Division Series' Day 3 & 4: The Picture is Forming

 

I wasn't really around the last few days, and I probably should do write ups on these games, just for posterity's sake, so, here goes.

-The White Sox becoming a postseason juggernaut was not something I was predicting but I'm very much here for it. A lot of Cleveland fans are chalking this up to the Guardians' own post-September fade for the second year in a row, but it's important to note that Gavin Williams wasn't the problem that game, and the offense still did what they could. The White Sox are just better right now, and their core is coming to life in a way that feels like it was teased all year but never certain. The usual combo of Murakami, Vargas, Meidroth and Chase Montgomery is getting it done, and rookie Braden Montgomery joined the fun Monday night, with the RBI double that flipped the game.

The Sox are in clinching position today. I know people talked about their side of the bracket as a joke compared to the AL East side but you really never know. The White Sox, if they make the ALCS, could in all theory keep going, regardless of who they play. It's fascinating, but they've got a higher power on their side it seems. 

Speaking of teams that have given up...

I think the difference between the grievances of Guardians fans and the grievances of Yankee fans right now is that the Yankees are actually playing a really good team. NOT THAT THE WHITE SOX AREN'T, they ARE very good, but they are very streaky, and have gotten hot at the exact right time. The Rays are actually a fantastic team that's playing very well right now and have enough put together that a World Series is very much in reach. They also got Freddy Peralta working again, as he dealt against the Yanks even after Drew Rasmussen quieted them earlier. If Peralta is *back*, like fully back, then the Rays could be a nightmare going forward. 

The Yanks did not help matters by making numerous errors and doing nothing at the plate [not you Ben Rice you're doin great]. Aaron Boone finally seems to have an incentive to change the lineup, seeing as the season's on the line and all tonight and if they get swept in front of a home crowd, the fans might genuinely riot. I'm really hoping the Yanks keep the series alive, but they've run out of momentum and the Schlittler card couldn't even save them in Game 2. 

Anyway it must have been a rerun last night because Enrique Hernandez, after hitting .150 during the regular season, had a huge home run against the Braves and brought the Dodgers closer to an NLCS. Hernandez is moving further and further up the postseason home run leaderboard, which is wild for a player who constantly seems otherwise inconsequential during the regular season. It's absolutely wild that he's allowed to do that. Meanwhile, Freddie Freeman just keeps hackin' away and is continuing HIS excellent October luck, while Yoshinobu Yamamoto had another insanely dominant October start. This team really is built for October in a way that no other team is, and the Braves need to figure out if they have anyone at all capable of keeping them down. 

And finally...good for the Padres, honestly. Facing the Brewers' worst starter and a couple of their weakest relievers, they got ahead, hit another ball to the rookie shortstop which he floundered, and kept the Brewers down without Mason Miller. If things go awry tonight, which is always likely, at least they had a cool home win, and at least Jake Cronenworth, after a rough season, got to be the hero by breaking the game open with a homer. 

The stat people are beginning to worry about is that, as good as the Brewers have been in the Pat Murphy era, they're terrible on the road. If the Padres force a Game 5, that'll be yet another road opportunity wasted. Plus, Christian Yelich had his first postseason RBI since 2018, so he's turning things around. Maybe the rest of the team will too. They have Bobby Gasser on the mound tonight, hoping to seal the deal and make another NLCS. I'm kinda pulling for them, even though the Padres may be equally worthy given their recent rallies. 

A lot could happen tonight. All four could end tonight. I don't think they all will, and I kinda hope one team avoids a sweep, but...I guess we'll see.

Division Series' Day 1: Taste the Ceiling

 

It's so cool that one year into the Munetaka Murakami experience he's hitting postseason home runs. That was not his intention. He specifically wanted to play for a lower-tier team, like in Japan, and be a crowd favorite. And then suddenly he immediately becomes a playoff fixture. And he just hit a home run off one of the best pitchers in the AL. One Hundred. 

The Sox are the true underdog team of this postseason, and there really aren't a ton of underdog teams in the running. Braves, Dodgers, Yankees, Rays, none of them are really underdogs. Brewers maybe? Cause they're a less expensive team? But they're still the best team in baseball. The White Sox squeaked in, have a ton of young talent, took down the Astros and are now leveling Cleveland with their best guys rested. They shut out the Guardians, needing only a few hits to do so, and now have an edge going into Monday, where it's probably Davis Martin or Sean Burke getting the ball. The complexity of the pitching staff is really impressing me, because Anthony Kay and Jordan Hicks can step in for a spot job and Grant Taylor can work a 4 inning save. There's no rules. 

I will say, Gavin Williams vs. this offense may result in a much tighter game, but I'm still down for whatever happens here.

[yawn]

Yeah, I know some cool things happened in this one, Tarik Skubal pitching a gem, Kyle Tucker finally coming alive, all that, but...this is so boring, guys. Dave Roberts said that he's already planning the pitching rotation with the NLCS in mind. Like, that is such a pompous statement. He already thinks he's winning this season. If the Braves had any mind, they'd make him regret that, but as we just saw, they needed three games to take out a Phillies team that couldn't hit, and wasted their best starters so that A.J. Smith Shawver could get shelled in long relief. Today it might be a similar strategy honestly, while the Dodgers have Blake Snell out there. 

Look, if the Braves weren't still hitting I'd be more worried. Albies had a late homer to rally a bit. The backup catcher had a homer. There is life in this team, and I think that if they somehow work a split to ensure Chris Sale can pitch, they could do some real damage. But this might be tough to do given how well planned out the Dodgers are right now. 

What a difference a couple of days makes, right?

The Yankees got all sorts of hits against the Red Sox, and their bullpen, and the Rays put out their best starter and mostly avoided the bullpen and we couldn't get shit done.  Drew Rasmussen looked incredible. 10 strikeouts, 8 innings, 1 hit, and said hit was immediately extinguished thanks to Austin Wells trying to leg out a triple with the heart of the order coming up. The Yanks pinch-hit Stanton in the 9th, they would have done it with Wells on second and brought in Volpe or somebody as a defensive sub. So much changes if Wells is content with a double, but alas...

My hope is that Rasmussen was the worst of this. He's gone deep with a no-no against the Yanks twice in the last two weeks. Famously we do a lot better against Nick Martinez, and Freddy Peralta, despite that September upswing, is not god anymore. Game 2 Monday night will have Cameron Schlittler on the gosh darned mound, and that'll make things very tough for a Rays team that only mustered one run, on a Jonathan Aranda solo shot, off of Cole and friends. 

I still have hope, but that was pretty damn bleak, gotta say.

Brewers-Padres might be the most competitive series of the four. The Brewers are the best of the best, but the Padres are hotter than hot right now. If this game was played in San Diego, that go-ahead homer by Ty France woulda counted, but because of that rinky-dink ass stadium in Milwaukee with a closed roof, that was merely an easy out. It sure makes the possibility of a Rays-Brewers World Series even more fun. Rob Manfred wants Yanks-Dodgers again, but how about two really low-market teams with old-ass stadiums fighting for dominance? Make him rip his hair out.

Anyway, this one was exactly what you wanted. Miz looking electric, striking out 6 but still allowing 2 runs. Chourio being the hero and tying the game with that huge homer. Phenomenal back-and-forth bullpen work. A thrilling conclusion where France almost sinks the game. So much really cool stuff. I'm definitely pulling for Milwaukee here, but the Padres could be a decent match for them.

