White Sox win first playoff series since 2005 | Episode 142

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Socks on 35th is next.
00:00:07
Speaker 2: Doors open on the left. How's it going, everybody?
00:00:12
Speaker 3: How you feeling? We're recording, you know, just midweek, late night, you know.
00:00:18
Speaker 4: But as it turns out, don't know if we're going to have a show tomorrow. Mainly because we ain't going to have a game tomorrow because we handled business in the first two. This is your host, Duke Coughlin. Welcome to the Sox on 35th podcast. We are back with a special AL wildcard champs. Raise the banner covering your Chicago White Sox. I'm joined by Jordan Lozowski and Michael Suero.
00:00:43
Speaker 3: Michael, where are we going to be on Wednesday?
00:00:46
Speaker 2: Well, we're here right now on Wednesday. Next Wednesday, you and I are going to be at the game. I secured. Thank you to me. I secured us some tickets to watch some home playoff White Sox baseball.
00:01:02
Speaker 1: Let's go. I got to do some. I got to do some or schedule some PTO. I'll be honest. I didn't even plan ahead. I didn't schedule it. I'll be honest. I told my boss already.
00:01:13
Speaker 2: Go ahead. Go ahead.
00:01:17
Speaker 4: Well, when you would have done the Q and got in line, I mean, there was still the cautious optimism that we weren't going to completely blow the central lead.
00:01:26
Speaker 3: So it was like, oh, it's going to be the Saturday. It's going to be perfect, like the ideal day.
00:01:31
Speaker 4: Now it's Wednesday. I, too, have to use PTO. And Wednesday just happens to be my busiest day in my job, so it's just really going to be fun. But, dude, if we weren't just completely uncomfortable this entire time, being comfortable in the uncomfortable– I mean, how in the world do you make.
00:01:48
Speaker 3: A generational run?
00:01:50
Speaker 4: Because that's what the White Sox are aiming to do. So, yeah, first ever White Sox playoff game. And I had the opportunity to go to one. I actually bought the ticket, had it, had planned to go the day, and it was the one game that we beat the Astros in in the last time we were in the playoffs. So, yeah, it's going to be really gratifying walking in there. And I get to continue my Joe Kim Noah streak against the all the Cleveland fans out there.
00:02:18
Speaker 3: I can't wait.
00:02:19
Speaker 5: It does feel nice to know that they'll have a chance to right some wrongs when it comes to taking on Cleveland. I know we have a lot to talk about for this episode and kind of how things went down in the series, but credit to a team who just battles and battles and battles and is going to make, no matter where they are in the series, up 2-0, down 2-0, tied 1-1 when they get to um right field on wednesday no matter where that team is it's going to be a fun ballpark to be in um similar to the 2021 feeling but i think a little bit sweeter just because of the way people have rallied behind this team this year and they've just been that type of team that you want to be behind um and it's for moments and games like the ones we saw today this.
00:03:14
Speaker 2: Has been such an easy team to root for all season. Like just the vibes they've had in the clubhouse all year. Like they just felt like a young team. That's just fun to watch. And you know, they're going to go out there and bust their ass every game. It's been so fun and gratifying to see how quickly they turn this season around. It's been, it's been awesome to watch.
00:03:37
Speaker 1: Man.
00:03:38
Speaker 3: And how, how about Sam? It's not you, man.
00:03:42
Speaker 4: You know, I wouldn't say he wasn't on the stat sheet, wouldn't be considered the complete driving force of the offense or this team in general. But man, he was a complete and utter demon in Houston.
00:03:57
Speaker 3: Just brought it in every sense.
00:03:59
Speaker 4: He had all the intangibles you can't see or hear or put on a piece of paper.
00:04:04
Speaker 3: You can only feel it.
00:04:05
Speaker 4: That's exactly the type of freaking energy he brought in. Cause I mean, obviously there was other producers with the bat, no lineup really got going. I mean, we even got the angry Colts Montgomery center field home run. You couldn't ask for, couldn't ask for a better series for this team coming out of September.
00:04:22
Speaker 3: And then, you know, being able to come back from a little bit of adversity, which we didn't have to face in the first game.
00:04:31
Speaker 4: And it was, it was feeling a little dire there, but like, Anthony K who was a lefty. I didn't even think they were going to go to just kind of decides that he's going to have his little L Duke game moment, little, you know, mini, you know, junior sized I'll do game moment, but Holy crap.
00:04:47
Speaker 3: Was that just huge?
00:04:48
Speaker 4: I started tweeting out my favorite tweet, this tweet out where it's like, nobody can clean up a mess.
00:04:53
Speaker 3: Made by Anthony K better than Anthony K. But then I'm like, you know what? He didn't make up this mess. He just went in and cleaned it. It is.
00:05:01
Speaker 1: It was crazy to see.
00:05:04
Speaker 5: How they handled things in the bullpen today and how they handle things. It's a lineup top to bottom. Um, I tweeted it to like that top of the first inning, one of the most impressive innings of white Sox baseball I've seen just to.
00:05:23
Speaker 1: Take, to know what's on the line, right?
00:05:25
Speaker 5: Like knowing that, Hey, you know, you've got a little bit of wiggle room. You know you're facing an ace. You know you have an ace who's kind of sometimes pitched like an ace, sometimes hasn't. The White Sox were not a favorite for this one for, I think, fair reasons. To knock that starter out in Hunter Brown before they could even get him out of the first inning, one of the most impressive things I've seen the White Sox do, change.
00:05:51
Speaker 1: The trajectory of that game.
00:05:53
Speaker 5: Because if Brown gets out of that, maybe he goes two or three more and is able to get to 80 pitches. Somehow in four innings, like, I don't know, it was beyond impressive.
00:06:04
Speaker 2: No.
00:06:05
Speaker 1: And you're seeing the benefits now.
00:06:07
Speaker 3: I mean, be honest. You know, sorry, Michael. Go ahead. Go ahead.
00:06:12
Speaker 2: I was going to say that.
00:06:13
Speaker 4: Let's just all be honest. Hunter Brown, that was a guy that lived rent-free in our head all day.
00:06:18
Speaker 5: Yep.
00:06:19
Speaker 4: And for us to just not just knock him out of the, like, we ran him off that mound.
00:06:24
Speaker 3: It was unbelievable. Go ahead, Mike.
00:06:26
Speaker 2: No, I was just going to say that was a bigger deal than scoring the four runs in the first inning was getting him out before he could finish the first inning. Because Jordan, to your point, like he's a good enough pitcher. Like if he got out of that inning, he could have very easily got rolling in the second, third, fourth inning and shut us down then. And we maybe you've only gotten out with one or two runs before all of a sudden Houston's hitting solo home run after solo home run every inning. And it might look like a different game. So getting him out of the game so early and making them go to the pen so early, that was such a huge difference maker. Again, bigger than scoring the runs, like making him or making them go to their pen before he can get that final third out was just from there on.
00:07:08
Speaker 3: It was a different game.
00:07:09
Speaker 5: Well, you think about it, too. It's the point of, you know, let's just say Brown gets through that first. Montgomery strikes out or grounds out, whatever. Then you're hitting all these solo homers, but in the back of your mind, you're like, and we still have our ace in the game. In this situation, they did not have their ace in the game. Even as those homers are getting hit, you're like, well, our bullpen's running on fumes. If you're an Astros fan in that moment and you're still feeling that way, it's like, hey, you feel the comeback, but you're like, I don't know who's going to win the battle of the bullpens at that point. And for as battle tested as the White Sox one was, you were going to feel good about that. You didn't feel great with a one run lead in the fifth inning, but it's like, all right, you know that Houston's going through the same problems. And it's crazily enough, they scored their three insurance runs with a home run off of one of their better two relievers at the back end, which is crazy.
00:08:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, genuinely unbelievable. Let's jump right back into this point.
00:08:11
Speaker 4: I just got to get through the sub lines and everything like that just because I.
00:08:15
Speaker 3: Got to do it. Go for it.
00:08:17
Speaker 4: I almost just thought, you know, let's just roll with it. But, I mean, honestly, I like it more when we have a full chat. We have people giving us a bunch of stuff. I mean, this really handsome guy, he brought up that.
00:08:27
Speaker 3: Wait, didn't the Duke guy pick Chase Mycroft?
00:08:30
Speaker 5: Did you tweet from, or did you YouTube chat from your own account?
00:08:36
Speaker 2: I did.
00:08:37
Speaker 1: You're such an idiot. I hate you.
00:08:39
Speaker 2: You're such a tool.
00:08:41
Speaker 3: You're such a tool. You're the worst, actually. You guys love me. Stop it. Anyway. Come on. Everybody loves us.
00:08:51
Speaker 4: I mean, because who doesn't love a winner? Especially a winner of a series on the road that nobody expects you to win. So, for obvious reasons, our post-games episodes, everything like that, has been extended a little bit.
00:09:05
Speaker 3: So we're going to be doing this.
00:09:07
Speaker 4: We're going to just keep on churning on because as long as the Sox.
00:09:11
Speaker 3: Are alive, we ride.
00:09:13
Speaker 4: So if you want to be a part of that, if you want to be sure that you are always catching this, if for whatever reason you've been watching the game on your phone at work and you get off work and you just missed the end of the White Sox game, pop on the postgame show by going on YouTube.
00:09:27
Speaker 3: Subscribe. Hit the bell. Find us. Jump in the chat. Do not text and drive. I don't want you to do that. Please don't do that.
00:09:35
Speaker 4: Um, but you can also find us on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and everybody see your podcast. Uh, listen to it while you're mowing your grass, listen to it when you're driving home from work. Um, you know, listen to it when you just, you had a really crappy day and you want to hear us vibe about the fact that we just won our first playoff series since 2005. Um, also be sure to check out the website at SoxOn35th. com. I'm pretty sure, like, Nick's probably, like, tempted to, like, just start writing articles every hour because he's dying to be back on this podcast to enjoy what 100% me and Laz are enjoying. And, I mean, just, like, you're involved, obviously, just strictly as a Sox fan, but the amount of bad baseball we had to cover.
