Podcast: Abreu Wins MVP and La Russa is Charged with a DUI

It has been a pretty busy week for the Chicago White Sox. MLB announced Jose Abreu as the 2020 American League MVP, which was great news. The rumored hiring of Ethan Katz to be the next pitching coach is intriguing, and ESPN 1000 is the White Sox new radio home.

That alone is a busy week, but Tony La Russa’s pending DUI charge is an unnecessary distraction. Josh and Jim discuss it all on this edition of the podcast.

P.O. Sox Questions:

Scott:

Do we know anything about the scouts with the Sox in terms of Covid layoffs and how does one scout amateur talent these days.

DuckSnorting-CanOfCorn

The big concern with TLR is that if they don’t win, he will lose the clubhouse fast. Any thoughts on Jose Abreu being a stabilizing force and maintaining team wide professionalism? Or will he just silently go about his business if clubhouse drama arises?

mark sambor

There were reports that Renteria asked for a 3rd starting pitcher at the trade deadline this year. If TLR was managing the White Sox this past season and went to Reinsdorf that he needed a 3rd starting pitcher at the trade deadline, would the sox have made a deal?

Patreon Bonus Questions

James Tyrrell

I understand Vaughn played some outfield in Schaumburg. Any chance he is the new Sox right fielder next season?

Matthew Masini

The disappointment of TLR DUI is somewhat lessened by the hiring of Katz.  Is it possible that we are overreacting to what a tragedy he is?  Maybe he still has some pull with people in the game?  Hopefully this is just the rollout from hell and it’s all smooth sailing from here (minus the well deserved jail time).  Gosh, what did I just type?

Mark

Could you guys please contact Ken Griffin and ask him to buy the White Sox from Jerry R?

Click play below to listen:

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Josh Nelson
Josh Nelson

Josh Nelson is the host and producer of the Sox Machine Podcast. For show suggestions, guest appearances, and sponsorship opportunities, you can reach him via email at josh@soxmachine.com.

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asinwreck

Great episode. If White Sox ownership had a tenth of the competence and acumen of this site and podcast, we would all be pretty proud of the team (and, I’d imagine, the team would have won more than one AL pennant in 40 years).

Regarding women in the game who may one day run franchises, I have a couple names who may not be too far behind Raquel Ferreira. Megan Schroeder is Director, Performance Science for the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Her media profile isn’t high, but you can hear Ben Lindbergh & Sam Miller interview her and Senior Analyst (Biomechanical Quantitative) Emilee Fragapane a few years ago.

The other name I’ll mention is about a decade younger than Schroeder…and works for the White Sox. Emily Blady is a Barnard grad who pushed the school to beef up its computer science offerings. Her current title is Baseball Operations Analyst. Crain’s Chicago Business profiled her last year and gave a little perspective into some of the quantitative work the team is doing.

Blady makes sense of millions of pieces of data the team collects on the characteristics and results of individual pitches, for example, to make them usable for players, coaches, scouts and especially the team’s baseball management as they decide which players to sign, trade or draft. They are closely held advanced metrics: She says her favorite statistic is one she can’t talk about publicly.

Sounds like her work fits into the pitch lab, and it will be interesting to see how her responsibilities evolve with Ethan Katz joining the organization. Three years ago, Lauren Comitor did a profile on local women in baseball. Blady was 24 at the time, and already had worked for the Tigers and Nationals before joining the Sox. She stated her ambition:

“A big part of being in baseball for me, a part of my motivation, is I want to help build a winning team,” Blady said. “When I was in Washington, I got there and the team was already winning. Which is satisfying, but not as much as I wanted to be. Here, I have a chance to help build that. I have a chance to contribute to the success. So hopefully, in a few years down the line, when the White Sox win the World Series, we’ll all get the rings, and I’ll say, you know, yeah, I was a real part of this. And that’s what I want, I want to really contribute to the success. I want to contribute to the team playing and I want to help make that happen here.”

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