Chicago White Sox 2023 Season Preview: Starting Pitchers and Catchers
Record Date: 3/19/2023
Rundown:
- Dylan Cease Preview [1:29]
- Lance Lynn Preview [12:16]
- Lucas Giolito Preview [21:29]
- Mike Clevinger Preview [31:08]
- Michael Kopech Preview [42:31]
- Yasmani Grandal Preview [52:52]
- Seby Zavala Preview [64:01]
I totally forgot to mention on the podcast about the White Sox Twitter Personality Contest today.
I’m going to be making silly videos all day today to poke fun at my opponent. Your vote would be appreciated:
The Grandal segment has me wondering what projection systems would think of the White Sox in an alternate universe where the ’22 Sox properly rest their injured players. Presumably, no projection system accounts for a player playing injured (a la Robert, especially, but it applies to several ’22 Sox). On the one hand, I’d expect them to get a bit of a boost since performance would be better. On the other hand, I’d expect them to take a hit in games played. Maybe it’d be a wash. But it’d be fun to see.
Pnoles has been carrying a similar thought.
So the 2022 Sox are the only team to have players playing hurt? I did not know that.
Yes, that is indeed exactly what I said. Such a charitable interpretation!
Hey Josh! You might need to go back and edit a few of the season preview installments. Bob Nightengale, who is clearly correct as the FO mouthpiece, referred to Yoan as an outfielder. We’ve been duped this whole time!!!
Damn it, Bob!
Is there anybody generally more full of shit than Nightengale when it comes to the Sox?
Be careful, that’s what we said when he reported interest in LaRussa…
I’m not that concerned that we will see Yoan roaming the outfield. I think he will be proven pretty wrong on that. : )
Is this outfielder related to our 3rd baseman with the same name?
The empirical evidence leads me to believe that Gio may have been one of the more affected pitchers by the ban of sticky stuff. Not only his record but his spin rate seems to back this up.
Expecting him to return to 2021 form then seems like a Bogart on the hopium pipe. I sincerely hope I’m wrong.
I hope you are wrong as well. I think the whole team was tainted with bad La Russa juju past two years. I think Gio will be ok, hopefully he pitches well enough to have some trade value in July along with Lynn. That would be better than losing both after the season and getting nothing.
As far as I know, sticky stuff doesn’t increase velocity. League-wide spin rates are back up, so pitchers apparently found a way around the checks. His 4-seam spin rate last year was similar to or better than other years when he threw 92 MPH. If he’s throwing 94 the spin may come back, but I’m not sure there’s any evidence that he’ll be throwing 94.
He still managed to stay pretty good for the rest of 2021 by keeping hard hit balls to a minimum. Probably more importantly, he hasn’t displayed any increased susceptibility to injury like other guys (e.g. Tyler Glasnow) did post-ban.
I’m more worried that hitters have figured out his changeup and he’s going to have to rely more on a slider that has never been super effective.
glasnow was always injury-prone, i don’t think the sticky stuff ban is related. the changeup suffered bc the fastball’s decreased velo and spin meant a decreased delta in both vs the change. if the fastball is back the change will be too