00:10:16
Speaker 3: I mean, Nick needs to be here fast because... He's been in the mud with us, too.
00:10:23
Speaker 4: Also, be sure to check out, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Sox on 35th. Guarantee you, for the rest of the night, you're going to just be seeing nothing but certified bangers over on the Twitter account. And I'm sure Joe is going to get pretty froggy with what he's going to be posting on Instagram.
00:10:38
Speaker 3: Hopefully, he posts just the.
00:10:40
Speaker 4: Entire rant I made before that game, and you guys both called me jinx, but I guess we're going to find out.
00:10:44
Speaker 3: Anyway.
00:10:45
Speaker 1: And like this stream if you haven't yet.
00:10:47
Speaker 3: Oh, hit the hype button as well. I don't know how well it works, but it does.
00:10:51
Speaker 1: I don't know what it does, but sure.
00:10:55
Speaker 4: But just being able to face adversity, you know, just kind of jump back into where we were before this, like facing adversity the way they did. Like when it was a 4-3 ball game and I started seeing like the signs of trouble at Brazaban who I immediately was like, and I had like an oh shit moment the second I saw him on the mound.
00:11:14
Speaker 3: It's like, oh. man, this is going to be a really stiff fricking podcast now.
00:11:20
Speaker 4: Like, even if we, even if we still pull it off at four to three, I'm like, I'm going to be trying to control like me freaking out about, um, some of the bullpen decisions that have been, that happened in the series. But you know, at the end of the day, chase my draft, holy fricking smokes, dude. Let me just pull this up. This isn't, this isn't me like stroking the fact that I picked him as the X factor, because I mean, there's only so many players you can pick from in that. Um, For the series, he batted 571 with a 1625 OPS.
00:11:50
Speaker 3: That's two games. That's insane.
00:11:53
Speaker 2: Crazy.
00:11:54
Speaker 3: There's nobody in the lineup that's even remotely close to him in that respect.
00:11:58
Speaker 5: And you think about the sixth inning, seventh inning, whenever he hit that homerun, it's a blur in my mind still. I really haven't processed it. But when he hit that homer, You know, it could go the other way. Let's just say they walk them. You worry about Braden Montgomery, who had a good game but not a great game. Or a good series but not a great series, I guess. Montgomery had the one hit but a lot of strikeouts after that. So you're starting to get a little bit worried about that.
00:12:31
Speaker 1: And he took care of business.
00:12:32
Speaker 5: For a guy who had struggled at times this year with runners in scoring position, it was something that was talked about often. He did a phenomenal job in that moment, delivering and getting that, I think the Sox tweeted, that signature moment of his for the start of this postseason. Obviously, Hope is not the last one, and there's still a lot more baseball to play, but those are the kind of vibes that you.
00:12:54
Speaker 1: Can carry into another series. That's why.
00:12:59
Speaker 5: Everyone's like, you know, some of these wildcard teams come in surprise, and how much of an advantage is The extended time off. Yes, it's an advantage. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that. But you see why people question that. Because if you can ride some of this into those first couple games and maybe split the first two in Cleveland, then you go home with a chance to win the series at home. Worst case, you got to go back to Cleveland and win game five. But that's the kind of momentum that if you can carry one into that would be phenomenal.
00:13:37
Speaker 1: Oh, they're having fun.
00:13:39
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. The clips that are going to come out of that are just going to be phenomenal.
00:13:45
Speaker 5: It's fun to have a team like this that they're just all posting and having so much fun with it. They know the fans appreciate it. They've said, what, a frat house a hundred different times about this team. It certainly looks like it and feels like it at times.
00:14:03
Speaker 1: I think that helps.
00:14:05
Speaker 5: You talk about what was the talk of today for Houston? All the back and forth about the booing from the fans. And what's the talk for the White Sox? It's the stupidity they use before every game now. Like, that's how different things were. And you saw it kind of play out in how the game went.
00:14:30
Speaker 4: You know, and, you know, I think there needs to be investigation, too, as far as, were they boos? Or was it the White Sox fans that were there chanting Coop?
00:14:43
Speaker 3: Sure.
00:14:44
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:14:45
Speaker 4: Actually, now that I think about it, actually a really kind of cool tribute, in a sense, to Don Cooper, who had just passed away, had not won a playoff series or anything like that since 05 in Houston.
00:15:04
Speaker 3: And then the same place.
00:15:05
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was, that was probably, I think, I think if Don Cooper was around, you probably attest to that being one of the best moments of his life, one of the best days of his life. And what, what a way as like a kind of fitting tribute to a guy like Don Cooper, who was that old, that old five pitching staff was the name of the game in that, in that team.
00:15:25
Speaker 3: So I think that's, I think that's really cool.
00:15:28
Speaker 4: Just kind of connect the dots on that. Finally, I've been sitting on the coop line since yesterday, but yeah.
00:15:34
Speaker 2: No, I hadn't even thought about that, but it, you know, it is really cool. And like you said, that's, that was the last place where he won, you know, won the world series then, and just such a good, such an awesome tribute. And I mean, pitching did kind of nail this down, you know, in the name of Don Cooper. I mean, the way that bullpen really battled back after facing a little bit of adversity there. But, you know, after, after Brazaban, you know, had a couple of hiccups, he got a couple outs at least, but. Then you get KK in to shut things down. You get two awesome innings from Jordan Hicks. He was absolutely electric. And just a point about that real quick. Like I mentioned it on Twitter, but like we got him in a salary dump with David Sandlin. And both of them are now pitching big time innings in a playoff series. And Jordan Hicks, I mean, he was he really turned back the clock. That was I mean, he wasn't pumping 104 like he did. back in his best days. But, I mean, what a get from Chris Getz there, getting someone pitching two massive innings in a playoff series clinching game where he's pumping 101, along with also getting Sandlin, who pitched a big inning in two-thirds yesterday. I cannot give Chris Getz enough credit for making that move because that came up huge this playoff series.
00:16:56
Speaker 1: He was the only one who pitched back-to-back nights.
00:16:58
Speaker 5: He got four outs yesterday and had to come and get six more outs today.
00:17:03
Speaker 1: That's impressive out of him.
00:17:04
Speaker 5: For someone who has bounced back and forth, has gotten some time as a reliever having to pitch back-to-back days, but it's not like that's easy to do at the same time. And to have him be the only one who pitched back-to-back days is impressive on his part. I know some of the guys were like three innings each, so you weren't going to get a ton of carryover, but someone had to bite the bullet and do it. Um, and I'm glad it was him. Cause to your point, Michael, it's, it's come a long road for him or it's been a long road for him. He's come a long way, which is great to see. Um, I'm going to read a couple of comments from the chat before we keep going. Um, and at a mini 73 Venable apparently gave the fans a shout out in his postgame interview, which is awesome. Ed Tierney, six Oh seven, six, the first playoff series dub since I was in eighth grade, since I was eight years old, actually at the same time, don't stop now, boys. Um, Mune just gave another banger interview, according to Scott Forrester TV.
00:18:01
Speaker 4: So I was actually going to, before you started reading comments, I was going to actually point that one out because the amount of money I would pay to see Sam Antonacci mid-interview just decide to.
00:18:15
Speaker 3: Go, I'm Italian! Like, holy crap. I'm like, I'm a go-go-go-go-go-go!
00:18:25
Speaker 5: I am curious to see once we get off here what he has to say, which will be exciting. But Carson's in our chat. He was not alive since they last won a series.
00:18:38
Speaker 3: Carson.
00:18:39
Speaker 1: And that's our Carson. Carson Cass.
00:18:41
Speaker 3: What do you wield?
00:18:42
Speaker 2: That's sad.
00:18:43
Speaker 3: Eric Fetty closing into existence. How in the world?
00:18:48
Speaker 4: This is a great misuse of our power, and we obviously don't know what type of power this podcast has because that was It's kind of scary that happened.
00:18:56
Speaker 1: That's crazy to think about, but yeah.
00:19:01
Speaker 5: Honestly, though, when you think about it, a really, really good job from Venable being able to find a way to get this team through 18 innings. And really, you talk about the amount of things that have to go right when you make that many decisions.
00:19:23
Speaker 1: He nailed most of them.
00:19:24
Speaker 5: Newcomb was really the only one that struggled.
00:19:27
Speaker 1: He nailed pretty much every decision he made.
00:19:30
Speaker 2: And I had some raised eyebrows. I'm not going to lie. There was a couple decisions he made that I was questioning a little bit. I thought you could have squeezed one more inning or at least another couple outs out of Sean Burke today. I thought they gave him the hook a little early. And granted, going to brosman wasn't it didn't exactly it wasn't exactly smooth sailing from there but i mean every decision he made it did pan out so like props to him like he had to really navigate a lot of pitching decisions these last two days especially today with your starter only going four innings and he really did a great job managing that bullpen and kind of maneuvering how to go about the rest of this game. And again, aside from the little hiccup with Brazaban, like he nailed it. So absolute props to him. Yeah.
00:20:22
Speaker 5: The thing with the Brazaban thing is like, I, I even get why he kind of did it. Like you're still in the middle innings. If you weren't going to like, yeah, I, I would have preferred book Burke faced at least the eight, nine hitters in that inning. but you're still playing it at that point, inning by inning, right? Because the theory being, okay, if you can win this half inning and maybe the Sox come back and score a couple runs, now this is different versus trying to save a guy like Brosbon who might be more.
00:20:52
Speaker 1: Of a closer-esque player. Like, let's see.
00:20:54
Speaker 5: Now, granted, it didn't work. That's more on Brosbon than anything else, but it's like, Okay, it just came out weird. Like, everyone pitched that you would have assumed was going to pitch today.
00:21:05
Speaker 1: Like, Fetty pitched.