Today we've got another Dodgers game, which Dave Roberts tells me they're planning to win 5-4 in order to set up a washed narrative before the sweep on Tuesday, and some more fun in Milwaukee. I'll try and sneak some in, in between watching football. 

Wild Card Series' Day 2: How's THAT ONE the Even One??

 

I just don't understand this at all. Going into this wild card week, I was figuring that one of these would be really cut and dry, over before it started, and the rest would be back and forth. As it turns out, that was not the case at all. Two series I figured would cause me pain didn't even remotely. And the one that I figured would be a foregone conclusion...is going to game three. 

I'm...vexed. I knew the Braves had weaknesses worthy of being exploited. I just did not think the Phillies were good enough to exploit them at the moment. Very clearly the Braves are good at pointing out ours, like the defensive schematic being pointless if Arraez isn't in at second, the bullpen instability, the lack of general run support and the tendency to lay down meatballs at inopportune moments. We did a lot of that. Harper and Bohm made errors that, if they didn't tie and win the game respectfully, would have been further scrutinized.

All in all, Sanchie put on a clinic, the offense showed up and Bohm came to life yet again, Harper and Schwarber did some heavy lifting, and this team held the Braves down long enough to force a game 3. I do not know how well this is going to go, because the Phillies still have those issues that are concerning everyone, but...we forced a Game 3 against a team that's better than us. The Braves, even if they win this series, may not recover from nearly slipping against a Phils team that can't hit. The Dodgers could have fun with that, arguably more fun than they would if we somehow win this game. 

The Phils really know how to drive me up the wall some days. Maybe this works out. Kinda horrified about the prospect of LA but hey...maybe NOW we gain the momentum we should have all year. If not, Braves-Dodgers is what I was already prepping for anyway.

Anyway, the shellackings. So...the White Sox won a playoff series for the first time in years, the Astros lost in the first round and were exploited for being a weak division winner, and the fun wild card team gets to take on Cleveland and possibly reclaim the narrative of the whole season. I like this a lot better than 'well, it's the Astros......again..' Like, what the hell else can you even say about them at this point? They've sucked so hard they might go to another ALCS? 

The White Sox's contact battery was exactly as successful this playoff series as I'd hoped it'd be. Kyle Teel, Andrew Benintendi and Tristan Peters piled on the contact stuff to end Hunter Brown's day WAY earlier than I thought it would, then Chase Meidroth pulled it over the edge with a 3-run bomb off Peter Lambert, who the Astros already decided wasn't starting Game 3 and certainly wouldn't now. They now head to Cleveland with Davis Martin fully rested, Sean Burke riding pretty high, Kay and Fedde both viable options, and the offense fired up. Murakami came to the White Sox to lay low and made it to the playoffs immediately, and I love it for him.

I will give the Astros credit. Despite giving up, they never completely gave up.

[reads over a second time] Yeah.

They fought til the end. Jose Altuve, Cam Smith and Jeremy Pena all homered. The bullpen locked in more than the starters could. I think it's so fitting that the big error of the game was committed by Lucas Spence, because if it weren't for his four home runs in the A's series, the Astros probably wouldn't even have been a playoff team to begin with. They are here because of Lucas Spence, and they're booted from the playoffs after two games...also because of Lucas Spence. Full circle. Spence probably has a nice career ahead of him, or the Astros hope he does, as Zach Cole, Zach Dezenzo and Brice Mathews haven't really firmed things up at all. 

I figured the Yankees had the edge over Boston. I did not think it would go like this.

Basically...the Sox' bullpen ruined two good starts by their main guns, the main bats didn't show up, and the Yankees, at home, took advantage of every last misstep. Tonight, Cody Bellinger was the kingkiller, with the 3-run bomb off of Garrett Whitlock, after Austin Wells, Ryan McMahon, George Lombard and Luis Garcia Jr. had already made a mess of things. People are worried about the lack of Aaron Judge, but considering that Bellinger, Jones, Lombard, Volpe, Chisholm, Grisham, Wells, Garcia and especially Ben Rice have come through in huge moments for this team, they can worry less. The whole time, the Yankees have been trying to be more than just 'Aaron Judge's team', and right now that's what we are. The whole team won this series and kept it short. 

Rays-Yankees is gonna be TOUGH. I think we can find a way through but the Rays have a whole mess of weapons, and they will not make it easy. If either team makes the ALCS, they'll deserve it. I hope the Yanks can rise to the occasion, but the Rays have been too much for them at many points. I just hope this time will be different. 

There was a moment where it genuinely looked like the Sox were tanking for seed choice. They were losing the last few games of the year, and I thought it was because they wanted to face Houston and not the Yanks. Which would have been a smart move because they'd have won against Houston. In all actuality it was because they completely ran out of steam and had nothing left by the time they got to the Bronx. 

The Sox still got a decent start out of Sonny Gray, a helpful homer from Willson Contreras, and a winning throw from Nate Eaton to nab Ben Rice at home. That's it. Garrett Crochet was not ready and soiled the game. Whitlock, as good as he's been this year, didn't help either. Rutschman, Abreu, Rafaela and Durbin were listless. It was a relatively cut and dry series, which is great for me personally but you never want that for Yanks-Sox. It's gotta be back and forth, that's more fun. I appreciate the ease of it all but...it's just clear they were exhausted just from their second half comeback. That's a win in itself, and hopefully the Chad Tracy era yields more seasons like these, but...yeah, not the immediate gratification many fans were hoping for.

The wild card teams that make the playoffs always are correspondent to their momentum. If they're gaining as the season ends they've got a shot, if they're losing they may be in trouble. The Cubs had some momentum going into September and lost it...around the same time the Padres gained theirs. So this one was honestly pretty simple.

A lot is gonna be said going into next year about Xander Bogaerts. He hasn't put up Sox numbers as a Padre but he's been plenty good, and his big RBIs this series are proof that he can be helpful in the postseason. Maybe there's merit to that contract after all. Same with Machado, who looked like a lost cause in the first half and wound up with a 30 homer/90 RBI season anyway, just with a bit less heft than usual. These guys can be helpful even off their peaks. Of course, Gavin Sheets was the real hero, breaking the game open with a massive bomb and making the eventual win a foregone conclusion.

The Padres looked amazing this series. Unfortunately, now they have to play the best team in baseball. The hope will be that the momentum holds and they can best Milwaukee in an upset, but this will be tough with the lack of real starting depth the Padres have. 

So here's the thing. Tropicana Field might be cursed now. Which is intriguing.

The last game of the season, the Sox were GOING TO host the Cubs at Fenway, and then a huge storm came and MLB said 'no, this game has to be played, we have Tropicana Field open, get down there'. Let's forget that the Yanks and O's also have a game in the line of fire, and that's not gonna get played at all, but Cubs-Sox needs to be played, even if they're both in, and even if the seeds are pretty solid. So the Cubs and Red Sox go down to Tampa, play in this meaningless game, Roman Anthony gets hurt, Alex Bregman attempts to play hurt. And then they both go for their playoff games and they both lose immediately. Rob Manfred, as he's going to a lot in the next six months, will insist there was no connection. But it's awfully suspicious that you hurl two teams out of their comfort zones and they both lose right after. And one guy gets hurt. 

