Pregame notes: ‘We get to fight back’
Grady Sizemore heard Lenyn Sosa’s name mentioned, and didn’t need to wait to hear the full question.
“We talked with Sos, I think he knew right away that he screwed up,” Sizemore said. “We want guys โ I talked about this earlier โ kind of knowing where youโre gonna go before the ballโs in play. Knowing if a ballโs to my left or right, what the reactionโs gonna be, whoโs gonna have command and I think Sos, we talked to him, he knew it wasnโt the play we wanted โ itโs Nicky [Lopez]โs ball.
But again, Iโm not super mad at it, because heโs being aggressive. Heโs just going out there reacting to a ball, trying to make a play. But we want him to know that thatโs the shortstopโs ball, heโs moving that way, so donโt try to do too much. I think heโs just trying to do too much out there. Unfortunately, that one cost us. But again, itโs an aggressive mistake, I can live with aggressive mistakes.”
Brooks Baldwin is dealing with a sore right hand that will continue to keep him unavailable for the next few days, which has prompted some even more heavy usage of Sosa in the past few days including both halves of Wednesday’s doubleheader. With Jacob Amaya getting his first start on Friday night, Sizemore now wonders if riding Sosa so heavily was a mistake, but reiterated multiple times that he hasn’t been benched.
“I probably shouldnโt have had him in there yesterday,” Sizemore said. “This isnโt a frustration thing with Sos. Heโs been really consistent for us on multiple spots and given us good at-bats, and thatโs one of those things where I talked to him. [Doug Sisson] talked to him, [Justin Jirschele], we all followed up. Itโs nothing like, we donโt need to get on him. He knows he screwed up and I know that heโll learn from it and weโll be stronger from it.”
Maybe this was obvious, but Nick Nastrini is already listed among probable starters for next week’s series in Baltimore after his strong outing on Thursday.
“Weโre gonna try to continue to build off of that,” said Sizemore.
Nastrini gave the sort of postgame compliment of Korey Lee’s receiving that winds up being revealing about why the coaching staff was tepid about increasing his playing time in the opening weeks of the season.
“The Korey that caught me today was not the Korey who caught me a few months ago,” Nastrini said. “He has taken a huge, huge step forward, just in his communication especially. Him and I, we live somewhat close to each other in the offseason so I have got to watch him play as he has been going up as well. I kept tabs on him and heโs really, really grown as a catcher. Iโm super, super fired up for him.”
At the same time, Sizemore makes it clear that the transition to No. 1 catcher reps also needed to take place eventually for Lee’s game-managing to really take a jump.
“Defensively it was probably a bonus for Korey to have someone like [Martรญn Maldonado] around to teach him and to learn from him,” Sizemore said. “Now that door’s opened up for him to be the everyday guy and to get more consistent reps and I think that’s why we’re seeing a little bit better version of him, just because he knows he’s going to be out there everyday.”
Of course, as is the case with all things 2024 White Sox, they’re losing too much and playing too horribly for intangible development to really be trusted.
“Here we are now, our next four series are all playoff teams,” Sizemore said. “This is a challenge for us to go out there and compete with some of the better teams in the league that are fighting for a spot and we get to fight back. We get to hit back and we get to try to wreck their path to the playoffs. That’s the challenge that we’re going to take on and we’re going to go out there, and try to compete with these playoff teams and not just be an easy win.”
A primary obstacle to that on Friday night, beyond the worst major league offense of our lifetimes, is left-handed hitters are slugging .519 against Jonathan Cannon, who needs to both command the up-and-in quadrant with his four-seamer and master the action on his seam-effect changeup to neutralize it.
First pitch: White Sox vs. Mets
TV: NBCSCH
Lineups:
White Sox | Mets | |
---|---|---|
Nicky Lopez, 2B | 1 | Francisco Lindor, SS |
Luis Robert Jr., CF | 2 | Brandon Nimmo, LF |
Andrew Benintendi, LF | 3 | Mark Vientos, 3B |
Andrew Vaughn, DH | 4 | Pete Alonso, 1B |
Gavin Sheets, 1B | 5 | Jesse Winker, RF |
Korey Lee, C | 6 | J.D. Martinez, DH |
Dominic Fletcher, RF | 7 | Jeff McNeil, 2B |
Miguel Vargas, 3B | 8 | Francisco Alvarez, C |
Jacob Amaya, SS | 9 | Harrison Bader, CF |
Jonathan Cannon | SP | Tylor Megill |
The White Sox are so terrible, the Metsโ pregame show is at a loss to actually analyze the opponent and have instead resorted to Johnny Carson-style jokes.
Jerry Blevins: The White Sox are bad.
Gary Apple: How bad are they?
Blevins: They’re so bad they get to use the ghost runner in the first inning.
Blevins: The White Sox are bad.
Apple: How bad are they?
Blevins: They’re so bad they think WAR stands for Wins Are Rare.
Did he just say the quiet part?
It’s hasn’t been quiet for a long time
I thought they waived lopez?
they put him on waivers to see if anyone would claim him and if they don’t then they just keep him, it’s the new thing.
Lopez has been placed on waivers, but can continue to play until a team claims him by tomorrow. If he is not claimed, he will remain with the White Sox.
Lopez isn’t part of the problem … He just isn’t part of the eventual solution either …
He just….. is.
Well, the Sox did have a lead for 15 minutes. That’s probably the moral victory of this particular loss.
Vargas has 7 hits in his last 60 at-bats. Good for a .116 average. Who needs Maldonado when you have a Vargas?
(Monkey paw curls)
What is really sad is Sheets (.682) and Vaughn (.682) have a higher OPS than Junior (.675), and soon may be passed by a hot Benintendi (.660).
The Sox have been dumping pretty much anyone with a pulse the past decade, with the detour of Tony singing a bunch of mostly players on their last contracts. Doing the same thing and expecting different results is insane. Time to start keeping any players that are good, and keep improving pitching development and start the same process hitting.
Don’t sell Robert at rock bottom. Give him a reason to play hard by starting to surround him and Crochet with legitimate MLB starters.
I don’t know if I’d trust Getz trading Robert Jr. Thus far, his trades have been underwhelming.
They gave him 88 million dollars. Is that not enough to play hard?
Nearly everyone who works in such a toxic organization, with toxic management and a toxic owner is not performing at their best, be it at minimum wage or millions. It’s demoralizing to have to go into work each day under these circumstances. It goes well beyond the W-L record.
It’s hard to play a 162 game grind in a supportive organization. Luis Robert Jr. is literally Will Smith at the end of Fresh Prince, on an empty set with any position player worth anything long gone, and little hope there will be any quality team under the rest of their contracts.
Vargas looked shell shocked within his first few games, realizing what he had left and the complete and the hopeless mess he was dumped into.
I can only imagine what it is like to be on the worst team in modern times and going to every game expecting to lose. With no hope on the horizon for anyone likely to be around next season.
He does play hard.
I truly have no idea how Getz can fix this offense in the short run. There’s not enough bats in the minors, and there are so many current players in the current roster that are bench players at best.
I think the answer all depends on good ole JR. If they have a similar payroll itโs simple, go buy bats. Dont spend one penny on pitching. All bats all the time. 60-70 mil can buy at least 5 solid bats.
If the payroll shrinksโฆyeahโฆweโre screwed
I rather they spend those 60 mil in Juan Soto. At least it will be fun sometimes.