00:21:06
Speaker 5: Hicks, I guess you can kind of say you could have assumed that if anyone was going to go back-to-back. Schultz is probably the only one who didn't pitch that maybe we would have assumed would pitch. But that's a tough situation to bring in a rookie into.
00:21:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm fine with that.
00:21:21
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:21:21
Speaker 1: So, like, you kind of put it in that part. You're like, hey, I'm just trying to win this half inning. Put up a zero.
00:21:28
Speaker 5: Let's see if we can scratch one across. And then that changed the feeling of a game. Like, I didn't mind Eric Fetty with a four-run lead. I would have felt way different with a one-run lead in the fifth inning. Like, I'd be like, ooh, boy, I don't know if I want Eric Fetty there. Eric Fetty get me six outs with a four-run lead? Yeah, I think he can do that. Actually, Reteaching Physics said in the chat, and Duke, I know I cut you off, why no Hudson? I was curious about that as well, but Hudson's been another guy that's been hit or miss. So you were picking whichever one you wanted to run with. It didn't happen to be Rosabon, but I, it could have gone the same way with Hudson. It's an interesting question though.
00:22:09
Speaker 3: Well, I'm not even on the Hudson point. Cause me and Mike were talking about this earlier.
00:22:13
Speaker 4: Um, and it was kind of like the argument actually that like, not like why we wouldn't want like an Anthony case starting in the series is like, obviously will Venable like stuck to his guns as far as he did not want any left-handed pitcher to get too stretched.
00:22:30
Speaker 3: Out in that lineup and have to face any righties.
00:22:32
Speaker 4: And honestly, like as much as I will, you know, as much as I always have my gripes with like one hiccup or two that will Venable pull off, you know, I'm going to do that with any manager essentially, you know, cause I, I know better sitting on the couch. I have to give him all the credit in the world of how he handled, jordan alvarez because that was like basically the playbook that me and laz kind of laid out about like we have to like be extreme about how much we can't let jordan alvarez beat us because i would like i would 100 take my chance if that rests that lineup i mean because pain is pain is a beast he's hard when you can really freaking work around um jordan was a guy and masterful job of pulling that off because he did not affect the series. Honestly, the biggest impact he had was today when he missed the ball from Antonacci. And my, my immediate thought, my immediate thought when I heard the call on that is I'm like, dude, the manager Houston is so frustrated seeing that right now, because you know, they played fricking Yordan over there because they thought they're going to have to deal with a lot of pulls from the left-handed white socks lineup. It just immediately doesn't pay off. I'm like, Oh man. And then that combined with how quickly we ran Brown out, like credit words do that. They still ended up, you know, sneaking out those three solo home runs, which we got to talk about the Sean Burke start with how weird it was. And at some point on this episode, cause there's just way too many weird things with that. But like, You could feel the air kind of coming out of the stadium when Brown ran out of the game. And honestly, that started with Antonacci with that hit to Jordan because Brown had no margin of error being down four runs right off the jump.
00:24:28
Speaker 5: It's crazy how much that Isak Parade's injury affected everything because he was not playing 100%. You could kind of tell it with his swing. And you could tell by the fact that he didn't play the field today. That first inning, Jordan's in left field because of the injury. Nick Allen's at third base because of the injury. And who had two crucial inning-changing mistakes were those two guys. It's got to be frustrating as a manager to be like, I'm not putting my best nine out there in a game I have to win and there's nothing I can do about it. Kudos to the White Sox for being able to take advantage of it in the way that they did. Granted, I don't know if they tried to necessarily, but It's on the margins, right? These series, you're not going to have high-scoring series. I would assume we're going to be nail-biting every 2-1, 2-0, 1-0 game we're about to see over the next at least three, maybe up to five against Cleveland. These scores are not the usual. So it's winning on those margins that are so important, and Houston did not do that this series. They kicked the ball around A lot. And the White Sox made plays when they had to.
00:25:41
Speaker 2: Isn't that funny? Like, we're on the opposite end of that finally.
00:25:45
Speaker 1: Which is a banana statement to make, yeah.
00:25:49
Speaker 2: Exactly. Usually we're the ones making those critical game-changing mistakes. Now we're the one that's playing sound baseball and taking advantage of the other team making mistakes. That is just a wild concept to me that, like, we've come that far since just a couple of years ago where we were the team that was making that many mistakes. It is such a breath of fresh air to see, to be rooting for a team that's actually playing sound baseball and is actually taking advantage of a misplayed ball in the outfield or a guy playing out of position and making a critical mistake like that. It is so refreshing being on the right side of that for once.
00:26:30
Speaker 5: Before we talk, Sean Burke, I wanted to take a couple things from the chat or just make this comment about the chat for those who continue to jump in. Continue to throw your comments in there. We're going to keep reading them as we're finishing up this going through this episode. So if you have thoughts, please continue to drop them in there.
00:26:48
Speaker 1: But Duke, go ahead.
00:26:48
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
00:26:50
Speaker 4: No, I mean, I don't want like not not to like kind of make it a this isn't a shot at this current team and what they did in the regular season, but like, we really weren't that great defensively in the regular season as it was. And we just, we were, we locked in. And every time a ball got hit off the wall in left field, I thought about a comment I made about how, how in Fenway, Sam Antonacci had a really just rough play of one of those bounces and Sam played all the bounces in left field off the wall in Houston perfectly. And it's like, It was just this whole, this whole fricking series was just like a, a like full circle moment in a lot of different ways for a lot of different guys. And now we get to be, we are like the ultimate full circle moment that Cleveland has now, because like, we are literally the old man in.
00:27:42
Speaker 3: Like the ambulance name where it's like, you know, call an ambulance, call an ambulance, but not for me.
00:27:48
Speaker 4: Like we literally just rose from the dead after, you know, it all, it, Tell me what team that has a meltdown in September comes out and plays like that right away in the playoffs if they do somehow scrub it.
00:28:01
Speaker 3: Doesn't happen.
00:28:01
Speaker 4: Typically, it's usually a pretty sad state of affairs, and everybody's just kind of ready to go home.
00:28:08
Speaker 3: This team didn't do that, and Cleveland's going to be an insanely tough series.
00:28:14
Speaker 4: You nailed it as far as, like, we're going to be biting our nails this entire time because it's bad enough in the regular season with these guys, and now we're going to be doing it.
00:28:23
Speaker 3: Where the stakes are significantly higher. I mean, but.
00:28:28
Speaker 4: We're already on a revenge tour with this series. Like, let's just keep her rolling, baby. Anyway, but so the Sean Burke thing, from the jump, was a little off.
00:28:44
Speaker 3: Steve Stone made a comment before they started the bottom of.
00:28:48
Speaker 4: The first, which, of course, that was like the first I actually got to watch the game because I listened to the top.
00:28:53
Speaker 3: Um, and immediately, like it felt.
00:28:56
Speaker 4: There was like a little delay because they're trying to figure out pitch calm. There's a lot of different issues with that. So it's like, okay, I was trying not to think too much of it, but you know, of course you have the typical, like, of course it's in Houston type deal, but.
00:29:09
Speaker 3: Try not to be that way, whatever.
00:29:10
Speaker 4: It is so strange to me that a guy who didn't really give up a ton of home runs, who was Definitely got batted around at certain points in the season. You know, like we all know the bad Sean Burke games. We know kind of when we can see it coming. He's usually really struggling to hit the zone. He's floating pitches into the zone just to get strikes, and that's usually when they start getting mashed. And when they're hitting his fastball, he's usually in a lot of trouble. I just can't get over the fact that besides those three solo shots, he was locked in, was not missing the zone. He actually had really good control of the zone, in my opinion. They were just fouling off a lot of pitches, mostly his fastball, and that's something he's going to have to address in the offseason. But all three of those solo shots, I swear to God, all three of them landed in the same seat. Like it was eerie and it felt like it was about in the same, about in the same spot of the zone.
00:30:05
Speaker 3: So I'm curious.
00:30:07
Speaker 4: Cause I feel like it'll, somebody will end up asking the question when the dust settles and, you know, everyone just asking, you know, the hypey questions of like, you know, we just beat Houston, you know, that nobody's going to ask this question, but I almost wonder if what Burke would have to say about if he was having some issues with pitch calm, or if somebody ends up asking the question about potentially tipping his pitches.
00:30:28
Speaker 3: Cause that's, they were, they were, they were on top of every single one of his fastballs.
00:30:33
Speaker 4: And the fact that location of where he pitched on all three of those home runs were pretty close. It just, it felt weird. And yeah, I can make a hundred jokes about Houston being cheaters. I even made the tweet, like, do we have, like, do we have to go check out center field real quick? I mean, do we have to do like a, you gotta put our detective hats on, but like, I mean, Houston just taking advantage of something that John Burke is giving them.
00:30:56
Speaker 3: So it's not like a situation where I'd be mad about that.
00:30:58
Speaker 4: I just, I'm curious because something just felt off the entire time, even when he was doing well.
00:31:05
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:31:06
Speaker 5: It was an interesting day for him and I'll pull up his line here so we can kind of look at it. Like it's, it's not a bad day, right? Like it's a good game that he pitched. The homers. I, I kind of, I have always thought he's a home run guy. pitcher and what I mean like he's prone to the home run he was top 25 among qualified starters this year in terms of home runs per night so like he doesn't not give up home runs only even though the raw number of.
00:31:36
Speaker 1: 19 isn't.
00:31:40
Speaker 5: Bad it's like it's about one home run per nine innings was what he was averaging so you can assume probably most starts he's going to give up a home run which is kind of what it felt like today The good news is he kept him to solo shots. I think the pitch locations were fine ish. It's like, if you're sitting fastball though, you can probably, um, you can probably get it. I think reteaching physics said in the chat that Altuve one might've been a double in most parks.
00:32:09
Speaker 4: Um, I don't know how Altuve gets to other parks cause he can't see over the steering wheel.
00:32:14
Speaker 1: He, you assume, you assume at least one of those maybe hits off a wall.
