Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 311 | Chicago White Sox | Profile & Projection

Episode Date: March 24, 2021

You guys ranked the Chicago White Sox MLB's fifth-best team. Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe are previewing their 2021 campaign! Presented by DraftKings Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We are into the top five, according to you guys. It's another team profile and projection here from the talk and baseball crew, which is presented by Draft Kings. The Chicago White Stockings, young Jake, they finished last year 35 and 25. They had a breakout star. They went to the postseason. They're on a 95-game win pace, had it not. been a shortened season.

They added more people this year. They were active. Can you tell us what they did? Yeah, Jim, it's funny seeing this on paper because they lost some dudes. They lost James McCann. We just talked about him on the Mets. He was an important part of that team. Alex Colomé on the back end had a really good year last year.

Dane Dunning, the young pitcher who's righty that I always mentally think is lefty. I think it's a 2D thing. Nomar Mazar, Yommer, San Mara. Sanchez, Gio Gonzalez, Shoe King, Gerard Dyson, our guy, and Uncle Edwin. Edwin Anconaccio is still unsigned, so maybe he comes back at some point. Jim, who they added? They added big pieces. They didn't play the depth game, this free agency.

How about Lance Lynn in the trade from Texas? Big fastball, Eaton, Lance Lynn, chewing up innings. In the back of the bullpen replacing Colomé, how about Liam Hendricks? Coming off of his magical year, he gets the bag, he'll be closing for them. And Adam Eaton for some of the corner outfield spots. We remember how good he was with the Nats. We'll see how he looks with the White Sox. So three important guys for this White Sox team, but they lost a lot of other bodies.

But Trevor, another, I'm loving these lineups at this part of the TPPs. I do too. And this is where I think like the tier starts, like the top tier starts. And maybe they're teetering on this line here, but I'm going to put them into that kind of top tier. But yeah, again, the lineup is great. Catcher, you got filling in for McCann. Not a bad option here. Yes, Monty Grundal, who can swing the stick.

Like big time. Got to love that. And that's a theme in this lineup. They can hit. First base, reigning MVP. Jose Abraeu. I love him. Some of the best of bats you're ever going to see does not get flustered.

Love that about him. Second base listed here. We got Nick Madrigal, a guy that puts the ball and play a lot out of Oregon State. He's a beaver. Wow. I love that. Shortstop, our guy, Tim Anderson. He's also on my hot guy list.

He continues to prove everybody wrong. He's turned himself into the real. deal. A lot of guys pointed to his babbitt being so high. That's why he hits for such a high average. He just proved everybody wrong. Every single step of the way. So love to Manorston, third base. Yuan Moncada, who's just the raker. Left field, Adam Angles, centerfield,

Luis Robert, right field, bringing back Adam Eaton and D.H. They got our guy, Eloy, no buttons Jimenez. They got a lot of other guys coming up to. This is a very deep, long lineup. They score a ton of runs. I love everything about it. Jim, I want to hear about the pitching staff, please. The pitching staff, the pitching staff.

Let's talk about the pitchers. Our guy, Lucas Gialito, Trev's friend, co-host of the Chris Rose Rotation podcast. He is their ace. He is their opening day starter. That has been confirmed. They traded for Lance Lynn, as Jake told you, we are Pagged Lance Lynn fans. We like that guy. Dallas Caico, he's still with them.

Actually, has he been pitching in spring? Is he hurt? What's he been doing? I haven't heard his name in forever. Dylan Cis, Carlos Rodon. What's that? Got engaged. Dallas Caico got engaged.

Kelly Nash. Congratulations. They have like a camp battle going on right now between Rodon and Lopez, if they go to just a five-man. And I think Rodon is winning it. as we speak. Kopeck is there. How are they going to use him?

It's a conversation for sure. Goodness. It's a conversation for sure. Hendricks is the big reliever. Aaron Bummer. Got fun stuff and a good name. Evan Marshall, Matt Foster, in the pen. I like, dude, I like Lance Lynn so much.

Yeah. I like him teaching everyone else how to throw fastballs. Those are two very confident dudes there. Lance Lynn and oh, Liam Hendrix. Hi, T. Forcing those guys to be confident. I think they project their confidence differently, but it's the same confidence.

God, they're kind of the same. Like, I don't know Lance as well as I know Liam, but talking to Lance, it's just like, they're not going to go around shouting at everybody, but you know when you talk to him, it's there. They also got LaRusa. Have we talked about him at all? True.

