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Speaker 1: From your favorite source for Chicago White Sox talk, delivering news, interviews, analysis and more. This is The Socks Machine Podcast with your hosts Jim Margolis and Josh Nelson.
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Speaker 2: Thanks Rob, and welcome to a new episode of The Socks Machine Podcast. I'm your host Josh Nelson, and it's a midweek show as this episode is released on Thursday, June sixteenth, twenty twenty two. After a terrible homestand the Chicago White Sox needed to stack wins and quickly before this season collapses on them. A trip to Detroit could be promising, but with the amount of injuries that continue to stack up for the White Sox and the bullpen being gassed on paper, it wasn't going to be an easy series for the White Sox offense would have to pull through.
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Speaker 3: Well.
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Speaker 2: The good news the offense did pull through in a big way, scoring a total of twenty seven runs. Thirteen of those came in the series finale as they beat Detroit thirteen to nothing and they got a much needed sweep and it puts the White Sox one game below five hundred at thirty and thirty one. But before you get too happy, the White Sox now visit the Houston Astros, a place they haven't won at since May of twenty nineteen. We got a lot to discuss, so let's get started. Joining me is the managing editor of socks Machine dot Com. It's Jim Margolis, and Hello Jim. This series in Detroit was much needed for the White Sox, sure.
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Speaker 3: Was, and given the way it started with Lance Lynn getting beat up a little bit over the middle of the plate, it very well could have been a continuation of the previous series. And even you know, even if they won two of three, it could have well been you know, kind of rocky and not very confidence boosting. But instead, you know, the the White Sox endured Lynn's roughest patch, like you as he was knocking the rust off with the first two innings, and everything smoothed out from there. Detroit is bad, Detroit's having problems, but the White Sox gave them problems, like they beat them. Like over the course of the three games, they just distanced themselves with their talent, you know, over basically it seemed like every successive inning. So that was nice to see.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, Detroit had three position players pitch in the final game of the series. How would you done that headline, because usually when a position player pitches and a blowout the White Sox lose, we always reference like Leary Garcia pitched or Josh Harris had pitched. What would that headline been if the White Sox or if you were covered from a Tiger's perspective, three position players pitching.
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Speaker 3: It would have been I would have named all three just to really, you know, let it sink in, because I had to do that with h Was it Larry and Alexi when they pitched in the same game?
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Speaker 2: Okay, yeah that was a while ago.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so I but I named them both. So yeah, just itemizing.
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Speaker 2: I'm a bit disappointed in the way that Cody Clemmens through, Like you're the son of Roger Clemens, I would think you would be trying at least instead of these lobs. That's what I'm seeing from position players across Major League Baseball. They're just throwing these like forty to fifty mile power lobs to the plate, hope being that no one gets any launch angle on these particular pitches or they beat him into the ground. But I was I was a bit disappointed. I thought he would actually, you know, try throwing the baseball to home plate.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I imagine it's kind of like he went as far away from as possible because if he tried his best and still, like you know, it was throwing topping out eighty five or something like that, he said like, oh, that's you call yourself Rockets kid. He's like, h But when he's throwing forty, he's like, oh, I wasn't trying. I was just goofing around. I can do better, but I didn't want to.
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Speaker 2: It is odd, though, because this is Major League Baseball. Like I get it if it's double A or a triple A and it's like, let's just get this game over. But maybe Major League Baseball needs a mercy rule to prevent this type of situation. I know this is gonna be the talk of the town in Detroit about what happened on Wednesday afternoon that three position players had to pitch, and all the Detroit Tigers beat reporters made it known that the Tigers had a twenty five minute players only meeting after the game and the kind of barred media, so the media had to sit outside the locker room, and we were getting this notification from the Tigers beat regarding as far as his meeting. So things are not great in Detroit, as Jim mentioned, and the White Sox have compounded their problems. The Detroit Tigers offensively are having one of the worst first halfs Age League Baseball history, the worst since integration. So that's definitely the worst in our lifetime, Jim, that we are seeing from this Tigers offense. So not as well in Detroit right now. But for the White Sox, they took advantage of it, which is great to see because they have not been taking advantage of these opportunities. And someone that did take advantage of the opportunity, especially Wednesday afternoon is Yo and Makata. Before Wednesday's game, Jim I went on Twitter because his season's been bugging me, like, I get it, you are hurt and oblique injuries. We talked about it when he suffered the oblique injury. This is something that everyone's going to have to pay close attention to because oblique injuries can be nagging, and we for example Ryan Brawn with Milwaukee Brewers, it would be reoccurring for him ever since, like from twenty fourteen when he first suffered it, all the way until the season he retired in twenty twenty and Makata was hitting terribly and looking at baseball. So my hypothesis was very similar to twenty twenty one, where when we recapped his season we pointed out that Yon mccatta is not driving the fastball, not like he did in twenty nineteen or twenty twenty. Huge drop off from Eoon mccatta in the success against high velocity pitches greater than ninety four miles per hour. So I look at the data on Tuesday night. Well, Lah, it is terrible. It is eye opening, terrible for you On maccatta. He's having a terrible time against pitches ninety four miles per hour or greater. And I've had some back and forth with Penoles because his hypothesis was that Mikata is still hurt and he is playing hurt. And when I zoomed down to that data set, a data set to look at pitches ninety miles per hour or greater, so below average fastballs to the best fastballs of Major League Baseball, the data didn't get better for yo On maccata. I mean, his whiff ray against pitches greater than ninety miles per hour before Wednesday's game was at twenty six point six percent. That's a seven point seven percent increase from last season. So he's whiffing more. He's not making a lot of contact on these pitches, and he's certainly not driving them. Well, that changed on Wednesday because mccatta had a three run homer off a ninety three mile power fastball. Then he had a double off a ninety five mile power fastball, and he finished the game collecting five hits with five RBIs in that blowout victory. Is this game a sign that mkatta might be figuring things out and a possible season turnaround is in the cards for him.
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Speaker 3: I'm hesitant to say yes, just because it seems like his condition fluctuates so much from series the series basically, like maybe even game to game basically when it comes to Mancata. Yeah, I once in a while glance at the statcast date and just kind of look at the the Baseball Samont page just to get an idea of, you know, around me the way we talk about Yasmini Grondal, and it's like, if he's not catching up to velocity, that's one thing, but if he's not hitting anything fast slow breaking, uh straight off speed, just he's not connecting anything that either strikes me as like, uh, you know, something physically wrong or just way off, like just like a crisis of confidence. And given that we have like a you know, a couple of injuries appoint to the oblique to start the season and the quadricep injury that kind of came up, but wasn't enough to you know, knock them, you know, back to the injured list for good. To me, I've more or less you know, given up on the advanced data, or at least, you know, not given up necessarily. But just like I don't think it's necessary to look at it. To me, I'm more using the eye test, and just like is he looking lively? Is is there a pulse on the field in the batter's box, Like is he just barely fouling back pitches? Is he you know, looking like he's laboring getting the bat through the zone. And in the case of the homer on Wednesday, where he got the bat around of ninety three on the inner half, like it wasn't a great pitch, but it was a pitch that's you know, in his worst conditions, would have just jammed him or you know, you best case scenario is like mustling a single over the head of the shortstop the opposite way. You know, that's a sign where any sign is good. And then you know, taking the outside corner fastball down the line, that was nice to see, like you know, the barrel was where it was supposed to be, so you know, and then Benetti and Stone mentioned, you know, just that he looked happier, like you're smiling, you know, and it's you know, I'm not inclined to draw too big of a conclusion because the White Sox dugout seemed very loose during that game with hosea bray you building his own uh lean to in the dugout. You know, everybody looked very comfortable, So I'm not going to say, you know, maybe it's a bit of a rising tide thing, but he looked good. It's just I'm I'm I want to see that for like a solid of just turning around okay fastballs and not getting beat by everything, and then then I think I'll be more inclined to say, like, yeah, he's turning a corner kind of like with the Azimoni grondle, like he was before he pulled a flame with the hamstring issue. Now it's a back spasm thing, you know. You look like the barrel was where it had to be. It wasn't really ripping the ball. Yet he wasn't getting left. He wasn't like you hammering one hundred and ten mile pro hour liners in the seats, but he was more on time, And I think that's a good place to start, even if he's not quite summoning the height of his powers just yet.
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Speaker 2: I understand where you're coming from with the eye test because I'm the same way, but I also need that confirmation bias from the advanced data of are my eyes deceiving me? Or does you can Yomacatta not hit a fastball? Like That's why I went to Baseball Savant because it's just been it's just been bugging me, like even in the beginning of the series, where Mencatta is just getting beat by high fast and he's following them off but he's not putting them in play. And even in Wednesday's game, Detroit Tigers through thirteen pitches to Makata, eleven of them were fastballs before the position players decided to throw whatever that they were throwing. So I think the book around Major League baseball is pretty clear that they are challenging Makata with velocity because a lot of teams don't think he can hit velocity.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, probably just not overthinking it, just being like just put the pitch, calm down and just one on one.
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Speaker 2: And I don't blame him based on the data and again the eye test, just watching film. You know, Luis Robert doesn't have great fastball numbers, But that I can explain because he's hunting sliders and he's hyper aggressive early in the count. He's not putting himself in a position to take advantage of fastball counts. That is pretty easy to explain. Mikata has not been easy to explain. You mentioned Grondal. Grondal's not been easy to explain.
