Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Chicago White Sox | Profile & Projection | 624

Episode Date: March 10, 2023

Use code JOMBOYPRESEASON for 15% off your next purchase at SeatGeek* https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/JOMBOYPRESEASON*max discount $50, expires 3/31/2023The White Sox had EVERYTHING go wrong last year and lost their former MVP Jose Abreu. Will a new manager and additions like Andrew Benintendi help right the ship and bring Chicago back to the playoffs? 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.

Well, well, well. What a difference a year makes. Hmm. Oh! What is going on, everybody? Team profile and projection presented by Seat Geek, use code, talking $20 off your first order. The Chicago White Sox are back to back with the Baltimore Or.

I think we have last year's fifth place team with maybe last year's 29th, 28th place team. Um, 29. The gap can close just like that. Trevor Goof. What's going on, guys? Spring training is in full tilt. And with seat geek code Johnboy preseason, you can get 15% off any order to anything you want. there's a seat, just make sure you're using seat geek

Johnboy pre-season. Go get it. The White Sox added Mike Clevenger, which a little up in the air as we speak, they signed Andrew Bentendee coming off an All-Star season, five years, $75 million. And then they brought in some names on minor league deals that you may recognize. Hanser Alberto, our guy, always seems to find a way.

who they lost. Interesting. Jose Ibrahim, he's on Houston. A.J. Pollack, he's a mariner. Johnny Quato's a fish. Vince Velasca is Adam Engel. Danny Mendick, Josh Harrison, Elvis Andrews, who is really good for them, currently unsigned. So we'll see. Man, those are some guys leaving, if we're being honest about it.

But there's still so much. talent on this roster, Trev. Give me the lineup. Are we banging this year? Don't get me started on this lineup, this roster. You know how I feel. I want to give the White Sox one last. What is you doing, baby, for 2022? Because you hurt me. You hurt me last year, guys. You really did.

I put my name on the line for you. And you gave me Tony LaRusa, sleep in the dugout. That's what you gave. I still like this lineup. And you know what? There's not a lot of, like, uncertain. in it. This is a pretty set lineup. Second base, maybe right field up for grabs. But we know Tim Anderson is going to be at short. They sign Andrew Benetendi. He'll be in left. La Pantera,

our guy in center. D.H. Finally, get him out of the outfield. Eloy's going to be D.H. in there. Yon Moncada at third base. We need him to step up. Andrew Vaughn goes back to first base. Thank goodness. Gavin Sheets in right or on the bench. Yasmani Grandel will be catching. And now the two spots I'm talking about, Romeo and Gonzalez will be there most likely at second base to start the year. They had Lenin Sosa up there.

He went four for 35 last year, so he might begin the year at AAA. So there's where a spot is up for grabs. And then in the outfield, they got another one of their prospects, Oscar Colas. I'm not sure I'm saying that right. But he's rated number two

amongst the White Sox prospects. He's supposed to be getting a shot to make the team at opening day. So we'll see if he's out there. If he isn't out there, it's going to be a Sheets, maybe an Eloy back out in the outfit. So I don't think they want that. The debt pieces, Jake Berger.

This guy can hit, man. Like, he's going to be in there in that lineup somewhere. He's going to find a way. Larry Garcia, Victor Reyes, and then another catcher they have there is Sebi Zavala. New manager as well. Pedro Gifal takes over for the aforementioned Tony LaRusa. And I think that's a big step in the right direction. BPD.

Talk to me about that rotation and the bullpen. First of all, Seby Zavala, Lucas Gialito's roommate this spring, Jake Berger's mother, very good friends with my girlfriend's mother. The pitching staff, the rotation goes Dylan Cis, Lance Lynn, Gialito, our guy. Michael Kopeck, Mike Clevenger still penciled in there. His situation's up in the air. They're bullpen. Very fine pencil.

Very fine. Their bullpen, Kendall Graveman, Aaron Bomber, some other. guys, Joe Kelly, he's fun. Rinaldo Lopez. Jake Deekman's shucking it back there. He went socks to socks. I forgot about that. Garrett Crochet should return at some point.