Hasn't been a ton of manager talk throughout this. The new manager. Lucas just had some nice words to say on the Chris Rose rotation about that, which was interesting. Yeah, I mean, it's one of the biggest managerial storylines. The media was kind of up in arms, this old man with this young fun team, and then a little drinking and driving.

It's something to follow. I hope for baseball it doesn't become a story because that means the White Sox are playing math. and people are pointing at Tony Larusa. I don't know. I've kind of moved past it. It is what it is. The manager only has so much effect on the day to day,

and it sounds like he came in and kind of served his humble pie and told the guys, like, I'm going to have to earn it and all that. So we'll see. Let's hope that's not a storyline. We talk about managers on this show a lot. they're as good as your players. So he's going to be a good manager because he's got good players.

Now, if he messes up and does something wrong in the clubhouse, that's the only time we're going to hear about it, in my opinion. Yeah. Lucas told me the same thing. He said he's been great. Fangress has Zach Collins scheduled in as the DH right now. He's lighting up spring. He was in a battle with Luke Roy, I thought, for the backup catching role.

but is there another injury that has him there White Sox fans I apologize I don't know this right now and I'm just asking Yeah I believe and hey you guys know your team better than I think that's an option for them I think Eloy is looking to get some DH days and if you remember Eloy had that thing like no Fuck that I'm I like playing left field wasn't that what he said they're like do you want to just be a dh He said fuck that yeah so and because I know they like angle a lot they like Lori Garcia so I think there will be some moving parts there. I think their best full-tilt lineup,

and this is opinion, would be with Eloy at the DH. Because I think Adam Angle actually did some hitting recently. But, yeah, I mean, this is the lineup. My guy Danny Mendick on the bench. Yeah, Angle had a good 20-20. Before that, he hasn't been an above-average hitter, so he's got to prove it. I mean, there's a lot of ways.

They have depth. There's a lot of ways they can go with this lineup, and that's one of the reasons we like them a lot. We like them. I actually just got a Zach Collins baseball card. How about that? I was in a break online. My guy, Longoria, was in one.

Are you a card guy now? You know, when I get bored, these guys are doing this stuff on Instagram live. You can just jump in and say, yeah, I want to be part of that break. It's cool. It is kind of cool. That's how.

Anyways, I got a card, and these guys were telling me, young, good hitter, surrounded by a lot of talent. He could be a guy to look out for. I got like an autograph card from him. So now I'm rooting for him. That's huge.

Tim Anderson, very happy that he threw up another great result season with the 322 batting averaging 357 on base percentage. He was a lot of people were like, the Babib favored him, and he can't repeat that. And it's, you know, he got a lot of luck. And I was rooting for him to shut those people up and just do it again. and he did. So he'll be leading off for the White Sox. I think Tony the Russo talked about putting one of the pesky guys like Madrigal or Eaton

as the two-hole hitter and doing kind of the more old school style lineup. Of course he does. Of course he wants that. It worked with the Nats. I was skeptical on the Nats when they went Turner Eaton. And, I mean, it made it pesky. It's one of those things. How does it end up looking?

It is weird seeing, you know, Abraeu Jimenez, Moncada, down 4-5-6. Luis Robert in the seventh hole. He's going to be an interesting storyline this season. Is he the first-month guy that terrorized the league, or is he the second-month guy that found him in his swoon? So much youth on this team, man. Nick Madrigral had probably slaughtered that. A lot of people aren't super familiar with him,

but he's supposed to be a special contact hitter, a special type of contact hitter. I mean, man, I don't know. For me, it ties into a lot of these young guys, and I think part of the reason we like this team is there's a lot of guys you know what you're going to get, which is tough to say around baseball. I mean, Kikl, he's making his first start tomorrow.

It looks like I googled that. But when Kikl's on the mound, you know what you're going to get. Lance Lynn, you know what you're going to get. Gialito is pretty close to you know what you're going to get, which is pretty cool and good for him after kind of a tough start to his career. So, man, I don't know. I think this all ties into Moncada. How much does he bounce back? He got COVID. He didn't look like the same player and he openly talked about it. He said there's days when I'm just tired. I'm not the same guy, which again, that's scary stuff there. What is Robert? What is

Madrigal? What is Copac? Man, that guy has looked gross in spring training. Is he going to be a super swing man with them with crochet because if so that bullpen bullpen is so underrated they can be grossos down there if they call a birdie holy smokes I think Kopec is a big

storyline I mean I faced him he's a guy that he's got all the stuff you need so if he comes up and it gets into what like a four spot in that rotation that's a long rotation and I love I love this bullpen

Hendricks in the back end. You got Crochet, who everyone loves. And then Cody Heuer. Yeah, he's gross. Doing it. So they have potentially a very long rotation. And I think they got a long bullpen and they got a long lineup. That's why I like this team.

