Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - 5 On It & Jim Margalus talks White Sox (Hour 3)

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

In the third hour, Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote discussed a variety of topics in the 5 On It segment. After that, Jim Margalus of Sox Machine joined the show to discuss the latest White Sox storylines. Later, Rahimi and Grote reacted to former Cubs manager David Ross' comments to the Sun-Times in which he reflected on being fired by the organization after the 2023 season.

This hour is brought to you by Cars for Kids. It's time for five on it. Rahini Harrison Rooney. Bring you five topics on their minds today. On 104-3 to score. I got five on it. Number one. This question was submitted to us by the vacationing Marshall Harris, who is a noted white socks fan.

Shout out to Marshall. Noted white socks fan. On what date will the white socks catch the cup? Cubs in the standings. And then I joked because I was frustrated about the Cubs nine game losing streak. And I was like, oh, you mean Thursday? It is actually possible on Thursday. But it would take a lot of things to happen because I did the math.

I started writing things down over here. So right now, if they're 27 and 26, then theoretically if they sweep the twins, which I would love. The weird-ass twins. Yeah, the weird-ass Minnesota twins. Shout out C.C. Zabathia. Then it could happen on Thursday. And that pretty much just involves the Cubs splitting the series with the pirates. Like Jordan Wicks is on the mound tonight.

You asked for this, Mark. I did. I talked it into existence. But I just don't know if because of that, they end up winning the game. So the way I saw it was it could happen Thursday. Friday, everybody begins a new series. You've got Detroit for the Sox. You've got the Cardinals at cards for the Cubs.

Yeah. God. Can please win the series against Pittsburgh so that way the cars fans aren't insufferable. Maybe they'll be too distracted by the Tarps off thing. They just want to be a group and have fun. Maybe. Do we need to get Ranji on? No, we can't have him on because he's on the air at the same time.

He works at the same time as us. He's such a jerk. We would have had Ronji on nine million times. You're right. If he didn't work at the same time as us. He'd be another character on this show, probably. Yeah, there's not even a doubt in my mind. He'd be on the days that I'm not here.

Just just adding to the mix. Yeah. So then I started to look at the June schedule, and that's where it gets hairy for our socks, as Steve Stone likes to say. Because then you've got three more games against the twins. Those don't bother me. But then you've got the Phillies. They're much better now.

Then you play at home against the Braves and the Dodgers. Then you play at the Yankees. And then you play at the Tigers. Then you're home against the Guardians. Yada, yada. I decided to just pick a day and said June 27th. Okay. That Braves and Dodgers series is a bit hairy for the socks.

Let's throw the Phillies and Yankees in there too. That's not a very great. Yeah. Yeah, I am. So the 27th is probably not even possible based on the teams I just mentioned. Yeah. But for the sake of this, either Thursday or the 20th. I think June 27th is when I predicted the Bears would confirm where their stadium is going to be built.

Isn't that? Oh, I don't know. Look in your calendar. I made you put it in your phone calendar. I did. I did. I did. I don't want to look at this second.

I said August of 2020. Yeah, you, you, I feel like you're in poll position right now, I think. No, because the legislative session is up on May 31st. Exactly. And now I'm hearing things out in the ether that it could be another month still. So. Slag heap. Slag heap.

Slag heap. Tommy slag heap. I don't know that we should be chanting that. Green Bay sucks. Rank the chance. Actually, Green Bay kind of is a slag heap, isn't it? No, stop that. First of all, people do build on slag heap.

The goal is to rehabilitate land. Secondly, it just is a hilariously ridiculous phrase. Well, exactly. Again, versatile. It's like Green Bay sucks chance. It goes with anything. You could say slag heap and it's going to be a great conversation. It's just one of those phrases that pays.

It gets the people. going. Our guy, or my guy, Jordan Wix, as you said, goes as we look towards when Wixie? Could the White Sox overtake the Cubs and the standings? He talks football with you. Wait! Cubs suck. Jordan Wix, Wixie, a 444 ERA and seven starts at Iowa, although his last two appearances have been good. So I got a little bit of hope for Wixie. I mean, you wanted this. You've been asking about him. I have.

We all had. Confounded by this man. You'd been leading the charge. My charge has not been so much. Why isn't he pitching? Where is he? What is he doing? Why is he not on the team?