The Cubs did not have any life this series. I also think they were at the mercy of their starting pitching options, and Boyd and Gausman were not as strong postseason options as they were last year. The bullpen didn't help either. And both PCA and Bregman failed to really make much of an impact. There is definitely a future for this team, and Pedro Ramirez had a very nice rookie come-up as a depth infielder and contact bat, but next year they'll need to contend with the Cardinals, who will inevitably strike back, and the Pirates, who'll hopefully have a healthier Paul Skenes, and unless the pitching suddenly reverts to classic energy [getting Steele and Horton back at full strength would certainly help], it'll be much tougher. 

Alright, all down to Atlanta tonight. Would love a Phils win somehow but I also have tempered my expectations and know, realistically, who the better team is. Intrigued nonetheless.

Wild Card Series' Day 1: Close and Not Close

 

Okay, let's just...temper ourselves, first of all. The Phillies aren't playing like a playoff team. They haven't since like August. They got in due to some luck, don't have much hitting energy left, never really did to begin with, and have the same issues, including bullpen troubles, as always. The Braves are the better team, the Phillies needed to find moments to best them in between their own troubles, and while they did...the decision to let Jhoan Duran face Michael Harris was the one that did them in. I think they were trying to do a Dave Roberts management thing, putting in the best pitcher rather than the most logical one. It's what Roberts does with starters in the postseason. Mattingly did it with the one good reliever he has, just plopping him down and hoping he does enough of the work to chill down the core. It worked for 1 and 2/3rds innings, and then it backfired.

Austin Riley's 3-run bomb shouldn't be diminished, as it's a huge moment to save a season that was in danger of falling off, nor should the offensive work from Ozzie Albies and Mike Yastrzemski. The truth of the matter is the Phils had Atlanta on the ropes, they made what they thought was the best decision, with their best reliever, and they lost the game because they thought they were better off with one more Duran batter than any other reliever, which would make sense had he not faced five already. If Bowlan goes in, I think there's still a chance we win that game.

It comes down to Cristopher Sanchez today. If for some reason he locks in and we tie the series...I still don't think we're taking it because the Braves are simply a better team. Yesterday at least proved we can move the needle a little if we're not busy getting in our own way.

I think it was fitting that the game between two also-rans without terrific records was a bullpen game. Unfortunately for the Astros, that already left them at a disadvantage, as their bullpen's been quite terrible this year, and that Bryan King was the first to flinch isn't shocking at all. The White Sox are capable of this sort of contact energy when the other guys aren't looking, and without a Lambert or a Brown to fall back on, the Astros were leveled and, frankly, human.

Also, this being a bullpen game may have fooled the Astros into a sense of security, because Hagen Smith is technically a reliever, but since he came up midyear the Sox have been slowly stretching out his innings and trusting him with more and more responsibility. The idea, I assume, is to let him start next year [something that will be welcome considering how many Sox guys may have overexerted themselves this year], and so this being an extended opener spot for Smith sort of turned into a preview of that. Smith went three innings, gave up 2 hits and no earned runs. Credit to Grant Taylor, Jordan Hicks and David Sandlin for the assist. It's wild that Jordan Hicks seemed to regain his mojo as the year went on, and is back to being a strong spot guy. 

Anyway, Sox are up 1-0, and are very close to doing what twenty earlier incarnations of the team could not [win a playoff series]. I will be rooting for them.

Anyway, uh...this one was nice, wasn't it? 

I'm being very careful because the Sox could absolutely come back, but...them landing in the playoffs after burning through the goodwill in 2 months and robbing themselves of Alex Cora, then coming back and going wild...that's a win in and of itself. That's a moral victory. Payton Tolle having a strong enough start on his own merits, that's a big win. Everything else was essentially as expected. The bullpen did not hold up, the lineup shuddered at the prospect of rising to the occasion, Roman Anthony's likely hurt again, and Brayan Bello's back to square one. 

The Yankees, meanwhile, had a highlight reel tonight. Cam Schlittler threw 117 pitches and allowed 2 hits, a walk and ten strikeouts. George Lombard went 3 for 4 with 2 runs. Austin Wells went 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs. Spencer Jones had a big hit and scored 2 runs. Paul Blackburn and John Schreiber were untouchable. And Ben Rice made up for the lack of Aaron Judge by hitting TWO big home runs, one to pad the lead and another in the eighth, a grandy, to make this a foregone conclusion. Rice has had a HUGE season, and continues to be a spark plug as a power bat. 

Fried vs. Gray next. Would love the Yanks to close this one out, but when have the Sox ever made it easy?

And finally...JEEEEEEZ.

I kinda figured the Padres would have the edge just for the sake of their momentum vs. the Cubs's, but my GOD. The Cubs barely showed up. Their choice for top starter, Matt Boyd, is in the midst of a recovery year and didn't hold down the Padres well at all, giving up home runs to Fernando Tatis, Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts, the marquee guys. The bullpen didn't do a heck of a lot better, and when you've gotta throw Assad and Civale out there instead of specialists, they're gonna make mistakes. Altogether the Cubs had three hits in this game. Only one was off of Michael King, who was absolutely electric, going 7 strong and striking out 8. The other two were off of returning hero Joe Musgrove, who did well enough for his return to the mound. Two of the hits were from Nico Hoerner, the other was from Seiya Suzuki, meaning PCA, Bregman, Swanson and Happ could not get a single thing done. 

The Yanks bodying the Sox behind Schlittler was something you may have predicted, but this absolute shellacking the Padres performed? Maybe the Dodgers were commanding so much of the narrative that nobody was really noticing the Padres get hot. And now they have the leverage, the home crowd and the pitching edge, with Nick Pivetta looking to seal the deal today against a down Kevin Gausman season. Can the Cubs respond? 

I'm thinking at least two series' end today. I'd love to have three, but that would imply the Astros are gonna lay down and die, and they really never do that when I want them to.

Wish Granted

 

I want to make it clear that, as there's still 19 games left, it's still not definite that the White Sox are going to win the AL Central. The Guardians are still actively chasing them, and are a very good team, and could sweep in late and grab the division. Considering the competition in the AL Wild Card race, if they don't win the division, it's curtains. So the White Sox, who are facing a lot of okay but still spoilery teams in the next week or so [Pirates, Cardinals, Tigers] in addition to the Guards themselves, need to keep on a roll in order for this to happen.

But. If it does happen...wouldn't that be awesome? 

I kind of want this for the White Sox. They put together a team in the late 2010s/early 2020s that was a competitor, and it did absolutely nothing so they gutted everything, were the butt of the league for two years, and now they're in position to win the division and make the playoffs as a three seed, meaning they could get further than the Renteria/LaRussa teams did. I really want that to happen. Let LaRussa sit in shame as the team he messed up ascends to glory. 

And obviously, the White Sox haven't made it easy for themselves. They have Luis Castillo every 5 games, and he's really not the guy he once was with Cincinnati and Seattle. They lost Davis Martin and hopefully have a better version of him back. They were without Munetaka Murakami's home runs for a while [thankfully he just hit his 30th]. They still don't have a viable answer at catcher despite Edgar Quero doing everything he can to move the needle. And most of their savvy pickups, like Huascar Brazoban, Brenton Doyle and Luisangel Acuna, really haven't done much. Yet here they are, still competing and still looking great.

