Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - White Sox are Making Some BIG Changes + Wander Franco Update | 705

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

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Hello and welcome to talking baseball. The White Sox are changing their ways. Oh my God, a wander update. And sister cities, who are you going to root for? Let's do it. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. My name is Jimmy. I'm sitting here with Jake.

Trevor Plouffe is joining us from California. Wearing his forgotten rotten jersey. It looks awesome. Nice and bright yellow. BPD behind the dish producing away. it's brought to you by seat geek and if you use code talking when you go there they got a hookup for you get $20 off your first purchase at seek geek that's $20 off your first purchase with promo code talking t a l k i and you just click the link in the description you download the app you already have the app

you've used it before you create a new account you get the $20 off you go see something and you know that the seats you got are a good deal unless you foolishly clicked a red bubble and purchased a bad deal. At that point, it's on you, but enjoy the discount. Nonetheless, Jake, how are you doing? James, Davis, Trevor, everyone tuning in. How are we? Almost through the dog days. It's August 23rd. I mean, Labor Day's coming up. I had a nice moment this morning. I went past my train exit, and I was a little flashback to the Bronx days. I used to get on the wrong train. I'd say twice a month. This was just the right train,

just didn't look up for my exit. But I haven't done that in so long. You just scared me. Now that we're in the big city, I just got off, came back. It was clean. Like when I did that in the Bronx,

I lost an hour 15. So I'm feeling pretty good today. And I'm excited. We got the full band going. And that yellow on Trevor does do something, doesn't it? Trevor, is that a segue to ask me how I'm doing?

Thanks, James. You're always the nicest. When you come back on the show, I feel like there's some politeness when you're not on the show. I feel like it's not very polite. I'm looking at the 2021 Chicago White Sox baseball reference page. It's beautiful. It is an incredible team.

And we're not going to be talking about that incredible team very much today. I'm excited to talk about these topics. Well, a couple of them. One's not a very exciting topic. But this White Sox one, this one that has up right now, I think we can get into this. because this is a lot of fun and I think there's some big changes obviously coming to the White Sox before. James can't wait to hear your thoughts.

How you been, big guy? I'm good. I had a nice bike ride, my electric bike to the train station because I'm not pedaling and then I'm going to be sweaty on the train. Nor paying for parking. So I have an electric bike. I wear a helmet. Motorcycle. Yeah, it's a motorcycle with wheels.

It is. 20 miles per hour, hallway, seven minutes to the train. one time someone said, John Boy outside their car and I was like a little embarrassed wearing like a bike on on my electric bike just kind of cruising around. No, that's not embarrassing.

No, it's not. But it was nice. But they had done like a cleanup of the leaves for the first time. So they were just piles. I ride through a beautiful park. Piles of fallen leaves, which is fall.

Now I haven't looked at the weather. There's probably a week of 90 degrees coming. That's going to piss me right off. but in the mornings it's been 60 breezy and leaves are falling and I am like so excited when I do that so that's my update okay now for the bad news this is it's not it's not a topic really it's just an update for everyone that wants to be in the know uh wander Franco investigation has furthered a little bit they put them on restrictive leave which is basically like hold up we got to figure some shit out you're not in trouble yet we haven't found anything but allow what

us to look into this and Wander allowed them and said, sure, go ahead. Then the, you know, with that, the Athletic had a good article that was like, I think he was having Jalich. He was like, if he goes on administrative leave next, that means that they've found some info they don't like, some bad news, and they're going to go look out for it. That just happened. So they put Wander Franco on administrative leave on Tuesday, yesterday as law enforcement in the DR, investigate the allegations, and

MLB investigate the allegations. There's two allegations, one from social media, and then one that was already in the, like, system, like the court of law or whatever, in the DR from another underage girl. There's a third where he is suing an underage girl for something. We don't know. But that's what the district attorney, I believe, of the DR came out and let everyone know, which was like, ooh.

Administrative leave when Trevor. Bauer was on this every single Friday, they had to say, we're renewing it. We're renewing it. It was a week by week thing. I think they've realized how ridiculous that was and just said until further notice. And I don't know if that means the level of investigation is different or they're just changing the way they're doing shit to be like, listen, we don't want to have to update you every Friday that we're renewing the administrative leave. It's just until further notice, like a change in policy about that or this is worse. I don't know. But it seems like a very big deal. Obviously, if it's true, it's a huge deal. It's terrible. And it's also terrible on a lot of fronts.