Liam Hendricks has real-life stuff to deal with. Maybe he's back, maybe not this year. Love you. Yeah, man. The Liam Hendrix, you mentioned Aaron Bummer, real-life bummer, Liam Hendrix, non-Hodgkins. Infoma, as we record this, there's no time table.

the way they phrase everything left some optimism that like if things go well we'll be talking about some Liam Hendricks this year but right now it is uh it's it's an unknown um they they haven't put a timetable on it and good like you know take uh take take take care of it and uh hopefully we see you um Trevor I uh you wax pretty beautifully about it even in that brief moment there this White Sox team uh how mid was your mid last year and TLR and injuries and and and there was a lot of ands that ended up leading to an 81 and 81 white socks team that lost Jose Abrae this off season and we've harped on that a lot they brought him Benny who's really solid

and especially the way baseball people think baseball is going to go a contact is on the rise, and he sure has that. For me, it starts in the heart of the lineup, because Jose Ibrahim is out, and you could... We talked about, you know, using a light pencil. You could pen in Jose Ibrahim for a nice baseball season, man. That dude brought it every year. Luis Robert.

Eloi Jimenez, Jan Moncada, and I'm going to add my guy, Andrew Vaughn, because he did put together a nice season last year. Of those four guys, we're at a tipping point, man. Like, I need seasons out of those guys before, you know, Eloy's had the injuries. Robert's been missing at times. Vaughn, he only really has last season.

and Moncada, you know, kind of coming off a down year. So, like, who are you guys? Because you're supposed to be kind of cornerstone pieces, and right now we don't have a lot of cornerstone seasons out of them. I'm going to get deep right here, Jake. I'm going to get real deep. I've never had a girl break my heart before. Okay.

Okay, I don't know what it feels like. I don't. The white sucks broke my heart last year. And I imagine the way you'd feel after a girl, Brookyard is the way I feel about this White Sox team now. I don't want to like them. I don't want to like them, but there's something about them that draws me back. Maybe because they did me dirty.

Maybe there's some underlying issues there that I got to work through. But I keep looking at this roster. I keep looking at that rotation. I keep looking at that bullpen and I can't quit it. And then we throw my guy Oscar. I believe it's Coloss, Asente over the A. Know where he's from? I do know where he's from, and I was going to mention it before.

I'm glad you found out. Another Cuban ball player. One exits, one gets right back in there. They're pulling on all my heartstrings. They get rid of that sleepy TLR, bring in a real deal manager, and here we are, me believing in the White Sox again. Is this... Am I right about the girl breaking your heart type thing?

I got to imagine you've had your heart broken before, Jake. Yeah, I mean, you got a little gasp out of BVD when you said a girl never broke your heart. It's a little messed up, man. Let's see. I mean, in high school, me and a girl had the same birthday. I kind of thought that was something. We talked a lot.

It never happened. What? And then I had another girl. Another girl dumped me, and I was like, I don't know. I was into it, but move on. But no, you've got it, right? Like there's a little bit of hate, but there's still a little piece of love there

from the good stuff you liked, you know? Let's save the pitching, because I think that's the easy part. Tim Anderson and Ben Tendi, that can be a mean one-to punch, not in the new school way, but you're talking a batting champ. And Tim Anderson, all he does is hits.

A lot of the analytics people have said, like, you know, Tim Anderson's going to come down to earth. He was 301-339 last year. The OPS wasn't through the roof. Guess what? I don't really care. He missed a chunk of last season. If they can have that Nationals kind of old-school one-two punch,

Tim Anderson gets a hit, and he moves him over, or he slaps a double down the line, and we're feeding this offense, it could be beautiful. They did have the injury bug last year. it was covered by their mid. Okay?

My guy, Eloy, did it again. It was just 84 games because he ripped his peck. So I guess... Get him out of the outfield. Get him out of the outfield. The guy wants to hit and he's good at it. So now my eyes are turning to Robert and Moncada. Munkata to bounce back,

Robert to put together that full season that we've kind of been waiting for. You know, there's a shortened season in there when he first debuted. But, you know, this guy's never played 100 games in a baseball season. It's a little unfair, obviously for the reason I just mentioned. But let's stay out there and be that 21 version of yourself. My goodness.