00:32:18
Speaker 5: Um, that's always been the frustration for me with Burke is that I feel like that limits his upside. It's like teams could might just put two or three over the wall. And if you happen to walk anybody, that's going to be a problem today to your point, Duke, like it wasn't pinpoint command, but it was good enough.
00:32:34
Speaker 1: He didn't walk anybody. And he struck out eight in four innings.
00:32:37
Speaker 5: Like it wasn't bad command, but it felt like he was just a tick off enough to where a team who's as experienced as at least those top four hitters in the Houston Nationals lineup are, can take advantage if you're just a tick off.
00:32:52
Speaker 1: Um, I think it's a good learning moment. I think there's a lot of pressure he put on himself.
00:32:55
Speaker 5: I know the whole thing kind of like blew up where he's like, I got no family, no girlfriend, no, no wife, no kids, nothing like this is all I got.
00:33:03
Speaker 1: Like cool ass statement.
00:33:05
Speaker 3: That is a crazy line before your first ever career playoffs.
00:33:08
Speaker 2: Correct. Like right there.
00:33:10
Speaker 1: Badass line.
00:33:12
Speaker 5: But that's your, you're intrinsically putting a lot of pressure on yourself. This is all you got.
00:33:16
Speaker 1: And you suck. Like, That's a lot to have to deal with.
00:33:21
Speaker 5: So I think maybe that, I'm not saying that played into it for him, but I'm like, if you're talking about the inner psyche of a person, that is a lot to put on yourself as an individual, as badass as it was. I don't think it was a bad outing. That's why I would have sent him back out there for the fifth. But at the same time, yeah, I get one of the guys he would have faced. The leadoff hitter was Cam Smith, who took him 390 yards. um earlier that game so if.
00:33:50
Speaker 4: I if i was a reporter in the locker room right now the one question i would ask burke would just because you brought up that that statement i'm like were you trying to one-up hagan smith with that statement because of how well the well how well of a start he had and uh you wanted to kind of bring the spotlight back on you um yeah it was it was a weird start um the strikeouts were great obvi i always feel like whenever a guy whenever a pitcher like gives up like solo shots or something like that in their start but their strikeouts are high that usually kind of means they're probably just salty as hell and it kind of felt like some angry strikeouts right there a lot of angry baseball in this series love that um i'm a little disappointed though i was kind of almost wanted to uh see if there was a a prop share or anything like that as far as on um if uh he was gonna have a different pair of uh jordan 11s when he got onto the mound because I love his Jordan 11 spikes all season. They're just the best looking things in the world, especially the black, the black Jordan sevens are beautiful.
00:34:54
Speaker 3: Let's kind of hoping for a little bit of drip there. Maybe, maybe think about that one, Sean.
00:35:01
Speaker 5: It doesn't seem like it would matter to him personally, but Michael, I don't know if you had any thoughts on Burke. I do want to talk about moving forward a little bit too. I do have some things we want to get to, but I don't want to cut you off if you had thoughts on Burke.
00:35:13
Speaker 2: No, I mean, I pretty much thought the same as you. I think he just wasn't perfectly sharp with his fastball, and that's what led to the solo home runs. But again, they were solo home runs. That's why I still would have pitched him a little more. For the most part, he was still being effective. He didn't walk anyone. He had eight strikeouts in four innings. He just left a few fastballs hanging a little too much, and they got smoked. To your credit, the one probably wouldn't be a home run in most parks, but I think that's all it really was. I thought for the most part he pitched a pretty good game. I would have liked, again, it doesn't matter because we won and Will Venable ended up making the right decisions. I would have liked to see him go at least another out or two, but I get why they didn't. And if nothing else, he'll be a little more rested for his next start against Cleveland.
00:36:05
Speaker 3: So one last point just to chew on.
00:36:07
Speaker 4: We don't have to elaborate on it at all, but it's been kind of a little bit of a talking point.
00:36:13
Speaker 3: You know, people had a couple questions.
00:36:16
Speaker 4: About as far as how Kyle Teal is calling games. After the first home run on that fastball, like, maybe kind of avoid that call for a bit, man. It felt like it was just, he was aiming there quite a bit in this start.
00:36:31
Speaker 5: At the same time, though, and Michael and I said it during the live watch portion of this, I thought he called two really good ballgames.
00:36:38
Speaker 1: And I have been very critical.
00:36:40
Speaker 5: Outside of maybe a few pitches from Burke, And the Velasquez at bat yesterday, which drove me up a wall. I thought he called a really good series, having to manage, what, 12 different pitchers over the course of it. I was, as someone who has been very critical of how he's called the game, outside of a few moments, he was very impressive. And as Scott Forrester mentioned in the chat, was awesome with ABS, was winning things on the margins.
00:37:05
Speaker 2: I was about to give that a shout out, too. His challenges have been spot on, especially for a team that's been awful at abs challenging all season yeah he was spot on this entire series.
00:37:18
Speaker 4: Yeah i mean it could always just be a little bit of ring rust a little bit of rust here too because most of the season um mostly sean anytime he was starting it was uh drew romo and then towards the end it was jake rogers it was never really teal even when teal got back so could have something to do with that too but you can't justify putting freaking jake rogers in the lineup against houston so absolutely not.
00:37:39
Speaker 5: All righty So I guess it's time to start looking ahead. You mentioned Burke's next starter probably won't come in game one. We're going to take a look at some things with our friends over at Cal Sheet to start. So right now they have the ALCS qualifier positions. Currently they have Cleveland as the highest trading chances at 60%. Yankees at 50%. Tampa at 49%.
00:38:04
Speaker 1: So they're kind of already given.
00:38:10
Speaker 5: New York that series over Boston, leading it at 50-50. White Sox are sitting at, as we see here, a 47% trade. So $ 25 would win you $ 52.
00:38:23
Speaker 2: 74.
00:38:23
Speaker 5: So the lowest trading odds to make it to the ALCS. I will be curious to see what the positions look like once they kind of finalize everything for the Cleveland and White Sox matchup.
00:38:41
Speaker 1: Do you feel like it's fair to have the lowest percentages?
00:38:46
Speaker 5: Do you feel like it's that drastic of a difference, or is there still probably some reaction to do to these games? I guess how confident do you feel becomes my ultimate question about this team as we get ready to head to.
00:39:01
Speaker 1: The next round.
00:39:03
Speaker 3: Well, I've gotten away from fair. I'm done.
00:39:07
Speaker 4: Like, they're never going to be fair to the Chicago White Sox that's outside of Chicago, so... Honestly, throughout this entire run, as long as it goes, I hope I hope the yes for us in these situations stays lower than 49 percent the entire time.
00:39:22
Speaker 3: Like we're just dogs.
00:39:23
Speaker 2: All the way. I'm with you. I almost prefer to be the underdogs constantly like that.
00:39:29
Speaker 4: I like.
00:39:30
Speaker 2: I personally like this trade you know I the way we're playing right now carrying this momentum into that Cleveland series I think is huge and also let's not forget we won the the season series against Cleveland already and it's not going to be like this round where Cleveland's at home the entire time we are going to have at least one home game, if not more. Hopefully more because we'll need more if we're actually going to win the series. But, you know, I'm okay with those odds. I would take them personally. So it is what it is. I get why they're giving us lower than 50%, I guess. But for the most part, I think that we're in a good position heading into the series.
00:40:17
Speaker 1: I would agree.
00:40:18
Speaker 5: I love the underdog mentality of it all. Like, hey, we've all said it. We've all tweeted it. Why not us at a certain point? And I think that's the mentality the team continues to have. I think that's the mentality we as fans continue to have personally.
00:40:33
Speaker 1: I do think over.
00:40:37
Speaker 5: Time, because these lines tend to change as public opinion sways, I think people are going to catch up to the fact like, hey.
00:40:49
Speaker 5: The White Sox did win the season series and probably would have done it by a few more games if there were a few things that went their way here or there.
00:40:57
Speaker 1: Obviously, no shit, that's baseball.
00:41:00
Speaker 5: So it's not necessarily making excuses for it, but it's understanding, hey, you know, this is more evenly matched than maybe a 60% chance of giving it to Cleveland would say, or even saying 47% for the White Sox would say. but all that being said, if you agree with that and you'd like to try and cash in on it, it's important to note that Kalshi is a peer-to-peer trading platform. It's not a sportsbook. You're trading directly against other users, not the house like traditional sportsbooks. The price moves based on where the money goes. Public opinion sets the line, so it's pretty interesting to see that.
00:41:41
Speaker 1: As we've talked about.
00:41:42
Speaker 5: Let's see what this looks like on Saturday when we're talking about game one. And, of course, Kalshi offers more than just sports. But if you guys are interested in trying it out, scan the QR code you see on the screen or click the link in the description. Use code BASEBALL to get $ 55 added to your account instantly.
00:42:02
Speaker 3: All righty.
00:42:03
Speaker 5: So we're moving forward for now. I think there's plenty more celebration. And for those in the chat who would like to continue to give your thoughts, please continue to give them to us.
00:42:13
Speaker 1: We'll be reading them throughout the evening.
00:42:16
Speaker 2: Oh, my.
00:42:19
Speaker 4: I hope not a single one of those cans ended up making it into a trash can.
00:42:24
Speaker 1: Oh, be nice.
00:42:25
Speaker 5: Some poor maintenance person has to clean that up. The freaking players aren't cleaning it up, Duke.
00:42:32
Speaker 2: They should be using trash cans for whatever.
00:42:34
Speaker 3: Reason at this point.
00:42:36
Speaker 5: Exactly.
00:42:36
Speaker 3: Go be a janitor for the Rangers.
00:42:39
Speaker 5: So now, yes, you start moving forward, and someone mentioned it in the chat. I'd have to go and find it, but you know you're starting this series off with Gavin Williams, Parker Messick. I don't know who the white Sox decided to run out their game one. And maybe that's where we start this conversation at is based on what you've seen based on who's been used.
00:43:01
Speaker 1: It's probably not Sean Burke.