And then there's the baseball front like, what a wasted talent. Like what a waste. So we still don't really know the final, but it is leaning more towards there's evidence and this is something, not nothing. Yeah, I think for like the, you know, the baseball standpoint, I can speak from that as, you know, a teammate of Wonders in the Ray's organization. All you can hope for is that this just isn't true. I mean, that's like the best case scenario for everybody involved.

Maybe not Wander since he's obviously kind of, you know, the allegations sometimes are just as damning. But that's the best case scenario that just isn't true and it comes back and he's back on your team. And nobody was hurt in the situation. That's yet to be seen. I mean, you said it when Drellich says if you get put on administrative leave, usually that means there's some evidence surrounding the case.

And maybe it's progressed forward a little bit. So that's a little bit, you know, obviously concerning if you're one of his teammates. But I think, you know, as far as the raise themselves, it's all about, you almost have to just put it out of sight out of mind because he's not there. You don't really want to be focusing on this and you have to move forward. I mean, like you just said, Jake, August 23rd, this is crunch time. In a week we're in September. September baseball is, you know, the rays are most likely going to be in the playoffs,

but they still have some work to you have to finish off the season. You know, they've dealt with some really crazy injuries. Now, this obviously is a ton of turmoil or it could be in the club. and I think that's probably how you have to approach it. I've never been a part of something like this, never been on a team where something like this happens. I've been on a team with PEDs and other stuff that would make guys leave the team. And that's kind of what you have to do.

You try to support them as best you can, but in this situation, it's very difficult. I don't know what you say to wander if you're a teammate. You know, without knowing any of the facts, and I'm sure some of these guys have talked to about it, but I think mostly you just kind of say, look, man, like you got to deal with your stuff. We're going this way. Yeah, it feels we still, we're going to find out a lot more. And you, you end up saying kind of corny stuff. And like, I don't know, I almost said, I was about to say where there's smoke, there's fire. And we just don't know how much of a fire yet, right? Like, this, this could be all-time historic bad. And there's, there's, you know, been some,

clues towards that. We don't know. It looks really bad that you're right. I mean, Trev, you went the teammate angle. Like, yeah, I mean, that's, I mean, you almost have to, like, leave him on an island and, like, you know, hope there's a day that you can have a civil combo with them. But, you know, we've seen some bad stuff in the past. And I know, what was it, the Pirates Closer, Felipe Vasquez. He had some stuff that he got sent to jail for two to four years.

but that was in the state. So there's like a whole DR side to this that I was talking to our guy, Joe's McFly, that you people, if you don't know Joe's by now, you should. He's awesome human, Yankee stuff, our warehouse stuff, just John Boy Media as a whole. And he was, you know, we were talking a little bit about the DR culture. And, like, it's parts of it are very different down there and in different parts of the world in general.

Like, Japan, I think the age of consent, is like 13 or something like that. And so there's like, we have a very American scope on this. And I think the scope is kind of right for a lot of the stuff that we have laid out there. And then it's finding out what really happened because, Jim, I think you alluded to it a little bit. But like when this first broke and we first had the girl on Instagram, I think it's already come out now that she's over 18 and she has a kid and stuff. It's not official.

It's not official, but again, like, that's what we're still sifting through that we don't. Well, but that's, but that was hearsay. But then the attorney general of the Dominican Republic said there is a, and this was before those Instagram videos came out. Right. That there was a claim against, from a young, underage girl for the same thing. And he had a claim against another girl. And there's, there's a whole other side to this that, you know, the, the DR.

I don't know. Like this, this could still go a million different directions. but the current next step that we have putting him on the commissioner list, like you said, it means that they have some sort of information, whether that's, who knows where that's from, but the fact that it's gotten there,

it's, I mean, it's crazy, and it's, it's currently teeing up to be one of the, like, crazy or what ifs in, you know, sports or franchise history. And I, you know, there's a baseball side of this that is, fascinating when you tie it into the

raise and like, you know, there's always rumors about, you know, new stadiums are moving. This is the first guy that they really locked into. Like, he's going to be our dude. And now to have this happen and the financials of it all, like there's so many ways that this can still go and you just

you hope that Wander Franco doesn't turn out. He's one of the kind of all-time bad guys, but we still don't know. Oh, no. Just to protect Japan a little bit. They have like an old law that says 13, but they have updated laws that say 18. It's like they're like instead of erasing the old one, they kind of like built a time like

and that. It's like parental rules and stuff like technically in the U.S. There's some countries in Africa that says pretty like oh. I do want to say that Wander went on 12. Wander went on to his IG live and denied all of this. So I think that's important to say like you know he that was before it was before it was public i was before the game so it was just kind of on the underbelly of uh of it and then uh hose seer was in the background series in the background of that dancing and saying like people want that money and like they were laughing um there's a lot of smoke there so we'll see we'll see the good news is you never know when you're going to get your opportunity.