And their managers long in the tooth. It's good to be long. That's an expression. I think they haven't rolled a game this spring training too. You know how in spring training, if your pitcher throws 22-25 pitches, you can just be like, nope. Innings over. Innings over.

I think Tony LaRusa has said, like, we're not doing that. And like, I think their spring record is awful because every time they get a bunch of runners on base, the other team just rolls the inning. I was reading, I saw White Sox fan being, like, they keep rolling innings on us. Tony's not doing it. those teams like the teams have exploited the loose like spring training rules like my goodness like it used to be like every once in a while you got a roll over but now it's like we're gonna play seven endings no let's play six and a half no let's do this do that like they don't care at all and I think that's it's for the better and it's just funny that you're telling me that Tony the Russo is not rolling the endings in spring training guess what bro you got 162 in front of you he's so excited this is what I'm talking about. If he starts pulling stuff like this,

he will lose the credits. I don't have the stats on that. I remember reading it somewhere. I don't know. You got me fired up. I love it. We're not doing that bullshit. We'll lose a lot of those players if he starts acting that way. Copic has been coming out of

the pen in spring. I don't, I think he's going to be in the bullpen, which I think is the smart way to start the season. That's like a really fucking good bullpen. And he didn't pitch it all last year. So that would make sense to ease him in innings-wise. I like this team. I think that, you know, in 2018, this team or 2019, this team was, like, it seemed the

loosest clubhouse, the most fun clubhouse. You know, I was reading about the clubhouse dynamic, and they had the whole thing with LaRoche and Drake, and they kind of changed, and they said, for the sake, like, in their clubhouse, I said, like, we would just want a bunch of homegrown people that all came up together and have been playing with each other, not the mix of trade, mix of veteran, all that stuff. So, I mean, Gialitos talked about how the clubhouse is really tight.

I think they were having so much fun in 2008 and 2019. I used to say, well, you got to win in 2020 because you can't be having that much fun if you're not winning. And they made it to the playoffs, lost to the A's. But now got their feet wet. Now I like the Lance Lynn move. I mean, Kikele and Lance Lynn are just, Kiko's dependable and good.

Lance Lynn, you want to be like, yeah, he's dependable and good. And then you're like, oh, wait, he's fucking, like, was a beast last year. He's been really good. And the year before that. I mean, he had a 3-3-2 ERA last year. And like they need any more bats, they got a guy named Andrew Vaughn on the way. Third overall pick in 2019. All he does is hit.

Is he going to make the get the call? He hasn't even played in double A or AAA, right? He's going to. He's going to be. a popular name you hear later in the year because when we talk about how good is your good and the best case white socks if he does get the call at some point this year and we talked about kicking eloy out to left maybe you put vaughan in the dh spot if he's if he's the real deal um i think he'll be there by the end of the year he's a college kid he's okay he's a college

kid so yeah i mean there there's a world i know white sacks white socks fans want it so he it'll be something to track and they'll definitely be itch and see it especially um you know depending how injuries and different guys in this lineup were going. Dude, can I tell you his college numbers from 2018? Who do you play for? Cal? Looks like he played for Cal. He played in 54 games at a 402 batting average,

a 531 on base percentage, an 819 slugging, and a 1.3 OPS. Pretty good. Pretty good. Just lit up the P-12. Cal Berkeley, yeah. How about it? Don't let Bob Melvin sneak in on Andrew Vaughn.

Don't let Bob Melvin sneak in on Andrew Vaughn. Don't let him sneak in. He'd play all those cowboys. He might. I'm worried about it. I love, I just like, this is their window too, which I love that. Like, I love teams that like, oh, the window's down the row. This window is open.

This is their window. How many years it's going to last? I don't know three years. You know what I love about it? Tell me. The twins aren't like, you know my whole battle tested theory? The twins aren't battle tested. They've been handed division the last three years.