00:43:02
Speaker 5: I think that's the only thing we can confidently say because Thursday, Friday, two days off, anyone else is probably fair game.
00:43:11
Speaker 1: Who would you run out there? Game one.
00:43:15
Speaker 2: And, What I think they're going to do is maybe do an opener and then go Davis-Martin. That would be my guess in terms of what they end up doing. What I would personally do is do a bullpen game, I think. That's just me. I really like how they attacked Houston in game one. I would kind of go a similar route against Cleveland in game one. That's just me. But what I think they're going to end up doing is maybe using Hagan Smith as an opener or Sean Newcomb as an opener.
00:43:51
Speaker 3: I'm not sure.
00:43:52
Speaker 2: I can't remember how exactly Cleveland lines up at the top of their order. But I could see them maybe going an opener and then using Davis Martin as a bulk guy for game one.
00:44:03
Speaker 4: See, it's funny because when I was texting Michael earlier, it was kind of like we thought in an ideal situation with where everything goes today, that, I mean, while K might be a possibility as far as coming into a game today, it was kind of thought that they would play the game where if they were going to, if they saw they might have to play for a third game, that that would be kind of the route they would maybe would want to go to have behind Davis, just in case that.
00:44:31
Speaker 3: Falls off the rails. So my first thought was Davis.
00:44:34
Speaker 4: Martin or not Davis Martin, Anthony K going into this, going into this. But I think the opener with Davis Martin is probably going to be the, the way to go I mean Davis didn't have to pitch single inning he was no threat of ever having to pitch he's your freshest guy and you know despite despite how we see his fall after like well fall and then kind of rise again after the all-star break I mean the whites they love this guy they they're they definitely see him as a guy that they can depend on to go go to in this series and I mean that's not even just bringing up the fact that the players all love this guy like he is.
00:45:10
Speaker 2: 100% like.
00:45:11
Speaker 4: He's the vet of the clubhouse type deal. As far as who they opened with, your guess is honestly as good as mine on that.
00:45:20
Speaker 3: Maybe they do Hagen again.
00:45:22
Speaker 4: I mean, it feels like a little bit of– it wouldn't be that quick of a turnaround, I guess. I guess they're probably just going to kind of gauge how guys are feeling. Newcomb just still feels a little fresh because even outside of coming into this– like even outside of just this series, Newcomb kind of had a bit of a rough– end of the year it kind of felt like it was just a little bit more shaky than it had been and it was you know probably because of the hundred thousand miles that is on his arm just from this season at this point so I'm I'm interested to see kind of how it works out and I'm also interested to see if they try to find a way somewhere in game one to be able to get a guy like Noah Schultz involved because you know they didn't bring him up on the playoff roster to just kind of be you know break break glass just in case type deal I mean, they're going to find a way to utilize him. I'm just kind of interested to see what his role is going to be in the playoffs and see if as we move forward. But honestly, with everything, the way everything's going on, like if we did make a run and if we wanted to go try to win a World Series, I mean, we're basically in Washington Nationals territory of the route we're going to have to go here. So it's it's it's quite the route.
00:46:34
Speaker 2: The other option is Brian Hudson, since you'd basically be doing two of your freshest regular arms. Maybe you open Brian Hudson and then go into Davis Martin. Both guys are well-rested. Maybe that's what makes the most sense here.
00:46:48
Speaker 3: Now that you say that, I'm willing to bet that's what they do. They didn't have to go to him tonight.
00:46:55
Speaker 1: My only opinion on it to this point is it will probably be a lefty.
00:46:59
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:47:01
Speaker 5: I don't see them doing like that random Hicks thing. I don't know if they'll go to Hagen Smith. I almost would prefer if you can try and sneak him at the back end of games.
00:47:16
Speaker 3: I agree.
00:47:16
Speaker 1: I think I like him more there.
00:47:21
Speaker 5: So in that case, but if you want more of a power lefty than a Brian Hudson, I wouldn't mind starting with Noah Schultz, to be honest with you, that'll feel weird because he probably hasn't started a game in a minute.
00:47:38
Speaker 3: Well, he was essentially an opener that time. Yeah.
00:47:42
Speaker 5: So it's like but I like I have my reservations in saying it. And so don't get me wrong, but I'm like in a five game series. I would struggle to start with a bullpen game. Cause now you could, you could lose that game and be like, Oh shit. Now we got to win three of four somehow. Um, that's my only concern. I could see them going straight to doing Schultz and then, or Hagan Smith and then Martin right away. I think that's probably the most logical. I wouldn't mind if they started Sandlin to either. Like I, I, we continue to kind of overlook him. I'm, Again, it's maybe the most... It's not the most boomer take I have. We can discuss my most boomer take, and it's a really good one. But there's a certain amount of dog, I think, that David Sandlin has that I want him in those critical moments.
00:48:38
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is.
00:48:40
Speaker 5: I don't have a good answer for it other than the way he competes on the mound. I feel oddly comfortable with him in games that are on the line.
00:48:50
Speaker 2: And.
00:48:51
Speaker 5: that's another situation where go start this one because why not like you can handle it let's see let's see what you got.
00:49:00
Speaker 2: Yeah and i mean he you're right he's kind of got that dog in him but he also kind of backs it up with a 98 mile an hour fastball and some good breaking pitches like he's got good he's got good stuff to go along with that mentality that's why he's that's why he's having some success here i've always thought that he kind of profiles better as a reliever and i think using him as an opener is like the perfect role for him right now. Like don't necessarily throw him into any like really high leverage situations. Like in the bullpen game, I thought where he came in was perfect. But if you're using an actual starter, using him as an opener, I do think makes some sense. And I'm definitely open to that. I just, to your, to your point earlier, I think they're going to go with the lefty and it probably, it's probably Schultz or Hudson. My money's going to be on Hudson right now. If that's the route that they go, I think that's what they would do. But I don't hate the idea of starting Sandlin either. It's starting with a power arm who can really, you know, bring some energy and some attitude to start a game one in a, in a playoff series against Cleveland. I'm definitely open to that. Yeah.
00:50:06
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm, Good.
00:50:09
Speaker 1: No, go ahead.
00:50:10
Speaker 5: If it's on this point, I'm going to transition us. Cause Joe's got something exciting for us, but if it's on this point, go ahead.
00:50:15
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:50:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I, it, as far as like on the point of like the bull bullpen game, I, I agree with you on that last, um, even though, even though we'll Venable kind of like prove both of us wrong. Cause I feel like we both were kind of nervous heading into the first game with that. Um, you, I feel like to start this series, to go to Cleveland, um, First of all, they can't get too ahead of themselves about thinking about them being the wild card and Cleveland getting the bye and being the higher seed, blah, blah, blah. We still did win the season series against them. You have to continue to treat them exactly the way you treated them all year.
00:50:52
Speaker 3: It's just a little bit elevated.
00:50:55
Speaker 4: But if I'm Will Venable and the way Cleveland's played us, especially towards the end of the year, you have to– play you have to manage each game as if you have to try to steal one in Cleveland before we get back to Chicago like you do they has to be that way that's and that's type mentality you have to have and you know a bullpen day feels just a bit like a not a punt because like I said we'll then we'll prove it all this wrong on the first one but I just don't like trying to catch magic you know magic in a bottle twice in a row that close to each other we have some guys that didn't pitch in pitch in Houston like I think.
00:51:33
Speaker 3: Give, give Davis some rope.
00:51:35
Speaker 4: And to the point of Sandlin, as far as like you, you having a feel about him, that's probably how I felt about Jordan Hicks most all year. Even when he was, his ERA was tragic to look at, like his stuff is just so gross. And that's been the story of his whole career, but I've never seen him, never seen him be able to bring it out like this in a, in this like reliever role. As much as what we've seen with the White Sox. I actually brought that up to my dad. Like, this is probably the best version of him I've seen in a long time. And he still has the stuff.
00:52:08
Speaker 2: And to be clear, the only reason I robbed the bullpen game is because I know you would have an off day after that game one. That's the only reason I'm a little more open to it is because you at least know that you're getting a little bit of rest before game two.
00:52:21
Speaker 5: Which is fair, and I think there's the element, too, of, you know, Duke, you are absolutely right. You're playing to win one of these two games.
00:52:28
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:52:28
Speaker 1: That is absolutely how you're playing it. You have to win one.
00:52:31
Speaker 2: Of these two.
00:52:32
Speaker 5: So maybe you do kind of keep short leashes and do it that way and try and figure it out because then it just becomes a best of three and you can manage it that way again if you have to punt game two or whatever. So it's like there are multiple ways you can manage it, Um, we've been talking a lot about the manager and we can get back to it. Joe has told me we have the, uh, Will Venable postgame speech here.
00:52:56
Speaker 1: Congratulations.
00:52:57
Speaker 3: That's sick.
00:53:00
Speaker 2: When you think about that series right there, it's exactly what the whole year has been like.
00:53:09
Speaker 4: Everyone contributing, every single person doing their job.
00:53:13
Speaker 3: I'm kicking it to vast because, um, This has been about.
00:53:16
Speaker 2: The spirit of this club.
00:53:17
Speaker 3: No one is.
00:53:18
Speaker 1: Watch up, fellas.
00:53:21
Speaker 2: Hey!
00:53:22
Speaker 3: One less to our numbers run.
00:53:24
Speaker 2: It don't matter what we do in the regular season.
00:53:28
Speaker 5: So we're gonna go on the road, we're gonna kick some ass, and we're gonna bring playoff baseball!
00:53:33
Speaker 2: Yeah!
00:53:37
Speaker 1: I love this baseball team.
00:53:39
Speaker 2: Truly.
00:53:39
Speaker 1: Like you talk about like I was too young to understand.
00:53:42
Speaker 3: Oh, five.
00:53:42
Speaker 1: Like I was seven years old.
00:53:45
Speaker 5: Twenty twenty one and twenty twenty were awesome baseball teams like this is the.
00:53:50
Speaker 1: Easiest team to root for of my entire life.