And BASAB. Fun name. If you have a West Indies accent, I think it would be really fun. O'Slavis, Basabe. O'Slavis, Basabe. Like, think of Darren Sammy saying that. Basabe.

Really fun. He's, uh, hey, he's taking this and running with it. In, uh, his last like, you know, series, he was nuts. Um, he was a raise trade for Nathaniel Lowe. just one of those you know when you make a trade and you're like how about that 18 year old shortstop he's probably an athlete or he's probably maybe 20 at the time so we want to talk about some of like the hector gomez tweets

uh hector gomez he does sometimes have really good info in the d r very connected and he said that he's heard he'll never play again yeah i'm i'm kind of sifting through these i follow him so i get you know little snippets here and there as I'm perusing X. They're not Twitter anymore. People know that. But yeah, I mean, some of those, like you just said, he said an insider close to the case says he doesn't think wander will ever play again

due to what they've been finding in some of these investigations, which is, you know, I think we're trying to present all of the information that's out there and just, you know, and I think we need to continuously say, like, we don't know what's going on. We're just trying to sift through the information

and let everyone kind of be updated on it. But this is obviously a very serious, very, it's a big deal, man. There's so many different implications here, you know. Obviously, you just, it's, you just hope it isn't true. Yeah, and hopes the word there, because I think, I think if there was Vegas odds on it, which they don't do that. They don't do that. It's good.

But, like, I think if any of us had to place a. bet right now it'd be like I don't think I'd ever see Wander Franco on an MLB field again. And again, that's, there's a lot of guessing there. So that's, that's where we, we just don't. But, um, he really, he was 19, BASAPA when they traded for him. Yeah, and that's, that's one of those. So the baseball side of it, hey, you know, we could do a late night, um, you know, late night Trev show on like the potential implications for the Tampa Bay raise as a franchise.

I think for right now you mentioned our guy Basabe, who was in that deal and very raise and like, wait, did the race lose a trade? Like Nate Lowe, Nathaniel, excuse me. He's been awesome. Sabay jumps in. He hits a grand slam last night in his eighth game ever played. He's, you know, he's a real prospect of sorts. So now he's going to jump in to replace Wander's baseball stuff defensively.

unreal, the top of that lineup and how electric he can be. And yeah, you know, you end up, again, in corny sports stuff. Like, does this galvanize the race? I think when Trev, we talked about it briefly, you know, if there's a franchise whose mentality seems like they're going to be okay getting through this, it's the raise who have always been like, okay, who's the next body. Like, what can you do? What is your skill set?

Let's do it. And yeah, I don't know. It's going to be so interesting as we approach the postseason and see where the rays land and will them and the Orioles be a chase down the finish or how does this race season wind up? Because since the electric early season, the rays, they've been good,

but they haven't been excelling that, yeah, I don't know, man. Man, the Rangers got in the 3rd. Nathaniel Lowe and then two other prospects from the race, both of those guys are in Indy ball now. You know, in the crapshoot prospect throwing. Well, Basabe's been a guy for a while. He's like a nerdy guy I've known since out of the park baseball. So, you know, again, prospects can come and go, but.

22 years old from Venezuela. Venezuela's got a lot of... Is Venezuela like a big up-and-coming baseball country? Maybe. What? I know it's been there. It's been a huge baseball. But I feel like people view it on a different tier than Cuba or the DR or something like that.

Like Venezuela has been around, but it's like coming now. I don't know, man. I feel like there's a ton of Venezuelans in the big leagues. And I would almost put Venezuela Dominican and then Cuba. Like there hasn't been in years past a ton of Cubans to come over. Now it's obviously changing different rules. Well, hold up. How many Venezuelans do you think debuted this?

year. Hold up. debuted. I have no idea. Let's have a guess. debuted. Debute? Yeah.

I mean, there's two last night, right? How many people debut in a given MLB season? Now we're talking. That's where my head's at. I have no idea. Well, Trevor, I guess I'm just a little surprised. While you get your number, I'm just a little surprised because, you know, a GM spot has come open.

You've talked about your GM ways. And you, you know, you always say. Cuba and Japan, so Venezuela's out? No, I don't even have Japan on my Dream roster. Okay, they're mine. Yeah, you can have them. I told you what mine is. And I've updated recently James. I don't know if you heard this. It's, I need my Cuban ballplayers. Obviously, obviously. I need two veterans,

preferably a pitcher and a hitter, but I can, I would go two hitters rather than two pitchers. Don't need the veteran. They don't really. police to clubhouse enough. I need two fast guys who I can just throw out there and they cause havoc on the base pass. And then Beaver and I came up with that I need a Jewish ball player on a team. So Zach Gilaf is coming on our team.

