Show Rundown:
1:00: Spring Training Recap
15:39: Liam Hendriks
30:16: Aaron Bummer
40:33: Evan Marshall
47:38: Codi Heuer/Matt Foster
56:15: Michael Kopech/Garrett Crochet (Team KopCroch)
62:55: Who is the 8th man in the bullpen?
66:55: Show Polls
70:26: Do the White Sox have the game’s best bullpen?
72:41: P.O. Sox
Click play below to listen:
The bullpen is absolutely loaded and unlike other areas of the club there is a good deal of depth to it as well.
I think I would use Bummer in the 8th regardless of matchups, then go to Heuer over Marshall as my first righty set up option and Crochet as the lefty setup guy…. you just can’t really go wrong at this point and until someone faulters TLR will have tremendous flexibility.
The 8th guy debate you have to figure 1 of Rodon/Lopez getting pushed to the pen pushes Cordero out, then you still have Fry coming back at some point, and some AAA arms like Zach Burdi and Tyler Johnson as options if anyone goes down. The pen is very very deep.
As a Kentuckian, I’m naturally a UK basketball fan. The ’14-’15 team was especially loaded, leading Calipari to use what came to be known as “platoons.” A “blue platoon” of 5 guys would play for 4-5 minutes, then a “white platoon” would sub in and play 4-5 minutes. The downside was the studs (e.g. Towns & Booker) played less than normal, but the upside was that everyone was fresh as the game—and season—wore on.
This has me wondering if TLR could do something similar with the White Sox bullpen? So, perhaps it look like:
Game one: Heuer (6th), Crochet (7th), Hendriks (8-9th)
Game two: Kopech (6-7th), Marshall (8th), Bummer (9th)
Foster cycles in as needed; first guy out in the 5th inning.
Of course, there would need to be exceptions. Still, it could be an interesting way to keep the bullpen fresh night in and night out.
thats well put and almost exactly what i think larussa will do
Signing Hendriks preempted a lively closer discussion….
Great point – it would have been fascinating to see who fans would have wanted at closer had the Sox not made any FA signings. I suspect it would have been Bummer to start, though perhaps with an eye towards giving Heuer and Crochet some looks there.
20% capacity for opening day…. wonder how much tix are gonna cost now.
Anyone else see a bit of young Keith Foulke in Foster?