00:53:55
Speaker 5: Bar none.
00:53:57
Speaker 2: I'm ready to run through a brick wall after seeing that that was fricking electric. I love Mike Vassell. I can't wait to see him back on the mountain next year, but God, what a presence he's been in this locker room. Like he's, he's been such a glue guy this whole year. Like it, I mean, the.
00:54:13
Speaker 3: Point, the point of the season, I like really bought.
00:54:17
Speaker 4: In and decided that I'm on board with this team, actually not, not fluking it out, not, you know, having a great first half run or whatever. It was when we talked to Mike Vassell, like genuinely after, like after we did that, just small interview, the, the aura that just comes off that guy naturally, like fully confident, like is just so on board and such a, such a guy you want in a locker room. Like you want that guy as your teammate, that guy keeps every, everybody loose. Like I, I, he gave off such an impression of that, like just talking to him and, you know, doing basically, you know, like the meme interview we did with him. I'm like, man, if this is a guy like leading the charge in the clubhouse and they're, they're buying into what he's selling, like, yeah, they're, they're all going to be ready to run through a fricking brick wall.
00:55:07
Speaker 3: Like, and.
00:55:10
Speaker 4: How can you not love this team? I mean, it's, it's hard to put into words, man. I feel like it's really, it's really sunk in that.
00:55:19
Speaker 1: This is cool too.
00:55:21
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
00:55:22
Speaker 1: This is cool.
00:55:23
Speaker 5: Again, you see it's stuff like that where, It is such a funny quote, right? It was such a great quote from Burke. But at the same time, you see how much it means to the screen. I'm not saying other teams don't care. I'm not saying teams that we've watched in the past haven't cared.
00:55:39
Speaker 2: Right.
00:55:39
Speaker 5: That is not what I'm saying. But it's just there's layers to it. You can tell when someone likes baseball and is a fan of it and really enjoys being able to do it. And then there are you can tell when there are guys who just like, I wouldn't rather be doing anything else on this planet. Like you couldn't distract me with anything else. I'm going to go hit earlier. I'm going to go hit later. I'm just, I'm just going to keep doing baseball things like that. I feel like that's what this team is built of. 26 guys that have that down all the way to Tommy fam. Everyone's like, why is he here? He's just the 35 year old version of the rest of these guys.
00:56:17
Speaker 1: He just loves baseball. Wouldn't be doing anything else.
00:56:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
00:56:23
Speaker 4: I mean, and, if you think about that 2021 team, like who, who would be, who would you consider like in the locker room, a guy like what vassal is in ours.
00:56:31
Speaker 3: I mean, the, but the only one I would say would be.
00:56:34
Speaker 4: The closest would be guy like a Bray you, but, and this is not like a, this isn't like a cheap shot or anything like that. 2021 team.
00:56:42
Speaker 3: Trust me.
00:56:42
Speaker 4: Like they all know how everything all ended up panning out, but how young and immature a.
00:56:48
Speaker 3: Lot of those guys were kind of how young they.
00:56:51
Speaker 4: How long they were like treated as just like, you know, the shiny new toys, the guys that are going to carry us the next 10 years, that type of deal. I think it was really hard for a guy like Jose Abreu to try to get those guys going because when you, when you become a little bit, if you get that little bit of entitlement and I've dealt with this in locker rooms of football and baseball and different stuff like that, you get a little bit of that entitlement, you know, you think your shit doesn't sink that type of deal. A guy like Jose Abreu trying to hype you up like that. you're just going to think he's a cringe old man. And that's annoying because Jose is amazing, and anyone would want to play with a guy like Jose Rayu. But, like, I feel like that's where you kind of see that, where that team just wasn't ready to fully embrace that, okay, now's actually the time for us to live up to that promise, you know? And there was a lot of controversy around that team with La Russa, too, and that didn't help. But, I mean, for 05, dude, it has to be AJ. AJ would 100% be that guy, where he just... and it was just by him being him. It wasn't by AJ walking up and, you know, doing a fricking big speech after a game or anything like that. It's just, he kept it. He kept the, he kept it sharp in the locker room. Like, I feel like you always had to be around your weight with a guy like AJ. Cause he would just destroy you. If he said something stupid and embarrassing in front of everybody. And some locker rooms really build on that. My goodness.
00:58:12
Speaker 2: He's a mood.
00:58:13
Speaker 5: The difference is it feels like this team's got, 26 of these guys, and it is cool to see. You see how much, God, it comes down to things we'll have to talk about in the offseason, obviously, but you got to keep a guy like Murakami around. You got to find a way to get it done. It can't be a situation where he walks after next season.
00:58:34
Speaker 4: Somebody needs to follow Murakami around in Houston and just make sure he.
00:58:42
Speaker 4: He doesn't have too much fun out there because he's just so long.
00:58:46
Speaker 3: He's so long for the ride right.
00:58:48
Speaker 2: Now, man.
00:58:48
Speaker 3: And I love it.
00:58:50
Speaker 5: So I'm, I'm glad to see that they can kind of have these sorts of celebrations and really, but at the same time, still have now two true off days between Thursday and Friday to get the duck reshuffled, get yourself back set, maybe sleep one night in your own bed before you head to Cleveland um and try and win one of those two like don't try and overdo it try and win one of those two games whatever it takes and if it's maybe it is burke game two or i don't know maybe try and give him a little bit of extended rest because that would be what thursday friday saturday No, he probably couldn't pitch until Sunday.
00:59:31
Speaker 1: No, because Sunday's an off day, right, Michael? So it would be full rest.
00:59:35
Speaker 5: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, he would say.
00:59:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you could get Burke in game two.
00:59:42
Speaker 5: So you're really trying hard for that first game, and then you really got to double down with your ace on the mound that second game.
00:59:49
Speaker 3: That'll be interesting.
00:59:51
Speaker 4: Well, with it being a longer series, too, like now it's a wild card round is out of the way.
00:59:56
Speaker 3: We got that. We got that done. Like, now this is stretch it out time.
01:00:01
Speaker 4: This is where, you know, Will, I never want to see Grant Taylor throw 50 pitches again to finish.
01:00:08
Speaker 3: Out a ball game that we won by three runs. But based on how they used Grant in that first game, he's going to be very.
01:00:16
Speaker 4: Involved in the bullpen decisions moving forward. And with that extra rest between games, like, this is the– it's mad bum time. The guys are stretching it out.
01:00:27
Speaker 2: It's gonna with him it's gonna be like how how the A's used Liam Hendricks against us in that 2020 playoff where he I think he pitched like 40 40 pitches one game and still came back to close the next game and just shut us down like that's what you want out of Grant Taylor in this series maybe hopefully you don't have to push him that far to your point I don't think they will either but he's gonna have to be a bullpen workhorse I think because he is your best arm he is the one that has to be out there in the highest leverage situations every single game. Yeah.
01:01:00
Speaker 5: The thing is, and that's, it's a hard line to straddle because you understand why he did it. Venable. You have to win that game. There's you, you cannot lose the ball game yesterday. Absolutely could not happen. And, and I think he has, I still want an approach with the same urgency. It doesn't mean grand Taylor has to throw 50 pitches again, but if the situation dictates it, yeah, you, There's no tomorrow in these scenarios. You have to win this game that is in front of you. And I think he did a great job both of these games approaching it that way. Even if it meant, yeah, Taylor having to throw 50 pitches. Yeah, I get it's not ideal, but it's at the same time recognizing we got to win this one.
01:01:43
Speaker 1: And that's your best shot to do it.
01:01:45
Speaker 5: And you just hope that every situation that comes across he can absolutely.
01:01:54
Speaker 1: Dictate it as such moving forward.
01:01:58
Speaker 4: Well, and if you walk into, I feel like if you walk into kind of your back against the wall type game, like kind of like you're describing, like absolutely need to win this, you know, whether it's we're down to like 3-2, like we're playing, we got to just keep knocking them out.
01:02:15
Speaker 3: I could see them messing around with the.
01:02:17
Speaker 4: Idea of, I mean, I think they would try with like a Higgins-Smith the next game after, but like using Grant Taylor as the opener. And now that you've seen what he can do in 50 pitches, kind of trying to see if he can just kind of will us to it and see how long it takes for us to be able to come. You have a guy like, like a Davis Martin coming behind him or however they want to do that. It's, it's going to be interesting to see, honestly, I've already seen a lot of different things compared to what I saw this season without will manage the bullpen compared to what he did in this series. So it's going to be interesting to see, how many different directions Will tries to kind.
01:02:52
Speaker 3: Of manipulate the bullpen the correct way to get us to wins or try to keep us in games if we do go down. That's a great quote from MyDraw.
01:03:02
Speaker 5: For those who might be listening afterwards, MyDraw thinking of the White Sox fans, quote, I mean, that was our first goal, bring baseball back to Chicago in October.
01:03:11
Speaker 1: The fact that we were able to do that is a dream come true. That's cool. That remains, like.
01:03:17
Speaker 5: I said, It's such an easy team to root for. They say the right things. They play the right way. They do the right things. And even when it doesn't work out, you're still rooting for these guys, not just this team.
01:03:33
Speaker 1: And I think that's the coolest part of it.
01:03:36
Speaker 5: Michael, before we get to you, I do want to call out the $ 10 Super Chat from SneakyPanda9225 on YouTube. Very much appreciated from a Dodgers fan. and written like a Dodgers fan as I read it. Karma came back to bite the cheaters in the absolute best way possible. As a Dodgers fan, this is a thanks to the White Sox for humiliating those rubbish binging bums.
01:03:59
Speaker 1: I'm now a White Sox fan.
01:04:01
Speaker 5: Spoken like a true Dodgers fan, we appreciate you very, very much.
01:04:06
Speaker 1: So thank you.
01:04:08
Speaker 4: Joe Kelly is having a fantastic night tonight.
01:04:11
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
01:04:13
Speaker 3: Without a shadow of a doubt. I mean... For the record, reading that quote, I just thought about how much.
