2: that goes along with your feelings of how this team
Speaker 2: should be performing going like, think about postseason expectations right, Like,
Speaker 2: or is it still good enough for you to say, Hey,
Speaker 2: as long as you're competitive in these games, that's still
Speaker 2: good enough for me. Like where does that fall in
Speaker 2: terms of, you know, you've taken two of three from
Speaker 2: one of the best teams in baseball at the very least,
Speaker 2: and now you have another one of the best teams
Speaker 2: in baseball coming in right after that. What is success
Speaker 2: over this next four game period to you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean for me, it's kind of what you
Speaker 3: were saying about just be competitive. Because I know it
Speaker 3: sounds ironic. I'm the guys saying I think to make
Speaker 3: the playoffs. But at the same time, I think the
Speaker 3: team that makes the playoffs has Murakami and Teal in
Speaker 3: the lineup, and also Colson missed the last couple of games,
Speaker 3: and I don't think that Eric Cofetti or Anthony k
Speaker 3: will be part of the rotation by then. So just
Speaker 3: be competitive, don't get swept. That's my goal for both
Speaker 3: the Dodgers and the Yankees series. That being said, it
Speaker 3: was also my goal for the Brave series, and we
Speaker 3: might even be the ones doing the sweeping. Hopefully we'll see.
Speaker 3: So this team continues to you know, blow past my expectations,
Speaker 3: but yeah, I just look competitive. I mean, I'm sure
Speaker 3: there'll be one of these games against the Dodger Yankees
Speaker 3: that the Socks lose like ten to nothing and everyone's
Speaker 3: going to start losing their minds. But as long as
Speaker 3: that's not a theme, as long as it's a one off,
Speaker 3: I think it'll be okay.
Speaker 1: One blowout.
Speaker 4: I can live with anything more than one blowout. I
Speaker 4: think I'd be pretty upset. Yeah, but yeah, like really
Speaker 4: just like you know, with these four games, if we're
Speaker 4: two and two, I think I'm pretty pleased at the
Speaker 4: end of the day because you know, we still have
Speaker 4: another Yank we still have another big series coming up too,
Speaker 4: and then by the time we're done with the Yankees,
Speaker 4: then it's pretty much we're getting to Cleveland.
Speaker 1: So you know, this kind of this little gauntlet, it
Speaker 1: really continues.
Speaker 4: Like I kind of view it as just a tough
Speaker 4: month of baseball, including Cleveland, you know, but I think
Speaker 4: that they're continuing to play good baseball, and that's kind
Speaker 4: of my minimum mask here, just keep playing good baseball.
Speaker 2: I think I'm in the same boat again, But that
Speaker 2: comes from someone who is just like still at the
Speaker 2: place of I don't know what to think about this
Speaker 2: team yet. I'm having a crap ton of fun though,
Speaker 2: and that's where I'll continue me as long as we
Speaker 2: keep having fun, I guess it doesn't.
Speaker 5: Matter to me that much.
Speaker 2: Just yet again sweep the Braves win two of three
Speaker 2: from the Dodgers. Now we now we start having different
Speaker 2: conversations at a certain point, but cool, I do want
Speaker 2: to save some time for some fan question. Thanks to
Speaker 2: all of you who have already submitted some. I see
Speaker 2: some continue to come through the YouTube chat. Still continue
Speaker 2: to send them along. We'll get to as many as
Speaker 2: we can. I will start with one I've seen both
Speaker 2: on YouTube and on Twitter previously. This one comes from
Speaker 2: on Twitter Sir Stony Island, at Antonio Belile and at
Speaker 2: alex W three six eight on YouTube. Starting pitching at
Speaker 2: the trade deadline, it continues to be a topic of conversation.
Speaker 2: We've kind of had a little bit of it. It's
Speaker 2: been on social media. Consistently. Give me some names, just
Speaker 2: as realistic as you think it might be. Doesn't have
Speaker 2: to be the perfect trade. But who are you thinking
Speaker 2: in terms of how realistic would you go here?