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Speaker 3: I just have sheets is another one. Like, you know it comes to hitters like that. Yeah, the question I ask is like what can they hit like just you know, you know, what should they crush like a bray You early in the season too, when his bat looked like whatever reason, he just couldn't get the bat through the zone on time, Like it was the same thing like rolling sliders, floating change ups, fastballs, like he was putting everything on the right side. Usually out of play when he was you know, getting contact. So you know, that's kind of the question I start with. And if I can't, like, I would say your mean Mercedes is a good example last year of he could hit change ups, he could off speed, he could hit curveballs and sliders. But yeah, trying to figure out like that took a longer time for the eye test to detect because you know, he'd occasionally make contact with a good pitch and show an approach. I kind of got to that because I realized, like, man, he's using his two strike approach a lot like I like that he had a two strike swing with shortened up, but he wasn't quite doing He's doing that too much, like he's falling O to one to an awful amount. And that's when I had to go to the numbers and say, like, why is you know, why is he down O two all the time? And then that's when it turned up that just he couldn't turn around a fastball, you know.
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Speaker 2: Speaking to Jose Bray, Bray, you had a huge series against Detroit eight for thirteen. He had two homers. We wanted, we need, we needed to see home run power from Jose brayw and he certainly provided two homers in the first game with four RBIs. He had two doubles off of the position players to pat his numbers A I don't blame him. If you're gonna throw a position could have been triples.
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Speaker 3: But that's I think was my favorite part about a bray who's I guess series And besides I would say, okay, first part was the homer to center field. That was really impressive, especially at the wind blowing in to reach the second level of shrubbery and the batter's eye. Second favorite thing was, you know those doubles opposition players like he was. You know, he could have gunn for triples standing up and didn't because why bother herd yourself. But when Yon Mancatta came up and dropped singles and he was busting, he wanted to get Moncatta's RBIs And I like seeing that because I think that was kind of the effort of just you know. And then Mancatta got the group hugging the dugout after his homer because I think it was his first in twenty three games, and just you know, the I think everybody's trying to lift him up, so whether it's you know, over celebrating a homer or whether it's you know, making sure that you don't leave an RBI in the field out of sportsmanship that nobody would really notice, you know. I like seeing that.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, So when we had Monday's podcast and we we were hoping that we were clamoring for Jose bray You to hit for more power because a bray You slash line for the season. Before the Detroit series, Jim was a two fifty one batting average, a three fifty one on base percentage. That's really good, but he was only slugging four oh eight. That's not Jose bray You. Well, after the Detroit series, his season slash light is now to seventy two batted average, a three seventy two on base percentage, and he's slugging four fifty five. He almost increases leuggi percentage by fifty points in three games. So Jose Brew's numbers, his season numbers, are are right back on track. So thank you Detroit. As a matter of fact, that is a yeah, that's his season high in slugging percentage. Oh no, I take that back. His season ice lugging percentage. Last time he was this high was in a game four of the season where his luggie was at five hundred. Since it has not been this high since then. So very good series for Jose braw who continues to rake someone else that continues to rake. And maybe this is the resurgence we've been waiting for. And it's hype a hot streak that we were hopeful Jim we would see after the White Sox required him in a trade for Craig Kimberl And that's Aj Pollock. So AJ Pollock in his last seven games is fifteen for thirty five, no home runs in his last seven games, but that's a four to twenty nine batting amber with a four to seventy four on base percentage and he's slugging five to fourteen. In his last fifteen games. AJ Pollock is twenty for fifty eight and that is a three forty five batting average with a three eighty seven on base percentage and slugging four to sixty six. Danny Mendick is doing the best that he can right now to fill in the void defensively for Tim Anderson and provide a you know, better production bat in the bottom of the lineup. But it's been AJ Pollock who's been hitting leadoff recently for the White Sox, and I think he's trying to do his best impression of constantly being on bass, trying to fill in that void for Tim Anderson, Jim and I'm wondering, is this three surgeons and the type of play we've been expecting to see from AJ Pollock.
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Speaker 3: I think it is, you know, and he almost hit Homer. He hit the yellow stripe from the left field walls, much to your chagrin as you try to get that WRC plus to one a weight so he can win a bet. Andy Fliff, Yeah, we should.
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Speaker 2: I should explain that real quick. So back in May, when Pollock was really struggling, I made another steak bet so for our audience members listening to this. So on June thirtieth, if Aj Pollock season Wait it runs, creative plus is at one oh eight b flow, owes me another steak Dinner. I won the last Steak Dinner bet bet when the MLB lockout was going to end, and I crushed that. Thank you, Rob Manfred. But if AJ Pollock falls short of the one eight weighted Rud's creative Plus by June thirtieth. I owe him a steak dinner. So let's go AJM. Yes, let's go. Come on team at like sixty four. He was at like sixty four a couple of weeks ago. He's already at ninety five.
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Speaker 3: The the contact is good, like you know, he's not going to be somebody I think, who you know, he can hit homers, but it's not really his game. I think it's like a well rounded offense approach. Can he can hit the ball over the fence but doesn't sell out for it makes a lot of contact, gets on base. Is just a you know, he's not quite like you know, I would say on one of the spectrums, like a Luis Ariahs who you know, just you never like seeing up because he you know, never strikes out. You have to get him out by putting the ball in play by and large, and he's getting better and better at finding gaps and holes in the defense. And then on the other hand, you have like somebody like I guess Joey Gallo would be the opposite, where like he walks and doesn't hit anything in play and you just have to hope that you know, he more or less pops up or gets himself out otherwise strikes out. But I mean pollock single season high in Homer's is twenty one, partially because he's been hurt, but also just you know, even when he's you know, been healthier, he topped out twenty in Arizona, so he doesn't really you know, I don't think he's launch angle optimized. And maybe that's a poor way of putting it, because his launch angle's probably fine served him well. I think if he were healthy, everybody you know, who he's played for would have liked him plenty. You know, you would have find him, found him hard to move. But just because he's been unavailable, that's why the White Sox have him.
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Speaker 2: So.
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Speaker 3: Fortunately he got past the initial injury that the hamstring tweak, he probably could have used a rehab stint. I think that probably, you know, watching Moncatta play through an injury, and watching grondaal labor through his post knee surgery recovery, now watching you know, Pollock, I think they've mishandled some injuries early or just sunk too many weeks in guys who weren't quite ready yet or weren't quite on time. And hopefully it doesn't hurt him but I think Pollock looks like the guy they thought they were getting now because I mean, you know, he beat up on the Tigers. But he also, as you mentioned, had a good series beforehand.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, he had a good series against Dodgers. He had a good series against the Tigers and also the Rangers as well. So Aj Pollock, he is hitting the ball. You know, there's been some good question in regards to the White Sox lineup and where would you want Aj Pollock to hit when Tim Anderson returns. Do you have any thoughts about that, Jim.
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Speaker 3: I think you know, when it comes to right handed pitching, I don't necessarily mind him betting second. Like just if you know Robert's struggling and you know, a bray, you and Vaughan are threats. But if you want, you know, some action on the base paths and somebody who can maybe let Anderson run a little, he's probably your best bet.
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Speaker 2: I like that idea. Just drop everyone down, or maybe drop Robert to fifth and have a bray you still back clean up and Vaughn's third.
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Speaker 3: I I like that.
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Speaker 2: I mean, now the White Sox have options, right, It's a lot easier to make a lineup when people are hitting than before. When when it's like, well, yeah, two guys that are above average right now, so let's make it light up a nine. And yeah, it looks a lot better recently. So hopefully the White Sox offense continues it's hot streak against the Houston Astros. We'll talk about that series in a moment, but I believe this streak is now now at seven games in a row. The White Sox have scored five or more runs about damn time, and they have greatly helped their run differential with that thirteen and nothing victory and of course their big series against the Detroit Tigers. On the pitching front, Davis Martin, he understood the assignment Jim on Wednesday, So Vince Velasquez leaves in the third inning and then Davis Martin picks up and in fifty eight pitches, he threw forty four strikes and he got through five at a third innings. Now that is like a lesson Dylan sees can learn from Davis Martin to go deeper in the game. Because Davis Martin only allowed three hits, no runs, didn't walk anybody, and he struck out three. So is the dart suddenly the missing swing man or starting pitcher number seven that we have been talking about, the muchting a depth for the White Sox I've been searching for.