01:04:20
Speaker 4: More Chase Midroth's trade value is rising by the second, the better he plays in the playoffs.
01:04:28
Speaker 2: I think that's my opening.
01:04:29
Speaker 3: Sorry, Mike.
01:04:31
Speaker 2: I think that's my opening. I'll take this opportunity to formally apologize to Chase Midroth for trying to trade him before the season even started. I had at least two tweets that I can remember suggesting that he could be a sneaky trade candidate and that he had a lot of pressure on him this season, which I still think was kind of true because it's not like he set the world on fire in his rookie year, which, I mean, in all fairness, most rookies don't. But man, what a statement he's put out this season, especially that that three run homer today was massive. But in general, he has been one of the more valuable players on this team. on a day-to-day basis. And I was trying to replace him back in April with guys like Caleb Bonamer and Rock Cholowski as, as the prospect guy at Sox on 35th. Chase Mydroth, I am very sorry for ever doubting you. You are an incredible person. Sign a lifetime contract, please. I do not want you to ever leave the city of Chicago.
01:05:32
Speaker 4: I'll be sure to bring that up to Brett the next time we have our Chase Mydroth meeting of the mind.
01:05:37
Speaker 2: Go ahead. I have it coming. I'll fully admit it.
01:05:41
Speaker 3: We'll review your apology attempt.
01:05:44
Speaker 2: I'll put it in a strongly worded letter as well, officially, making it more official that I apologize to him.
01:05:50
Speaker 3: How about that?
01:05:51
Speaker 1: Honestly, here's the thing. I've had worse takes.
01:05:55
Speaker 5: That wouldn't have even fazed me. That would have been on a Rolodex of mine. I know we're coming towards the end here. Folks, if you have other thoughts, please drop them in the chat. Joe has told me we have a heartwarming video that I believe has loaded, if we would like to pull it up.
01:06:09
Speaker 2: Uh-oh.
01:06:25
Speaker 4: Isn't that just such a great backdrop for a frame picture of your whole team?
01:06:32
Speaker 1: Like, again, we've talked about it before, just.
01:06:40
Speaker 5: I was all about, I don't want to play Houston. I don't want to play Houston. I want to go to that ballpark. Just bad things have happened there. To kind of get that out of the way and kind of reassociate at least the recent memory of Houston with much better memories.
01:06:56
Speaker 1: Obviously, those are a little.
01:06:57
Speaker 5: Bit older than I was in 2005. You might feel differently about Houston. But for me, it's a lot of bad games, bad baseball, crushed hopes and dreams. For them to kind of change that up a little bit this series. It feels awesome, and truly, we talked about it yesterday, and it's kind of a lot of my final thoughts on what we saw this series.
01:07:20
Speaker 1: It is not the same Houston Astros, and that's fine.
01:07:23
Speaker 5: That is a team that is in clear disarray between the main story for them today being fans booing and what the players had to say about it. They fired their GM midseason. Espada's probably on his way out. That's a team in disarray. And for the White Sox, it's not your same old White Sox. That's the biggest thing that's come out of it. This is not that 2021 version. This is not that 2020 version. It's probably not the final product, right? Hopefully it's not the final product. There are a lot of holes still here. But this is not the same team that we've become accustomed to in even some of these playoff series. The weaknesses are clear, but they're not so clear ridiculously strong that you feel like you have no shot, like genuinely feel like there is a shot for them moving forward as they get through this. Like, let's just say they find a way to be Cleveland. You would go against probably the Rays who you also beat in the season series. Again, it's the Rays, the very good baseball team, but that's not like, oh, there's going to get dog walked.
01:08:32
Speaker 1: Like it is cool.
01:08:35
Speaker 5: Like I said, it, if I could sum it up in one phrase is this is not your same old white socks.
01:08:42
Speaker 3: Yeah.
01:08:43
Speaker 2: And I texted Duke before, before we even knew that we were playing Houston, that I I'd rather play Texas because I, because of what we've gone through playing Houston in the past, I didn't want to see them in the playoffs. And that's even going based off, like, I agree with you. They're in not the same old Houston Astros, but like, even so it felt like they kind of had our number during the regular season. So like hand up, I, I was worried about this series coming into it, but it is so nice to get over that hump, like you said, and finally prove that we can beat that team again. they're not the same team that we played back in 2021 or even years after that. Like they are starting to look like a shell of themselves, but I still didn't love coming in and having to play them in a three game series at Houston. So hand up, I was a little bit concerned and I am just so impressed with how this team handled the series.
01:09:41
Speaker 5: Yeah.
01:09:42
Speaker 4: I mean, with Houston, it just always felt, it felt personal and, I mean, besides the obvious, you know, the 2021 series and everything like that, I mean, we.
01:09:52
Speaker 3: Always talk about the result.
01:09:55
Speaker 4: Me, like, I've brought this up on this podcast multiple times. I love just a good comeback story as far as, like, Major League Baseball, especially when it comes to pitchers.
01:10:06
Speaker 3: That's why, like, I remember when we got Fetty, I was really big on him.
01:10:11
Speaker 4: Carlos Rodon's one of my favorite ones, like, ever, because I watched like I was watching that team really diligently when we brought Rodan in. Cause I really liked his stuff in the first place. I thought he was going to be like a star from the jump. And I watched this guy go from, you know, really promising prospect, that type of stuff. I'm not, I'm not going to go through the whole car for it on story, but I got to see him rise from basically at one point looking like a DFA candidate who we had tossed in the bullpen had one appearance and it was catastrophic going in basically into the off season.
01:10:46
Speaker 3: So it's like, Carlos Rodon's not going to be here next year. Thanks for nothing, dude. Hopefully you catch on with the AAA team.
01:10:54
Speaker 4: And then he comes back and has the year he has in 2021. That was the biggest part of the rollercoaster ride that I loved was watching that. And the fact that his last pitch with the Chicago White Sox was the one that lost that game against Houston, that stung really hard going into that offseason.
01:11:16
Speaker 3: Then.
01:11:17
Speaker 4: we play Houston basically out of the jump the next year. And after an entire off season of being like, you know, ending sucked, we're going to come back better. All our, you know, all our guys are gonna be healthy, that type of deal. Like confidence is high. Like we were all convinced, like we're going to, we're going to go give revenge at Houston. And for whatever reason, like I try not to get too high or low when it comes to the starts of baseball seasons, but losing the Houston that early in a 2022 was such an unbelievable gut punch.
01:11:46
Speaker 3: That, I hate them.
01:11:50
Speaker 4: Not so much now because they're going to be a sad story because we just knocked them into a rebuild, which is just poetry.
01:11:58
Speaker 3: By the way.
01:12:01
Speaker 4: That's really where a lot of my confidence came from the last couple of years, like throughout the last years of just them destroying us. Every time Houston came into town, I'm like, yo, dude, we're going to whoop them. Those trash can beating cheaters, all that type of stuff. That's kind of what I tried to bring into this series, too, was just I was scared as all hell playing Houston. So Michael, I don't want to take credit for that. Basically the way I was trying to sell it to myself, it's like, all right, we either face Jordan or see like one, one way or the other, like we're going to have to just kind of prepare for one guy to potentially beat us. So when it did pull Houston, like it was basically just blind hatred and sorry, Michael, I got to see the bears do that to the Packers after years of living in Wisconsin and once I started going to Lambeau just getting completely lambasted by the fan base and the bears kind of constantly breaking my heart. So that was kind of like my thought coming into this series was like, obviously it's not the history, but it is like a team that has just had our number. We've been miserable thinking about Houston. We hate watching them in the playoffs every year while we are losing a hundred games. And it just like, Being able to be a fan of two of your favorite teams that kind of slayed the theoretical dragon, there's nothing better than that. And I think the White Sox are going to be able to build off that, and that's why I think it's a whole new ballgame right now. Basically, you can look at it as we did actually win the division because now we're playing in that round that.
01:13:39
Speaker 3: Was supposed to be ours. but we earned it the hard way. I don't know, man.
01:13:45
Speaker 4: It's hard to put into words what this series and what this night specifically means to me personally. It means to White Sox fans everywhere. I haven't had this hope in a while. It came out of the blue, and I can't wait to see how far it goes.
01:14:03
Speaker 3: I don't know.
01:14:04
Speaker 1: It's all heartwarming.
01:14:05
Speaker 3: I agree with you.
01:14:06
Speaker 1: That's all heartwarming and sentimental. The dragon I'm ready to slay. Fuck that. It's about Cleveland.
01:14:11
Speaker 5: I had a momentary lapse in judgment this year. It's always Cleveland. The answer is always Cleveland. Do not stray. The answer is always Cleveland. That is the dragon to slay. That's the one I want to get off. The win here was awesome, right? But I think because it's not the same old Astros, but it's the same old Guardians.
01:14:32
Speaker 1: It's the same team.
01:14:34
Speaker 5: You can recycle them all you want. It's the same players who do the same things. You can recycle those lineups however you want.
01:14:42
Speaker 1: It's that team.
01:14:43
Speaker 5: That's the dragon I'm worried about. We'll have a whole preview of that, obviously, coming up. I want to read a few more comments from the chat. I know Joe has pulled some comments from Jerry Reinsdorf, courtesy of Jesse Rogers, that we want to play here.
01:14:57
Speaker 1: That's about a minute long, and then I say we're getting to the end here.
01:15:01
Speaker 2: So.
01:15:02
Speaker 5: I do want to shout out the Astros fan in our chat who was kind enough to jump in and say congrats, and y'all have something special here. Rygarzat, I'm butchering that, but he knows who he is. I'm sure there's only one Astros fan who will listen to this, so appreciate you and a lot of respect for jumping in with that comment. Carson, after we played the Vassal video, said, need the nearest brick wall, obviously, to run through. Neha 261. Let's go White Sox from the UK. Ed Tierney, ESPN actually recognizing the White Sox exist might be a side win for today.