Did they like him? Bob, the meatloaf. I don't know what anybody's doing up there. Exactly. This was a first round pick. We don't like him anymore. What is he worth? What happened?

Where's Wixie? Well, we had Jed Hoyer on the show last week and you ask Jed Hoyer. So I guess Jed Hoyer is just trying to prove to you, Mark Grody, personally. No, we got him. Jed mentioned him by name. And then Mark and I went crazy. and looked at each other like the world had just fallen apart. I don't know you're going to start them, Jed.

Jesus, man. Well, what else was he going to do? No, but they, with all due respect, the Cubs are scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to like what they thought. Jordan Wicks was not mentioned as their depth, as part of their depth this season. We still need a check on Jackson Wiggins.

We still, exactly. Yeah, where are you now? Where is Jackson Wiggins? He had, rehabbing. Yeah, he had, yes. He's been rehabbing. I don't know if he's got, I know the last time we talked, he was long tossing maybe, but everybody is in play this year.

Here's what I think. The Cubs have to snap out of this at some point in time, right? Like, we're not really looking at a 16-game losing streak here. As you also mentioned, the road does get a little tougher for the White Sox. So I'm pushing it back as well, just for the sake of doing something different than you said, Leila, I'll say June 29th. There's just two. The Cubs are, I still think the Cubs are good, okay?

It sucks now. I mean, this is a bear of a schedule for the socks. I'm not going to lie. June is challenging. That's what I'm saying. And for the Cubs, as you said, three more games in Pittsburgh and then they are at St. Louis. And I get it, the division is good.

But none of these teams are great. They're winnable series for the Chicago Cubs. So it's going to be a little while still. Sorry, Sox fans. For the love of everything holy, just make people's lives difficult in St. Louis for me. Where is Bradwick and Jordan Wicks? If we're going to do the whole WICTree,

I want to know where those guys are right now as well. Where's Robbie Trierno? Where is he? I'm still laughing at the idea of Tyson Bejit and his dad coming in to coach up the Cubs and make them do callous. Then I'm Mr. Bajon. This is my son Tyson right here. 40 burpees.

Let's go. 40 burpees. That's a lot of burpees. Then it's followed by mountain climbers. You're going to work your absolute butt off, I believe. Writing his face off. He said grinding his face off. Grinding his...

Did he throw an absolute in there? We grinding your absolute face off? There's no way to know. We'll have to find that out. We know you, Tyson, Bajit. Find me that audio. Tell us about the party at the water park, for God's sake. Well, that's to ask Carmen.

Mark Carmen is bestie. Yes. That's my bestie into Tessie. Number two. I don't know what that means. Doja Cat, yo. Well, if you could switch up the Cubs lineup, would you try?

I just outdozed you, didn't I? You did indeed. I say that that's with my niece, Madeline. So we're besties. I say you're my bestie and a tessie right there. Just as too close to a part of the human body. I know. I know.

It is. It is. And that's why they pay me the bucks. Some bucks is to make those jokes. And bears. All right, this is five on it with three meters. Hey, buddy. Grotie, if you could switch up the Cubs lineup,

who would you want to try at least? lead off. All right. So I said say I wanted batting second behind Nico batting leadoff, right? That was what I said. And my theory was it's the most consistent hitting combined with the most consistent protection for SEA. So I still don't want SEA to lead off. This is the weirdest thing I've said so far that in upside down world where nothing makes sense. Michael Conforno. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. That's just it, Leila. I guess it would be saying, theoretically, if PCA's not the dude,

I don't like him in the leadoff spot for reasons I can't explain. Like, feelings, basically. So, yeah, why not Michael Conforto? For no reason other than I want Saye it to hit next to Nico batting leadoff. Nico batting leadoff is typical. So that's it. It's all doing something for the sake of change. None of it makes sense.

I am still, I still like what they're doing. I like Pete Carr Armstrong leading off for the Cubs. I like the possibilities because no matter what PCA has been this year, and it's been a rough go for PCA. I like starting with an out. No, look, there's outs all over the lineup right now, Leila. Yeah. Nothing makes sense.

And he has had some nice ad bats, has PCA at the top of the order. So maybe more so than anybody else in the lineup recently. So I like, like, you can never take away from PCA, what is there are myriad possibilities every time PCA steps on a baseball field and one of them is jacking the ball out of the park on the first pitch of the game. PCA, anything can happen. It's true. I don't know if that's good or bad.