And then I'll give you a little Jakey off the numbers. Can I see this team have fun? Like you mentioned Tony. You mentioned TLR. Know what else we're about to watch, Trev? Or probably when this comes out, we've been watching. the WBC, which that's going to be covered in fun.

You mentioned Cuban ball players, all of the Latin teams. Miami is going to be a party, maybe a baseball party we haven't seen in the States before, that I need to see that from my white socks a little bit. It's a sport that's best played while having fun. And man, I mean, every time you put on a White Sox game, it felt like you were watching in black and black.

white. It felt like there was, you know, so I need to see some of that to have that girlfriend or girl that broke your heart feeling go away. I need to see that. I need to see them change, you know? I think that's an interesting point you bring up because we do have so many of our big leaders playing in this WBC. There's a conversation to be had. Who does that help the most as far as big league organizations and who does it hurt the most? And I agree with you. Like it was pretty grim watching the stocks last year. So if we get that type of baseball,

we got the Cuban dudes going nuts and the Dominican dudes going nuts and the guys that are playing for Team USA going nuts, bring that into the season. Or it could work the opposite way. Wow, that was a lot of fun. And this sucks. Let's never do that again.

So, okay. I gotta say it helps a little bit because you do get that love of the game back with these types of events. I've talked about that on talking baseball before where these international competitions, this is true baseball where you play for the name on your chest. Don't worry about statistics. It's for the love of the game, man. It's for pride and all that good stuff.

The way the game is supposed to be played. I hope they bring that into the season because they definitely need that. I'm a believer in this team, dude. I mean, I shouldn't be. I shouldn't be. But I think they have the right mixture of veterans and young guys and guys coming up, I still think that

maybe the complete depth isn't there and they're starting pitching as far as like there's seven, eight, nine guys if you don't have to draw upon that, but that top four, that'll play. That'll play anywhere. So I couldn't believe my eyes last year. And my brain is telling me, bro,

that was an abomination, and you shouldn't believe in these guys. but there's something that's tugging on these heartstrings, bro. And I think they get back to winning baseball this year. And we talk about the division all the time. I don't think it's as mid as everyone thinks it's going to be. I think it's going to be actually a pretty competitive division. I think it's going to be a three-team race between White Sox, the Twins, and the Guardians.

I don't think this team is like way back behind the Guardians or the Twins. I don't. I just can't see any world where that's a possibility. unless they come out and they have the same attitude as they did last year. I don't see, I don't want to say attitudes. I feel like guys were still

more or less doing it. But, you know, when you watch the games, it did seem like they needed a little bit of fire. I think even Lucas G. Alito did say that at one point. So I'll insert myself there and say,

yeah, you need a little bit more fire. Hopefully they get that this year. But I'm still on you. Yeah, I'm doing a quick dig just to see, I think I can, find their peak because baseball is a grind.

I know that's not a hot take, not super informative, but just to remember, they were a slog all year. On September 18th, the White Sox were three and a half games out of the Central, which you know, in the division is a number, but they had games with Cleveland coming up. Like, you know, they were- We got swept, didn't they? Didn't they get swept? Five games above 500.

And then, yeah, they got swept by Cleveland, and then they got swept by Detroit. So it can fall off real quick. You know, they sweep that series against Cleveland, and we're talking about, you know, eight games over 500, a half game behind. Things fall apart. Like, it felt like it did all season.

So I know it's easy to rip on this team, but they are, they can be close. And Trev, I know we're tough on your central. A three-team race for the AL Central would go miles, man. I'd love to see this White Sox talent and the twins, you know, mix of balance and the reworked rotation in Correa and the guardians and what they're building. To see those three teams go at it in a true central,

like that would be like a revival, man, and I'm rooting for that. And the pitching staff did. Hill and Cease is now like year one. And last year, I think in the PPP, we're talking about him as like the four or the five. He had a massive year, a massive year, a Cy Young year, a lot of years. Lance Lynn got started slow. He's going to be pitching a little bit for Team USA.