Speaker 3: Yeah, one name that I like is Sonny Gray. I
Speaker 3: think the Red Sox are more likely not to sell
Speaker 3: at this point. That's actually the problem with this exercise, honestly,
Speaker 3: is so many teams are around five hundred right now
Speaker 3: that is difficult to say who's gonna sell, who's gonna buy,
Speaker 3: so obviously that limits the options. But I like Gray
Speaker 3: because he still eats innings. He's still an above average
Speaker 3: pitcher or two. He wouldn't blow your socks off as
Speaker 3: like an ace of the staff running that, but he'd
Speaker 3: be a solid third guy. You can trust him to
Speaker 3: start a playoff again if you have to. And most importantly,
Speaker 3: the acquisition costs I don't think would be as high
Speaker 3: as like a read det Mers that I've seen floating around,
Speaker 3: just because he doesn't have as long as team control
Speaker 3: and I don't think but I think det Mers, you
Speaker 3: could reasonably at this point ask for like a real
Speaker 3: top thirty to fifty profits in baseball for him to headline,
Speaker 3: given how how good he's been this year. I don't
Speaker 3: think you can make that same kind of ask with
Speaker 3: the you know, thirty five ish year old rental in Gray.
Speaker 1: You know, I've seen some really interesting answers to this one.
Speaker 4: Just on Twitter seeing a lot of I've seen like
Speaker 4: you know, like Ken Rosenthal talk about you know, just
Speaker 4: acquiring kind of like a just an inning, like another
Speaker 4: innings eater.
Speaker 1: And I've seen like some names like even like Seth
Speaker 1: Lugo get thrown around like some of the Royal starters.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't know a team that I'm really interested to
Speaker 4: see kind of maybe where their season is going to
Speaker 4: go in this regard.
Speaker 1: What about the San Francisco Giants.
Speaker 4: They've got some interesting pictures that I'm like, hmmm, if
Speaker 4: their season continues to be awful, I could be I
Speaker 4: could be interested in a couple of these guys.
Speaker 2: I think of all the names I've heard so far,
Speaker 2: Sunny Gray is probably my favorite.
Speaker 1: Nick.
Speaker 5: I think that fits the.
Speaker 2: Bill of a guy who just will go out there
Speaker 2: eat innings, but does so in relatively good fashion, like
Speaker 2: there there are there are still ace outings out of him,
Speaker 2: even as he's a little bit older at this point
Speaker 2: of his year. I actually really like Sunny Gray here.
Speaker 2: Carmen low Dinski or something like that with Pittsburgh is
Speaker 2: another one, just because he's been frustrated there that he
Speaker 2: hasn't been starting and very vocal about it. To be clear,
Speaker 2: maybe a little too vocal about it. You worry about
Speaker 2: some the clubhouse concerns, but at the same time I
Speaker 2: get the frustration that would be another name I'd go with.
Speaker 2: Sunny Gray is definitely my favorite one so far, and
Speaker 2: I do think it makes plenty of sense. Next question
Speaker 2: we'll go to is from at Chi Sacks Ryan on Twitter.
Speaker 2: With all the questions or with all the issues we
Speaker 2: have had with the bullpen, why are they so reluctant
Speaker 2: to bring up ben people's The only reason I can
Speaker 2: think of would be that they are saving the arm
Speaker 2: for trade bait. So I think we've had this conversation
Speaker 2: a lot on this show, and I think we've all
Speaker 2: kind of fallen in the camp of just bring them up,
Speaker 2: see what happens, right, But we've also said, like, hey,
Speaker 2: we said that before about the Peyton Pillettes of the
Speaker 2: world and stuff like that. So maybe the Socks knows something.