Very good. Not handed a division. Last two years. The White Sox finished one game behind them last year. Don't tell me they're not, they got handed a division. Because the twins went to sleep for a while thinking that no one was coming. And then someone came so they turned down the gas a little bit. Josh Donaldson kicked the dirt.

Yes. On home plate and he got thrown out. And everyone was saying, oh, the twins, that's the, that's it. I think the White Sox. Up until last year. I think the storyline is going to be the White Sox win the division and then turn around to the Twins and say, and this is how you do it in the playoffs.

Wow. See, here's my fear with this team. Twins are like, shit. We got so many chances and we never won a game. I still believe in the regular season twins. Me too. And that's my only fear with this team, is that depending on the playoff format, right now we're still one game wild card.

Yes. I don't know back to 10 teams, right? Yeah, but you go there, you'd much rather Gileito or Lance Lynn. I mean, it depends who we're playing and where, you know. I was playing them against the twins, which wouldn't ever work. Right. But you like their wild card setup or playoff set up better than twins. Yes, but I, as we did in previous episodes, I still like the twins in the regular season.

I still have the twins winning the division. so you end up in a one baseball game, which is always scary. So that's where I get nervous about expectations for this team. I'm interested to see if the AL Central, if anyone can provide a little bit of smoke, what does Cleveland look like? And I don't know. Again, I expect a lot from this team. I do think they're the second most talented team in the American League.

But there are some youth things, and I went through them before. and it's, you know, what are we going to get from these young guys we love this season over 162? And that's the thing. I've just seen those twins guys do it before, so that's why I believe in them. Yeah. I mean, I think the twins will be right there. I think it'll be a fun race. But I have a pretty detailed storyline.

Okay. Okay. Going on in my head. Where the White Sox are doing good, not great. Okay. And they're trying to figure things out. And then there's some tension in the clubhouse. And Tony Larusa has to make a decision.

Is he on Eaton's side or is he on everyone else's side? Oh, my God. And he says, you know what? Eaton, they trade him to the twins. And then they just win the division by 12 games. Tony Larusa gets carried off the field. They drop them once. He doesn't care.

barely feels it. He cares. He's hammered. He's very brittle. Yeah, it's not. Bad territory. There's a celebration. Champagne.

White So that's on the look forward to. Keep Bob Melvin away from Andrew Vaughn. Yes. 100%. And all of that stuff. You know anything about Eaton, Treb that you would, like, willing to share? Like, the fact that Ozzy Gian said he is the worst teammate ever and Todd Frazier.

I don't believe anything Ozzy Gian said. What about Todd Frazier? He's like an openly very liked guy around baseball. also said kind of insane. I could see how they would butt heads. Todd and him have very different personality. So I can see how they butt heads. Likeable and not likable?

Why is that a meet not likable? I don't know. That's the reputation he has. That's what, that's the thing. It's everyone's perspective in the 2019 nationals. They loved him.

So, you know, it's all your perspective. Winning changes everything. So I think this is a great fit for him. I like the way he plays. I do think that he is pesky, and I don't want to side myself with old-school Tony Larusa, but I do like having those guys at the top of the lineup. They make pitchers work,

and they get him pissed off, so the next guy gets a pitch over the plate. But I haven't heard anything about him. You know, besides the stuff on the surface from Todd and Ozzy, but, you know, Ozzy's his talk crap about everybody. So what are you going to, you're really going to take his word for it? No, I was asking you. I think just to say it again because they deserve it,

Jose Ibray did win the MVP last year, and I think we've mentioned him once, pencil him in to be really good. And I almost used it on my breakout stars episode. It would have been a little bit of a reach because he's pretty well known. But Eloy, hitting-wise, we talked about him dancing between left field and D.H.

I think this guy is the next just like great 40-H-homer-a-season hitter. I love him, man. He is a beast. Eloy. Eloy. You know how old he is, Jim? Eloy? 25.

Eloy is 24. Well, he's about to be 25. Next. Next. Next up. Lucas Gialito, if you take away his opening start from last season where he gave up seven earned runs, a clear outlier from his season.

Against two? Doesn't say. I can tell you. Twins. I love Lucas Well, if that start, you take out that start, 275 ERA the rest of the way. Dang.

So we're butter knife in short season stats. Treve, is there anything to pitchers throwing the same stuff? Because, like, Kichel is heavy sinker-cutter. Lance Lynn is heavy cutter, fastball, everything. Is there anything that, like, hey, we're coming to the park in the first six innings of each game? we're going to see 70% fastballs, basically? No, because they're so different.