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Speaker 3: I think he's been that guy so far. You know, he showed what he needed to show so far. I think it's interesting to me that they've used him as the bulk guy because watching his first two starts, like his problem was the first couple of innings, like it took him a while to find a groove and you find his pitch mix, and you know it was you know, when they when he backed up Lopez first, then he backed up Alaskas in this one. I thought, oh, that's kind of interesting. They were like almost trying to It almost seemed like psychological to me, like saying, uh, let's pretend like you're starting in the third inning. You know, just it's the first two innings don't exist. You've already gotten past him, and now you're in a third and you're you're fine. And that's kind of how he's pitched in this bulk roll. The one thing I will say in this outing is that the Tigers, did you know they hit him hard? I'm looking at his data right now. One two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight hard hit balls off him. So that's a fair amount. But a lot of them were on the ground, you know, and and the White Sox were positioned well and they defended well. You know, they made all the plays. But you know, when you have a lead that's three nothing and then five nothing, seven nothing, like, it was just kind of grown by two. Ever inning his job is just to make the Tigers get him in trouble, make any opponent get him in trouble, and they couldn't. So he had that, ye know, he had that down. And I think, you know a lot of young pitchers that's basically one of their issues is when they only have to throw strikes, whether it's because they're in you know, low leverage situations for good reasons like a big lead, or you know, just garbage time trying to get a game over with. You know, they just try to nibble, make perfect pitches, get strikeouts, not get hits. And you know, I think in the case of Martin, like even bennett' SU's that showed that too, Like in his outing is last one before he got demoted to Charlotte's. You know, he came in and Tony LaRussa need an inning from him, and it wasn't a good inning. It was three well hit drives, you know, one warning track two that were you know, three hundred and fifty plus feet and near one hundred you know, mouse power exit of lost e barely got away with something. But it's better than watching him. You'll get ahead O two, fall behind three two, have to you know, roll over a slider because he's hoping they're guessing fastball. Like he just he decided to kind of cut the crap more or less than just say, let's see if I get in trouble, and he didn't. And I think when when it's an offense against like the Tigers, you can do that. I think that's luxury that in offense, you know, as you mentioned, historically awful. That's what this provides. And it was nice to see Martin indulge himself and say like, yeah, this may not be this easy all the time, or maybe you know seldom ever, so may as well, Like, you know, my job's hard enough as it is. Take the easy outs when you can get them.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's where like for Dylan Cees, he had a good start, struck out eight, went five innings, he approves to ten to Nino. In his career against the Detroit Tigers, he's very good against Detroit. But again this bullpen has gassed and they really could have used like a seven inning start from Dylan Cease where I think he's just he's trying to be too fine, Jim, like Dylan Cees is trying to throw the perfect pitch every single time. It was refreshing to see Davis Martin. Now, obviously Martin's got the run support that he can, you know, challenge all these hitters for Detroit in the strike zone. But he did. He wasn't nibbling, he attacked them, and he goes five and a third innings in fifty eight pitches, where it takes over one hundred plus pitches again for Dylan Cees to get through five innings. So I was impressed in what Davis Martin did and he understood the assignment. He went as deep as he possibly could, handed the ball off to Joseier Luiz and you know with these you know, with the bullpen and Vince Velasquez only able to get to the third inning, that could have been another bullpen game. But thanks to Davis Martin, he he helped out the White Sox bullpen in a big way and they didn't need to use Joe Kelly again or Kendall Graveman, so good job Davis Martin's part.
00:26:01
Speaker 3: And he also fielded his position well too. He covered first couple of times awkwardly in one since but made the play and then block the liner, recovered it and made a non target, firm throw and he had to and look comfortable doing it. So he helped himself.
00:26:17
Speaker 2: So back to the injuries, and there's injuries galore for the White Sox. Briefly, just chat about this. Kyle Criik is going to the injured list, So that's another bullpen arm going on the IL for the Chicago White Sox. But the big name is Liam Hendrix. He is going to the IL, and he spoke with Beat reporters before Wednesday's game and he made it known that he's had a tear in his UCL since two thousand and eight and he's been managing as far as that particular tear, and he's not so concerned about the forearm string that he's currently going through. He has admitted this season his elbow is constantly getting more inflamed than usual. So Rick Han told the Beat reporters that they're pre liminary estimate is three weeks of rest for Liam Hendrix and then see where he's at before he rejoins the Chicago White Sox. So Liam Hendricks needs some time off and hopefully his elbow reduces. As far as that inflammation, We've mentioned this multiple times, the bullpen is gas Jim. Thankfully Joe Kelly is back. So how do you think Tony of the russ is gonna handle the ended games with Liam Hendricks now on the IL to join along with you know, Kyle Kriik I just mentioned that, but also Aaron Bummer is still on the IL.
00:27:34
Speaker 3: I think, you know, working backwards, I think Graveman is the first choice for the ninth and we'll see just yo, I don't think you're gonna see six saves in eight games like they did with the Hendricks. Whether it's Hendricks himself doing it or anybody else they've been they seem like they've been cautious with Graveman for one reason or another. So he would be the ninth inning guy. I think Kelly would be the eighth in guy, especially against lefties. I think, you know, entering the season, you know in his recent form the last three years, he had even splits against lefties and righties. And that's what I think was growing, you know, had me more and more frustrated with Tony LaRusso was that, you know, when when it came to handedness and just his yep obsession. I don't think it's too strong a word in some cases of just making sure he had the matchups even when the talent wasn't there. And in the case like Susa, he had reverse splits, like lefties hit him harder than righty's. Lefties are not fazed by him, and he kept getting these important assignments against lefties. So with Susan out there and Kelly back, like Kelly seems like the best call for those situations like an eighth inning with two lefties out, three coming up, give the ball to Kelly.
00:28:42
Speaker 2: I like that.
00:28:44
Speaker 3: Then I think, you know, before Kelly seventh inning or against righty's like it seems like Lopez is the guy. Like he seems like he's been getting the ball more in those situations and he hasn't really given a reason to not give him the ball. I think when you look at the other relievers, Krick being out Foster being rocky lately. Ruiz got an inning today as a confidence booster because he's had a really rough time. Jimmy Lambert's thrown well a couple outings, but you know he's not quite there yet. You know, Tanner Banks has thrown well a couple outings. He's not quite there yet. So it does seem like this is an opportunity for Lopez to distinguish himself because when it comes to the other arms in the bullpen, they have other guys who can go two plus innings. It's really they're they're lacking that key inning in the seventh or so, and I think Lopez can be that guy.
00:29:30
Speaker 2: Well, hopefully those three get an opportunity to close out a victory this upcoming weekend as the Chicago White Sox head their way to Houston, and we're going to take a quick break for word from our sponsors. But coming up next, we preview the White Sox series against the Houston Astros on The Sox Machine podcast. Welcome back to the Sox Machine Podcast. The next series for the Chicago White Sox are those peskey Houston Astros who really dominated the White Sox last year in the regular season in Houston, and of course, the Astros won games one and two at home in Houston against the White Sox in the American League Division Series. I think there's no mistake the White Sox are entering this weekend with a little bit chip of their shoulder. So let's see in how they play these three games against the Astros. There may be some revenge seeking here, or at least proving that the White Sox are truly on a path to get themselves back into contention, because all the good vibes from Detroit can quickly evaporate if the White Sox continue to play poorly in Houston like they did in twenty twenty one. The Astros are thirty nine to twenty four this season, their first place in the American League West. They have the second best record in the American League behind the New York Yankees. They've won the last two games. However, in the last ten games for the Astros, they've just been five hundred. They are five and five and at home they are sixteen and ten. Your pitching problems for the series please note on the broadcast Friday at seven to ten pm Central Time. This is an Apple TV broadcast is Lucas Gilito against Ramburveldez. On Saturday. This is a three to ten pm Central time start and it's on NBC Sports Chicago. It's Johnny Cuato against old nemesis Justin Verlander. And then on Sunday at six ten pm Central Time, this is on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball. It's to be determined for the White Sox against Christian Xavier for the Astros. Jim as I mentioned in the intro, the White Sox last one in Houston back in May of twenty nineteen. Lucas Gilito pitched a complete game shutout in their last victory at Houston. They'll need big starting pitching performances to win any of these games this upcoming weekend. Do you think the White Sox can at least win one game?
00:31:54
Speaker 3: I think so. I'm gonna put in a some positive vibes here. They've hit lefties well. Verlander I think is going to pose a I mean, he's posed a challenge to everybody. But we've seen the White Sox take better at bats against even tough pitching, like I'm thinking like the Martine Perez game, like they just ran him ragged in a way that Perez hadn't seen this year. I think they could do the same thing against a guy like Valdez. So I like some of the matchups, but I think, you know, when it comes to that, you know, the Friday matchup with Valdez, I think it's really like Gilito, like the third time through is a big problem for him. And we've seen with Tony LaRussa that he really likes his starting pitchers going five now he does not like the early hook, whether it's the you know, feeling like he's leaving them in to qualify for a win, even though nobody really cares about that anymore, or just really concerned about the bullpen, you know what kind of workload it's taking on. Giolito. Seems like he's really vulnerable to just having starts get away from him. So either I'm hoping he gets a start to where you know, he leaves little doubt about how he's cruising through the lineup and cutting through them the third time, or you know, conversely, like the bullpen is rested enough between the Velasquez, Martin, you know, Ruiz game plus an off day buying him some time, and then you know, just having the luxury of like, Okay, we have a pretty rested bullpen, we have a win in our grasp. We're not going to let Gilito lose this game for us either way, it'd be nice to see, you know, if Gilito doesn't pick it himself, just have Tony LaRussa there to not let him twist.
00:33:28
Speaker 2: I think Larus is gonna let Gilito twist, just the way that he's been handling Gilito these last two seasons.
00:33:37
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, the only way out is through, that is true.
00:33:42
Speaker 2: But I have a feeling that Gilito is gonna be one of these White Sox players Jim that really wants this game because he feels that he pitched poorly in the Divisional series or he didn't pitch well enough to help them win Game two. And then he watches his friend during the World Series, Max Freed, and he's in Houston watching his start, and I remember the comments that Gilido had after the game. It was very along the line. So how come I couldn't do that?
00:34:14
Speaker 3: What does he have that I don't? Right?
00:34:17
Speaker 2: So I'm one, I'm paying closed attention to this start. Lucas Giledo. Again, He's had past experiences good experiences in Houston. He's had bad experiences in Houston. I'm wondering if he takes his start personally as away because we've seen Gelido step up in big moments. Maybe he makes this a big moment for himself and for the team to get them back to five hundred. And hopefully he pitches well Friday nights. The Sunday game. It could be Michael Kopek, depending on how his knee is acting up. Rack Con mentioned to the reporters that they drained fluid from the knee and they are hopeful that Michael Kopek can make this start on Sunday. Are you hopeful, Jim? Are you optimistic that Michael Kopek will be making that start on Sunday?
