Liam Hendriks probably didn’t set out on all of his charitable endeavors in order to bank goodwill for his own potential time of need, but as he undergoes treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, James Fegan wrote a terrific story about the support Hendriks is receiving from people and organization that he and his wife Kristi have supported.
One by one, Fegan talks to people whose lives and organizations have worked with the Hendrikses — pit bull advocates, veterans, the LGBTQ community, and children with cancer among them. Many of them struggle with how to reciprocate in a way that will mean as much to him as his actions meant to them.
“It’s unfortunately come full circle in a way where he’s helped nearly 100 sick kids in the Chicagoland area, this is our opportunity to help him,” said Adam Petraglia, a survivor of childhood cancer and executive director of Bricks of Hope, a new foundation that gives LEGO sets to children enduring long hospital stays. With a slide-out table at his locker where he assembles LEGO sets to occupy his mind before games, it sounds like a charity Hendriks might have founded if it didn’t exist already. Instead, Liam and Kristi simply donated 96 LEGO sets to the fledgling foundation, which has given out more than 2,600 sets to children since launching in 2021. In turn, Petraglia gifted Hendriks a 3-in-1 Majestic Tiger set after hearing about his diagnosis. He doesn’t imagine it will take Hendriks all that long to complete, but he’ll appreciate the thought behind it as much as anyone.
Spare Parts
I’d been thinking that Elvis Andrus’ market would come to life after Carlos Correa officially signed, but besides the Red Sox, Michael Baumann doesn’t see many teams that need to spend $10 million on an OK shortstop. If he’s willing to accept other infield positions, the White Sox make more sense, especially as a hedge against another Tim Anderson injury.
New White Sox assistant hitting coach Chris Johnson said his mindset is “We’re not up there trying to hit singles,” and this post by Ben Clemens indirectly explains why. It’s one thing when Anderson drops base hits into right field as a way to generate his OBP at the top of the order, because he’s going to swing 55 percent of the time no matter what, but it’s far less helpful when Luis Robert expands his zone in the same way instead of doing actual damage.
That is way too moist of a headline for Noah Schultz, who has already changed his fastball approach under the guidance of Everett Teaford. Schultz is now emphasizing a two-seam fastball due to the run it gets from his lower arm slot.
The Automatic Balls and Strikes system will be used in two different ways across Triple-A this season, with half the games having all calls determined by it, and half the games using it for a challenge system backing up live umpires similar to tennis.
Joe McEwing was able to turn a dismissal into a promotion, as Matt Holliday’s surprise resignation from Oliver Marmol’s staff created a late-winter need.
Nick Madrigal, who is now making $1.225 million as a Super Two, has been usurped in the middle infield by Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner. He doesn’t really work anywhere else, as you can tell by your reaction to this quote:
Hoyer mentioned Friday that Madrigal will take reps at third base. He has not played an inning at third in at least the last eight seasons, dating to his freshman year at Oregon State.
“He’s not what you think of a stereotypical third baseman power slugger,” Hoyer said, “but he’s a really good hitter, a really good player and he can definitely do it.”
Sign me up for a season of watching Nick Madrigal make throws from third base for someone else’s team.
What would it take to get Madrigal back for 2B?
Very little probably. I don’t want him here.
Nor do I. A reunion would not surprise me though, just because he would cost next to nothing, and makes very little in salary. Which is of course the most important player attribute according to this FO.
Sosa at least has power and upside, and hasn’t been hurt 2/3 of the time the past 2 years. I wouldn’t want Madrigal for free to muddy up the 2b picture, personally.
I hope they give the job to Sosa, not Romy. Sosa had a very good season hitting while Romy was awful at AAA. I gotta believe Sosa is the better hitter with higher upside.
I would classify it as more of a lost season for Romy, but I agree that I’d rather see Sosa get the first crack at second (assuming the “team is on the field”). I don’t think he has anything left to prove at AAA and would like to see if he can make the adjustment to mlb.
I would like an addition even if he might muddy the waters for Sosa. Someone who’s at minimum a veteran who has proven they can play stable 2B defense, is projected to hit for league average OPS+/wRC+, and most importantly, hits RHP well.
But I agree that Madrigal doesn’t tick enough boxes to be worth adding.
He’ll be back in June after the Cubs DFA him.
I know that it won’t happen but, at this point, Profar makes the most sense for this team.
A switch hitter then can play the infield and OF and is at least average offensively with some power and walked 73 times last year.
Not ideal, but can be a difference maker on a team planning to start Romy Gonzalez and Oscar Colas with no decent backup plans.
Agreed. this is the real failure of the organization, not having any roster depth. starting the season with Colas and Sosa/Romy isn’t a problem if you have Profar and Andrus waiting in the wings. they can probably get both on one year deals for a total less than $20 mil. there is currently no market for either.
Profar can’t really play the infield any more. He’s not seen full time work on the dirt since 2019, and DRS loathed his defensive work. In small amounts he’s been pretty rough defensively across the infield since then. He’s also a small negative in the outfield. He does make the Sox better, but that’s mostly in terms of depth. Also he’s corner OF only, which doesn’t help nearly as much as a CF-capable guy would.