Miguel Vargas, Colson Montgomery, Tristan Peters, Chase Meidroth and Murakami have made this a surprisingly incredible offensive bunch, with 3 guys with over 70 RBIs and 3 guys with 30 homers. Vargas quieted skeptics [mostly me] by becoming a really impressive everyday option at the plate. Montgomery is still a home run machine with great versatility. Andrew Benintendi can still hit for power even if the range is gone. Tristan Peters is doing better as a former Savannah Banana in the MLB than most former XFL players have done in the NFL. The hitting is pretty incredible, and could be a difference maker given some playoff schematics.

But the team's just run more efficiently than most White Sox teams that have gotten close. I'm really impressed by this bullpen, lined with working, young options that have kept moving. Grant Taylor, at 24, is the primary closing option, and he's got a 2.16 ERA with 97 Ks and 8 steals. Sean Newcomb has been terrific as the overall relief specialist, with a 2.42 ERA in 82 innings. Bryan Hudson's had a terrific comeback year after spinning out in Milwaukee. Trevor Richards has turned into a halfway decent swingman. And now Hagen Smith has been added to the equation as a high-leverage reliever, and he's only given up 1 earned run in 16 innings. I have no idea if the idea is stretching Smith out to start next year, but he's very good in this role, and if it keeps him on a postseason roster, so be it. Additionally, Martin-Burke-Kay is a pretty strong postseason rotation, even if it's not THE strongest in the AL. Worst comes to worse, Castillo does long relief. 

I'm really liking how this White Sox team is shaping up, and I really think they could make something happen this year, after so many miserable years. This is what the rebuild was for, an efficient version of the White Sox, and I hope it leads to something great.

Coming Tonight: A huge rookie for the Brewers. You know, to harken the eventual appearance of like 4 more huge Brewers rookies. 

...Just to Keep From Being Thrown to the Wolves

 

The White Sox have about five weeks left to cement the unthinkable. In a year where the Tigers, Royals and Guardians were all expected to compete, they are still hanging onto first place for dear life, on the strength of a bunch of 20-year-olds, a Japanese rookie who hits dingers, and a ton of really close games and walk-offs. For a team this streaky and basic, it's not gonna be over til they wave the flag, and they need to keep from coming apart. This is year one of the competitive White Sox experiment, and they want to take this as far as they can.

Already you're beginning to see a few of the strings come undone. After being one of the best pitchers of the first half, Davis Martin has slowed down and will be missing time with an injury. Sean Burke has stepped up in his stead, and Anthony Kay, Erick Fedde and Luis Castillo are doing what they can to support him, but...you see the issue, right? The hook of this rotation was that it was centered around the youth movement. Now Noah Schultz, David Sandlin and Shane Smith are all sitting in the minors rather than supplanting the older, shakier rotation options. The fear is that those guys aren't much better, and recently Schultz and Sandlin have gotten roughed up, but it's worth a shot, right? We saw Shane Smith's highs. He hasn't been TERRIFIC in Charlotte but he's still a confident enough young arm. Hagen Smith is also around, but the team is very hesitant to let him start, and I'm still not sure why, considering he was doing pretty well at that in the minors until someone got the bright idea to start using him in relief. You don't see the Mariners doing that with Kade Anderson, right? No, they started him, and it worked. This is what the Pirates did with Bubba Chandler last year, and I don't think that worked for them either.

I think the idea is just to outhit everybody and hope that still works, and judging from all the walk-offs that's been doing the trick. Jake Rogers had the big one the other night, the blast so incredible that one lady in the crowd nearly showered the contents of her purse all over the field level seats. Yesterday was Tristan Peters's turn, he had a walk-off homer. Two guys are closing in on 30 homers, and a 3rd ain't too far off. The depressing part is the lack of catching stability but Rogers and Romo are doing what they can.

An underrated piece of this team this year is Andrew Benintendi, who's been around since before the rebuild. Benny was supposed to be a huge piece of those competitive Red Sox teams going forward, and has wound up as the least accomplished of the Killer B's, with his speed basically gone, his contact ability waning and his defense nonexistent. All that remains is a halfway decent power hitter, and with 13 homers and 64 RBIs he's been that. It's not pretty, and he's not on target as much as his contemporaries, but he's got a role to fill, and he's filling it pretty well. 

The Sox have to play fellow AL competitors the Rangers and Twins coming up, and hopefully they can stave off the Guardians for that playoff spot. Nothing's over in this division til the Guardians say it's over, and the Tigers aren't completely out of it either, so hopefully this Sox team can be in it for the long haul.

Coming Tonight: Once he figured out how to stay healthy, and once the team found room for him on the MLB roster, the big game stuff was bound to show up.

While You Were Out..

 

Anthony Kay was a gem of the Mets' minor league system, was traded for Marcus Semien in 2019, debuted with fanfare only to fail to live up to expectations, bounced around the minors for 3 years, and eventually gave up and went to Japan. After regaining control and finding his confidence again, Kay re-signed with an up-and-coming White Sox team in an effort to start small [which was coincidentally also Munetaka Murakami's idea], and wound up on a competitor with a decent chance of making the postseason. Like a lot of returning former MLB guys, like Foster Griffin and Peter Lambert, Kay isn't really an over the top centerpiece guy, but he's putting in the work to be a part of this team.

So far, in 23 appearances, Kay has an 8-5 record, a 4 ERA and 90 Ks. These are far and away his best MLB numbers, because the Jays never really got Kay's best stuff in his 3 years there. Kay works because unlike a lot of this rotation, he's got a few more years under his belt, has a veteran presence, and can pitch in big games without wilting. Davis Martin, who's only 2 years younger than Kay, is beginning to struggle as we get closer to October, and Sean Burke, as good as he's been, isn't enough. The idea was that Luis Castillo would be the veteran presence, but one start in and that doesn't seem to be working. So Kay and his strong enough work will have to do. 

All the Chicago rotation really needs to do is provide a strong enough backbone, as the lineup's already got the rest covered. The only real stumbling point has been catching, but everything else is super powerful. Murakami, Meidroth, Vargas, Peters, Antonacci and the Montgomerys make up a truly incredible backbone, and have accomplished so much just by being active, young and ready for anything. Montgomery already has 25 homers, and Murakami and Vargas will get there very soon. Even Andrew Benintendi, though clearly not reaching his ceiling the Red Sox once knew was a thing, is a pretty nice power DH, with 12 homers and 57 RBIs. Basically doing what he's called for. 

Though they were just swept by the Red Sox, who...I dunno what their deal is, they might not stop winning and take it all at this point just to confuse the owners further, they have the Guardians [who just got embarrassed by the Mets] and the Reds [who just lost Hunter Greene again] this week, and look to capitalize and keep possession of first. I think they can ultimately, even if the Guardians did more at the deadline. The fundamentals really are here, and the White Sox somehow have what it takes to shock everyone and make the playoffs two years after their embarrassment of a season. 

Coming Tomorrow- Skinny, striking, stoic, throws smoke. One of many working pieces for the strongest team in the NL.

Infrequent Shopper

 

The Chicago White Sox have won 3 of their last 5 games by scoring 9 or more runs, just got Munetaka Murakami back after the Home Run Derby, saw one of their guys hit the only home run at the All-Star Game, and now they might be BUYING at the deadline? They're still in first, they're over .500...they're a major player in the AL. They might be scouting for trades. YES, THESE GUYS. Just last year they were sellers and now they can actually afford to make some deals. How insane is that?