No, sometimes it is bad. Sometimes he dives when he doesn't need to dive. That's what my mom told me. That's what you told me. Well, Gene and I are, he didn't dive per se. He like dove against the wall. That's what my mom said. Yes.

I don't know why he needs to do that. I mean, it seemed like an easy play. It was a very long take she had. PCA would 100% be down for 40 burpees with Tyson Vagent. That's all I can glean out of this. Oh, yeah. PCA for sure. I was trying to think of any other players who would have that sort of enthusiasm. And I don't know that too many veterans, I can't see Dansby Swanson.

But those guys are in shape. Like Dansby and Alex Brighman and Happer are in shape. Well, no, yeah, I wasn't suggesting they weren't. I'm just saying like, who would. Who would actually play along with the... Carson Kelly. Carson Kelly, probably. Yeah, yeah, I could see him doing it.

He's pleasantly intense at times. Yeah. Maybe Nico. Nico. Nico, how do you feel about burpees coached by Tyson Bayesian? Sick, bro. Let's do it. Grind your absolute ass off.

I was too busy grinding my absolute face off. Five buttes for that. Number three. Should be part of our rotation, frankly. Like, why not? Yeah, keep that handy, will you? We're at number what? We're at number three.

Oh, dear. What's happening? Lightning round. Coming up on number three, who had a worst series over the Memorial Day weekend. The Cubs in their series lost to the Astros

or the Cavs, who were eliminated from the Eastern Conference finals at the hands of the Knicks. I mean, you can't argue with the Astros being on some sort of a heater now because they just

notched the first no-hitter that baseball had seen in two years. So by that logic alone, I'm going to say it's the Cavs. Because, first of all, I have to come to grips with the fact that the Knicks may have done something right.

They get to the Eastern Conference finals last year for the first time in 25 years. And I'm thinking to myself, why on earth do you fire Tibbs? Because, well, you guys know I like Tibbs too. And then they interviewed everybody to the point where you and I are asking, did you get interviewed by the Knicks? Chances are you may have. Then they get Mike Brown, who was the Kings coach. And now we see them in their first finals since 1999.

And it was the cabs who got swept. And there were times where I didn't think the cows were going to get swept, but they somehow have an inch to choke up massive leads in this series too in the individual games. So I think it's the Cavaliers. I'm going to go with the Cubs getting swept by the Astros. And yeah, teams are going to get on a heater. But Astros came in with one of the worst overall batting averages, one of the worst overall ERAs.

the Cubs were in desperate, are in desperate need to get right and they failed to do it. And as I said earlier, everything was legitimate in those losses. Unfortunately, Shota didn't have it in the Sunday game, Saturday game. You didn't score a run. You didn't score a single run. Colin Ray looked decent. See, that's the point is I think pitching is, you knew Tyone and Shota were going to give up home runs. This wasn't secret.

Yeah. Everybody else has held serve and then some. I would like to see Tyone get out of the fifth inning, which he did not do Friday against the Astros, but your point is taken. And in that game, that was the 0 for 9 with runners in the scoring position, the 0 for 4 with runners on third base. So all of these games just sucked.

They were all bad games by the Cubs. Nothing flukish about it. They got stomped. And at the wrong time against the wrong team, so I'm going with the Cubs getting swept by the Astros. worse than the the Cavs thing is just it was just sad watching because I was

trying to watch last night and I just couldn't because it just never got better Nixon Calfs did you hear? I don't think he heard did he? What about her? Heard? Oh the latest Kenny Atkinson, weird

statement about the yeah we'll have to play that for you later I think we should play it but I also think the video would help hammer the point home here which isn't really a thing for us in the audio world but I feel like it would help. Oh, yeah, the point that Kenny Atkinson is like the NBA version of Amanda Bufluse?

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. We'll have to do a little dive into that little later. We'll do that offline with Grady. Okay. Number four. Did you like what you saw from Reku Nishita in his White Sox debut in a 3-1 win over the twins yesterday? Absolutely.