01:15:38
Speaker 1: I would agree.
01:15:40
Speaker 5: And finally, you're going to love the end of this one. Duke Antonacci Truther 27. The league's been put on notice. We're still here.
01:15:48
Speaker 3: Let's say it so they can hear us all the way in Cleveland.
01:15:51
Speaker 2: We're still here.
01:15:53
Speaker 1: We're still here.
01:15:55
Speaker 3: We're still here. My God, man.
01:15:58
Speaker 1: What a vibe.
01:16:00
Speaker 4: What a vibe that this team has been all year, and they still find ways to just keep outdoing themselves.
01:16:08
Speaker 5: So, all righty, let's play that video, and we'll run you out of here shortly after that.
01:16:15
Speaker 3: The journey, you know. It's absolutely amazing. First of all, it's amazing to lose 121 games. That was depressing. That was depressing. But then you could see the progress started.
01:16:28
Speaker 1: The first thing I realized with Chris was the organization he was putting in place.
01:16:33
Speaker 2: You know, when you build a building.
01:16:34
Speaker 3: The foundation comes first.
01:16:36
Speaker 4: And he went about putting in place a terrific foundation in the scouting and the minor league development.
01:16:43
Speaker 3: And then that then started to produce the players. And then, of course, there was the crochet trade. I mean, that.
01:16:50
Speaker 3: Provided a third of the players on it in the starting lineups. So it was a process. I didn't think it would come to fruition this fast. I really didn't.
01:16:59
Speaker 4: I really thought 2027 was the year that we would contend.
01:17:03
Speaker 1: But nobody told the players that they couldn't do it. You know what? I always say this.
01:17:11
Speaker 5: Everyone has their opinions on Jerry, right? But when he says certain things like it was truly depressing about the 120... I genuinely believe it when he says it. And I know everyone has different opinions on that, and no one's going to agree with me on that. But we all have our qualms about maybe how he chooses to run his team, but I don't doubt that he loves all of this and loves being able to see this.
01:17:36
Speaker 1: I will never doubt that as a White Sox fan.
01:17:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't think that should be a doubt to anybody, how big of a fan he is. Honestly, that's one of the biggest things that typically works against him whenever he decides to get a little involved. But he's really kept his hands clean of a lot of different things. I'd say really probably the last 10 years, he's kind of brought it back a little bit. La Russa was his last stand, I guess, would probably be the best way to put it.
01:18:07
Speaker 1: I agree with that.
01:18:09
Speaker 3: How bad of a night do you think Kenny Williams is having right now?
01:18:14
Speaker 1: Poor Kenny.
01:18:15
Speaker 5: I mean... Here's the thing, though. There's still the footprints from the old regime kind of still holding over here. But to Jerry's point, and to I think points we've made throughout the year, Chris Getz, who we all lambasted when they first decided to call his number to be the next GM. It certainly happened faster than any of us thought, and It's 100% credit to him and the players he brought in and the vibe that he and... the man sitting next to him created something to be said about, you know, you find the right former players to be in charge of things. It doesn't mean just because you're a former player, you know what the hell you're talking about. You find the right former players. And I, and I think these two might be two of them. Um, you might have something special when you talk about what can be created in a clubhouse.
01:19:14
Speaker 2: Chris Scott's had a clear vision when building this team, when tearing it to the studs before 2024 and building it back up. And I think we should have maybe given him a little more credit. He was able to bring in a lot of competent people, despite the organization being a complete dumpster fire at that time. I think that should have been a telltale sign back a couple of years ago that Whatever he was cooking, Ulf had a lot of people believing in it and that it was something worth monitoring. So props to Getz. He's, like I said, completely rebuilt this organization from the ground up.
01:19:50
Speaker 3: You're right.
01:19:51
Speaker 2: There's still some lingering footprints from the old regime. I mean, that's going to happen when... I mean, Getz was part of the old regime, so it's never going to fully go away. But what he's done in such a short time, going from... the worst team in modern era to winning a playoff series. You can do nothing but give him his props.
01:20:14
Speaker 4: You know, I think one of the things, I mean, I don't remember being like insanely hasty about the Chris got tired, probably because I was just elated that Kenny Williams got fired, which Kenny, you said some nasty things about Frank Thomas a long time ago. And I'm sorry, I'll never, never forgive you for that. But when it comes to Getz, I mean, when you think about it, even just like with him as a player, he came in to like when the party was kind of over White Sox after the 05 era.
01:20:44
Speaker 3: You know, obviously you had.
01:20:46
Speaker 4: Like your Connecticut Girls of the World and everything like that. There was still like the heartbeat of it. Burley was still around, AJ Pruszynski. Like there were still fingerprints all over from that 05 team. I would like to assume that kind of being able to take a step back and looking at it, that he probably got vouched vouched for by a lot of his former teammates with the white socks who aren't necessarily like in the org type deal.
01:21:10
Speaker 3: Um, and obviously, obviously, you know, it's not like we had like.
01:21:15
Speaker 4: AJ going nuclear when they hired Chris gets or anything like that, or really any former white socks players doing it. So I, obviously there was something, there was something there with him. And, um, Well, he's someone who never panned out as a prospect. Like, when he came back originally just to be part of the organization, it did feel relevant because it would take a pretty good vouch to be able to bring a guy like that back into an organization.
01:21:41
Speaker 3: And, you know, he's a guy who.
01:21:44
Speaker 4: Knows what it's like on the south side of Chicago, you know, to be as a player. And, you know, he didn't take the route that a lot of the former players who end up in the organization take it. you know, kind of chasing Jerry around and being his best friend and stuff like that.
01:21:59
Speaker 3: I'll stop to Kenny Williams this break. I promise.
01:22:02
Speaker 4: It's just, he actually came up in a conversation earlier today with one of my buddies, but yeah, man, Chris gets, he never wavered. Didn't let the noise on the outside bug him. And he just, he, he just always seemed honed in.
01:22:16
Speaker 3: I liked that. He wasn't like anytime he.
01:22:18
Speaker 4: Did an interview, it was a situation where he wasn't trying to like put himself over as, you know, great or, You know, the one thing Rick Hahn did that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way was once he kind of started doing the rebuild.
01:22:31
Speaker 3: And telling everybody his vision and stuff like that.
01:22:34
Speaker 4: Once the players started coming in, he started really kind of feeling himself about how much of a baseball genius he was in a sense.
01:22:43
Speaker 3: And I don't think I will ever get that out of a guy like Chris Goetz.
01:22:47
Speaker 4: He stays true to what he wants to do.
01:22:49
Speaker 3: He doesn't change course.
01:22:51
Speaker 4: And I think he brought a team together that he didn't even expect to play this well, but probably had a inkling that he wants to get a good look at these guys and we're willing to use major league time to be able to do it. And, and even that being something that we've called for in the bad seasons to be able to bring guys up, like, you know, like how we brought up my drafts knowing full well, it was going to be a really bad baseball team. That's still big vouch of confidence in guys, like how fast they brought up a guy like Sam Antonacci, you know, where, He was on nobody's radar to get called up that quick. He was seen as a guy that was killed in the minors, but wasn't somebody who was going to be rushed up to the majors.
01:23:32
Speaker 3: They were going to see how he would develop. And Gepps obviously.
01:23:35
Speaker 4: Saw something in him from the jump. And that takes an eye for talent, takes an eye for knowing a personality, and takes an eye to build a clubhouse of meshing personalities that would work well together.
01:23:46
Speaker 3: And I think he's done a really good job at that.
01:23:49
Speaker 5: How you feel?
01:23:51
Speaker 3: So amazing.
01:23:53
Speaker 1: I like sample fight.
01:23:55
Speaker 3: I like celebration.
01:24:04
Speaker 5: I mean, props to Jerry, props to Chris, props to Will, but I think that's the perfect place to end this episode.
01:24:11
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
01:24:13
Speaker 4: Tied up in a nice little bow, man. I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to enjoy this for a day, and then it's right back.
01:24:21
Speaker 3: On to Cleveland.
01:24:24
Speaker 4: If you're a Chicago fan of any kind, getting up for this one, hating on Cleveland is not going to be very hard to do. So let's go out in full force. Let's go beat the team that stole the division from us. You know, let's roll, man. If the Sox are.
01:24:42
Speaker 3: Alive, we ride. We'll be back.
01:24:45
Speaker 4: Ladies and gentlemen, that's all we have. for the wild card round of the Sox on 35th podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere else you hear podcasts. Be sure to hit the notification bell. Having a day off, you guys might get a little bit lost on time. You guys might be celebrating a little bit too long tonight. You might forget what day it is, or you might not wake up for a day.
01:25:08
Speaker 3: I don't know, man.
01:25:09
Speaker 4: I don't know how hard people are going to be willing to party right now. I mean, it is Wednesday, but I mean, Thirsty Thursday is quickly around the corner and you probably sneak her in um be sure to hit the hype button appreciate all the chats it's not your truth or your legend um be sure to check out the website saxon35th. com um we are going to get nick back i'm sorry nick you didn't get to make the wild card round but brother we are we are rocking and rolling and we cannot wait for you to get back um basically to keep me me and laz in line we've been just kind of running running the show like crazy so um Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The content's only going to get better the farther we get. It's that simple.
01:25:50
Speaker 3: I mean, I can't wait. I just can't wait to see what social media brings to another man. I'm psyched.
01:25:57
Speaker 4: We're still working, baby. Be sure to follow us at Sox on the 35th. Stay up to date with your Chicago White Sox in the 2026 postseason. This has been Duke Coughlin, joined by Jordan Lazowski, Michael Suero, Go Sox.
01:26:16
Speaker 1: Chat, thank you. Sox, thank you. Go Sox.
01:26:21
Speaker 2: Go Sox.
01:26:23
Speaker 1: How do you feel?
01:26:24
Speaker 3: Oh, my God. So amazing.
01:26:26
Speaker 2: I like sample pie.
01:26:29
Speaker 3: I like celebration.