Speaker 2: What I will dig into and I will say is
Speaker 2: this looked at him a little bit, seems like a
Speaker 2: very fastball, slider heavy combination fastball is just okay, right,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get a little nerd specific here, so for
Speaker 2: those who.
Speaker 5: Hate this, I apologize.
Speaker 2: Fastball has some okay rise to It's sixteen inches of
Speaker 2: horizontal movement or excuse me, vertical movement, and it's very
Speaker 2: little vertical so it's a very straight fastball and a
Speaker 2: gyro slider, so it's a lot of just north south
Speaker 2: like kind of right on top of it.
Speaker 5: He struggles mightily to lefties.
Speaker 1: As well, though.
Speaker 2: He has a sixteen percent walk rate in total, which
Speaker 2: is way too high in the first place, but it's
Speaker 2: eighteen percent to lefties and it's thirty percent strike I
Speaker 2: rate looks awesome. It's forty four percent against righty's twelve
Speaker 2: percent against lefties. He has walked more lefty batters than
Speaker 2: he struck out. Maybe that profile of rising fastball that
Speaker 2: doesn't rise that much, and then gyro slider isn't what
Speaker 2: he needs right now. Maybe they need to continue to
Speaker 2: make adjustments.
Speaker 5: I go from there.
Speaker 2: But if the question is why might they be reluctant,
Speaker 2: that's a reason I could get. I don't know if
Speaker 2: it's the reason I think the pitch shapes maybe aren't
Speaker 2: great yet, I'd be curious to see what Peyton Pollett's
Speaker 2: pitch shapes kind of look like too in kind of
Speaker 2: diving into it. But again I cautioned about getting as
Speaker 2: much as I'm like, churn, churn, churn, churn. I'm like,
Speaker 2: at a certain point, if we keep calling for a
Speaker 2: name and they don't bring him up, like there's got
Speaker 2: to be a reason at a certain point is kind
Speaker 2: of how I view it. I don't know if you
Speaker 2: guys feel differently, but that's my two cents on Bend Peoples.
Speaker 4: Especially if he's sorry, go ahead, Brett, No, I was
Speaker 4: gonna say, I don't really got much more on that one.
Speaker 4: I mean, we're just seeing kind of certain things, like
Speaker 4: you know, really work in a sense, and I feel
Speaker 4: like the way that we end up seeing Pollette or
Speaker 4: People's is probably an injury at this point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's probably fair. And if he's struggling against
Speaker 3: the lefties, that's obviously not a good sign. I didn't
Speaker 3: realize that the extent of the you know, the more
Speaker 3: more walks and strikeouts aince lefty, that's obviously a red flag.
Speaker 3: So the guy I was really I did to see
Speaker 3: from Charlotte as a reliever was Wicklham and Gonzalez. I
Speaker 3: know he got injured, but before he got injured. He
Speaker 3: was looking pretty good. I thought he looked good in
Speaker 3: the majors last year's who I was surprised he didn't
Speaker 3: really get another chance in April with the big, big
Speaker 3: legue club. But I hope he's help these to him
Speaker 3: because that's a guy that I think will have more
Speaker 3: of an immediate impact. I mean people might obviously, I
Speaker 3: just don't know, like you said, Jordan, if it'll transfer
Speaker 3: as well as someone like Gonzales, who I think has
Speaker 3: a little bit more upside.
Speaker 2: And again, here's the last thing I'll say on this too,
Speaker 2: is like, Okay, why does the struggles against lefties matter? Well,
Speaker 2: because with the three batter minimum, you can't really hide
Speaker 2: that at a certain point, so you have to be
Speaker 2: able to be competitive lefties and righties. So all right,
Speaker 2: I'm going to take this question as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2: The only reason I'm taking this question is because it's
Speaker 2: semi draft related for those who may be listening for
Speaker 2: the first time. I am a high school coach in
Speaker 2: the Chicogland area. We faced Land and Tony and Nazareth
Speaker 2: Academy in the playoffs this year. Tomey obviously getting a
Speaker 2: lot of hype as a potential name for the White
Speaker 2: Sox in the second round of this year's draft. This
Speaker 2: question came from Josh Nelson over Its Socks Machine. He
Speaker 2: was there, he saw Land and Tony crushed a homer
Speaker 2: against us, and you want to know what pitch was on.
