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2 1/2 years is hardly quick...ENTIRE is also a stretch. The starting pitching is hardly a finished product. There's no defined closer. Colson and Mune aren't guaranteed to be around by the end of next season. Bonemer and Cholowsky are the only two significant hitting prospects remaining in the system relatively close to impacting the major league roster..

All of the major awards are voted on before the playoffs. The White Sox are pretty much the story of this season. The quick rebuild of the entire organization says a lot more than a bad trade.

In theory couldn't an Admin absolve a poster of their board sins?

Last season I was seeing a young team evolving. I also noticed Friday Night at the Rate was becoming a thing with the attendance. The young team was opening eyes with their slug and fun. This season the Sox became the darlings of their fanbase in Chicago, even old crusty Sox fans came onboard. Now the Sox are the long shot team fans and some of the media across the country are amused by. As a lifelong Sox fan this is new to me, I have never seen the Sox popular outside of their local fanbase. I welcome all new fans with open arms that want to cheer for the Sox.

Really cool story, if it was already posted my apologies. Houston's 'Mattress Mack' will treat St. Gabriel's students to White Sox postseason baseball

Against Messick, I want to see the following lineup. Stats are wRC+ against LHP on a full season basis and for the last two months. C. Meidroth, 2B (187 | 287) R. Grichuk, RF (197 | 233) M. Vargas, 3B (155 | 153) M. Murakami, 1B* (110 | 120) B. Doyle, CF (158 | 158) S. Antonacci, LF* (83 | 134) T. Pham, DH (103 | 103) K. Teel, C* (75, 140) C. Montgomery, SS* (118 | 65) I thought about putting Rogers in for Teel and wouldn’t completely hate it to start the game, but I ultimately went with our main dude Kyle as he’s hit LHP surprisingly well over the last two months (SSS). The other question was LF and whether to go with Sam or Peters. I decided to go with Sam and save Peters for when the Guardians’ bullpen comes in. By doing so, it allows us to decide if we need to prioritize defense or offense and gives us better flexibility on how to deploy Tristin. If we’re down, he comes in for Doyle or Grichuk. If we’re up, he comes in for Antonacci. My only concern with the above lineup is it quickly gets imbalanced once you start subbing in guys. However, I still think stacking your big three RH bats at the top makes the most sense. Getting after Messick the first or second time through the lineup is critical and those three RH bats are the best way to do that.

I was at the Tito Landrum game. 1983....Brit Burns ...Jerry Dybzinski etc.

I attended game 2 of the 1959 WS, I still haven’t gotten over why 3rd base coach Tony Cuchienello sent Lollar with the tying run with no outs, IMHO that play turned the series around, if the Sox had won that game they probably would have won the series. A couple of other blunders both by manager Al Lopez, he didn’t give Billy Pierce a start in the series and he started Early Wynn in game 6 as it looked like Wynn was gassed in game 4 and should have been saved for a game 7.

Was hoping the 3pm start would open up some more tickets. Nope. My fault for not realizing how much I’d want to go

But. If the Sox do advance, who does ESPN get to blame ?

Will have to disagree on Getz. Just finished reading ESPN piece on playoff teams chances to advance. On the Sox side the main obstacle is pitching, and that Getz did not do the job obtaining a reliable starter at the trade deadline. They also wrote that Castillo signing was a disaster with an 8.62 ERA with the Sox. In summary, they place the blame on Getz if the Sox do not advance. This is my opinion also. I find it hard for Getz to get any award with Castillo albatross around his neck.

Ohtani, a phenom in Japan for the Nippon Ham Fighters, was the subject of an intense recruiting campaign after he was posted. Although he pitched just 25 innings in 2017 because of an ankle injury, in 2016 he had a 1.86 ERA in 140 innings and hit .322 with 22 home runs. Because he was younger than 25 years old, Ohtani was subject to international signing rules, which capped his bonus at $3.557 million and limited him to a rookie salary scale (the signing team also had to pay a $20 million posting fee to the Fighters). That essentially meant all 30 teams could afford to go after Ohtani; if he had waited until he was 25 to come to MLB, he would have commanded a $200 million contract. Ohtani narrowed his finalists to the Angels, Dodgers, Giants, Padres, Mariners, Rangers and Cubs, and then he signed with the Angels for a $2.315 million bonus. https://www.si.com/mlb/video/ohtani-made-in-iwate-the-untold-story-of-shohei-ohtani-s-roots-in-japan

I think if you ask any hardcore fan, what would you rather have, a team that makes the playoffs 3 times in a 25 year span but wins it all once or a team that makes 10 times but zero titles, the answer should be pretty obvious. Those of us old enough to remember the 05 team can confirm that no amount of division titles compares to watching the last out on a world series winning team and everything that comes after...absolutely none.

Interesting convo. Coached HS hoops in WI for a long time. Lost in the game to go yo state three times in four appearances over five years. The one time we won that game, we won the whole thing. The school we beat in the state semis has been there something like three years in a row and four out of six but never even played for a state title. Their coach, a friend, told me he’d trade all their state appearances for our our gold ball. That’s the 2005 Sox. I wouldn’t trade that title for more success but no title over the last 20 years.

I’m about half in the bag. I’m hoping the Sox play on my birthday for the third time in my lifetime. The first one wasn’t so good…Tito Fucking Landrum. Second was fine. Third could be epic as we close out the series at home!