I mentioned this before. To have an outfield assist like that where you look as big league as anybody else out there, charge into the ball and just throwing a dart at home plate. At home plate, no less. That's what made this so, so sexy. So, yeah, seven put-outs in his debut. The major league record was eight in a debut, so that tells you how good he was in the outfield. And he got his first major league hit. Can't say enough about just rising to the occasion did Riku Nishita. So yes, I did. I loved it. Riku Suave. I'm really pushing that. Why not? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like I said, just bouncing around out there. He was like PCA when he first came up, diving for balls,

throwing guys out, getting big hits in the game, hugging guys, showing emotion. It was like this disinjection of adrenaline at White Sox Park, whether they needed it or not, because they've got their own good thing going on even without Nishita being there. But it's beautiful. Like any move the White Sox seem to make this year seems to turn to goal. So just keep bringing guys up, keep bringing in guys that I've never heard of that I don't know about. out. I'd never heard of Nishita before this, a 2023 11th round pick for the White Sox.

I had no idea that was coming to the south side, but it was a pleasure to watch. Number five. It's five on it at 104 through the score. Here's our final question. What was the best part of your Memorial Day weekend? The weather. The weather finally turned. I think we may be out of it.

I think we may be out of the whatever you want to call that spring pattern. So we've got like real consistent weather ahead of us. We do. I mean, there's a couple blips. You know, there's a couple highs in the 60s. But other than that, it appears to be mostly in the 70s for the highs. You know, I mean, that means there's temperatures underneath that that you're going to experience.

But yeah, 80s? I'll take the 80s all day. That's my perfect weather. 85 and sunny? Yep. I give you two quick best parts of my week. I really did enjoy inside the clubhouse because of all the guests that we had and working with Bruce is just a blast.

And you like all the people. I do. I love being a Gallagher. I like being around the people. Yeah. Yes. Ray Diaz was out there pressing pretend buttons at times.

No. For the fun of it? It was, we'll explain that one during the break. It was an absolutely gorgeous day out there. And then on Sunday I hung out with my friends and Elmerst.

To your point about the weather, just sitting outside with my sunglasses on, loading up on Diet Coke's, eating snacks, and barbecue in. So I did get some classic Memorial Day barbecue and just good, good bonding

with friends on Sunday. Yeah, I sat outside on a patio with some friends yesterday after I got my baseball watching. Nice. And it was great. There was a dog. Aw. Yep.

Aw. Yep. Just good outside sitting that was going on. Yes. There's nothing better, right? Just looking up at the sky. sipping on whatever you're sipping on, snacking on whatever you're snacking on,

and then just having great conversations. Yeah. It's a life. Five on it. Works sucks. That is five on it here on Rahimi Harris and Rony. Coming up next, let's talk more White Sox.

Jim Margulis, managing editor of Sox Machine. That's right. I said it. Machine. Mm-hmm. Let's talk to him about the upcoming draft the latest on that,

because they do have reporters covering Ye Big Ten tournament. And also, of course, the whites and their success with bringing guys up right now. We'll do it all next. Sox machine. You know what that music means? Isn't that daft punk?

It is. Okay, so it's daft punk and socks machine. Self-explanatory. We know the website. Well, this is Rahimi Harrison Grotie. And the managing editor of Sox Machine, we are happy to bring him on on our hotline. He is also on Twitch.

Twitch.tv. Slashore Chicago, Jim Margulis, joins us. Jim, how are you? I'm good. How are you? Happy to talk to you. For myriad of reasons,

number one, I like what you have to say about baseball in general. Number two, you're very entertaining. And number three, the White Sox are relevant in good ways, not just at the professional level,

but in the farm system as well, and perhaps more with this draft. This is a good time. Yeah, we don't have to make our own fun anymore. It's, I'd forgotten what it's like when the White Sox share some of the load in providing entertainment and we're more or less commenting on it, reflecting on it, trying to extrapolate meaning from it. And that's a lot more fun than 300 lost seasons to where we're just mining for something that isn't just mulling over the same mistakes over and over again.

Well, and I, yes, mulling over the same mistakes over and over again just describes me and my own personal life. But thankfully, not the White Sox now. This is, it's a good time. And I was reminded, Jim, of what we said with James Fegan, or Fegan was on with us earlier and said, this is the first time he can remember when there's so much talent still left in the farm system, despite what's already been happening at the big league level. Yeah, they have some powder dry. I mean, you're seeing David Sandlin being called up. He might be the last of their somewhat ready pitchers to be able to take a start.

They have some talent left like Hagen Smith is just not throwing strikes right now. now, but he could feasibly part of the conversation in weeks. Then you have like Duncan David and Jonathan Cannon, who have had, you know, varying degrees of major league experience before. But, yeah, Sandlin should be interesting as somebody who throws high in 90s and a real good breaking ball. Like, he's entertaining in sense that he's a big guy who throws really hard. And that gets you a lot of the way there in today's game.

Position player-wise, you're seeing the White Sox, like, Braden Montgomery is still figuring out AAA, which he has every right to do. given where he is in his developments. But you're seeing like the Sam Antanachi types or even the Rikunashita types of just players who have emerged in ways that make them useful, even if they're not, you know, blue chip prospects or,

uh, starters are going to be able to handle 150 games in any position. Like they have skills. Uh, the white socks can leverage them and complement them with other players. And when you have, uh, a 162 game season,

you know, we see this a lot with Milwaukee, uh, finding those, players who can bridge gaps and fill a hole in the lineup or fill a hole in the diamond. Like those are immensely useful in ways that maybe don't show up on their individual stat lines. Yeah. So you have this sort of juxtaposition happening on this White Sox team of, yeah, they're about

winning right now and considering the competition in the American League and even in the division, they should be about winning, but there's also the development part of it and the bringing up of these guys like Riku Nasheedah and David Sandlin, as you mentioned. Guy I want to ask you about, too, is what have you thought about, what is your evaluation of Noah Schultz so far with the White Sox? It's a little confusing because if you told me that he were to be struggling at the major league level, I would think that he's getting killed in the strike zone, that he's giving up a lot of hits or balls are finding their way over the fence, and, you know, the swing and miss issues

are coming into play. But really, he's gotten himself into trouble with walks and hit by pitches, which are, that really hasn't been a part of his profile, at least when healthy. Like last year, when he was dealing with the knee issue, he had like a career high walk rates and that was a signal that something was wrong. Here, like in Charlotte, he was throwing strikes, just filling up the zone, gets to the majors and I'm not sure if it's a case where he feels he needs to be more careful or if he doesn't have like one pitch, the rest of his arsenal kind of wobbles. But yeah, he's just walking more guys than I thought. And you can look at that two ways. You can look at that in terms of of like he still has more development to do

and it might be hard earned at the major league level because if he doesn't have problems throwing strikes in Charlotte then what's he going to learn there? The other thing is that like he could eventually just figure it out and flip a switch and oh yeah, here's how I throw strikes. You know, major league lineups aren't as scary as I'm making them out to be.

And all of a sudden he is now a, you know, number three starter at the majors in his rookie year. Yeah, I think go either way. But he is, I think, pretty important to what the White Sox are trying to do, given that, you know, Tanner McDougal is out. Hagan Smith's not throwing strikes. Shane Smith is out with a shoulder issue for a while. They kind of need all the starters that they have.

So Schultz right now, you know, he deserves some leeway as a rookie making his way through the majors for the first time. But it would really behoove him, the White Sox, to figure it out well enough to go five innings on a reliable basis because they really need something like that because if it's not him and David Sandlin will see who he's replacing, but they might need everybody who's currently in the rotation to hold their spots for a while. And Jim, there's not much that is similar about the White Sox from one regime to the next, surprisingly.

But I do think, I wondered about, if you remember when Dylan Seescott called up, I feel like there was a bit of that that happened, where he was ready enough, but then they knew what his stuff was and it was just a matter of getting reps at the major league level. I wonder if that's what's happening here in a way. Yeah, I think there's always cases on both sides of the ball where hitters or pitchers are just too talented for what either, you know, pitchers are throwing or what, you know, hitters are seeing. Like, yeah, I would say the position player equivalent would be like Avicel Garcia

of just somebody who, every time we went to AAA, he was hitting 340 and slugging 550 and just they couldn't do anything to him. And it was like years of hard earned progress for him where he finally, you know, had an all-star year and had some productive years with the White Sox and Milwaukee, and I think even with the race. And it just took him a long time to just register what he was seeing and combat what pitchers were doing to him well enough. And yeah, I think with Schultz, it's just the extreme heights, the really good sweeper,

the two fastballs. You don't see many guys like that at AAA. The hitters are at AAA probably couldn't handle his guys in the majors or coming up from AA still haven't seen many like him. So he might get by a lot in the Meyer League levels on novelty alone. So at that point, yeah, it's just a case where you need to call him up and he needs to figure it out. And yeah, I think CES is a good example of somebody who just, velocity was too much.

The breaking ball was too sharp to really phase or to really, you know, just find a challenge of AAA. And everything needed to be hammered out against major league hitters who made him come in the zone. obviously Tanner McDougall injured right now. You mentioned Hagen Smith. I want to hear more about him and what his story is because I thought we'd be talking more about him being promoted to the big league level right now, but you say he's a little bit wild right now?

Yeah, it's just, it seems like it's mechanics, seems like it's kind of an inning-to-inning thing where he has some innings where it looks pretty simple, and he gets by on a 94-mile-per-hour fastball, which plays up, and then a slider that really can, grab strikes or be a wipeout pitch and he gets some goofy swings and misses. And then he has a string of batters where he gets off is the release points kind of askew and just does walking guys on five pitches or he needs to find a slider to get in the strike zone.

He can't, you know, for a few batterers, he just needs to get back to the dugout to kind of recalibrate and those innings drag on for a while and eat at his pitch count. So the talent is there. I think the question right now is like, is it a start? starter or is it more of a reliever? Is it more of a, you know, somebody who just needs to throw an inning or two at a time because the prospect of throwing four, five, six innings without these big lapses that really just wastes pitch count are just too much to overcome and plan around for a major league staff?

We're talking to Jim Margulis of Sox Machine here on 104-3, the score, through Heimie Harris and Grady. And Jim, Rikunushita's debut went about as well as anybody. but he could have asked for when you consider seven putouts, had an outfield assist from right field, you know, not his natural spot. What do you think of just the atmosphere he created,

what he was able to do in his first game, and then where he goes from here? It was very on brand for him, both with the outfield assist and with like the single that kind of squibs through the middle, you know, hits it on the ground and runs like hell. That's pretty much his game offensively. It's funny.

After we hang up here, I'm going to be driving to Birmingham to see the Rickwood game. And it was last year at the Rickwood game where I watched him from left field throughout two runners at home played basically identical plays, singles where he's charging, coming up firing, and getting the runner at home by a step. And it almost seemed like the first one couldn't be believed, you know, whether it's his size, whether it's kind of like he'll take some unsure routes from time to time, especially last year when he was really dedicating time to learning the outfail.

And so maybe they thought, like, he's not going to be in position to throw or, you know, given how small he is, you know, perhaps there's not going to be much in that arm. And then twice a row, bam, bam, bam, just two outs. And like, he's running back to dugout and teammates are holding two fingers in his face to say, you did it twice. And, you know, he's got that kind of pull and charisma to where everybody's rooting for him. Like, I even remember this going back to his draft day when he was drafted in the 11th round. And he saw college baseball writers who were happy for him and saying, like, this guy was so much. fun at Oregon. Like I'm not sure if he has a major league profile, but he deserves to be playing at the next level

and then seeing how far he can take it because like just the entertainment value of watching him and then just what everybody says about him, you know, in the clubhouse and the dugout on the field, you know, playing multiple positions and scoring runs. Just everybody saw that that need to be rewarded somehow. And then it's been the same story basically in the White Sox farm system of just seems like,

okay, double A. surely his magical run out. Okay, AAA, surely pitchers with major experience will now to get them out. He just keeps posting 400 on base percentages or higher every single level

to where, yeah, try them in the majors. Reward that performance, especially when this White Sox outfields kind of mess right now. There's opportunities for a left-handed bat there. There's opportunities to get some reps in the infield. So yeah, it's kind of calling out for his skill set and profile.

And even if it doesn't work out, it's a worthwhile experience just to see based on what he'd done at AAA, seeing it works. And if it continues to work, he's going to be immensely popular. And we saw it in the first game, just how everybody seems to rally around him when he's in a clubhouse, in a dugout. And then, Jim, we know that Josh Nelson is in Omaha. He was keeping an eye in the Big Ten tournament. What can you tell us about his assignment? Yeah, he went down to see UCL.

LA and Rock Chilowski, still the number one ranked prospect on most draft boards and trying to figure out where he is. And it's a mixed bag

right now. Like defensively, he's fine. The skill set is still there. The strength is there. But, you know, Josh says that he's kind of

in between swings right now and he's not really driving the UCLA offense. And I think for White Sox fans who were hoping for, you know, what they thought

when the draft lottery happened of just looking for a surefire number one pick, no-brainer. Yeah, I think Chilowski is still that guy in terms of the draft boards being number one, but he's not having the kind of performance to where he's running away with it or cementing it or kind of closing off avenues for other opportunities for the White Sox to like draft a high school shortstop or something like that. I will say that when it comes to prospects like Chilowski who build up so much hype in their sophomore year and then have like an OK by their standards junior year,

It reminds me a lot about Carlos Rodan when he was supposed to be the top overall pick out of NC States. Had a shorter season and wasn't as effective, a few more walks. The White Sox had the third pick that year. Everybody thought, oh, there's no way they're getting Rodon. He's the first pick overall. And then he falls to third. White Sox pick him. And the first two picks are high school pitchers who never, I think, get above A ball.

So there is always a risk of prospect fatigue, I think, especially when you're following a guy who is the presumptive. number one pick for this draft from the previous year. But there is, I guess, at this point, a little bit of doubt in terms of just where he is swing-wise and the kind of instant impact, I think that probably should temper the idea of him rising through the ranks and contributing of the White Sox in 2027. But I think if you're going to be heartened by something, I would say that if he's between swings, if nothing else, the White Sox have shown this, year and ability to help guys figure out swings. And that's something we couldn't have said before with the White Sox and developing hitters. Absolutely. Jim Margulis, always a pleasure catching up.

Have fun at the game tonight. Thank you. I will. That is Jim Margulis, the managing editor of Sox Machine. We are happy to have him on 104.3, the score. Next here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, David Ross graced the cover of the Suntime Sports Section today and had a very candid article that was written about him regarding his feelings toward the Cubs and the divorce that happened between him and the team as manager. So we'll examine what he said. And then also it reminded us of something that he had told a podcast that we want to play for you. Next.

Rahimi Harrison Grody. I don't want to break time. I want to yell at a person. Can we handle more Anthony Heron? Midday's 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. This is Raheimmy. me Harrison Grotie on 104-3, The Score, and we woke up to an interesting post, or if you saw the Sun Times this morning, it was the sports section. Gordon Eads, who's a writer for the Sun-Times,

had talked to David Ross, and the cover of the sports section has a picture of David Ross, and it says Rossi, ready to dish. I see what they did there with the pun, nicely done sometimes. former Cubs catcher and manager finally opens up about shocking exit, bitter feelings, and a fresh outlook. And David Ross doesn't talk very often publicly anymore except on the lovable reunion podcast. And they haven't addressed this. So this was a new wrinkle, wasn't it, Mark? It was. And a lot of us have been very curious as to what David Ross's reaction was to not just being replaced or fired as a manager, because it happened.

to the best of them. He was replaced because there was a hotter option. There was somebody better, and it was blatant, and it was, look, it was a ballsy move by the Cubs, which was, I thought, a good move, but it had to hurt, had to hurt his ego. That's why it was so important to hear from David Ross and what his side of it was. Yes. Now, Ross was in town to shoot an episode of The Lovable Reunion. That's the podcast with him and Anthony Rizzo.

And they've gone to different places to do this. I'm pretty sure they went to Dexter Fowler's house or somewhere close to it. I believe he's in Las Vegas. You could see with the background, one of those is there. It looks like a desert background. And for example, we know that they've filmed stuff here in town because I think one of them was at Murphys, at least a couple of them were at Murphys.

So the point is he's been here. And I guess that's where Gordon Eads got to talk to him. And one of the things that I found compelling about this article was, number one, given all of the jobs that have been open managerially in Major League Baseball, was that he said that he hasn't gotten a call for an interview yet, and that surprised me. Yeah, I guess I was a little surprised by that as well,

and I don't know what they discerned from his time as a Cubs manager, if they saw some flaws in that. That is a little bit surprising. I still feel like David Ross would be somebody who would get another bite at the Apple. A couple of the things that I found interesting, where was the Jed Hoyer part of this? and all I read was the line where he said,

or at least the last of the line, he said, I like Jed, Jed's fine. So I think that was a very adult way of handling it. Like if David Ross was mad at Jed Hoyer and didn't want to ever talk to him again, I would totally understand. My guess is it took a lot for him to just even say that. I like Jed, Jed's fine.