Today is the start of International players signings… and the White Sox are very quiet. I can only see Luis Reyes (RHP) from DR signed at 700K. Venezuelan catcher Ethan Salas getting the higher contract at 5.6M from the Padres. Why the White Sox keep consistently under investing on international prospects is beyond me.
What are you talking about? We got Juan Uribe Jr!
I guess when the best Cubans shoots them down, like with Morales going to Oakland, their ability to sign top ranked talent dries up.
I think the 5.6M was more than the Sox’ entire bonus pool. These are some of their other signings. They still have more than half their pool unaccounted for. Not sure if they are waiting for a Cuban to become available late in the signing period or if they failed to sign a higher priced target and got stuck standing in a game of musical chairs.
They failed on Morales. Offered him $2.5mil.
There was another Cuban outfielder the Yankees got. Named Brandon Mayea. He wasn’t cheap. And I believe there were another couple of Cuban players in the top prospect list we didn’t get. The aforementioned Morales (RHP) and Ariel Castro (outfielder, and a lefty).
That was the only country where they really seemed to have built a presence.
Hope they hanven’t lost an edge there. Prospect scouting, acquisition and development is abysmal enough.
The problem is that the White Sox international department is apparently just Marco Paddy and something like 1 or 2 other guys. They just don’t have the ability to scout and develop relationships with prospects and trainers to the extent that other clubs who employ 10+ scouts do. That’s why the White Sox IFA classes are generally 10 players max while most other clubs sign 20-30 players. Even if some of those players are lower bonus guys (<$100K) without much pedigree, sometimes they turn into Jose Altuve, Jose Ramirez, Cristian Javier, Framber Valdez, Ozzie Albies, etc.
Perfect lede. James’s story really is terrific, well worth spending a few minutes of your Sunday reading about the terrific people, initiatives, and dogs that Liam Hendriks chooses to spend time and energy supporting.
https://www.vegasinsider.com/mlb/odds/american-league-central/
PointsBet is now the place to bet against the Sox winning the AL Central — they’re currently favorites at +140 (Cle at +160 and Min at +300)
Wouldn’t be the best place to bet the ones that don’t have the White Sox as favorites? Haven’t said that, I don’t really know how this betting thing works as I have never in my life placed a bet in any sports.
Yeah, he said it’s the best place to bet against the White Sox, which would mean betting for one of the other teams.
Ah. Sorry. I was under the impression this was a White Sox blog where generally fans don’t bet against the White Sox. My mistake.
I hate gambling.
At the craps table, there’s a “don’t pass” line, which basically is betting against the shooter doing well. You can make money doing it when the table is cold but everyone there hates you for betting against the shooter doing well.
It’s exactly the same, except different.
I think they’ll win the division, so not me. But I know at least one of the fans on the blog was talking about betting against the Sox, since he/she was so down on their chances.
Other than that, I’ve seen a lot of folks peg the Sox for an under .500 team this year. If they’re willing to bet against the Sox, it might be a good bet for them.
I can’t wait until Hahn points to this fact in the season postmortem after a 78-win season.
See? I knew there were folks on here that might want to put a few dollars on Cleveland and Minnesota.
I’ll take the over on that win total all day long
Me too…if TLR was able to extract a big chunk of the 80 wins we got last year, I am confident Grifol will do a lot better.
I’d put the over on them at about 82-84, with the Guardians about 88-90. If Colas isn’t good then probably like 81. Finishing under .500 with little to no ability to hit RHP would hardly be surprising.
I wish I could trust in jettisoning TLR to create a drastic change in the team’s fortunes, but losing their best hitter while half-assing yet another offseason isn’t exactly inspiring a lot of confidence for me. In the absence of spending money they’re doing about as well as I could expect and doing some things on the margins I think are important, but it’s just too late to reverse course, I think.
One thing is for sure, if they did manage to win this dumpster division, they would just end up looking silly in the playoffs again. Still have done nothing to address their atrocious hitting vs RHP. In 3 years now.
If Clevinger and Benintendi and a handful of minor league signings are the full extent of this offseason, then that will be three straight offseasons the White Sox failed to make contending moves during this so-called contention window. They weren’t willing to sign free agents when the market was favorable, so it would be surprising if they spent in a less favorable market. Yet for reasons that go against history and reality, I hold out hope they will add at least one depth player FA to shore up one of either 2B or OF. As a White Sox fan, I know there’s a pony under the dunghill somewhere!
For them not to sign Segura for as cheap as they idiotically paid Kelly, with their payroll being down a little bit, is completely inexcusable. If they add a depth piece, so what, it won’t be anybody good.
They have gotten incrementally worse every year since 2020. It’s a shame they aren’t in the AL East, they wouldn’t even have a tiny prayer of making the playoffs, and it would force Hahn and company to run things differently. As it is, they’re content with being mildly competitive in the weakest division imaginable.
Ownership lacks that TWTW