Speaker 2: It was on a fastball. I will say, a very
Speaker 2: impressive baseball player. Like there is some great talent in
Speaker 2: the Schogland area. We've been fortunate to play quite a
Speaker 2: few really really top to your talents. We played Tyler
Speaker 2: Bell back in the day for those who really followed
Speaker 2: the draft before. He ended up at Kentucky and now
Speaker 2: he's a clear first round pick. So very very talented
Speaker 2: baseball player in Land and Tony. I thought we had
Speaker 2: a great strategy going in. He was one for three
Speaker 2: that day with a K. But you know, when you
Speaker 2: have that much talent and you're getting that much talk
Speaker 2: and helium in your draft status, you can't miss your
Speaker 2: spots with fastballs.
Speaker 5: And we learned that the hard way.
Speaker 2: So Josh, for your reporting purposes, there is the answer
Speaker 2: to the Land and Tony question. A couple more I
Speaker 2: saw on YouTube as we're closing out here. One is
Speaker 2: about Cleveland from Jake Richard Myers, I'm curious about your
Speaker 2: take on Cleveland. You mentioned it's what you're looking at
Speaker 2: to decide when to get excited. What do you see
Speaker 2: is the biggest challenge from them. I know that question
Speaker 2: is probably directed at me, and I have some thoughts,
Speaker 2: but I'm curious if either of you have any thoughts
Speaker 2: on Cleveland just in general.
Speaker 1: Yeah, some of their their pitching is you know, I
Speaker 1: feel like they do this almost every year in a
Speaker 1: very annoying way.
Speaker 4: But they have some scary pitchers right now, some of
Speaker 4: their young guys that have kind of come around, like
Speaker 4: the Parker Mestics of the world and the Kate Smiths
Speaker 4: of the world. It is it's very interesting to see
Speaker 4: what they've got going on.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. They do this crap every year.
Speaker 4: They somehow get a team that they don't decide to
Speaker 4: spend in free agency. They find themselves at the top
Speaker 4: of the division every year. But ultimately, like they their
Speaker 4: style of baseball is generally pretty good.
Speaker 1: I know how to do it. They have a system
Speaker 1: that they've been going. They find ways to win ball
Speaker 1: games every year. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, to me, it's just how do you pitch against
Speaker 3: Jose Ramirez. It's not really a good way to do that,
Speaker 3: but he's the guy that kills you pretty much every year,
Speaker 3: and I would like to see. I'm not even a
Speaker 3: different approach because, like I said, it's not a good
Speaker 3: answer to the question, but I just want to see
Speaker 3: what they do. The only other thing I'll say about
Speaker 3: Cleveland is I have enjoyed seeing the respect slash fear
Speaker 3: out of their fan base over the last couple of
Speaker 3: weeks of like this White Sox Sea reminds me of
Speaker 3: like a more fun version of us. One of the
Speaker 3: comments I saw, or like a version of like more
Speaker 3: aura than us, Like he's always just trying their absolute
Speaker 3: hardest and it loves playing for each other.
Speaker 1: And I can't help but agree.
Speaker 3: So I'm looking forward to those series.
Speaker 2: One thing I will say, kind of on top of this,
Speaker 2: I've I've never had any data to back this up.
Speaker 2: I've always felt like the White Sox druggle within in
Speaker 2: division scouting, and I've never feel like they have entered
Speaker 2: games and series the best plan possible for Hey, which
Speaker 2: guys do you can't let or which guys can't beat you?
