Show Rundown
1:22: First Spring Training game recap
10:07: Preseason state of the 2021 White Sox SP staff
17:53: Lucas Giolito preview
29:36: Lance Lynn preview
38:56: Dallas Keuchel preview
49:19: Dylan Cease preview
59:36: 5th SP spot
63:42: Show polls
72:20: P.O. Sox
Click play below to listen:
I voted for Cease in the poll. Voted more with my heart than my head I suppose, but presuming Giolito remains consistently good with his Ks, for Cease to surpass him would spell very, very good things for this club.
Off topic, but the Braves reported their financial results from last year. They lost $54M.
Back of the envelop: if each team lost that amount, the league would have lost $1.6B. So the question is how representative are the Braves of the other teams in the league?
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/02/braves-report-major-revenue-drop-operating-losses-in-2020.html
The Hall of Fame Baseball Person who I would legit want to see manage in 2021 cannot do so because he is deceased. I like Earl Weaver for a number of reasons. He hated bunting, he was superb at putting players in the best position to succeed given their strengths and weaknesses, and he and his pitching coaches did a terrific job of developing pitchers.
I was reminded of this during the discussion of the 5th starter slot and how many starts Michael Kopech would get. Weaver often put pitching prospects in long relief for their rookie season. I imagine he would give the concept of the opener a fair trial, and that he might manager each of Kopech and Crochet to 60-80 innings this season.
That might be what Hall of Fame Baseball Person Tony La Russa does this year. We shall see. I am relieved the Sox do not have Hall of Infamy Baseball Person Billy Martin in charge to see if Kopech can throw 300 innings. I still shudder to remember what he did to Mike Norris and Rick Langford in 1980. (Seriously, look at the pitching statistics of that team.)
One note on Keuchel regarding innings expectations is he has had consecutive short seasons.