00:35:07
Speaker 3: I would like to be hopeful, but I think, you know, I don't think the start on Sunday is as important as him being able to mark make starts regularly down the line. So I'm hoping they don't rush him into something they you know, they shouldn't. And this is what I think is a benefit of this Detroit series is one, you know, having that nice, you know day offer the key parts of the bullpen before another off day to have them, you know, get some rest for a big series, but also just you know, easing the threat level of the team, like just you know, not being on high alert for the season, just sliding down the drain because nobody can put a stop to this like we saw, you know, Lynn couldn't quite put a stop to this, but the talent of the team went out and then we saw a cease do better, and then we saw Martin and Velaska is doing best. So I think, you know, with that, with those three games in hand and off day, I'm hoping that there'll be more, you know, like when I saw the idea that Kopek could start this weekend, even though we just you know, we last time we saw him, he slamming the bond and frustration couldn't even throw a warm up pitch like that made it seem like we need Copec to start because this season is getting out of hand fast, and I didn't think that helped. So here's hoping that this series against Detroit makes everybody a little bit more clear headed and making decisions because they are actually what's best for the team and the player versus what's best for the team on the given day. In order to put a W in the win column and maybe like improve the run differential and the last ten numbers and everything else in the standings that look so grim. But given the White Sox problems with leg injuries recurring, I'm, you know, I need him to show me. I suppose same thing like Mancata and Anderson, everybody else, everybody who's had a leg injury. I need to see that they can do it. And I'm not penciling them in for starts like in mid July until they can, you know, get through June in relative working order. That's why I like Joe Kelly's outing was so important, because he looked great before his hamstring injury, and then with all the hamstring injuries, the White Sox leading the league in leg injuries last two years, like I was afraid he'd be there for a couple outings and then go right back in the IL. And he might do that, but at least for the time being, he looked like he was fully healthy in the game he pitched.
00:37:34
Speaker 2: And then after that Sunday night baseball game, the White Sox play on Monday at home against Toronto Blue Jays. So it's gonna be a late night early morning for the White Sox coming home from Houston, and they have a turnaround playing at home three games against the Blue Jays Monday through Wednesday, and then the four game weekend series against the Baltimore Oriols. Again, the White Sox do not have another off day for two weeks. They're off to day this Thursday. Then they don't have their next off day is two weeks from today. So the White Sox do have to play this carefully, especially with Michael Kopek. If Kopek cannot go on Sunday, if he needs an extra day or to arrest, lance Lynn will be in line to make that start for the White Sox. And we know the terrible history that lance Lynn has against the Houston Astros hitters. The Astros hitters love to hit lance Lynn. But maybe that's also an opportunity for Lynn to try to have a bounce back game for himself, because he wasn't all that sharp against Detroit in the first game, as he allowed ten hits in three runs as he got into the fifth inning, but he couldn't get past the fifth inning in his season debut. Speaking of Houston's offense, and I'm not trying to be blasphemous here, Jim but I'm looking at Jordan Elvarez, and Alvarez just signed that big contract over one hundred million dollars over the next five years, and he's continuing to mash. He's got seven home runs this year, he's got forty five RBIs, he's hitting three twelve with a four h seven on base percentage, and he's slugging six twenty. The way that Jordon Alvarez is hitting for the Astros is what I thought Alloy Hemenez could hit for the White Sox. And I'm a bit jealous of the Houston Astros that they're getting this type of offensive production because I really do believe, and I still believe, that Alloy Hemenez could hit at this level. And that's where I'm just jealous is that I'm seeing this come into play. But it's not Alloy Hemenez doing this for the White Sox, it's Jordon Alvarez doing it for the Astros.
00:39:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, the average and slugging are there for what we thought was like the I guess, not quite best case scenario for Jimenez, but like eightieth percentile UH outcome for Jimenez. I don't see Jimenez ever having an OVP that starts with the four. I think that's what separates him. But yeah, it's that kind of impact, and uh, it's definitely game changing. Like that's the kind of it reminds me of. I guess what Vlad Guerrero was last year. He's not quite there this year. I think he's improving, but not he's hitting too many balls in the ground. But it's the same just you know, seventeen homers. Uh, just it's you know, somebody to play around the don't let him beat you guy, because really like Houston has a good lineup, and it say, you know, Michael Brantley is you know, still a threat, Kyle Tucker is good. You know al two Vey is good. Like you know, they have guys who can hit. But Alvarez is definitely that guy. And and when you've separated yourself that much in a lineup that's pretty good up and down, I think that speaks volumes about just exactly what he's doing at the plate right now.
00:40:39
Speaker 2: And another name that White Sox fans are going to see if you don't watch a lot of Houston Astros baseball, Jeremy Pania, the rookie who took over for Carlos Korea at shortstop, and I think he's the front runner to be American League Rookie of the Year. He has been fantastic for the Houston Astros. His season ops is over eight hundreds at eight oh four, He's got nine homers in twenty seven RBIs. We'll see how much that he'll play against the White Sox this weekend. I know the Astros will be giving him some days off, but.
00:41:10
Speaker 3: He's very He's actually out with a thumb injury.
00:41:12
Speaker 2: He's out with a thumb injury. So is he out for this entire series?
00:41:15
Speaker 3: He's on the injured list.
00:41:17
Speaker 1: Oh.
00:41:17
Speaker 2: That is kind of a benefit for the White Sox then, and also kind of a downer because if you haven't seen Jeremy Pania play, I do recommend it because he is making the Houston Astros look really smart right now, Jim of not re signing Carlos Correa and Carlos care is still an all world shortstop, but it's like they again, the Astros continue to excel in player development and they have maybe developed another all star caliber shortstop to replace Carlos Carrea. One surprise is Alex Bregman. Now, Bregman is walking. He's got thirty six walks this season at thirty three strikeouts, but he's only got six homers. He's got fourteen doubles, which is pretty good, but when you add it up for sixty one games, Bregman's hitting only two fourteen with a three thirty one on base percentage, and he's like he just three sixty three. I'm really surprised on his offense out put to start this season, Jim, And I'm really hoping that he does not wake up this weekend.
00:42:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've seen it seems like he's been fighting with this swing a little bit. You know, he's just been trying to tap in the power and yeah it's uh al two vas you know, still all two A Like he's just been Yeah, he seems like when it comes to the whole Astro scandal, like he's somebody who uh managed to develop a callus to it and just you know, not mind being the villain.
00:42:48
Speaker 2: Uh.
00:42:49
Speaker 3: I think everybody's chagrin, but you know, Bregman just hasn't quite been able to capture that. But I think the the thing about the lineup is just even walks are so punishing with this lineup, especially depending on like if they're in front of Alvarez or if they're in front of Brantley, because Brantley is, you know, doing his thing right now. And I think when it comes to just you know, watching Giolito labor through some innings and the way they've turned the lineup over with walks and then paid for it at the top of the order, I think that's gonna be pretty much paramount for the pitching staff because while the Astros offense is good, it's a bit uneven. So they just have to make sure that they don't create unnecessary base runners, you know, with the bottom of the order, with just overlooking you know, number eight, number nine, because they're thinking about number one.
00:43:38
Speaker 2: Now, that's a good point, Jim, it's a good point. And with Paya out, I mean, this lineup, the guys that scare you the most, Alvarez, Alto, they Tucker and Brantley. We know that they could do damage against the White Sox because they have been doing damage against the White Sox the last two years. But Alex Bregman is really struggling. There's been a lot of conversation about Martinez Maldonado, the Astros are happy with his defense, even though he's not hitting very well, and it sounds like the Astros are not interested in wil Secatreris or at least in that sweepstakes to acquire the Chicago Cubs catcher. So again, it's these four guys that the White Sox pitchers are gonna have to navigate through, or, as you also pointed out, Jim, don't have base runners on for Alvarez l two Va Tucker at Brantley. That's easier said than done. But hopefully the White Sox do get some outstanding starting pitching this weekend. They're gonna need it if they're gonna win a game or even this series against the Houston Astros. I am hopeful that they do win at least one game out of this weekend, Jim, because to have this great series in Detroit and have some good vibes going into an off day and then immediately gets swept by the Houston Astros and now you're back to four games below five hundred again, after you kind of climbed up a little out of this hole. It could be the little disheartening as you come home for three games against the Toronto Blue Jays so it's a tough six games swinging for the White Sox, three against the Astros, three against the Blue Jays. But again, if they're gonna play themselves into attention, they got to start stacking wins, and they got to start stacking wins against some of the best teams in baseball. But that will do it for this episode of the sox Machine podcast. Thank you guys so much for listening. Greatly appreciate it. If you just discover the sox Machine podcast, you describe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts such as Spotify and Apple Music, and whether you've been a longtime lurker of socks Machine or your brands, making new to socks Machine, think about helping support us at patreon dot com slash sox Machine. Our Patreon supporters they get more, They get exclusive content from us. They also get avery versions of the podcast, the website, and when we have new sox Machine swag, they are the first ones to acquire it. And again, if you enjoy your work and you want more, sign up at patreon dot com slash sox Machine, where monthly plans start at two dollars a month and you could save with an annual subscription, but thank you so much for listening to the Sox Machine podcast. As the podcast is a production of Soxmachine dot Com. You're home for all of things Chicago White Sox baseball and part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Alongside Jim Margolis, I'm Josh Nelson. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: From your favorite source for Chicago White Sox talk, delivering news, interviews, analysis and more. This is The Socks Machine Podcast with your hosts Jim Margolis and Josh Nelson.
