Pregame notes: Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day

Saturday has brought about the White Sox Halfway to St. Patrick's Day pub crawl, and since there's nothing better than drunk people in the rain, there is precipitation in the forecast that could delay first pitch until after 7 p.m.

Or maybe it won't, since Yu Darvish is warming up as this is being written, and look, there's Yoendrys Gómez walking out to the bullpen himself.

As always, the future is fundamentally unknowable and anxiety about it, while crippling and overpowering to this author at times, is ultimately pointless.

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Maybe you didn't even notice, but Andrew Benintendi is out of the lineup again, and was working with trainers pregame.

"Benintendi's feeling better," Will Venable said. "He has some lower-body soreness. With where we're at in this season, with the expanded rosters, we'll just give him another day, see where he's at, and he might be in there tomorrow."

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Neither Chris Getz nor Brian Bannister were willing to confess what Grant Taylor's role will be next season, but the White Sox beat figured there was no reason not to give a go at getting Venable to slip up.

"I've just seen him as a reliever, and I've certainly liked what he's contributed in the reliever role," Venable said. "With your best arms, you want to maximize those the best you can and want those guys to pitch the most innings, if it's right for them. That's part of the question and what the organization will work through. I just like him on the team, and however he pitches, I'll be happy."

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The Marlins began calling pitches from the dugout Friday night, which they had been doing in the minors throughout the season. In some respects, it's another plank of on-field strategy being stripped away from players, who are increasingly asked to be automatons carrying out the plans of a proprietary statistical models. But with the general direction of the sport and how quickly teams copy each other, it's worth wondering if this will just be a universal practice by 2028.

Venable's response on to whether the White Sox would consider it certainly wasn't a revocation.

"You have to find a way to get the right pitches called," Venable said. "My starting point would be to support the catchers to do that to the best of their ability. And if that was something they weren't able to do, then I think to get it right you have to do what you think is best. Certainly the Marlins are open-minded and innovative, so not surprised at all that that's something they'll try."

One point raised in informally polling about it on Saturday: coaches only have a side angle, and self-admittedly waste time every game arguing with umpires about pitches they can't really see. The same issues would surface if they were tasked with discerning if a 1-1 cutter got inside on a lefty enough to open up the outer half of the plate for a putaway changeup.

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José Abreu is in the building again Saturday. Sadly it was not so he could perform alongside Three Men in Kilts, at least not during pregame.

First pitch: White Sox vs. Padres

TV: CHSN

Radio: ESPN 1000 AM, WRTO 1200 AM (Spanish)

Lineups: