Spring training updates: White Sox post new Cactus League schedule, broadcasts
While we wait for the White Sox to officially announce Joe Kelly and/or Josh Harrison and/or Vince Velasquez and/or any more exciting moves they have in store, let’s take a moment to touch on a few topics.
Spring training schedule
As the members of the White Sox 40-man roster roll into spring training, the Sox released the revised spring training schedule, so you can make plans for going about seeing them starting with a split-squad date against the Cubs on Thursday.
With such a short run, the White Sox aren’t bothering with the whitesox.com webcasts, but instead are opting to broadcast six of nine home games over the two-plus weeks of Cactus League play. The hope is that the rest of the league will post their schedules by St. Patrick’s Day so I can round up all the dates the Sox can be seen on MLB.tv, and perhaps the MLB Network.
Dylan Cease’s mustache
Last September, after watching Dylan Cease’s ever-lengthening beard fail to connect with the remainder of his facial hair, I proposed that he should just shift to a mustache, because the Dave Stieb lifestyle was within his grasp.
Sometimes the White Sox cooperate with requests. This is one of them.
There’s a lot of anti-mustache sentiment out there, but I’d argue that a full and proper cookie-duster is superior to an incomplete beard. Adam Engel is on the clock.
The Twins are moving
To what effect remains unclear, but Minnesota has taken the division lead in activity.
On Saturday, they acquired Isiah Kiner-Falefa from the Texas Rangers for Mitch Garver, with pitching prospect Ronny Henriquez also heading Minnesota’s way. Kiner-Falefa’s Minnesota career lasted one whole day, as the Twins then flipped him to the Yankees in a massive deal:
- Yankees receive: Kiner-Falefa, Josh Donaldson, Ben Rortvedt
- Twins receive: Gary Sánchez and Gio Urshela
The Yankees absorbed the remaining $50 million on Donaldson’s deal, so that opens up some possibilities that weren’t there before, with Trevor Story the most prominent name. Meanwhile, Sánchez replaces Garver as the catcher sharing time with Ryan Jeffers.
In between, the Twins also addressed their shortage of credible starting pitchers by acquiring Sonny Gray from the Cincinnati Reds for Chase Petty, a prep pitcher they chose in the first round of last year’s draft. Dan Szymborski says it’s the kind of targeted upgrade that plays up larger than one player normally would:
Author
Not sure I agree with the “anti-mustache sentiment” comment. If anything, I fee like they’ve been en vogue for quite some time.
In other news, the rest of our division is trying to get better, while our strategy when it comes to 2B/RF makes me want to take a long walk off a short pier.
I think there are more people in the pro-mustache camp than in the previous decade, but they’re polarizing in a way that other forms of facial hair aren’t.
Mustache alone, probably ok. But if he starts cruising around in an El Camino, we may have a problem.
I suppose I do agree with that. It’s also crazy how radically different a mustache can make someone look.
It’s hard to ever know if Tatis is actually ever hurt as bad as originally predicted, but this one sounds difficult to work around.
https://twitter.com/AJCassavell/status/1503400818438914053
Meanwhile James Shields is completely healthy. Everything’s coming up White Sox!
I hear Ernie Broglio is available.
Pretty remarkable considering he died in 2019.
Apparently he injured it falling off his motorcycle multiple times throughout the winter.
SD should protect their investment and spring for a sidecar.
What do we think of my cousin Vinny now that we know it will cost $3M to employ him?
I will withhold my judgment to see if they still spend money on a real RF or plan to just cover it with the “yutes.”
$3MM is pretty cheap for ~2 WAR if he can find that again. It’s reasonable for half a WAR, too, if that’s all he ends up giving us. But perhaps he could see some uptick if he listens to Lance Lynn … https://blogs.fangraphs.com/a-suggestion-for-vince-velasquez/
I’m less concerned about the cost and more disconcerted by actually using a 26-man roster spot on him.