I mean, I don't know. I mean, where to like Catholics? You're not going to have any Catholics? The Judaism is the only religion that I require on my team, at least one. Crazy. 195 players have, oh, actually, I think, 196 now, 195 before yesterday debuted.

How many of those are Venezuelan? Yes. 35. No. 12. Yeah. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. And the rest are, what's the highest?

Obviously, American, I would assume. Yeah. Let me, let me, uh. It's an interesting topic, I guess. Throwback talking baseball used to be a little one minute segment for whoever made their debut. Miss that. Oh. Yeah.

Trying to find out how to get to these pages. Like if I go Jeter and I go born, they do New Jersey, but I don't want New Jersey born. I want U.S. born. You know? Oh, by country. I found it. By country. How many people, 129?

Oh, my God. We got over. There's been a player that was born in Afghanistan. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna open up Mexico I think they might have a big one What do you think the top five debuting countries this year has been Mexico Puerto Rico I guess USA DR yeah yeah USA DR

They don't fucking They don't have the United States you have to go buy state so US is out Eddie Julian Jim's gonna crunch the numbers let's start Does anyone have anything else on Warner I mean I think we wanted to address it because a lot of people have been asking about it. There's still a lot we're going to figure out along the way. And as we do, we'll let you know.

But only one player has debuted from Mexico. So they're out. But congrats to Sazer-Salazar. Hey, let's talk some white socks because it's funny when we plan out these midweek episodes. Jim is going to get the numbers for us. As we plan out these midweek episodes, we always, you know, it's kind of a joke like, Baseball moves quick. What are we going to talk about?

And the Chicago White Sox changed their front office. This is brought to you by Shady Rays. Take on the Sun with gear built to last. I was in the sun the past two weekends. I truly enjoyed that. And I was wearing my Shady Rays the whole time. And I was wearing my Shady Rays. Flex on them.

Because you can get 30% off the custom Jimmy and Jake Shades. We both have ours here with code J.M.30. Code jammed. Where are my glasses? He can't see it without his glasses. His glasses. His glasses. He's going to be an acrobat.

Just put my glasses on. World class products from Shady Ray's. And hey, say you're looking at us and you're like, wow. Jimmy and Jake, you guys are bugs. I just want to get Shady Ray's normal, handsome hot boy glasses. Well, they still have Code talking going. 50% off 2 plus pairs of premium. Polarized Sunnis.

So, get a couple pairs with code talking, 50% off. Or if you want ours, the Crem de la Crem, 30% off. Jimmy and Jake collab shades, code JM30. Click the link. Cover your eyes. Be more hot. Trev, you're a former AL Central man. You want to tee this up a little bit?

because you, I mean, you were in this. You competed against these people. Well, I mean, for people who haven't read the headline, it's right underneath me, the White Sox have fired Rickon and Kenny Williams, both have been longtime fixtures under Jerry Rinesdorf. I mean, we're going back decades with these guys that have been in the organization, that have overseen. I mean, honestly, some really high high is obviously 2005, I believe they won the

World Series and now we're kind of at the lows, I would say. I mean, there's, there's been some other lows as well in there, but I think this is, I think this is a long time coming, to be honest with you. And sometimes, you know, I feel like a lot of people are applauding this move because, you know, of the way baseball is gone and the way hiring is gone in the front office for these different organizations that seem to be like the model organizations, you know, there's a lot, there's a lot of turnover in these organizations. And you need to kind of keep refreshing your front office and you need to make sure that the culture is right and you know, you're making the right moves.

And when I look back now, it seems like to me like in the current moment, this makes so much sense. But as I've, you know, kind of like looked back in time at some of these rosters and obviously you guys know, like I was like the biggest white socks. believer the last couple of years. I keep going back to like, you know, some of the moves these guys have made as of late. They all seem like actually really good moves. Like when they traded away Chris Sale and Adam Eaton and Jose Cantana and they brought in

Gielito, Renato Lopez, Yual Moncada, Michael Coppeg, Dylan Seas, Elohimenez. And they had, they signed Lubbob and like Tim Anderson was a batting champ. Like, there were so much talent on this roster and they did such a good job of bringing it in. But it just never, it just never clicked over the last couple years. In 2021, that freaking team was nasty. They won 93 games, I believe it was. And, you know, they had offense. Their pitching was incredible.