00:00:25
Speaker 2: Thanks Rob, and welcome to a new episode of The Socks Machine Podcast. I'm your host Josh Nelson, and it's a midweek show as this episode is released on Thursday, June sixteenth, twenty twenty two. After a terrible homestand the Chicago White Sox needed to stack wins and quickly before this season collapses on them. A trip to Detroit could be promising, but with the amount of injuries that continue to stack up for the White Sox and the bullpen being gassed on paper, it wasn't going to be an easy series for the White Sox offense would have to pull through.
00:01:02
Speaker 3: Well.
00:01:02
Speaker 2: The good news the offense did pull through in a big way, scoring a total of twenty seven runs. Thirteen of those came in the series finale as they beat Detroit thirteen to nothing and they got a much needed sweep and it puts the White Sox one game below five hundred at thirty and thirty one. But before you get too happy, the White Sox now visit the Houston Astros, a place they haven't won at since May of twenty nineteen. We got a lot to discuss, so let's get started. Joining me is the managing editor of socks Machine dot Com. It's Jim Margolis, and Hello Jim. This series in Detroit was much needed for the White Sox, sure.
00:01:45
Speaker 3: Was, and given the way it started with Lance Lynn getting beat up a little bit over the middle of the plate, it very well could have been a continuation of the previous series. And even you know, even if they won two of three, it could have well been you know, kind of rocky and not very confidence boosting. But instead, you know, the the White Sox endured Lynn's roughest patch, like you as he was knocking the rust off with the first two innings, and everything smoothed out from there. Detroit is bad, Detroit's having problems, but the White Sox gave them problems, like they beat them. Like over the course of the three games, they just distanced themselves with their talent, you know, over basically it seemed like every successive inning. So that was nice to see.
00:02:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, Detroit had three position players pitch in the final game of the series. How would you done that headline, because usually when a position player pitches and a blowout the White Sox lose, we always reference like Leary Garcia pitched or Josh Harris had pitched. What would that headline been if the White Sox or if you were covered from a Tiger's perspective, three position players pitching.
00:02:56
Speaker 3: It would have been I would have named all three just to really, you know, let it sink in, because I had to do that with h Was it Larry and Alexi when they pitched in the same game?
00:03:10
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah that was a while ago.
00:03:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I but I named them both. So yeah, just itemizing.
00:03:15
Speaker 2: I'm a bit disappointed in the way that Cody Clemmens through, Like you're the son of Roger Clemens, I would think you would be trying at least instead of these lobs. That's what I'm seeing from position players across Major League Baseball. They're just throwing these like forty to fifty mile power lobs to the plate, hope being that no one gets any launch angle on these particular pitches or they beat him into the ground. But I was I was a bit disappointed. I thought he would actually, you know, try throwing the baseball to home plate.
00:03:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, I imagine it's kind of like he went as far away from as possible because if he tried his best and still, like you know, it was throwing topping out eighty five or something like that, he said like, oh, that's you call yourself Rockets kid. He's like, h But when he's throwing forty, he's like, oh, I wasn't trying. I was just goofing around. I can do better, but I didn't want to.
00:04:08
Speaker 2: It is odd, though, because this is Major League Baseball. Like I get it if it's double A or a triple A and it's like, let's just get this game over. But maybe Major League Baseball needs a mercy rule to prevent this type of situation. I know this is gonna be the talk of the town in Detroit about what happened on Wednesday afternoon that three position players had to pitch, and all the Detroit Tigers beat reporters made it known that the Tigers had a twenty five minute players only meeting after the game and the kind of barred media, so the media had to sit outside the locker room, and we were getting this notification from the Tigers beat regarding as far as his meeting. So things are not great in Detroit, as Jim mentioned, and the White Sox have compounded their problems. The Detroit Tigers offensively are having one of the worst first halfs Age League Baseball history, the worst since integration. So that's definitely the worst in our lifetime, Jim, that we are seeing from this Tigers offense. So not as well in Detroit right now. But for the White Sox, they took advantage of it, which is great to see because they have not been taking advantage of these opportunities. And someone that did take advantage of the opportunity, especially Wednesday afternoon is Yo and Makata. Before Wednesday's game, Jim I went on Twitter because his season's been bugging me, like, I get it, you are hurt and oblique injuries. We talked about it when he suffered the oblique injury. This is something that everyone's going to have to pay close attention to because oblique injuries can be nagging, and we for example Ryan Brawn with Milwaukee Brewers, it would be reoccurring for him ever since, like from twenty fourteen when he first suffered it, all the way until the season he retired in twenty twenty and Makata was hitting terribly and looking at baseball. So my hypothesis was very similar to twenty twenty one, where when we recapped his season we pointed out that Yon mccatta is not driving the fastball, not like he did in twenty nineteen or twenty twenty. Huge drop off from Eoon mccatta in the success against high velocity pitches greater than ninety four miles per hour. So I look at the data on Tuesday night. Well, Lah, it is terrible. It is eye opening, terrible for you On maccatta. He's having a terrible time against pitches ninety four miles per hour or greater. And I've had some back and forth with Penoles because his hypothesis was that Mikata is still hurt and he is playing hurt. And when I zoomed down to that data set, a data set to look at pitches ninety miles per hour or greater, so below average fastballs to the best fastballs of Major League Baseball, the data didn't get better for yo On maccata. I mean, his whiff ray against pitches greater than ninety miles per hour before Wednesday's game was at twenty six point six percent. That's a seven point seven percent increase from last season. So he's whiffing more. He's not making a lot of contact on these pitches, and he's certainly not driving them. Well, that changed on Wednesday because mccatta had a three run homer off a ninety three mile power fastball. Then he had a double off a ninety five mile power fastball, and he finished the game collecting five hits with five RBIs in that blowout victory. Is this game a sign that mkatta might be figuring things out and a possible season turnaround is in the cards for him.
00:07:42
Speaker 3: I'm hesitant to say yes, just because it seems like his condition fluctuates so much from series the series basically, like maybe even game to game basically when it comes to Mancata. Yeah, I once in a while glance at the statcast date and just kind of look at the the Baseball Samont page just to get an idea of, you know, around me the way we talk about Yasmini Grondal, and it's like, if he's not catching up to velocity, that's one thing, but if he's not hitting anything fast slow breaking, uh straight off speed, just he's not connecting anything that either strikes me as like, uh, you know, something physically wrong or just way off, like just like a crisis of confidence. And given that we have like a you know, a couple of injuries appoint to the oblique to start the season and the quadricep injury that kind of came up, but wasn't enough to you know, knock them, you know, back to the injured list for good. To me, I've more or less you know, given up on the advanced data, or at least, you know, not given up necessarily. But just like I don't think it's necessary to look at it. To me, I'm more using the eye test, and just like is he looking lively? Is is there a pulse on the field in the batter's box, Like is he just barely fouling back pitches? Is he you know, looking like he's laboring getting the bat through the zone. And in the case of the homer on Wednesday, where he got the bat around of ninety three on the inner half, like it wasn't a great pitch, but it was a pitch that's you know, in his worst conditions, would have just jammed him or you know, you best case scenario is like mustling a single over the head of the shortstop the opposite way. You know, that's a sign where any sign is good. And then you know, taking the outside corner fastball down the line, that was nice to see, like you know, the barrel was where it was supposed to be, so you know, and then Benetti and Stone mentioned, you know, just that he looked happier, like you're smiling, you know, and it's you know, I'm not inclined to draw too big of a conclusion because the White Sox dugout seemed very loose during that game with hosea bray you building his own uh lean to in the dugout. You know, everybody looked very comfortable, So I'm not going to say, you know, maybe it's a bit of a rising tide thing, but he looked good. It's just I'm I'm I want to see that for like a solid of just turning around okay fastballs and not getting beat by everything, and then then I think I'll be more inclined to say, like, yeah, he's turning a corner kind of like with the Azimoni grondle, like he was before he pulled a flame with the hamstring issue. Now it's a back spasm thing, you know. You look like the barrel was where it had to be. It wasn't really ripping the ball. Yet he wasn't getting left. He wasn't like you hammering one hundred and ten mile pro hour liners in the seats, but he was more on time, And I think that's a good place to start, even if he's not quite summoning the height of his powers just yet.
00:10:32
Speaker 2: I understand where you're coming from with the eye test because I'm the same way, but I also need that confirmation bias from the advanced data of are my eyes deceiving me? Or does you can Yomacatta not hit a fastball? Like That's why I went to Baseball Savant because it's just been it's just been bugging me, like even in the beginning of the series, where Mencatta is just getting beat by high fast and he's following them off but he's not putting them in play. And even in Wednesday's game, Detroit Tigers through thirteen pitches to Makata, eleven of them were fastballs before the position players decided to throw whatever that they were throwing. So I think the book around Major League baseball is pretty clear that they are challenging Makata with velocity because a lot of teams don't think he can hit velocity.
00:11:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, probably just not overthinking it, just being like just put the pitch, calm down and just one on one.
00:11:33
Speaker 2: And I don't blame him based on the data and again the eye test, just watching film. You know, Luis Robert doesn't have great fastball numbers, But that I can explain because he's hunting sliders and he's hyper aggressive early in the count. He's not putting himself in a position to take advantage of fastball counts. That is pretty easy to explain. Mikata has not been easy to explain. You mentioned Grondal. Grondal's not been easy to explain.
