Lance Lynn chose not to elaborate on his spat in the dugout with Joe McEwing during his start on Monday against the Tigers. He chose to say it was about steak, which 1) brought to mind A.J. Pierzynski and Jake Peavy's "college football argument" from 11 years ago, and 2) didn't hold water, because McEwing said he's a pescatarian.
The reaction of both suggested that it was far less personal than, say, the beef that Jeff McNeil and Francisco Lindor originally said was about whether they saw a rat or a raccoon, but given that infield positioning has hampered the White Sox at various points over the years (particularly in last year's ALDS), I was curious whether this revealed any deeper frustration with the White Sox's defensive inefficiency.
Jomboy's lip-reading exercise suggests that the discontent was shallow-seated.
Whether Lynn was upset about positioning or merely frustrated with himself, this interpretation indicates that McEwing let him know what it looked like, and Lynn seemed to take umbrage at the idea that he showed up teammates. And I really hope he said "pack a lunch."
Spare Parts
Back when Liam Hendriks signed with the White Sox, he expressed an excitement for charitable endeavors and community outreach. He's front and center with the White Sox's Pride Month-related activities, telling James Fegan that he wants to do what he can to make everybody feel accepted, because the response he's received suggests there's still a long way to go.
Hendriks laments the lack of openly queer athletes in MLB, but views his role in improving that as creating a better environment for it to one day take place, and showing that LGBTQIA+ people will be valued and supported in a sports setting. It seems that what small sliver of blowback his actions in supporting the LGBTQIA+ community generates, compared to what an athlete actually coming out might experience, says plenty about how difficult that still would be, and why a professional sports setting stills contains attitudes that can seem unwelcoming for queer fans as well.
“I raised the Pride flag on Pride Night here last year, and some of the DMs and comments I got were just horrendous,” Hendriks said. “I can only imagine someone doing it and actually having to go through it themselves with already feeling slightly ostracized in a clubhouse where you don’t know where people’s allegiances lie. That’s a scary thought and it’s a scary world.”
I like that Defector has resumed having a White Sox beat, and it's refreshing when the topic isn't "Blight Sox." Here, Kathryn Xu takes a moment to marvel at the White Sox's incredible stolen-base efficiency.
NBC Sports Chicago exists as an entity until October 2024, and Jeff Agrest says it would've already turned into something else if NBCUniversal could find a buyer, because regional sports networks struggle to draw ratings outside of live games. Based on what Rob Manfred said about creating MLB streaming bundles in a model different from the cable-oriented system, it might be a fool's errand trying to plot what the next White Sox network could look like.
Tucked into Jay Jaffe's dissection into everything plaguing the Tigers is a note that the team is considering optioning Spencer Torkelson to the minors, which serves as a reminder to not take what Andrew Vaughn is doing in his second full season for granted.
The Cleveland Guardians have established a path for the ownership of Paul Dolan to give way to David Blitzer, which has the potential for the Guardians to shed their penny-pinching ways, even if they don't turn into some sort of monster. That said, previous Cleveland minority owner John Sherman hasn't transformed the Royals since taking controlling ownership from David Glass, so any transformation may not be immediate.
One consequence of the analytics movement is the tendency to overthink everything, resulting in a game that limits action, or at least delays it. Here's one case where overthinking the simple two-out force play results in more action. Nolan Gorman ran through second base in order to avoid an inning-ending out while a runner from third tried to score, and it confused the Pirates into pursuing him, rather than throwing to first and recording the other force option that would've negated the runner at third. A run scored as a result.