The starting staff and their bullpen was great. They did not win in the playoffs at all that year. But the talent, like, over the last couple of the last couple of, years, which is really what this firing is about. It just hasn't worked in all the bad press that has come along with Tony LaRusa and all the stuff going on this year. And it's happened quickly, or I guess not quickly, over the last couple of years. But like, I don't think roster construction talent wise was the problem. It just seems like a cultural lack of leadership thing, which I got to be honest with you guys.

I don't think Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams have much to do with. I don't know if you guys have a different opinion on that, but Well, attitude. I don't know like. I mean, you have a ton of talent. Part of building a clubhouse is building personalities that fit, you know. I mean, to credit. But how do you do that?

It's pretty hard to do that. I'll give you an example that is at least, you may say it's bullshit, but the players involved and the front office involved says this is why they did this. The Yankees were super stiff, super old. They missed the playoffs in 2008, and they said the clubhouse had no life. It was corporate culture and it was bad. They went out and they traded for Swisher to bring life. And then they said they liked Burnett for the same reason.

And in 2009, both those guys started. clubhouse shenanigans. They started cream pie celebrations for walk-offs. That was like every time you got a walk-off. You've got a cream-pie celebration. And it was Cici came in as well. And when Cici talked to Cash, the story is he said, what's the clubhouse like?

And because he had heard. The vibes were a little stiff. And that's what that was some of their goals of bringing in some of these players. they got Swisher, he was going to be first baseman, and then he moved to the right field because they got to share. He's better now. That team had incredible talent. Incredible talent.

I'm not saying that. And the White Sox has a ton of talent as well. But you do need to provide a culture. And even with Keenan Middleton saying they had no rules, like they had no identity of this as us where people hate having the shave your face or maybe like some of the A's back in the 70s didn't want a mustache. But a lot of times like, you know, galvanizing a team. is building this identity of like the Red Sox in 2004,

they were the, what are they called dirtbags? Or what do they call themselves? The idiots? They were the idiots. That was what they called themselves. They took a shot of whiskey before games. And they said,

let's all make ourselves as ugly as possible. And that was who they were. Like, if you think about teams, they do have like this galvanizing bonding thing. And I do think you have to get people in place that, trade for players that will do that. And it seems like, They haven't done that.

They asked Luis Robert recently, do you consider yourself a leader? And he was like, no. Honestly, no. I just am a baseball player. I don't think I'm a good leader and I don't want to be. All right. Fair. But you need to find something.

I don't want to like, I feel like this is kind of a schick, but I'm being serious when I say it this time. Looking back on some of these past rosters over the last couple years, 2020 on, it really does seem like the leaders. the guys that have been around the veterans on this team are pitchers. And pitchers just operate differently. You need a position player. That's all the reports. Yeah, that was what Middleton said.

He said the pitching staff was different. And Lance Lynn agreed with that. And Keikle came out and he called out this club before he left. And Quedo came and he called out this club. And then Middleton and Lynn. So you got four pitchers calling out the club all agreeing that that, that faction was okay. It's crazy.

Jake, I want to hear your thoughts. It's crazy. I mean, there's a couple things going on here, right? And I think there's a name that has to be said. And when Jimmy said attitude reflect leadership, remember the Titans.

I mean, Jerry Reinsdorf has to come into play here, too. Because this is the man who... Does he, though? Like... Yes, Trev, because everything's top down, bro. Because who did they... bringing as the manager.

Okay, hold on. Let me just stop here real quick. Who picked him? Real quick. Look at the Baltimore Oriole situation right now. Right. They have one of the most hated owners in sports. Right. But they have zero clubhouse problems. So it's not, I don't think it's like,

but they brought in a new leadership team or something. They brought in, he brought the Angelo's family. They brought in a whole new leadership team and said, all right, here you go. Let's rebuild. tear it down for a little bit. Let's see in a couple years when it's good and pretty. Guess what?

It's good and pretty. So in that way, the owners did- Now prices are going up, though. Well, their prices will have to go up if they want to resign a player wrong. But that was, at least the Angelo's had the wherewithal to say, all right, I saw what Houston did. I like that.

If I own a baseball team, let's fire up that plane. let's fire up that plan. You boys run and it's put them currently in a good position. With the White Sox, it's interesting because we've got trails here. You know, I think Kenny Williams goes back to 92, if that's what I saw. And hey, it worked his way up. And in a way that's awesome, right? Like that's super impressive.

Like, how often do we get sucked into baseball lifers on the field? Like, look at Snickr, right? Like Snickr, I think he's worked in baseball for 114 years or something. And it's like awesome. And we celebrate that. And, you know, front office, you want to celebrate that the same way. But you're right when, especially with how much front offices are involved now. Like, whenever a manager comes up, we give a couple managers credit when they light the fire and they set the tone.

