Pregame notes: Clean it up, people are watching

There are so many things going wrong with this 1-5 White Sox team, it's hard to know where to focus the ennui.

Addressing the media ahead of Friday's rescheduled home opener, Chris Getz centered on the starting pitching, since they have racked up a league-worst 8.10 ERA while throwing the fewest innings (23 1/3) in the league. Perhaps if they could throw strikes, the defense could move on to things like holding runners or not panic-throwing to the wrong base.

"It’s still a very young roster on the starting pitching front, position player front," Getz said. "With younger players, there’s often times a wider variance of outcomes and guys are still getting settled in and finding their rhythm during the season. We know that that will get cleaned up. Just with more games, more reps.

It’s a very capable defensive club. I know that the ball hit into right-center the other night between [Tristan] Peters and [Luisangel] Acuña, obviously that was a letdown that led to a bigger inning. If you look at the ability to get to that baseball, it wasn’t as high of a catch probability as one would think. That just shows what they are capable of doing. Converting those into outs is what makes those players valuable to this team. It’s getting comfortable playing with each other."

Focusing on the starting pitching woes puts the spotlight squarely on Shane Smith, who has delivered two clunkers that have been defined by pretty basic failings. Getz repeatedly downplayed the likelihood of seeing the likes of Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith in the early going, but the opening day starter's protracted struggles certainly seem like they've triggered a lot of options being considered, if not literal minor league options just yet.

"Really his four seam fastball, commanding it, having the confidence in it, it really hasn’t been there," Getz said of Shane Smith. "You look at where the delivery is. You look at obviously how the ball is traveling out of his hands, pitch characteristics. There is a psychological component to it. We are still working through all of that. Some of it is conversations with him. Some of it is looking at biomechanical information. How do we unwind what’s been wound up? And so we are still working through that right now."

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Kyle Teel is around and was in full catcher's gear to work with bench coach Walker McKinven during pregame, which his hamstring strain allows him to do. Getz praised Teel's progress, but the team has yet to determine a date for him to begin a rehab assignment, which will be part of his return-to-play plan.

There was no update provided on Brooks Baldwin's elbow sprain, which becomes the update in and of itself when a guy who hasn't played in a month is still in a holding pattern.

Everson Pereira is out of the lineup, but available to pinch hit despite his sore left ankle/foot.

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The use of Grant Taylor as an opener is the first sign of the White Sox trying to be proactive about helping their beleaguered starters. Especially since both Taylor and Burke are right-handers, Will Venable described the strategy as simply lowering the difficulty level for the guy they want to deliver bulk innings.

"We really feel, especially with the lineup, a really strong lineup like Toronto that has some really good hitters at the top of the lineup, that if we’re able to take that off the starter’s plate on the first time through, that they’ll be able to pitch deeper in the games," Venable said.

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Munetaka Murakami said he's excited for the home opener.

"It’s the home opener so I’m really excited to be here and I want to have fun," Murakami said via interpreter.

See? I wouldn't lie to you. Colson Montgomery said he's still optimistic about the direction in which the White Sox are headed.

"It’s only been six games," Montgomery said. "I feel like we’ve been building in the right direction, we just kind of made some little mistakes here and there. And at this level, you can’t really make too many mistakes like that. Our coaches and everybody, they’re backing us up. They’re going to keep us on our toes, staying prepared."

First pitch: White Sox vs. Blue Jays

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