Speaker 2: And how do you approach those guys? How do you
Speaker 2: pitch those guys. Nick, to your point on Jose Ramirez,
Speaker 2: this year has been way better. Maybe the talent of
Speaker 2: the other teams has been worse that that might be
Speaker 2: part of it. But at the same time, I feel
Speaker 2: like these past couple of years under Venerable have been
Speaker 2: pretty good. Cleveland is that hurtle though. Cleveland is that
Speaker 2: team that you know when you talk about churning rosters
Speaker 2: and finding value out of nowhere and just extracting every
Speaker 2: ounce of talent out of a player and then churning
Speaker 2: and finding someone else. Cleveland does that as well as anyone. Cleveland, Milwaukee,
Speaker 2: Tampa Bay, those are the types of teams that do
Speaker 2: it better than anyone. So you're always going to have
Speaker 2: for me, You're always gonna have that fear going to Cleveland.
Speaker 2: I know people hate the Twins and like, oh those guys,
Speaker 2: Like the biggest rivals are the Twins. I will forever
Speaker 2: say it's Cleveland because they know how to find value
Speaker 2: on the margins better than anyone else in the division.
Speaker 2: And that's why that will continue to be the biggest
Speaker 2: one for me, just because yeah, even these great teams
Speaker 2: like Atlanta are going to have off days.
Speaker 5: Cleveland.
Speaker 2: You're going to have a hard time every single game
Speaker 2: you're walking into that building and just always been that way,
Speaker 2: and it's a credit to that organization more than anything else.
Speaker 5: I'm looking through here. I think there was one.
Speaker 2: Other question about a trade target. I think it was
Speaker 2: Yordan Alvarez. I will say I don't think that one
Speaker 2: is particularly reasonable. I think the White Sox are going
Speaker 2: to play very close to the vest and really not
Speaker 2: change anything. I think the last or change anything big,
Speaker 2: I will say, I think the last question I'll ask
Speaker 2: here is we're wrapping it up. Also from Alex w
Speaker 2: three six eight. I think this is a good question.
Speaker 2: Do you honestly think Will Venable can take this team
Speaker 2: to a World series based on what you've seen so far?
Speaker 2: That's a tough question. Yeah, And I like that there
Speaker 2: was the pause there. That is a tough question.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I need to see more. I mean the way that
Speaker 3: they like, they play so hard and they seemed to
Speaker 3: such a good time playing, and that's I think a
Speaker 3: big ingredient. But I can't get past some of the
Speaker 3: in game stuff. Like Brett talked about it, I was
Speaker 3: also like raging in the crowd on Tuesday with all
Speaker 3: the bunts that weren't working, Like, why do you keep
Speaker 3: doing this? So I don't know, it's too early.
Speaker 4: Here's what I'll say, And this is definitely a bold statement,
Speaker 4: I think for sure, but I think this offense can
Speaker 4: find a way to get deep in the postseason, a
Speaker 4: fully healthy offense. I think they can find a lot
Speaker 4: of ways. Now we'll keep managerial decisions potentially out of that,
Speaker 4: but hey, it's going to play a factor. Like I
Speaker 4: was just looking up the stat because I had to
Speaker 4: figure out how often you know, Will Venable was doing
Speaker 4: sacrifice bunts and fun fact, he actually leads the league
Speaker 4: in it. Shocker, no slim surprise. He has a I
Speaker 4: don't know what the stat was exactly called, but it
Speaker 4: was under It was all under the managers. I'm gonna
Speaker 4: call it like bunt plus essentially, and it was like
Speaker 4: he had a bunt plus of two oh nine, so
Speaker 4: standardized as all.
Speaker 5: Other you know, plus stats are arch metrics.
Speaker 4: Not surprising, but I think this offense can potentially make
Speaker 4: a really deep run. Obviously, did you not hear me
Speaker 4: talk about the pitching.
Speaker 2: I did not.
Speaker 1: That would be a concern.
Speaker 5: I just I I'm in the same boat as Nick.