And I gave my last award to Alex Cora because, man, what he brings to a clubhouse is something different. But other than that, like when we've done our Boone interviews this year, a lot of the questions that the angry, you know, Judge 69XO wants us to ask is about the roster construction. And it goes to the front office and we talk about the reliever moves and you know what's coming pretty much every game that what was tough here is the White Sox entered their window. They reset. They hit that button. You mentioned the Chris Sale trade and how big that was.

And I know the Sox, the Red Sox, they got their ring out of it. But there was a chance with a young, Jan Moncada and, you know, the players they got back that it was like, ooh, we might have just built something. And 21 felt like the start, right? That's why, you know, Trevor, I'm not saying this in a rude way. You picked them to win the World Series. Like, I thought they had the easiest path because it was the central

and they would run away with it. And they, one of the stronger staffs we've seen, the lineup, like one through eight was nasty. And then things fall apart. And you wonder if, you know, John Makata hasn't been the same baseball player. Eloy's dealt with injuries. Lubob, this was the year that we asked him to go, and he asked,

but now things have fallen so much apart around it that is that front office, was the difference one position player leader? Doesn't feel like it, right? Like, you know, if they had just had a Carlos Santana playing first base, do we think that really would have been the difference in this franchise? I don't think so. And I don't know. I am a big advocate in sports that at some point, if things have gone stale,

you got to shake it up. And the fact that, you know, Trev, you mentioned you were on the 2021 White Sox page to start the episode. I was on the 05 page. And it's like, man, you know, if you're still, if you're still hanging on to some of that stuff, that's tough. And, you know, I go back to the Machado Harper Free Agency, because remember they had some quotes. Like they were all in on that,

but then their biggest free agent contract of all time is Andrew Benintendi now with the 5 for 75. So I don't know. I don't know all the moving parts. I just know with Jerry Reinsdorf and the Chicago White Sox. I know the relationship hasn't been beautiful there. And I don't know. I think, is there any White Sox fan fighting this?

No, they're excited. They didn't know what was going to happen. But I do think, you know, Now our con's going on on radio shows and he's going to say stuff that he could be saying it to make it look better or could say it's true. But he said that he's been trying to resign for a while. And Jerry said, well, no, I'm going to make you honor your contract and not let you work anywhere else if you resign because he tried to resign when they've hired Larusa, which came from Jerry. So like you kind of need to look internally there. But redo it, man.

I mean, you can't have that many things. come out and players talking and all of that. You know, and a week before this news broke, the headline was the White Sox. Jerry is investigating whether there needs to be a big change in the leadership team in the White Sox. And it's like, well, that seems like the news before the news, you know, storm coming warning. Because you're not going to openly admit you're investigating unless you're fucking, you know, cleaning up. I think Kenny's son works there.

That's odd. I wonder if, I mean, yeah, we go back to the Machado free agency. And when they brought in John Jay, Yonder Alonzo, they were trying to make it feel like home for him. They really did try to go after Machado. He obviously ends up in San Diego. Would that have made a difference? I mean, I know people have heard me say this before,

but the twins were, had a leadership void. You know, after Maur was gone and, you know, they get Correa to come for the one year. And I've told you guys this. Like, if he didn't come back, like, they were leaderless and kind of like they needed someone to guide them. Chris Rose recently asked me on baseball today, like, you know, the way Correa is performed, do you think the twins will regret giving him that deal? And I said no. Like, they want him to perform better, obviously.

But he has, he's become, he's like the guy. He's the leader. Like people follow him. Like he does such a good job in the clubhouse. And if you're a team that has some young guys and then, you know, some of the older guys that don't really have that leadership trait because it is a trait. Like not everyone has it. Not everyone can get in front of a room and command a room.

Not everyone, you know, works conventionally and can show guys, you know, a good routine. Some guys just don't have enough time in the big leagues to be a leader or the want to be. So you need to have guys. That's why we always talk about veteran players. And some people think it's a joke. And it's like, oh, he's like, whatever, man. Let's bring in the young guys. Let's like, no, man.

Like, it's the fucking big leagues is hard. So like you need that good mixture. You need the young guys up there to keep the energy going. You need the veterans there, at least some good ones, to explain life in baseball and how to handle a 162 plus playoffs. Like all that comes into play. So, yeah, when we talk about roster construction and we talk about. Let's get the best 26 players we can possible. Most of the time that is true.