You know, Kikos' fastball is so different than Lance Lans. Kikos is just a strange of bat. You know, comfortable a bat, but one of those ones you just walk back to the dugout, you're like, what? I just hit that ball off the end of my bat, and I rolled it over to the third base spin. I mean, last season, Kikol was a completely different pitcher than he's ever, ever been. Or do they change? So, I mean, he's always been the two-seam fastball, like 50% of the time or like, you know, 40.

Last year, the sinker went down to 32%. The cutter went up from 18 to 30, and the change-up went up from 14 to 27. I mean, it's the first time there's never not been a gap between his fastball and another pitcher. I can see that. If you got guys, you know, he's throwing that sinker down on the way to Roddy's. changeups down the way to rideies. If you get guys starting to get all over the dish on, you have to have a pitch to equalize that.

So you start throwing the cutter in on guys to get him off of those pitches. I mean, but you know, he's the big years now. He's got to make an adjustment. His big years, he was just the two seam and a slider. Those were like his pitches. Backdoor slider a lot, yeah.

Yeah, this change up has jumped way up. Cut it. Lance Lynn. Hot. Very hot. I love this team. I love the uniforms on this team. I love the personalities on this team.

I love the players. I think the bullpen's great. The starting pitching's great. The lineup's great. This is a team. This is a team. It's fun to talk about this team. Lans Lins pitch makes us so fucking awesome.

It's the best. 50% of the time he throws a four-seem fastball. Fastball with no movement. His second most used pitch is his cutter. 22% of time. Fastball that cuts gloves. a little bit. And then the next pitch, 18% of time is his two-seeing fastball.

Cuts arm-side, just a little bit. Just three fastballs, 90% of the time he's thrown a fastball. Try to hit it. 90% of the time he's throwing a fastball. Silly sport. I love it. That's so funny. There are different miles per hour a little bit.

Do we have a fun stat? Fun stat with left-handed pitcher Dallas Kichael fifth. Lance Lynn, sixth. Lucas Gialito, seventh, and Liam Hendricks, 10th. The White Sox have four of the top 10, 2020, Sy Young finishers on their staff. Hell, yeah. What about that?

They got to like that. That's a really fun stat. Keikle got Sy Young votes last year? He was good last year. man. I remember that. He was really good last year. He's in love.

He was telling you, man, this love bug helps guys out. How many people got, how many people got Sy Young votes from the West or the East last year? They really should have given out three Sy Youngs. They should have given out a West Syng and East Syng and a Central Syng since no one ever played each other. It's kind of like the national, there wasn't in a National League and an American League last year.

It's weird that they said. still kept it divided that way. I don't even listen to that question. I'm sorry. I see what you're saying. It's some of the central pitching numbers from last year were a little suspect. Yeah, but yeah, I get that. We talk about it all the time. Usually it's a national side young and an American league so young because the national

teams, national league teams never played anyone but national league teams. Last year, there was no National League and American League in the regular season. There was East, Central West. So it would have made more sense to give out three side. Youngs for the East, Central, and West. There can only be one. You played your own league more than you played the other team, didn't you? More, but not much more.

It's kind of like division and other divisions, I guess. It was a strange thing. It's a weird year. It's chalking up to, who cares? It's a big number, guys. Draft King's number. It's a big number. What do you got? It's 91.5.

It's a big number. 90 games is a lot of wins, man. I'll take it. I think this team's elite. Over. I don't think the rest of the division's that great. I think them and the twins are going to be 92 plus wins each, that one. I'm trying.

I have to take the over. I just wax poetic about how much I freaking love this team. It's a lot of wins. I'm curious, both those teams are going to be in the 90s. I think so. Hard to win 90 games. Really hard to win 90 games. They're pretty good.

Their bullpen's good. I'm taking the over. Yeah, I'll take the over too. I think this team's going to win 96 games. Like, they're going to be one of those teams that wins that many games. Dylan Bundy got Sy Young votes last year. Yeah, my guy. So did Framber Valdez.

Nasty. Framber. All right. Go White Sox go. Kind of. Travis is rooting for the White Sox on record. Go Lucas, go. Trevor Plouffe said, I want the White Sox to win the division with all my heart.

Colonel of the Roos that don't see her.