The really impressive part is that there's not a hell of a lot on this team that truly needs to be upgraded. The catching position's a little slow, but Kyle Teel was hurt for half the season so it's understandable. Maybe one more OF bat would help? Braden Montgomery's heating up, Tristan Peters is THE guy and Sam Antonacci's having a strong season, but is there a power guy that's a little more varied than Andrew Benintendi out there? Or was that just Murakami? It may need to be rotation depth honestly. Anthony Kay, Noah Schultz and Erick Fedde have done fine, but the drop-off is real. There needs to be somebody else that can supplant Martin and Burke. Maybe this is where one of the Royals guys goes? Maybe Michael King goes here? Who knows. 

At the moment, the White Sox are coming off some very impressive offensive work, and though they got shut out by the Jays today, they scored 12 runs off of them yesterday, including production by both Montgomerys, Sam Antonacci, Tristan Peters, Kyle Teel...and Chase Meidroth, who's quietly having another nice season. Meidroth last year was a forerunner for a lot of the youth movement, he came in before Quero, Teel or Colson Montgomery got here and was strong when nearly no one else is. A better full-squad showing this year has allowed Meidroth to fade into the background a little more, but he's still hitting .271 with 7 homers and 32 RBIs. He's a nice, steady mid-lineup bat with defensive perks. The White Sox are piling up lots of guys like that and have finally given way to actual tentpoles [Murakami, Vargas, Colson Montgomery]. Which is why the team works now, an actual order and dichotomy has emerged, and it's not just 'young guy hits single x9'. Vargas has become the guy, Murakami has cornered the market on power, Antonacci and Meidroth have a niche as contact guys, and Colson Montgomery's the oddball clutch homer guy. It works a lot better.

The idea here is to keep ahead of Cleveland and ensure that the predictable outcome [of Cleveland or Detroit winning anyway] doesn't snap on. The White Sox do have the power numbers, and the pitching stability, to do it but the inexperience of this team still worries me, and still could keep them from going all the way. It's really good come down to how the White Sox manage the deadline, and if enough of this momentum holds. 

Coming Tomorrow- An outfielder who always seems to get injured right before the door opens for him to start. Which has made this season, a solid and healthy one for him, a relief. 

Worst to First in Two Years

 

Believe it. The Chicago White Sox are 1st place in the AL Central, over .500, and have the third-best record in the AL. They have a better record than any team in the AL West. 6 of their starting 9 have a WAR of 1.7 or higher, and the team's top 10 WAR leaders all have WARs of 1.5 or more. Only two members of the lineup are over 30, and they both have either 9 or 10 homers. And it took getting rid of Luis Robert, Garrett Crochet, Lenyn Sosa, Andrew Vaughn, Curtis Mead, Eloy Jimenez, Dylan Cease and Lucas Giolito to get them there.

The team is being led by rookies and second years, and they're winning games. They have Sam Antonacci playing a very crucial contact role and playing left, and he's delivering! 23 years old, no MLB experience, and he's hitting .291 with an .803 OPS and 65 hits in as many games. Like Peters and Meidroth, Antonacci isn't really a power guy, but he's consistently on target and he's able to keep the hits coming. That's an underrated skill that this team is already going all-in on, the contact specialists. It's nice having a Murakami or a Colson Montgomery who can hit homers, but there's serious depth here. Kyle Teel's back, and he has 5 hits and 6 RBIs in 6 games. Tristan Peters is a doubles machine. This team does have 3 guys with over 19 homers, but they're not banking fully on that, which may be why they're a first place team. It's easy for the Guardians to do the sustainable cheap contact thing, but there's way more depth with this Chicago team.

You're also seeing the White Sox combine a 2024-era approach [get two recently-returned KBO/Japanese league exports and plug them in before they become too expensive] with modern thinking [just draft great pitchers]. Anthony Kay and Erick Fedde are here to eat innings mostly, but Fedde's been very good recently when opened for, and Kay still has some tricks left despite all those HBPs. Davis Martin and Sean Burke are the real thing though, and hopefully whatever was troubling Shane Smith clears up soon. It's looking more like a rotation now and less like an array of people who needed a job. Same with the bullpen: Sean Newcomb and Seranthony Dominguez have been plucked into unlikely roles but they're having some nice moments. Newcomb has a 2.54 ERA and is once again proving how smart it was to make him a bullpen guy. Dominguez has kept the closing position and has 12 saves, despite Bryan Hudson arguably giving him a run for his money.

Are the White Sox in the clear, despite this nice run? No, absolutely not. The Guardians just got Chase de Lauter back and are still a very good team. You can also never truly count out the Tigers with their level of talent, or even the Royals. I think there's a chance the White Sox keep this pace up and go for a playoff spot, but I also wonder what this team could do differently from the more tested late-2010s teams, all of which struck out given the chance at playoff supremacy. They have to prove, if they are for real, that they're better than their predecessors. Which will be difficult, but with this many contact hitters it's possible.

Coming Tomorrow: This guy's ceiling has been said to resemble Ronald Acuna's but with more power. He's three years in and all that's missing is the name brand recognition. 

Attack of the Tristans!

 

When did the name 'Tristan' come back into prominence? There's a long gap between the Tristans of, like...medieval times, and like...the other best friend from the 4Kids Yu-Gi-Oh dub for some reason [and what did he accomplish, anyway? Did he ever play any of the card game? Did he do anything ever other than wacky shenanigans while his friends risked life and limb taking part in duels?]. And now we have Tristans again. Maybe 'Preston' died off and that's what replaced it. Either way, people are being named 'Tristan' again, and in a see of Kaydengh's and Bradlee's and Jurrangelo's, I guess it's fine? 

There's two guys named Tristan in the bigs right now who have almost the exact same career trajectory. Both of them kicked around multiple different MLB rosters without making an impact, both wound up in Tampa last year, both were not of use to the Rays and were set forth on other rosters and both are having surprising breakout seasons that cost their club far less than the people they were truly banking on this year. Both Tristans. Tristan Gray of the Twins, and Tristan Peters of the White Sox. 

Therefore, I am coining a new baseball term, right now, based on this current phenomena. This happens from time to time on the blogs. Thorzul coined the term 'pissant' for a player that only seems to do well against your team. Beardy or somebody coined the term 'bip' to refer to an excessive amount of one card or player in a package on purpose for a gag. Nick from Dime Boxes talked about 'short term stops', 'zero-year cards' and 'sunset cards', all terms I still use. But here, I wanna clarify what makes a Tristan, or a pocket Tristan if you will, what they are. 

A Tristan, as I'm making clear right now, is a nomadic major leaguer who comes to prominence with a team that is not his first organization, nor is it his second. This player has got to be in his late 20s or older by the time he makes his impact, and it has to be for a team that has enough money to bring on large contracts, or be let down by them. This player must become absolutely indispensable, out of nowhere, to the point where he runs the risk of becoming a 'magic hat' player [that one I coined a long time ago, a player who fuels a team's rise in the standings, and who, when taken away, results in the team reverting to their prior self]. Whether or not the success is sustainable does not matter. Some Tristans just keep being good for the rest of their career, some peter off almost immediately. 

Now, there is a difference between a Tristan and a Jabroni, and that difference is quality. Tristans hit .300, Jabronis hit .230 but smack homers like you wouldn't believe. So someone like T.J. Rumfield, whether he's a Tristan or a Jabroni is still on the fence because we're still not sure how much quality is built into his material. It's also important to note that a Tristan cannot be a known prospect who resurfaces and comes to prominence that way. Dominic Smith and Mickey Moniak cannot be Tristans because I knew who they were first. Nathan Lukes on the other hand? Without question. The Jays are his third team, his breakout was at 30, he's a .300 hitter that did better than Anthony Santander, and he's a really big part of the team now.