00:12:01
Speaker 3: I just have sheets is another one. Like, you know it comes to hitters like that. Yeah, the question I ask is like what can they hit like just you know, you know, what should they crush like a bray You early in the season too, when his bat looked like whatever reason, he just couldn't get the bat through the zone on time, Like it was the same thing like rolling sliders, floating change ups, fastballs, like he was putting everything on the right side. Usually out of play when he was you know, getting contact. So you know, that's kind of the question I start with. And if I can't, like, I would say your mean Mercedes is a good example last year of he could hit change ups, he could off speed, he could hit curveballs and sliders. But yeah, trying to figure out like that took a longer time for the eye test to detect because you know, he'd occasionally make contact with a good pitch and show an approach. I kind of got to that because I realized, like, man, he's using his two strike approach a lot like I like that he had a two strike swing with shortened up, but he wasn't quite doing He's doing that too much, like he's falling O to one to an awful amount. And that's when I had to go to the numbers and say, like, why is you know, why is he down O two all the time? And then that's when it turned up that just he couldn't turn around a fastball, you know.
00:13:11
Speaker 2: Speaking to Jose Bray, Bray, you had a huge series against Detroit eight for thirteen. He had two homers. We wanted, we need, we needed to see home run power from Jose brayw and he certainly provided two homers in the first game with four RBIs. He had two doubles off of the position players to pat his numbers A I don't blame him. If you're gonna throw a position could have been triples.
00:13:36
Speaker 3: But that's I think was my favorite part about a bray who's I guess series And besides I would say, okay, first part was the homer to center field. That was really impressive, especially at the wind blowing in to reach the second level of shrubbery and the batter's eye. Second favorite thing was, you know those doubles opposition players like he was. You know, he could have gunn for triples standing up and didn't because why bother herd yourself. But when Yon Mancatta came up and dropped singles and he was busting, he wanted to get Moncatta's RBIs And I like seeing that because I think that was kind of the effort of just you know. And then Mancatta got the group hugging the dugout after his homer because I think it was his first in twenty three games, and just you know, the I think everybody's trying to lift him up, so whether it's you know, over celebrating a homer or whether it's you know, making sure that you don't leave an RBI in the field out of sportsmanship that nobody would really notice, you know. I like seeing that.
00:14:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, So when we had Monday's podcast and we we were hoping that we were clamoring for Jose bray You to hit for more power because a bray You slash line for the season. Before the Detroit series, Jim was a two fifty one batting average, a three fifty one on base percentage. That's really good, but he was only slugging four oh eight. That's not Jose bray You. Well, after the Detroit series, his season slash light is now to seventy two batted average, a three seventy two on base percentage, and he's slugging four fifty five. He almost increases leuggi percentage by fifty points in three games. So Jose Brew's numbers, his season numbers, are are right back on track. So thank you Detroit. As a matter of fact, that is a yeah, that's his season high in slugging percentage. Oh no, I take that back. His season ice lugging percentage. Last time he was this high was in a game four of the season where his luggie was at five hundred. Since it has not been this high since then. So very good series for Jose braw who continues to rake someone else that continues to rake. And maybe this is the resurgence we've been waiting for. And it's hype a hot streak that we were hopeful Jim we would see after the White Sox required him in a trade for Craig Kimberl And that's Aj Pollock. So AJ Pollock in his last seven games is fifteen for thirty five, no home runs in his last seven games, but that's a four to twenty nine batting amber with a four to seventy four on base percentage and he's slugging five to fourteen. In his last fifteen games. AJ Pollock is twenty for fifty eight and that is a three forty five batting average with a three eighty seven on base percentage and slugging four to sixty six. Danny Mendick is doing the best that he can right now to fill in the void defensively for Tim Anderson and provide a you know, better production bat in the bottom of the lineup. But it's been AJ Pollock who's been hitting leadoff recently for the White Sox, and I think he's trying to do his best impression of constantly being on bass, trying to fill in that void for Tim Anderson, Jim and I'm wondering, is this three surgeons and the type of play we've been expecting to see from AJ Pollock.
00:16:46
Speaker 3: I think it is, you know, and he almost hit Homer. He hit the yellow stripe from the left field walls, much to your chagrin as you try to get that WRC plus to one a weight so he can win a bet. Andy Fliff, Yeah, we should.
00:17:00
Speaker 2: I should explain that real quick. So back in May, when Pollock was really struggling, I made another steak bet so for our audience members listening to this. So on June thirtieth, if Aj Pollock season Wait it runs, creative plus is at one oh eight b flow, owes me another steak Dinner. I won the last Steak Dinner bet bet when the MLB lockout was going to end, and I crushed that. Thank you, Rob Manfred. But if AJ Pollock falls short of the one eight weighted Rud's creative Plus by June thirtieth. I owe him a steak dinner. So let's go AJM. Yes, let's go. Come on team at like sixty four. He was at like sixty four a couple of weeks ago. He's already at ninety five.
00:17:50
Speaker 3: The the contact is good, like you know, he's not going to be somebody I think, who you know, he can hit homers, but it's not really his game. I think it's like a well rounded offense approach. Can he can hit the ball over the fence but doesn't sell out for it makes a lot of contact, gets on base. Is just a you know, he's not quite like you know, I would say on one of the spectrums, like a Luis Ariahs who you know, just you never like seeing up because he you know, never strikes out. You have to get him out by putting the ball in play by and large, and he's getting better and better at finding gaps and holes in the defense. And then on the other hand, you have like somebody like I guess Joey Gallo would be the opposite, where like he walks and doesn't hit anything in play and you just have to hope that you know, he more or less pops up or gets himself out otherwise strikes out. But I mean pollock single season high in Homer's is twenty one, partially because he's been hurt, but also just you know, even when he's you know, been healthier, he topped out twenty in Arizona, so he doesn't really you know, I don't think he's launch angle optimized. And maybe that's a poor way of putting it, because his launch angle's probably fine served him well. I think if he were healthy, everybody you know, who he's played for would have liked him plenty. You know, you would have find him, found him hard to move. But just because he's been unavailable, that's why the White Sox have him.
00:19:11
Speaker 2: So.
00:19:11
Speaker 3: Fortunately he got past the initial injury that the hamstring tweak, he probably could have used a rehab stint. I think that probably, you know, watching Moncatta play through an injury, and watching grondaal labor through his post knee surgery recovery, now watching you know, Pollock, I think they've mishandled some injuries early or just sunk too many weeks in guys who weren't quite ready yet or weren't quite on time. And hopefully it doesn't hurt him but I think Pollock looks like the guy they thought they were getting now because I mean, you know, he beat up on the Tigers. But he also, as you mentioned, had a good series beforehand.
00:19:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, he had a good series against Dodgers. He had a good series against the Tigers and also the Rangers as well. So Aj Pollock, he is hitting the ball. You know, there's been some good question in regards to the White Sox lineup and where would you want Aj Pollock to hit when Tim Anderson returns. Do you have any thoughts about that, Jim.
00:20:08
Speaker 3: I think you know, when it comes to right handed pitching, I don't necessarily mind him betting second. Like just if you know Robert's struggling and you know, a bray, you and Vaughan are threats. But if you want, you know, some action on the base paths and somebody who can maybe let Anderson run a little, he's probably your best bet.
00:20:27
Speaker 2: I like that idea. Just drop everyone down, or maybe drop Robert to fifth and have a bray you still back clean up and Vaughn's third.
00:20:35
Speaker 3: I I like that.
00:20:36
Speaker 2: I mean, now the White Sox have options, right, It's a lot easier to make a lineup when people are hitting than before. When when it's like, well, yeah, two guys that are above average right now, so let's make it light up a nine. And yeah, it looks a lot better recently. So hopefully the White Sox offense continues it's hot streak against the Houston Astros. We'll talk about that series in a moment, but I believe this streak is now now at seven games in a row. The White Sox have scored five or more runs about damn time, and they have greatly helped their run differential with that thirteen and nothing victory and of course their big series against the Detroit Tigers. On the pitching front, Davis Martin, he understood the assignment Jim on Wednesday, So Vince Velasquez leaves in the third inning and then Davis Martin picks up and in fifty eight pitches, he threw forty four strikes and he got through five at a third innings. Now that is like a lesson Dylan sees can learn from Davis Martin to go deeper in the game. Because Davis Martin only allowed three hits, no runs, didn't walk anybody, and he struck out three. So is the dart suddenly the missing swing man or starting pitcher number seven that we have been talking about, the muchting a depth for the White Sox I've been searching for.
00:21:57
Speaker 3: I think he's been that guy so far. You know, he showed what he needed to show so far. I think it's interesting to me that they've used him as the bulk guy because watching his first two starts, like his problem was the first couple of innings, like it took him a while to find a groove and you find his pitch mix, and you know it was you know, when they when he backed up Lopez first, then he backed up Alaskas in this one. I thought, oh, that's kind of interesting. They were like almost trying to It almost seemed like psychological to me, like saying, uh, let's pretend like you're starting in the third inning. You know, just it's the first two innings don't exist. You've already gotten past him, and now you're in a third and you're you're fine. And that's kind of how he's pitched in this bulk roll. The one thing I will say in this outing is that the Tigers, did you know they hit him hard? I'm looking at his data right now. One two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight hard hit balls off him. So that's a fair amount. But a lot of them were on the ground, you know, and and the White Sox were positioned well and they defended well. You know, they made all the plays. But you know, when you have a lead that's three nothing and then five nothing, seven nothing, like, it was just kind of grown by two. Ever inning his job is just to make the Tigers get him in trouble, make any opponent get him in trouble, and they couldn't. So he had that, ye know, he had that down. And I think, you know a lot of young pitchers that's basically one of their issues is when they only have to throw strikes, whether it's because they're in you know, low leverage situations for good reasons like a big lead, or you know, just garbage time trying to get a game over with. You know, they just try to nibble, make perfect pitches, get strikeouts, not get hits. And you know, I think in the case of Martin, like even bennett' SU's that showed that too, Like in his outing is last one before he got demoted to Charlotte's. You know, he came in and Tony LaRussa need an inning from him, and it wasn't a good inning. It was three well hit drives, you know, one warning track two that were you know, three hundred and fifty plus feet and near one hundred you know, mouse power exit of lost e barely got away with something. But it's better than watching him. You'll get ahead O two, fall behind three two, have to you know, roll over a slider because he's hoping they're guessing fastball. Like he just he decided to kind of cut the crap more or less than just say, let's see if I get in trouble, and he didn't. And I think when when it's an offense against like the Tigers, you can do that. I think that's luxury that in offense, you know, as you mentioned, historically awful. That's what this provides. And it was nice to see Martin indulge himself and say like, yeah, this may not be this easy all the time, or maybe you know seldom ever, so may as well, Like, you know, my job's hard enough as it is. Take the easy outs when you can get them.