But we've seen from this White Sox roster, like sometimes you need to give a little bit, maybe on the production side. So the mental aspect of the game is good for your squad. And the routine aspect is good for your squad. And the effort aspect is good for your squad. You need some of these guys. I mean, I just can't, I guess I missed it.

When I was talking about this team in 2020, I said they're going to win the World Series and beat the Brewers. Like 2021, they won 93 games. They had this incredible pitching staff. Everyone's back. They added people. But again, now that I look at the roster, it really was lack, it lacked a veteran presence on the position player's side. A guy that could really show how things work and how you're supposed to go do day and day out stuff in the big leagues.

And it showed, man. Like, it's, it's, I put a lot of this, I put a lot of this on the players because there are, there were some guys on there that could have stepped up. Like, kind of looking at Tim Anderson. But like, maybe that's just not, maybe that's just not him. I don't know, man. Yeah, I mean, because Luis Robert, I, you know, I almost don't hate him coming out and being like, I'm not that guy.

Yeah, that's up to the, that guy. That's building a team. You have to know. sometimes you have to know and you know Jose Brayu was there for a long time and in a lot of these and he was the de facto leader i don't know how great he was obviously well and that's it comes back to again some generic sports stuff but there's different ways to lead like i don't know dude like Jose Abraeu with his impote like Joseabreou looks like he could be like if you found you know a new if this was game of thrones and you found a new country

and he came out as the first one, you'd be like, oh, yeah, he's the king. Like, and I don't know whether that's by example. You don't only say Game of Thrones because of the goatee that he had. Well, it was sick, dude, it was badass. But, like, you know, that, and who knows? Who knows if he was a voice in the clubhouse? Who knows if it was just on the field playing high-level baseball,

being the best dude out there, putting in his work regularly? I don't know, but yeah, I mean, it's, uh, the franchise and, when I see some of the numbers and Dalton put together put together a sheet for us you know Rick Hahn 834 and 971 the Chicago White Sox are under him

with two playoff appearances since 2021 or excuse me since 2012 which I don't know these are the Chicago one of those years is 2020 so in in normal baseball seasons since 2012, they made the playoffs once. Like, that's where I...

It's 2020, right? Well, 2021, they made it too. So I was, that's why I said normal playoffs. You know, there's been a lot of conversation in Yankee land about what are they going to do? And that's a front office that they've got a lot of pelts on their wall from back in the day. They have some more recent pelts.

And it's, I think that conversation becomes a lot more interesting because it's it's who do you replace them with? And I'm, I'm in between stuff there because, hey, maybe there's, maybe there is the next future guy out there that we'll be talking about in 20 years as a Dumbraowski or as a cashman or whoever it is. I don't know. When you see some of these guys resumes on paper and, you know, the city of Chicago, which they should be a power player in that division regularly, right?

Like the guardians are operating as the smallest market team. Kansas City, you know, it feels like they've been rebuilding for six years now. At the same time, that starts pointing arrows to Jerry again when you hear about the biggest free agent contract. So I don't know. I think White Sox fans are happy. I kind of liked, you know, Kenny Williams' presence as a dude who's been out there. He's been part of the White Sox guard for a while.

But I think sometimes you've got to change guards and what the record's showing. right now. I said in 2019 that the White Sox, I remember saying that they were so cocky and they were like the loudest dugout team. And I was like, you guys better win. Otherwise, this is going to start looking bad. Started to look bad. I think half the team was like, this stinks.

Stop doing that. And the other half was like, nah, we're having fun. And it was like, I don't know. I don't know. Seems like it was all fun. Anyway, I think we'll move sister cities to next episode because we ran super long on these two topics. I do have an update on a bunch of debuts for you guys so we can give that to our favorite sponsor.

I just want to say one more thing before we move on. We brought this up on the show before. Dodgers, White Sox share a spring training facility. We were down there in 2022 spring training. Yep. And looking back on it now, I think I misread the vibes of both of those. Or maybe I read them,

I read them correctly, but interpreted the information the wrong way. Dodgers side. Everyone was happy. And like they were having fun. And Dave Roberts was like a huge presence there. He was going around like being really kind to the players and motivating them and positive. And there was music playing.

And it was like it just seemed like Disneyland. like oh my goodness and then the white socks side which is this right 30 feet away from the Dodger side it was like dark and like

nobody was really smiling and like it was like there was a lot of tension and I like at the time like these dudes are stone cold killers they're going to go murder everybody and there are big boys and and again it just

two polar opposite climates right next to each other. And I misinterpreted the information. I mean, that should have been a warning sign. Like, wow, like there's getting through 162 with that type of mentality is impossible. You've got to have some sort of fun. And you're right. They just, they just didn't have the guy to push them in that direction. Yeah, I mean, for me, it's tough to quantify because I thought the shadow looming over the white socks was standing next to the two.