A lot of Tristans have shown up this year. Curtis Mead is almost certainly a Tristan. Carlos Cortes is definitely one, and that .300 average in May cemented it. Luis Torrens actually got an extension to keep being the Mets' backup catcher, making him one of the highest paid Tristans in the land; and no, a contract does not make a Tristan any less of a Tristan. Max Schuemann is at the point where if he keeps at it, he could be a Tristan. It's just too early to tell.

We should probably talk a bit about Tristan Peters, since that who this post is about. The Rays cut him last year, which a lot of Tristans actually have in common, and the White Sox took a flyer. In a year where Austin Hays, Derek Hill and Jarred Kelenic were supposed to have concrete outfield spots, Peters somehow made all of them obsolete. As the everyday centerfielder, Peters is hitting .294 with 21 RBIs and an .804 OPS. He makes up a heart of the lineup that's grown scarier over time, with Miguel Vargas, Munetaka Murakami, and now both Colson AND Braden Montgomery raining down on opposing pitching. This Sox team is in first place in the AL Central, and looks to stay there if the Guardians' injuries keep piling up. And it's guys like Peters who've gotten them there. I'm really happy for this team.

The White Sox being a first place team is very good for baseball. And if you wanna get to where they're at right now, I'd suggest finding a Tristan of your own. You can get 'em pretty cheap these days..

Coming Tonight: So many starters are getting lit up on the North Side right now that this guy's the closest thing they've got to stability. 

Chicago Cope

 

The Blackhawks and Bulls didn't make the playoffs, the Bears don't play for a bit. For now, Chicago sports fans get to decide who gets to disappoint them in the interim. One of these Chicago teams has a high payroll, an expertly-plucked manager, a key new addition this year and some of the most impressive winning streaks of the season. The other is the Chicago White Sox. They both essentially have the same record right now. 

And I think the White Sox might honestly have the edge right now? Because the Cubs will do this thing where they win 10 games in a row and are really excited and then they lose 10 games in a row and...like, what was the point of any of that. The White Sox are as inconsistent and up-and-down as any middle of the road team, and they're not really pretending they're anything they're not. They've had a lucky stretch as of late, they're in 2nd in the AL Central, ahead of the Tigers and Royals who've both had terrible months. 

This season, the White Sox actually have some palpable star performances, rather than 'people who are doing slightly better than average'. Munetaka Murakami has 20 home runs, 41 RBIs, and...79 strikeouts but that's less important. Davis Martin is a genuine pitching gem right now, he's 8-1 with a 2 ERA. It takes a lot to have 8 wins through 2 months on a middle of the road team like the White Sox, but Martin's got enough in the tank to make it work. Even Miguel Vargas, who I've written off like three different times now, has an .831 OPS, 12 homers and 31 RBIs. It's a very nice run for the corner infielder who seems to have finally hit his stride in Chicago. And then Colson Montgomery, Chase Meidroth, Tristan Peters, Sam Antonacci and Randal Grichuk are all filing in behind them with terrific seasons and great offensive skill. I knew a lot of these answers would click eventually but this is a very sure, very accurate version of this team. 

And on top of all that they keep bringing up surefire hits. They just threw Rikuu Nishida, a Japanese-born, U.S. based outfielder, into the mix and he's already a defensive favorite. And they just brought up David Sandlin, dealt by Boston for a bag of chips so that's ANOTHER White Sox star you can thank the Red Sox for, he went 6 innings and all he gave up was a solo homer for his debut. They're figuring more stuff out, and getting more and more confident.

Whereas the Cubs...have basically all the pieces for a competitive, division-clinching team...yet can't stay lucky with them.

I dunno if PCA cursing out the Sox fan was the turning point but it can't have helped. It's not that Pete Crow Armstrong's having a bad season per se, as he's an asset in the outfield and on the base paths, but that .677 OPS for a star player just illuminates how people are turning on the guy. This villain arc has allowed people to go 'maybe he's just not that good'. Cause at least when Alex Bregman gets in an argument with a fan on twitter, he remembers to hit .300 and knock 30 long balls or something. But PCA, as valuable as he is in terms of WAR, is a .224 hitter who leads the team in strikeouts, and it's wild that because of his multi-tool prowess that's not a dealbreaker anymore. He's not Taylor Walls bad, but he's verging on it.

The rotation's caved in a bit without Cade Horton, Edward Cabrera and Matt Boyd, plus Shota Imanaga and Jameson Taillon have had some rough stretches of late. And then you call on Jordan Wicks for the first time in a year, he gets lit up. This looked like a great rotation in March, and it's not coming together. For all that this team is hitting, and they very much are, the injury troubles with the pitching staff have deadened the attack, and have neutralized them at a moment where the Brewers, and to a lesser extent the Cardinals, aren't as put off. 

In the Cubs' defense, they have been finishing off the Pirates quite a bit lately, and seem to be working their way back up. They're giving Ben Brown more of a workload, including some starts, and they're coasting on an incredible run from Ian Happ. They'll likely be fine in the long run. But this month, especially the crosstown series, pointed out how much trouble they could be in this year. They've been getting caught sleeping late the past few years, and this year they need to ensure a different outcome. 

Coming Tonight: The Mets got tired of waiting. The A's jumped at the ideal timing. Be like the A's.

Dignity Returns to the South Side

 

Part of me doesn't understand, and part of me...sort of does? The White Sox have been cannon fodder for the past few years. So many pieces that don't work, so many under thought ideas, so many guys that just needed a place to play. And now, the White Sox are a game over .500, in second place in the AL Central, and have the fifth best record in the AL. AND they have a ton of pieces that fit perfectly, suddenly. I knew it was possible, but this soon??

Like, the lineup's just really come around, and within an instant. Sam Antonacci's hitting .274 and is playing left field pretty much everyday. Tristan Peters has settled in as a strong centerfield option. Drew Romo is filling in nicely as backup catcher and suddenly knows how to hit home runs. Miguel Vargas, who I feared was a placeholder guy, has 10 homers and 24 RBIs. Randal Grichuk is hitting like hell, which I think he could have done at any time in New York. And Munetaka Murakami...like...oh my god. Dude can't stop. He's got 17 home runs right now, which is exactly the kind of stuff everyone figured he'd be bringing to the States, but the White Sox were the only team that wanted him. Last night he, and the rest of the Sox, truly put on a show against their crosstown rivals, and made even the Cubs, an actual good team, look pedestrian. Colson Montgomery's heating up too, that's always a good thing.

EVEN ANDREW BENINTENDI HIT A HOMER. Do you have any idea how hard it is for this man to look good in these colors? The man fell off as soon as he hit town. Last two years it's like they were holding him hostage! 

The main reason this team has found success is a working rotation model. Y'see, the thing that happens when you form a rotation of a bunch of young, inexperienced guys is that they find experience and they get good. Davis Martin, despite the fact that he's 29 and has far too few MLB seasons under his belt to be 29, is giving an ace performance, going 6-1 with 59 Ks and a 1.61 ERA. Not a lot of AL pitchers have numbers that terrific right now, and he's making it look simple. Sea Burke, Erick Fedde and Noah Schultz are having strong performances behind him as well, and Anthony Kay's slowly getting the hang of things again. I do think Shane Smith's struggles have been the result of a full 2025 season coming back to haunt him, but he'll find his way back into the mix eventually. And look at Seranthony Dominguez remembering how to close. How he didn't do that in Philly is beyond me.