00:24:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's where like for Dylan Cees, he had a good start, struck out eight, went five innings, he approves to ten to Nino. In his career against the Detroit Tigers, he's very good against Detroit. But again this bullpen has gassed and they really could have used like a seven inning start from Dylan Cease where I think he's just he's trying to be too fine, Jim, like Dylan Cees is trying to throw the perfect pitch every single time. It was refreshing to see Davis Martin. Now, obviously Martin's got the run support that he can, you know, challenge all these hitters for Detroit in the strike zone. But he did. He wasn't nibbling, he attacked them, and he goes five and a third innings in fifty eight pitches, where it takes over one hundred plus pitches again for Dylan Cees to get through five innings. So I was impressed in what Davis Martin did and he understood the assignment. He went as deep as he possibly could, handed the ball off to Joseier Luiz and you know with these you know, with the bullpen and Vince Velasquez only able to get to the third inning, that could have been another bullpen game. But thanks to Davis Martin, he he helped out the White Sox bullpen in a big way and they didn't need to use Joe Kelly again or Kendall Graveman, so good job Davis Martin's part.
00:26:01
Speaker 3: And he also fielded his position well too. He covered first couple of times awkwardly in one since but made the play and then block the liner, recovered it and made a non target, firm throw and he had to and look comfortable doing it. So he helped himself.
00:26:17
Speaker 2: So back to the injuries, and there's injuries galore for the White Sox. Briefly, just chat about this. Kyle Criik is going to the injured list, So that's another bullpen arm going on the IL for the Chicago White Sox. But the big name is Liam Hendrix. He is going to the IL, and he spoke with Beat reporters before Wednesday's game and he made it known that he's had a tear in his UCL since two thousand and eight and he's been managing as far as that particular tear, and he's not so concerned about the forearm string that he's currently going through. He has admitted this season his elbow is constantly getting more inflamed than usual. So Rick Han told the Beat reporters that they're pre liminary estimate is three weeks of rest for Liam Hendrix and then see where he's at before he rejoins the Chicago White Sox. So Liam Hendricks needs some time off and hopefully his elbow reduces. As far as that inflammation, We've mentioned this multiple times, the bullpen is gas Jim. Thankfully Joe Kelly is back. So how do you think Tony of the russ is gonna handle the ended games with Liam Hendricks now on the IL to join along with you know, Kyle Kriik I just mentioned that, but also Aaron Bummer is still on the IL.
00:27:34
Speaker 3: I think, you know, working backwards, I think Graveman is the first choice for the ninth and we'll see just yo, I don't think you're gonna see six saves in eight games like they did with the Hendricks. Whether it's Hendricks himself doing it or anybody else they've been they seem like they've been cautious with Graveman for one reason or another. So he would be the ninth inning guy. I think Kelly would be the eighth in guy, especially against lefties. I think, you know, entering the season, you know in his recent form the last three years, he had even splits against lefties and righties. And that's what I think was growing, you know, had me more and more frustrated with Tony LaRusso was that, you know, when when it came to handedness and just his yep obsession. I don't think it's too strong a word in some cases of just making sure he had the matchups even when the talent wasn't there. And in the case like Susa, he had reverse splits, like lefties hit him harder than righty's. Lefties are not fazed by him, and he kept getting these important assignments against lefties. So with Susan out there and Kelly back, like Kelly seems like the best call for those situations like an eighth inning with two lefties out, three coming up, give the ball to Kelly.
00:28:42
Speaker 2: I like that.
00:28:44
Speaker 3: Then I think, you know, before Kelly seventh inning or against righty's like it seems like Lopez is the guy. Like he seems like he's been getting the ball more in those situations and he hasn't really given a reason to not give him the ball. I think when you look at the other relievers, Krick being out Foster being rocky lately. Ruiz got an inning today as a confidence booster because he's had a really rough time. Jimmy Lambert's thrown well a couple outings, but you know he's not quite there yet. You know, Tanner Banks has thrown well a couple outings. He's not quite there yet. So it does seem like this is an opportunity for Lopez to distinguish himself because when it comes to the other arms in the bullpen, they have other guys who can go two plus innings. It's really they're they're lacking that key inning in the seventh or so, and I think Lopez can be that guy.
00:29:30
Speaker 2: Well, hopefully those three get an opportunity to close out a victory this upcoming weekend as the Chicago White Sox head their way to Houston, and we're going to take a quick break for word from our sponsors. But coming up next, we preview the White Sox series against the Houston Astros on The Sox Machine podcast. Welcome back to the Sox Machine Podcast. The next series for the Chicago White Sox are those peskey Houston Astros who really dominated the White Sox last year in the regular season in Houston, and of course, the Astros won games one and two at home in Houston against the White Sox in the American League Division Series. I think there's no mistake the White Sox are entering this weekend with a little bit chip of their shoulder. So let's see in how they play these three games against the Astros. There may be some revenge seeking here, or at least proving that the White Sox are truly on a path to get themselves back into contention, because all the good vibes from Detroit can quickly evaporate if the White Sox continue to play poorly in Houston like they did in twenty twenty one. The Astros are thirty nine to twenty four this season, their first place in the American League West. They have the second best record in the American League behind the New York Yankees. They've won the last two games. However, in the last ten games for the Astros, they've just been five hundred. They are five and five and at home they are sixteen and ten. Your pitching problems for the series please note on the broadcast Friday at seven to ten pm Central Time. This is an Apple TV broadcast is Lucas Gilito against Ramburveldez. On Saturday. This is a three to ten pm Central time start and it's on NBC Sports Chicago. It's Johnny Cuato against old nemesis Justin Verlander. And then on Sunday at six ten pm Central Time, this is on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball. It's to be determined for the White Sox against Christian Xavier for the Astros. Jim as I mentioned in the intro, the White Sox last one in Houston back in May of twenty nineteen. Lucas Gilito pitched a complete game shutout in their last victory at Houston. They'll need big starting pitching performances to win any of these games this upcoming weekend. Do you think the White Sox can at least win one game?
00:31:54
Speaker 3: I think so. I'm gonna put in a some positive vibes here. They've hit lefties well. Verlander I think is going to pose a I mean, he's posed a challenge to everybody. But we've seen the White Sox take better at bats against even tough pitching, like I'm thinking like the Martine Perez game, like they just ran him ragged in a way that Perez hadn't seen this year. I think they could do the same thing against a guy like Valdez. So I like some of the matchups, but I think, you know, when it comes to that, you know, the Friday matchup with Valdez, I think it's really like Gilito, like the third time through is a big problem for him. And we've seen with Tony LaRussa that he really likes his starting pitchers going five now he does not like the early hook, whether it's the you know, feeling like he's leaving them in to qualify for a win, even though nobody really cares about that anymore, or just really concerned about the bullpen, you know what kind of workload it's taking on. Giolito. Seems like he's really vulnerable to just having starts get away from him. So either I'm hoping he gets a start to where you know, he leaves little doubt about how he's cruising through the lineup and cutting through them the third time, or you know, conversely, like the bullpen is rested enough between the Velasquez, Martin, you know, Ruiz game plus an off day buying him some time, and then you know, just having the luxury of like, Okay, we have a pretty rested bullpen, we have a win in our grasp. We're not going to let Gilito lose this game for us either way, it'd be nice to see, you know, if Gilito doesn't pick it himself, just have Tony LaRussa there to not let him twist.
00:33:28
Speaker 2: I think Larus is gonna let Gilito twist, just the way that he's been handling Gilito these last two seasons.
00:33:37
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, the only way out is through, that is true.
00:33:42
Speaker 2: But I have a feeling that Gilito is gonna be one of these White Sox players Jim that really wants this game because he feels that he pitched poorly in the Divisional series or he didn't pitch well enough to help them win Game two. And then he watches his friend during the World Series, Max Freed, and he's in Houston watching his start, and I remember the comments that Gilido had after the game. It was very along the line. So how come I couldn't do that?
00:34:14
Speaker 3: What does he have that I don't? Right?
00:34:17
Speaker 2: So I'm one, I'm paying closed attention to this start. Lucas Giledo. Again, He's had past experiences good experiences in Houston. He's had bad experiences in Houston. I'm wondering if he takes his start personally as away because we've seen Gelido step up in big moments. Maybe he makes this a big moment for himself and for the team to get them back to five hundred. And hopefully he pitches well Friday nights. The Sunday game. It could be Michael Kopek, depending on how his knee is acting up. Rack Con mentioned to the reporters that they drained fluid from the knee and they are hopeful that Michael Kopek can make this start on Sunday. Are you hopeful, Jim? Are you optimistic that Michael Kopek will be making that start on Sunday?