Is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing? Is that going to have him dialed up? Lucas Gialito in a contract year, if I'm not wrong, right, Trev? I mean, Yes, yes. For him, a big season means about. nine figures. So, and Kopec, by the way, is disgusting and we'll see what happens with Klev,

not interested. The depth after that I'm interested to see, because that was a part of their injury bug last year, and I do think their starting pitching gets a little thin after that. And by the way, Johnny Quedo was incredible for them. Incredible for them last year. 20 plus starts, a 3-3-ERA, I believe. So that hasn't been replaced. You have guys there that can do it. They need health in their rotation. Some bounce back, step-up performances in the bullpen. And honestly, I need a dude.

I need a dude on offense. And I don't know if it's Robert or Eloy or whoever it is, but you need a dude. Because Obrayu was that dude. I think we need La Pantera to go off. Okay, he's had, again, abbreviated seasons every single year, but he's had two seasons with a 700 OPS or like high 700s OPS, or mid-700, excuse me.

And then one with a nine. Who are you, man? Call it in the middle. Get you to 850. You're going to help your team a lot. I think this guy, you know, there was comparisons to him like this is like the next Mike Trout, yada, yada, yada. We don't need you to be Mike Trout, bro.

Like, go be yourself. anchor the middle of this lineup and then things start to roll. You're going to have guys get on base. You've got guys that are going to get on base in front of you. We need the big boys in the middle of the lineup

to have big seasons. Andrew Vaughn, do it again, baby. Let's go. And I'm talking in contention for an AL Central title. What's the over under it? Looking 83 and a half. Mm-hmm.

Oh, no. That's tough. I at one piece while you deliberate, Trev. I think something that's just a jakey feel on this, their offense has one of the widest ranges I think I've seen in baseball, where if it clicks and it works, this can be an elite, like top three, top five offense. I truly think that.

I think also an injury in a couple bad seasons, and you're looking at this being like the 20, 20th ranked offense or something like that. So I'm very interested to see that range this year. Trev, 83 and a half, twins, guardians. I mean, 91 games is going to win that division, 90 games, something like that. I think it's a race to 90, yeah. This is tough.

This is a good line for me. I believe exactly what you're saying as well. Like if everything clicks and we get really good years out of the middle of that lineup, And some of the young guys come up and do it. I think the pitching staff is good enough and young enough that we can, you know, lock them in for a good amount of starts throughout the year. Oh, man, I'm taking the over. I'm taking the over.

I could definitely see this team flirting with like 86 to 88 wins. And I don't think it would take that much, man. Just for these guys to go out and be themselves and be healthy. I mean, it felt like they were the worst version of themselves. than they were 80 wins last year. I think I might be drinking a little bit of your co-loss. I'm looking at some minor league stats. Why not?

Yeah. A little mid-season call there, if not earlier. And yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, I believe in who these guys are. Like, yes, Mani Grandal cannot be who he was last year. I mean, my goodness, you want to freak yourself out. look at his stats from 21 to 22. I mean, that's baseball.

I think Robert is a guy. I think Eloy is a dude. Like, I'm probably, I'm a little bit of a sicko. I think I'm going to sprinkle on him to win the AL home run title this year. Because I think if you give him 155, I think he does it. That's just been the question. The rotation talent is there. I'll take the over.

TLR is out. out. Can I give you an Eloy note real quick before we hear Jimmy's? Need it. On this article I'm reading, it says, Semenez wants to play right and has been intensely preparing to regularly play the outfield. I know. Eloy, just stop, bro.

Get in the cage, get you an exercise bike. Ride that bad boy for, you know, when you're on defense and go get ready to the bang, baby. Stay loose if you need it. Don't worry about it, man. Jimmy's under. Okay. Fool me once. We both went running back to that girl.

Ed, I'm telling you. I need to get my heart broken. It's too late now. My heart gets broken now. Yeah, that's... That would be too... At this point, man. I don't think you want that.

That was... Olivia. I love you, baby. I don't think you like that. How could you break this heart? Great point. White Sox did.