Yeah, and just to go back a little bit further for context in the article, it talked about when David Ross has been back to town, reported rarely since his firing. He came back for a post Malone and a jelly roll concert. He has a friend in Jelly Rolls band. Ross was there in January for the Cubs convention and a couple of times for the podcast.

He said hello in passing to Hoyer at the convention and recalls one brief conversation on the phone with Hoyer the first year after his firing. And that's when he said he asked me about something. I forget what it was, but I like Jed. Jed's fine. He also talked about cheering for players as opposed to cheering necessarily for the team.

And that makes sense. sense too when you've got those relationships with people. He mentioned guys like Justin Steele, Nico Horner, that that was, those were people that he talked about. Yeah, yeah. And at the end of it, you're right. He said he roots for players, but he said, but then there's also like, I was hoping they didn't win, which is completely normal.

So I'm really happy that he admitted that and just said that. He also said that one of his first calls when he got the axe was to Craig Counsel. He called Craig Counsel. and he congratulated him, said the conversation lasted less than a minute, but I got to give Ross credit to it. There is no reason he needed to call Craig Counsel to congratulate him. But he did.

He also said, did David Ross? Don't worry, kids, David Ross will be there on July 18th. That's the big on-field party for the 2016 Cubs, the 10-year anniversary. And per what you were talking about with him not managing, he did say it felt better. I don't know if those are the exact words he used, but to see somebody like Alex Cora

get fired by the Red Sox, to see Rob Thompson get fired by the Phillies that seemed to sort of help Ross a little bit, maybe understand. Again, like what I was saying, everybody gets fired. The manner in which he got fired was just horrible, I think, from a personal standpoint for David Ross, though.

Yeah, and that's a part of this. It was jarring. And Jed gave him a vote of confidence, and this isn't like in football. You know where it's the mid-season vote of conference because the team is struggling. I remember listening to that press availability where Hoyer said

he was asked about David Ross. It was at the end of the season. And it was acknowledged that there was a year left on his contract. Nobody thought he was going anywhere until he went somewhere. And everything changed when counsel became available. And for the record at the time, I did not think that Craig counsel was going to become available.

Most of the baseball world didn't. And a lot of that baseball world thought that if that were to happen, he would follow David Stearns to the Mets. History repeated itself with the Cubs when the Cubs, Theo Epstein, went and got Joe Manon, when they didn't think Joe Madden was going to be available. It was like, Ricky, we got to talk. That'd be Ricky Renteria, who was at his expense. So it is interesting, like when we just look back on the whole book of the Chicago Cubs

that twice, twice they have done this, where when they had the opportunity to go get the manager, they went and got him. I sure wish they do that with players more often. When the hot shot player becomes available, go get that guy, go get him, no matter what the expense is, even if it's feelings. Yeah, we're sometimes in the words of certain baseball types

for just money, when you don't have to give up prospects to get somebody. Amen to that, right. It's just money. Right, and that's been available and there are times where the Cubs have shown that they don't want to spend that kind of money on somebody. But it's a worthy reason.

that's for sure. Gordon Eads, I feel like, has been doing a lot of very good sports adjacent work recently to, given that he also talked to the woman now being called Sox Bride who snapped back at PCA. Oh, yeah. What we're calling her socks bride? I didn't know that. Yeah, I'm good with that. But worth a read for sure, David Ross, who, yeah, it sounds like the next time we will

see him as a baseball collective will be in July. Yeah, and look, yeah, cheers to Gordon Eads for getting this because I've been waiting for this, like wanting to hear the open dial. What does he think about Jed? Is he mad at the Cubs? Is he ever going to manage again? And a lot of those questions were answered. So I recommended reading in the Sun Times. Yeah, absolutely. Nicely done by the Sun-Times. Next on Rahimi Harrison Grotty, he's back, ladies and gentlemen. He had quite the day on Thursday. Mark Brody did. Oh, me. Yeah. You joined Danny Parkins for the Radiothon from six to midnight. I mean. And Danny had to put up with you. He did have to put up with me. And then additionally, you were out at the hall, Hallis Hall.

It was a busy day. I just barely made it to the 6 p.m. show. Yeah, you were working. So let's share some of the fruits of Mark Grody's reporting labor with you inside the locker room. Two segments of exclusive bears discussion next.