Pregame notes: Monthly ‘State of the Sox’ meetings

Colson Montgomery is usually willing to step out from the typical baseball player 'one day at a time' mindset in his public comments more than most. His postgame session Monday was no different, as he frankly addressed the White Sox having their next 12 games all against possible playoff teams, with three each remaining against the Yankees, Rays, Red Sox and Guardians.

"One of the biggest things we can do is think of these as playoff games," Montgomery said. "These are the type of teams that we have coming up. The Yankees and the Rays, teams that are going to be in the playoffs. We can shift our mind of thinking it’s a playoff games, especially it’s a little gauntlet with the teams we face."

In answering whether this was a mindset that resulted from the White Sox having a meeting about this challenging stretch of schedule, Will Venable said it was not, but wound up unfurling a lot of the team's general structure for meeting as a group in the process.

"We have our monthly state of the Sox where I address the team, we open the floor and talk about things," Venable said. "That's the time if there are broader issues to discuss we talk about those things. We’ll have one at the end of this month and if there are appropriate things to discuss that are broader, we will."

Venable said he pulled this concept from Joe Maddon's stricter policy of having three regularly scheduled team meetings per season, and never calling a team meeting otherwise. Where as Venable is more openminded about the idea that serious issues can come up that deserve a meeting in their own right, and certainly thinks the trade deadline would quality as something worthy of it, if it didn't come at the end of the month anyway.

But in referring to these meetings as a "State of the Sox" type of discussion, Venable also conceded that it hasn't really become a regular airing of grievances from players.

"Rarely do the players have stuff," Venable said. "It happens every once in a while, but again, it’s in the spirit of being proactive and not having a team meeting in response to things and creating a platform for guys if they have some. They haven’t been that heavy to be honest, just a nice moment to get together and some guys have something, sometimes they don't."

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Ever seen a man wearing full catching gear and also a walking boot? The White Sox beat now has, because of Kyle Teel.

"I wasn’t aware that was part of the plan today; If James [Kruk] is OK with it, I know Kyle is responsible and I’m sure it’s fine," Venable said. "No update other than Kyle is again going about this with a really positive attitude and doing a great job with getting his work in and obviously with the boot on, still finding ways to get work in and get his treatment in as well. No other update, but he’s in a good spot at least mentally and doing a really good job of attacking."

Venable said Teel hasn't undertaken any additional baseball activities in his recovery from a high ankle sprain that is supposed to sideline him another 5-11 weeks. But clearly he's doing some catching drills.

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Profiles in persistence: Sox Machine's beat writer finally remembered to ask Venable about his team burning two ABS challenges in the first inning on Sunday. We've reported in-depth on the White Sox' ethos of being aggressive, but Venable perspective on a game ending with challenges remaining being a bad outcome, and the finite number of worthy opportunities, are worth sharing in full.

"It’s been really challenging to find the right time and the right guidelines to put in place. You want to support and empower [the players] to use this as a tool that can help swing an at-bat, swing a game. At the same time there are times where it’s not great to challenge if you’re not sure, or times where you really do need to challenge.

No. 1, we don't want to be at the end of the game with challenges. We do want to use our challenges. That's the most important thing. I know optically there are times you don't win them, that it hasn’t looked great. But the fact we used our challenges in that game was a good thing. There are probably five pitches a game on either side subject to challenge, and you hope you don't get in a spot where you’re left without any and you need one. At the same time, there just are not a ton of pitches to challenge, so the most important thing is to use them."

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Yankees manager Aaron Boone said some nice things about the White Sox on Monday.

“They got some really good position players,” Boone said. “They got some platoon options that they're [aggressive] with, some of their complementary players that are good against the hand that they typically play against...They've put themselves right in the mix, obviously leading the division over there. It's been quite a turnaround, but the biggest thing is the young players that they've started to bring along over the last couple of years have come up and played a significant role for them.”

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The White Sox signed catcher Eric Haase and assigned him to Triple-A Charlotte.

First pitch: White Sox vs. Yankees

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