00:35:07
Speaker 3: I would like to be hopeful, but I think, you know, I don't think the start on Sunday is as important as him being able to mark make starts regularly down the line. So I'm hoping they don't rush him into something they you know, they shouldn't. And this is what I think is a benefit of this Detroit series is one, you know, having that nice, you know day offer the key parts of the bullpen before another off day to have them, you know, get some rest for a big series, but also just you know, easing the threat level of the team, like just you know, not being on high alert for the season, just sliding down the drain because nobody can put a stop to this like we saw, you know, Lynn couldn't quite put a stop to this, but the talent of the team went out and then we saw a cease do better, and then we saw Martin and Velaska is doing best. So I think, you know, with that, with those three games in hand and off day, I'm hoping that there'll be more, you know, like when I saw the idea that Kopek could start this weekend, even though we just you know, we last time we saw him, he slamming the bond and frustration couldn't even throw a warm up pitch like that made it seem like we need Copec to start because this season is getting out of hand fast, and I didn't think that helped. So here's hoping that this series against Detroit makes everybody a little bit more clear headed and making decisions because they are actually what's best for the team and the player versus what's best for the team on the given day. In order to put a W in the win column and maybe like improve the run differential and the last ten numbers and everything else in the standings that look so grim. But given the White Sox problems with leg injuries recurring, I'm, you know, I need him to show me. I suppose same thing like Mancata and Anderson, everybody else, everybody who's had a leg injury. I need to see that they can do it. And I'm not penciling them in for starts like in mid July until they can, you know, get through June in relative working order. That's why I like Joe Kelly's outing was so important, because he looked great before his hamstring injury, and then with all the hamstring injuries, the White Sox leading the league in leg injuries last two years, like I was afraid he'd be there for a couple outings and then go right back in the IL. And he might do that, but at least for the time being, he looked like he was fully healthy in the game he pitched.
00:37:34
Speaker 2: And then after that Sunday night baseball game, the White Sox play on Monday at home against Toronto Blue Jays. So it's gonna be a late night early morning for the White Sox coming home from Houston, and they have a turnaround playing at home three games against the Blue Jays Monday through Wednesday, and then the four game weekend series against the Baltimore Oriols. Again, the White Sox do not have another off day for two weeks. They're off to day this Thursday. Then they don't have their next off day is two weeks from today. So the White Sox do have to play this carefully, especially with Michael Kopek. If Kopek cannot go on Sunday, if he needs an extra day or to arrest, lance Lynn will be in line to make that start for the White Sox. And we know the terrible history that lance Lynn has against the Houston Astros hitters. The Astros hitters love to hit lance Lynn. But maybe that's also an opportunity for Lynn to try to have a bounce back game for himself, because he wasn't all that sharp against Detroit in the first game, as he allowed ten hits in three runs as he got into the fifth inning, but he couldn't get past the fifth inning in his season debut. Speaking of Houston's offense, and I'm not trying to be blasphemous here, Jim but I'm looking at Jordan Elvarez, and Alvarez just signed that big contract over one hundred million dollars over the next five years, and he's continuing to mash. He's got seven home runs this year, he's got forty five RBIs, he's hitting three twelve with a four h seven on base percentage, and he's slugging six twenty. The way that Jordon Alvarez is hitting for the Astros is what I thought Alloy Hemenez could hit for the White Sox. And I'm a bit jealous of the Houston Astros that they're getting this type of offensive production because I really do believe, and I still believe, that Alloy Hemenez could hit at this level. And that's where I'm just jealous is that I'm seeing this come into play. But it's not Alloy Hemenez doing this for the White Sox, it's Jordon Alvarez doing it for the Astros.
00:39:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, the average and slugging are there for what we thought was like the I guess, not quite best case scenario for Jimenez, but like eightieth percentile UH outcome for Jimenez. I don't see Jimenez ever having an OVP that starts with the four. I think that's what separates him. But yeah, it's that kind of impact, and uh, it's definitely game changing. Like that's the kind of it reminds me of. I guess what Vlad Guerrero was last year. He's not quite there this year. I think he's improving, but not he's hitting too many balls in the ground. But it's the same just you know, seventeen homers. Uh, just it's you know, somebody to play around the don't let him beat you guy, because really like Houston has a good lineup, and it say, you know, Michael Brantley is you know, still a threat, Kyle Tucker is good. You know al two Vey is good. Like you know, they have guys who can hit. But Alvarez is definitely that guy. And and when you've separated yourself that much in a lineup that's pretty good up and down, I think that speaks volumes about just exactly what he's doing at the plate right now.
00:40:39
Speaker 2: And another name that White Sox fans are going to see if you don't watch a lot of Houston Astros baseball, Jeremy Pania, the rookie who took over for Carlos Korea at shortstop, and I think he's the front runner to be American League Rookie of the Year. He has been fantastic for the Houston Astros. His season ops is over eight hundreds at eight oh four, He's got nine homers in twenty seven RBIs. We'll see how much that he'll play against the White Sox this weekend. I know the Astros will be giving him some days off, but.
00:41:10
Speaker 3: He's very He's actually out with a thumb injury.
00:41:12
Speaker 2: He's out with a thumb injury. So is he out for this entire series?
00:41:15
Speaker 3: He's on the injured list.
00:41:17
Speaker 1: Oh.
00:41:17
Speaker 2: That is kind of a benefit for the White Sox then, and also kind of a downer because if you haven't seen Jeremy Pania play, I do recommend it because he is making the Houston Astros look really smart right now, Jim of not re signing Carlos Correa and Carlos care is still an all world shortstop, but it's like they again, the Astros continue to excel in player development and they have maybe developed another all star caliber shortstop to replace Carlos Carrea. One surprise is Alex Bregman. Now, Bregman is walking. He's got thirty six walks this season at thirty three strikeouts, but he's only got six homers. He's got fourteen doubles, which is pretty good, but when you add it up for sixty one games, Bregman's hitting only two fourteen with a three thirty one on base percentage, and he's like he just three sixty three. I'm really surprised on his offense out put to start this season, Jim, And I'm really hoping that he does not wake up this weekend.
00:42:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've seen it seems like he's been fighting with this swing a little bit. You know, he's just been trying to tap in the power and yeah it's uh al two vas you know, still all two A Like he's just been Yeah, he seems like when it comes to the whole Astro scandal, like he's somebody who uh managed to develop a callus to it and just you know, not mind being the villain.
00:42:48
Speaker 2: Uh.
00:42:49
Speaker 3: I think everybody's chagrin, but you know, Bregman just hasn't quite been able to capture that. But I think the the thing about the lineup is just even walks are so punishing with this lineup, especially depending on like if they're in front of Alvarez or if they're in front of Brantley, because Brantley is, you know, doing his thing right now. And I think when it comes to just you know, watching Giolito labor through some innings and the way they've turned the lineup over with walks and then paid for it at the top of the order, I think that's gonna be pretty much paramount for the pitching staff because while the Astros offense is good, it's a bit uneven. So they just have to make sure that they don't create unnecessary base runners, you know, with the bottom of the order, with just overlooking you know, number eight, number nine, because they're thinking about number one.
00:43:38
Speaker 2: Now, that's a good point, Jim, it's a good point. And with Paya out, I mean, this lineup, the guys that scare you the most, Alvarez, Alto, they Tucker and Brantley. We know that they could do damage against the White Sox because they have been doing damage against the White Sox the last two years. But Alex Bregman is really struggling. There's been a lot of conversation about Martinez Maldonado, the Astros are happy with his defense, even though he's not hitting very well, and it sounds like the Astros are not interested in wil Secatreris or at least in that sweepstakes to acquire the Chicago Cubs catcher. So again, it's these four guys that the White Sox pitchers are gonna have to navigate through, or, as you also pointed out, Jim, don't have base runners on for Alvarez l two Va Tucker at Brantley. That's easier said than done. But hopefully the White Sox do get some outstanding starting pitching this weekend. They're gonna need it if they're gonna win a game or even this series against the Houston Astros. I am hopeful that they do win at least one game out of this weekend, Jim, because to have this great series in Detroit and have some good vibes going into an off day and then immediately gets swept by the Houston Astros and now you're back to four games below five hundred again, after you kind of climbed up a little out of this hole. It could be the little disheartening as you come home for three games against the Toronto Blue Jays so it's a tough six games swinging for the White Sox, three against the Astros, three against the Blue Jays. But again, if they're gonna play themselves into attention, they got to start stacking wins, and they got to start stacking wins against some of the best teams in baseball. But that will do it for this episode of the sox Machine podcast. Thank you guys so much for listening. Greatly appreciate it. If you just discover the sox Machine podcast, you describe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts such as Spotify and Apple Music, and whether you've been a longtime lurker of socks Machine or your brands, making new to socks Machine, think about helping support us at patreon dot com slash sox Machine. Our Patreon supporters they get more, They get exclusive content from us. They also get avery versions of the podcast, the website, and when we have new sox Machine swag, they are the first ones to acquire it. And again, if you enjoy your work and you want more, sign up at patreon dot com slash sox Machine, where monthly plans start at two dollars a month and you could save with an annual subscription, but thank you so much for listening to the Sox Machine podcast. As the podcast is a production of Soxmachine dot Com. You're home for all of things Chicago White Sox baseball and part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Alongside Jim Margolis, I'm Josh Nelson. Thanks for listening.