Even JR has been pleasantly surprised by what Getz and the players have done to turn this team around, and he was surprised to get a letter acknowledging that from the Pope. https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/depressing-white-sox-owner-reveals-034541597.html The Catholic Church may have a new member after Wednesday night. Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, shortly after the franchise won their first playoff series since 2005, couldn't help but think about the letter he received from the Pope earlier this week. "Imagine a Jewish kid from Brooklyn getting a letter from the Pope," he said, via ESPN's Jesse Rogers. "I'm going to convert," he added, joking.

Five factoids today: October 2, 1904 - Guy “Doc” White’s streak of 45 consecutive scoreless innings was broken when the New York Highlanders (Yankees) got a run in the first inning of the first game of a twin bill in Chicago. White would pitch in both games, getting decisions in both. He won the first game, lost the second. October 2, 1908 - In the heat of a three-team pennant race it may have been the greatest game ever thrown by opposing hurlers against each other. Cleveland beat the White Sox 1-0 as Adrian “Addie” Joss fired a perfect game. Meanwhile the White Sox Ed Walsh struck out 15 Indians and allowed only four hits. The winning run scored when catcher Ossee Schreck couldn’t hang on to one of Walsh’s spitters with a man on third. An interesting note happened before the game. Joss had finished his warm up throws and was strolling in the outfield when he saw Walsh sitting by himself on the Sox bench. He came over, sat next to him and the two pitchers had a quiet conversation while a photographer snapped their picture. October 2, 1959 - Game #2 of the World Series was looking like a repeat of game #1. The Sox were leading the Dodgers 2-1 in the seventh inning with two out when Chuck Essegian and Charlie Neal slugged home runs off Bob Shaw. Making matters worse was that in the middle of an eighth inning Sox rally, the slowest man in baseball, Sherm Lollar was waived home with what would have been the tying run on a double by Al Smith. He was out by five feet. Instead of having men on second and third with no out, it was a runner on third with one out. The Sox lost the game 4-3. Earlier in the fifth inning Sox outfielder Smith would get hit in the face with a cup of beer knocked over by a fan reaching for Neal’s first home run. It would become one of the most famous photographs of the 1950's. October 2, 1985 – The White Sox named Ken “Hawk” Harrelson as the new Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations, as well as the de facto G.M. replacing Roland Hemond. Harrelson, one of the clubs TV broadcasters and former big-league player, immediately started implementing his vision for the organization. Manager Tony LaRussa was offered a one-year contract but Harrelson fired three of his assistant coaches including pitching coach Dave Duncan. Fellow broadcaster and Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale was named as a pitching consultant. Former Sox pitcher Myron “Moe” Drabowsky was hired as a relief pitcher coach, Harrelson decreed that all Sox minor league coaches were to be former Major League players. He made a series of trades to try to improve a team that won 85 games in 1985. His best was getting outfielder Ivan Calderon from Seattle; his worst was trading outfielder Bobby Bonilla to the Pirates for pitcher Jose DeLeon. He also thought All-Star catcher Carlton Fisk would best be served by moving to left field to make way for prospect Joel Skinner. Bottom line was the Sox went 72-90 in 1986 and Harrelson resigned at the end of the year replaced by Larry Himes. October 2, 2015 – Sox starter Chris Sale broke “Big” Ed Walsh’s club record for most strikeouts in a season. Sale struck out the Tigers James McCann, the future Sox catcher, in the second inning of a 2-1 win giving him his 270th strike out of the year. Walsh’s record had stood since 1908. Sale would finish the 2015 season with 274 strike outs.

Sounds like Vince Lombardi clip.

Nola had great results his last 12 starts and Wheeler on short rest. Tough decision that's going to be second guessed to death.

Even Sean Burke's "ghost family" has become famous, not to mention Meidroth and Fedde. But can't they at least have the game on TBS or TNT instead of Tru???

It's wild to me that it hasn't even been five years since the White Sox were so bad that some great White Sox media talent was let go (James Fegan, Vinnie Duber, Herb Lawrence, etc.) and other outlets were beginning to suffer. Now all of the above dudes are back (Vinnie is covering the Cubs, but he stayed local) in some capacity. The core online publications like Sox Machine and FutureSox are drawing in more and growing. Every sports network and personality with a social media platform is re-publishing Mune and Vasil content the second they can download it.

Part 2, which isn't embedding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM

Cleveland is much worse against LHP than RHP. I think game #1 & game #3 will be heavy bullpen games. Hagen & Newcomb both ideally go two or three innings each. Taylor closes it out. Leverage your best relievers as needed in between depending on the situation. The single inning relievers should be able to pitch pretty much every game in the series given the amount of off days, so short of extra innings some guys won’t get used. Sandlin & Fedde are both options if further length is needed. Burke gets game #2. He has been excellent against the Guardians this year with a 2.79 xERA over 17.1 innings. His start would be on a full four days rest which should keep him strong. Every reliever outside of Hagen & Newcomb should be available to back Sean up as they are needed for game #3. This might be a good spot to leverage Schultz if additional length is needed. If not, go with your best relievers available and then close it out with Taylor. Game #4 is the tricky one. I’d probably lead with Kay and piggyback him with Martin to try and get five innings between the two of them. Davis has me a bit nervous, but if we make the ALCS we are going to need him to provide innings. Again, all relievers except Hagen & Newcomb should be available. Schultz, Sandlin, & Fedde all options if length is needed. Otherwise, go with your best relievers and close it out with Taylor. Game #5 is the all hands on deck game if needed. Ultimately I’m trying my best to get 9 innings out of Burke, Smith, Newcomb, & Taylor. Burke would again be on 5 days rest and should provide the bulk innings, but Venable would have the other three available at the first sign of trouble. Ideally the Sox can avoid this game altogether and Burke can be saved for the opening of the ALCS.

What the hell is going on around here?