Podcast: SoxFest 2020 Recap
We kick off our seventh season podcasting about the Chicago White Sox recapping the 2020 SoxFest. Hear from Rick Hahn, Yasmani Grandal, Eloy Jimenez, and Andrew Vaughn discuss the upcoming season.
Other topics we chat about:
- Yasmani Grandal’s impact on the pitching staff
- Can Luis Robert be the next Mike Trout?
- Dallas Keuchel apologizes but the Houston Astros don’t
- Will Yoan Moncada or Lucas Giolito receive an offer to sign a contract extension?
We also answer your P.O. Sox questions about Michael Kopech, defense concerns, and Justin Jirschele’s coaching future.
Presented by Visit Arizona
Click play below to listen:
Author
Jim, congratulations on being promoted from the NY-Penn League to the Pacific Coast League.
Nashville also has amazing musical instrument stores like Gruhn Guitars. If you would like to avoid country for podcast theme music, there is always this.
Has this song been on the Effectively Wild podcast?
It’s possible, but I listen to maybe 25% of the episodes so I don’t know. (It is amazing how prolific that gang is.)
Yeah, I’ve been needing to replace my old Epiphone acoustic because it has a warped neck not worth fixing, but I’ve been waiting to explore the stores here, because I imagine the secondhand stock has to be pretty robust.
I don’t think the White Sox will deliberately play this game, but I am still surprised no one mentions it. Maybe, no one mentions it, because I’m not understanding the rules properly.
But if Kopech is optioned to AAA as expected. If he stays in AAA until June, he could finish the year with less than 1.172 years of service time, so technically couldn’t the Sox gain back a year of service time by keeping him in AAA til June.
Again, don’t see it actually happening, but surprised it doesn’t seem to be mentioned anywhere, because I feel like it technically could be a possibility.
It is a possibility, but I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that. I guess it could if Giolito/Keuchel/Gonzalez/Cease/Lopez are lights out to start the season.
Not hoping for it, but it could potentially come into play as well if say minor injuries delayed a promotion for a month or two.
I don’t mention it because I don’t want to encourage it.
Fair enough
The Nicholas Castellanos contract setup is a bit odd:
A return of a 50 FV prospect and a 45+ one (FG). Both in low A, so it looks like the Pirates were looking for longer-term assets. I wonder what it would have cost the White Sox? They might not have been great fits.
Still, after seeing this and the deal Ozuna got, what Hahn did in RF feels even more unsatisfying…unless the Sox go all-out for Betts next season.
I saw a clip of Hahn on the White Sox website last week where he talked about Mazara as a bridge. He was fairly candid I actually thought he slipped up a bit. I definitely came way with the impressive that they have interest in this upcoming free agent class.
From what I read, Keuchel’s “apology” was nothing remarkable. Not going to give him any great credit for saying things like “I personally am sorry for what’s come about, the whole situation” which sounds sort of like saying I am sorry we got caught. Or minimizing by saying “So it wasn’t like every game we had everything going on.”