Gialito brothers like 6, 7 and 6.8. Like that was... Geelito was the nicest guy ever. Lucas is too tall. Hey, let's... You know what, Lucas, it's awesome seeing you, but no, I'm good on the picture, man.

Let's, uh, we're good. We're good. That's tough. I know what I do know. Shaving my downstairs. I showed my biscuits this weekend at the bachelor party. And luckily, I had used manscaped.

Man scaped. It's number one in the world. Not in here. I believe that, though. Number one in the world. And, Jim, did you know this? They're bringing it up north. The handyman, the electric face shaver for a quick and convenient way

to achieve a clean, shaven look. Whether it's your neckline, give your face that smooth finish. The handyman has you covered. And you'll get 20% off in free shipping with code talking. Manscape.com, that's 20% off with free shipping at Manscape.com. Code talking, hit the refresh button with Manscape. Click the link, take care of your downstairs, take care of your upstairs. Yeah, let me ask a question to you, Trev, and answer it for you.

Did you Manscape after you got the call to go to the big leagues to make sure you look good, Felgood? Yes, you did. Obviously. Here's some numbers about debuts. There's been 208 MLB debuts this season, 208. Trivia. Guess the top five countries the debut players.

There's some gimmies here. USA has 165 of the 208. USA. You, okay. Venezuela. Venezuela is in third place with nine. Okay. Yeah.

That's two. Yeah. We're going to, we're going to DR. They have 25. Second place. 25. So you guys already knew those. So now it's guess the next two.

Okay. And how many did it? Venezuela had nine. Venezuela had nine. The next country has four. Canada. No, Canada only has two. They tie. They tie with Panama for fifth place.

Eddie Julian and Julian Eddie have both made their debuts. I'm trying to think of who the other Canadian would be. Freddie Freeman didn't make his debut this year. You're not Canadian, Freddie. Probably some pitcher. The other Canadian is Deuter do do do do do do do Deudelian and Jordan

Balazovic. Oh, both from the twins. He just got sent down. Balazavik. Malazovic. Trev, you know, does work for them. Give me Japan. Japan.

Way to go, Jake. Yoshida, Senga. Japan has three. They are fifth place. Fujami. Yeah, I just named it, right? Sanga, Yoshida, and Fujinami. Boom.

Impact players. Fifth place. So you still have fourth place. Wow. Okay. Fourth. Sanga, Fujanami, and Yoshita, correct. I think I'm going to go with another Latin American country.

And I think I'm going to go. Curacao. I think they would be under... I don't know how they... No. My Info, Zero. Curacao players debuted. That's correct. Zero from...

Not a bad guest, Trev. Thanks. Give me Puerto Rico. Also, zero. Say not a bad guest, Jake. Send it back. Send it back. Trev.

Send it back, Trev. You send it back to him? Trev? Not a bad guest, Jake. No. It's Cuba. Oh, that's so disappointing for Trev. That's so easy.

J.P. Martinez, Oscar Colos, Daysbel Hernandez, and Victor Medeiros. The Cuban debuts, two from Panama, two from Canada, one from Mexico, one from Colombia, one from Australia, one from Portugal. Born in, I don't know where you grew up. The other info that I thought was interesting was the A.L. West has debuted. No, they got beat.

out. The NL Central has debuted the most players. The Reds leading with a whopping 14. The Pirates with 12. Three teams have debuted 11, the Giants, the Mariners, and the A's. The NL Central and the NL East and the AL Central have the least. The Red, the ALE East just had the least, but they debuted. debuted two yesterday, the Yankees and Red Sox.

So that's some debut information. Team to debut at least? Twins, only three, and two of them are Canadian? And the Phillies only three. Twins and Phillies. No newcomers here. Oh, Noah Song's back on the Red Sox. Oh, no.

The Phillies did not keep him the whole year. He's back on the Red Sox. They have a plan to ramp him up and get him in the throwing program. Congrats to Noah's song. Thank you guys very much for listening. See you later. Go baseball. Shout out Trey Turner.

Walk off. That was awesome. God. See that, Jim? Cheer for your players, you know? Bobby Wood Jr.'s my guy. Jake Sucks. Breaking Shortstop Records.

Gell off. Like sell off, but gell off. I keep emphasizing the off, but you emphasize the gell. The pronunciation guy, Gell is all caps. Line drive, off DeVall. Goes off DeVal's glove. Tips past Tyro. Tyro almost dies and catch you the other way.

Game over.