Obviously the other shoe has bound to drop eventually, and the Tigers will probably come back around the second they have a healthy rotation, but I'm just enjoying this moment where the White Sox actually look commanding and promising again. I feared it'd take decades. But for the moment, here we are.

Coming Tonight: The face of an organization that's once again having the same problems while he steals all of the bases.

Borderline Good [for the AL Central]

 

You've probably heard by now how messy the AL Central is in general this year. There are decent teams, but they're so flawed that they can't really ascend to actual good records. The Tigers and Guardians are good but held back by not being great yet. The Royals have decent bones but just aren't playing well at all right now. The Twins got off to a better start than expected but still have little to no depth.

So that means this is the kind of division where the White Sox, while still very much in rebuild mode, can be a third place team. Yes, the very same White Sox.

I dunno, it's weird. Cause technically this is still a bad White Sox team. We're honestly a step back from 2025 because Shane Smith stopped pitching well, Kyle Teel got hurt, the Anthony Kay gaijin plan didn't work as well as year three of the Erick Fedde gaijin plan, and the bulk of the saves has been handled by Seranthony Dominguez, who...like, the Ryan Murphy 911 show wouldn't put him in position to save anybody. And that show has killer bees every few weeks I think.

But like...I can point to several formative, crucial performers on this team that can also be discussed in baseball in general. Davis Martin's off to a sneakily good start, he's 4-1 with a 1.95 ERA and 33 Ks through his first six starts. Sean Burke and Erick Fedde also have ERAs under 3.50, and Noah Schultz has looked very good in his initial starts in the bigs. That they're essentially using an opener to fill that fifth spot due to the fear of letting Anthony Kay getting lit up from the jump is another factor entirely, but that's a decent rotation. Colson Montgomery already has 8 homers and 21 RBIs, and his power perks were not exaggerated by his 2025 come-up. Miguel Vargas also has 6 homers and 15 RBIs. I'm really not sure what to make of Vargas still, whether he's a formative piece or just a placeholder, but he seems to be helping. And then, now that you mention it, there's also that Murakami guy who's already hit 12 home runs and would be doing so even if he was forced to play in the decaying Oakland Coliseum. 

The odd thing about this team is how many of these crucial pieces, or even fun replacement level pieces, originated in other farm systems. Meidroth and Teel obviously came from the Crochet deal, Vargas from the Edman/Fedde deal [funny how that worked out for the ChiSox], but Edgar Quero was traded for Lucas Giolito, Luisangel Acuna was traded for Luis Robert, Shane Smith was a Rule 5 pick, and Bryan Hudson, Derek Hill, Jarred Kelenic, Drew Romo and Jordan Hicks all came over in cheap deals for next to nothing. So while on one hand it does feel like an island of misfit toys for people desperate for playing time...some of these guys have become helpful MLB options again. Hudson went from being absolutely cooked last year to becoming, once again, a viable relief option. Romo hit his first two MLB homers the other day. Even Sean Newcomb has been helpful in long relief. Somehow it's just getting done.

I don't know if this means the White Sox have legs this season, as there's still far too many people not hitting, but they may have a more dignified season than they've had in a while, and I'm all for that. 

Coming Tonight: Oh, just the best pitcher in baseball, no big deal.

Some Bounce, Some Don't

 

When you're dealing with two notoriously all-time-bad teams, your immediate inclination is to judge which one is worse solely on which one returns to something resembling 'good' faster. I think about how bad the early 2010s Astros were, and it took them til 2014 or 2015 to craft something palpable. The Rays, meanwhile, went from a 4th place team in '07 to a 1st place juggernaut in 2008. It really depends on organizational stuff, what's baking in the minors, what the team can retain, who's ready when. Lot of factors go into it.

So watching the Rockies and White Sox this season is definitely interesting, because you're waiting to see how long it's gonna take both teams to reform and contend again. With the amount of time passed since the White Sox bottomed out vs. the Rockies, you'd think Chicago would be progressing further, but not even Pope Leo shining on them could make the team look any better right now. 

The depth that was forming last year with this White Sox team seems to be evaporating. Brooks Baldwin, Mike Vasil and Kyle Teel, three signs of growth from last year, are all hurt right now. And the roster is simply wearing thin. The starting pitching seems even more pedestrian than before, and now that Shane Smith has been demoted and Jonathan Cannon is out for a bit, the team is down to Sean Burke, Davis Martin and Anthony Kay as viable starting options. Martin currently looks the best, he's 2-0 with 12 Ks through 3 starts, but that's a 5 man line for most other teams. Kay has a 2.45 ERA through 3 starts, and though Erick Fedde exists as a stark reminder that the post-international-leagues bump can wear off fast, he's still being relied upon. But beyond that...lots of openers and replacement level guys. It's not a great look, and it looks even worse when you line up the Sox' hitters, where really only Munetaka Murakami has done anything. Meidroth and Vargas have made some headway but the team's hitting .204 cumulatively. It's not pretty.

You can hope they improve over time, or as they get better pieces back, but it even looks like a setback from last year, which still wasn't terrific.

The Rockies, meanwhile, have shown immediate improvement over their dismal 2025 numbers. Some incredible things you're hearing. The bullpen kept runs down during a homestead. There's multiple starters, including Tomoyuki Sugano, who are really impressive. The young kids hanging around for starts last year are actually earning them now. So far the team's best hitter has been T.J. Rumfield, a career minor leaguer snagged in a deal that sent Angel Chivilli to the Yankees['s minor league system]. Rumfield jumped right in at 1st and is hitting .326 with 14 hits, 8 RBIs and 2 homers in 13 games. 

It's wild to see a core begin to come together for this team when nothing was happening last year. Troy Johnston has joined the power core and is looking like a definite everyday option [while Jordan Beck is looking less and less like one]. Mickey Moniak is hitting all sorts of homers off the bench. Tovar and Goodman still like decent organizational cornerstones right now. Kyle Freeland is still a very nice starting option, and has a 2.30 ERA in 3 starts. And somehow the team figured out that Antonio Senzatela doesn't completely shit the bed if you bring him out as a bullpen option. I knew the Rockies' pen had some nice options, but seeing all of Jimmy Herget, Jaden Hill, Victor Vodnik, Juan Mejia and Brennan Bernardino all looking genuinely great out there is a surprising, and excellent, sign. 

It is odd that I see the Rockies doing more this season than the White Sox, especially considering how the pitching could turn at any minute in that stadium, but the Rockies just seem better put together right now, and have more actual strengths. It could evaporate at any second, I'm aware, but the way things are going now, I see the Rockies looking 'good' sooner than the White Sox. 

Coming Tonight: A guy who absolutely refuses to be an easy out. Naturally he's playing my team this weekend. 

World in Motion

 

Whatever picture has been crafted of the 30 MLB teams during the first couple weeks of spring training is now drastically altered due to the mass exodus of players warming up for the World Baseball Classic. I think they used to time this so that it'd happen earlier and the WBC guys would eventually rejoin the team squads in time for longer games and full-squad scrimmages. And now it's happening later and, as the MLB clubs ramp up spring action, they'll be doing so with incomplete squads. 