Speaker 2: I think there are certain things and you mentioned like
Speaker 2: the sack bunting piece of it, that that's not how
Speaker 2: successful playoff teams have won baseball games, so and the
Speaker 2: stats back that up a ton, so that that's a
Speaker 2: concern for me. That being said, like I know there's
Speaker 2: some hesitation maybe from some to like really be super
Speaker 2: critical of him, but at the same time, like he
Speaker 2: has done a great job, like the fact that this
Speaker 2: team is competing the way that it is and you
Speaker 2: see a day in and day out the guys they
Speaker 2: bring up and it partially gets but it's also very
Speaker 2: much on ventable in the culture he has set some
Speaker 2: of the guys he's pushed forward to make the roster
Speaker 2: that we've all sat here and been like, what the
Speaker 2: hell are they doing? I think from a culture standpoint,
Speaker 2: and how he can rally a team to come through
Speaker 2: and be a leader of men. Yes, Will Venable can
Speaker 2: take the White Sox for a World Series and then
Speaker 2: some how he manages in game on the daily still
Speaker 2: to be seen, but you're not gonna know that, Like
Speaker 2: you're not going to know that until you're in these
Speaker 2: sorts of games, right, Like you don't come in as
Speaker 2: a manager just be perfect right away.
Speaker 5: So that's why it's hard for me to balance.
Speaker 2: There's definitely some seasoning that needs to be done, But
Speaker 2: at the same time, I feel really good about him
Speaker 2: as a manager. I feel like this is the type
Speaker 2: of guy that the White Sox needed to really shift
Speaker 2: what had been a sinking ship in terms of leaders
Speaker 2: of men that had been there or over the past
Speaker 2: several managers, campaign seasons, whatever. He has absolutely righted that ship,
Speaker 2: and he seems smart enough, objective enough, and self aware
Speaker 2: enough to be able to be like, hey, on Tuesday,
Speaker 2: I messed up in that situation. Probably shouldn't have done that,
Speaker 2: saw the first baseman crashing. Definitely shouldn't have kept the
Speaker 2: bunt on.
Speaker 1: That's on me.
Speaker 5: A lesser man just defends himself in that situation.
Speaker 2: Those are the types of things that make me feel
Speaker 2: good about He can probably learn from it and grow
Speaker 2: in the role.
Speaker 5: So we'll see that.
Speaker 2: That's where I land out, and I think we're kind
Speaker 2: of all in the same place. But culture wise, absolutely,
Speaker 2: I don't know if the White Sox are still playing tonight.
Speaker 2: I haven't been checking, but we're gonna wrap here for
Speaker 2: our hopeful pregame show. Thank you everyone who was joining,
Speaker 2: Thank you for everyone who submitted questions. It was absolutely awesome.
Speaker 2: We will hopefully continue to do things like this. So
Speaker 2: that's all we have for this episode of the Socks
Speaker 2: on thirty fifth podcast. Be sure to suscri the podcast
Speaker 2: on Apple, Spotify, especially YouTube. We're really trying to grow
Speaker 2: that community. Wherever you get your podcast. We are there though,
Speaker 2: at Socks on thirty fifth, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, make sure
Speaker 2: to follow us there. Socks on thirty fifth dot com
Speaker 2: is the website. We've got a lot of great stuff.
Speaker 2: We're gonna a lot of great stuff coming out of
Speaker 2: this week weekend no judge, wink wink, so make sure
Speaker 2: to follow along with us this weekend. So for Nick
Speaker 2: Gower and Brett Haffner, Brett, thank you for filling in.
Speaker 2: This is Jordanzewski sending off. Take care everyone. We will
Speaker 2: talk sometime soon, whether it's this weekend or early next week,
Speaker 2: We're going to be back soon to talk more fun
Speaker 2: White Sox baseball though, that is for sure.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Go White Sox, Go Socks get a win,