I think the good news about the White Sox heading into the next couple weeks is that they are not solely Munetaka Murakami and Kyle Teel. Maybe last year, or the year before, if those two players were taken out of the lengthened scrimmages and they had to develop a gameplan without those two guys, it'd be a little trickier. But the White Sox, somehow, have more of a team this year. Perhaps not enough to compete, but enough to not be a complete laughingstock.

First of all, this spring has confirmed that Murakami is the kind of contact DH that this team kinda needs. He's not all about the long ball, but he's got enough pop to get people home, and in droves. Murakami could have signed lots of places, and it's clear that it took his stock plummeting for him to land in Chicago, but everything about Murakami's demeanor tells me this is where he wants to be. He's not Shohei Ohtani, he's not 'I have to be the best'. Murakami didn't need LA money, he just wanted to be somewhere he could succeed, and he's crafty enough to see that in Chicago. So far, he's looking like an impressive piece for this team.

But even without him, the White Sox just have more depth this year. They're going in with Teel, Edgar Quero, Chase Meidroth and Colson Montgomery at the MLB level, and that's a really cool young core with a high ceiling and immediate perks. This season also means figuring out whether Brooks Baldwin and Miguel Vargas are transitional pieces or if they can actually factor into this team. I still think Vargas is just a placeholder guy that isn't meant to be a building block. Not everyone can wind up with an Anthony Rizzo or a Cedric Mullins immediately. And then they now have Austin Hays, who seems to thrive better in cities that aren't major or metropolitan for...some reason, so him in Chicago will be interesting. The rotation has been supplanted by Erick Fedde, as well as Anthony Kay post-overseas reinvention, so basically Erick Fedde 2 years ago. I'm hoping Fedde just thrived with these pitching coaches, cause he really couldn't figure it out last year. 

If all goes according to plan, this team will build enough of a base this March that, once Murakami comes back, he'll supplant the preexisting energy, and they'll be off to a decent start. Cause there's a lot more going on here, not even counting the potential call-ups of Braden Montgomery and Wikelman Gonzalez. Maybe Murakami knew something was coming and he wanted to be on the ground floor before it got big. And hopefully it goes better for him than it's gone for Masataka Yoshida.

Uncustomed Heroes of 2025: White Sox

 

For the second year in a row, the Chicago White Sox, in lieu of a proven option, gave the Opening Day start to someone I had either never heard of or who only had a handful of major league starts to his name. Which genuinely feels like a sign of defeat from the jump.

Last year, of course, that no-name, 'why is he the only person here who can start Opening Day' choice turned out to be Garrett Crochet, now one of the best pitchers in the AL and the reason the White Sox's rebuild is accelerating at its current rate. This year, it was Sean Burke, who'd started a few games in 2024, and rather well at that. What bowled people over was the fact that the Opening Day rotation, consisting of Burke, Davis Martin, Martin Perez, Jonathan Cannon and surprise March call-up Shane Smith, managed to silence opposing teams, only allowing 2 runs in total in the first go through the rotation. Those two runs were both courtesy of Smith. Granted, this rotation wouldn't hold for the whole year, as Perez would get hurt and Cannon would need to go down, and they'd give Aaron Civale a try, but to have a pretty consistent rotation over the course of the season, with no particularly awful options, meant that the White Sox were definitely improving from being a gutter punchline in 2024. 

They still lost 102 games this year, but I now know who they are. As do they, I think. And now, at the very least, they've signed an actual crucial free agent, Munetaka Murakami, and while it is likely because 28 other teams passed, that's still an average of 18 more home runs than most current White Sox are capable of hitting nowadays.

Anyway, after a really nice Opening Day start, Sean Burke evened out and wound up with a very okay full season, with 28 games, 22 of them starts, 133 Ks, a 4.22 ERA and a 4-11 record, meaning Burke wound up with the most losses of any White Sock. To be fair, I think Chris Flexen ended 2024 with like 90 losses, so it just feels like an improvement.

2026 Prediction: Gets another shot in the Opening Day rotation, does better but misses time due to an injury.

This'll be a cool 'fun fact' in a couple years' time: the most home runs of any White Sox player in 2025 came not from Andrew Benintendi, Luis Robert or even Colson Montgomery, but from middle infield guy Lenyn Sosa, who cracked 22, and actually did a lot of nice power stuff with 75 RBIs and a .261 average. He's not perfect, and led the team in strikeouts with 127, but it's nice that somebody managed to move forward offensively on this team.

2026 Prediction: Well...look. Chase Meidroth is gonna be the answer at 2nd. Colson Montgomery is gonna be the answer at short. Miguel Vargas seems to have third. Up until very recently I assumed Sosa would be the guy at first, but then this Murakami guy landed and I'm now thinking he might take a lot of the reps, assuming he's not a full-time DH. So Sosa is gonna have to be a bench bat/utility guy, and his defense isn't really befitting of that. So who knows, really.

Jonathan Cannon also began the year in the rotation, and unlike Davis Martin and Sean Burke, Cannon didn't display much growth from that dismal 2024 year. In 22 games he had a 5.82 ERA, a 1.486 WHIP, and some time in Charlotte.

2026 Prediction: Okay, so the way things are looking right now, the White Sox' Opening Day rotation is looking like it'll be Shane Smith, Anthony Kay, Davis Martin, Sean Burke, and either Sean Newcomb or a fully rehabilitated Drew Thorpe. You also have to remember that at some point, the White Sox are gonna call on Hagen Smith. And Ky Bush might factor into things as well. I'm saying all of this because I don't think Jonathan Cannon will be doing much starting next year, and honestly he might have better luck as a long reliever.

Since coming back from Korea, Mike Tauchman has been a Chicago bench favorite, and he continued that run into the South Side after two years with the Cubs. Tauchman wound up as one of the highlights of the White Sox this year, hitting .263 with 9 homers and 40 RBIs in 93 games, shortened by injuries. I think Tauchman's cut came because of how confident the Sox were in building their homegrown outfield, even if they still trade Robert. They seem to think Brooks Baldwin is the guy in right, and I feel like they have someone getting ready in center at some point. 

2026 Prediction: Honestly, the Padres could really use a guy like him, or maybe somebody like the Reds or Giants. 

The Sox' top relief specialist was rookie Mike Vasil, who took a charter role in the bullpen and absolutely took off, with a 2.50 ERA and 82 Ks in 101 innings. His 2.9 WAR was the 3rd-highest on the team, and the highest of anyone who made the Opening Day roster. Very cool that Vasil and Smith, two Opening Day rookies, were some of the most valuable White Sox at year's end. 

2026 Prediction: They're going with Jordan Leasure as RP1, so Vasil will be the chief relief specialist without needing to close, and will have a very strong first half. I worry that all that work will lead to overexertion though.

Martin Perez was an Opening Day rotation member that had a stellar run, got hurt and finished the year strong. Though he only had 11 games in Chicago this year, the veteran starter had a 3.54 ERA, a 1.107 WHIP and 44 Ks. He did wind up with 6 losses, which I attribute to rough run support.

2026 Prediction: Somebody's gotta sign him, right? He can still pitch. He's 34, very much still that guy. The trouble is I think Jose Quintana's cornering his market a bit, and the people who miss out on Quintana might have to settle for Perez.

Coming Tomorrow- At long last, the end of December, which means I have to talk about how my Yanks blew it again.