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From Joe Doyle's draft intel piece today. Posting some but not all of it.

Wonderful FutureSox podcast with Joe Doyle on the draft. Great listen. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2026-mlb-draft-preview-with-joe-doyle/id850054474?i=1000775914484 Seems like Joe is a little lighter on Thome then others. Doesn't sound like he would use 41 on him. They talk Dylan Bowen who might have a high number. 3 million was mentioned. Also fully agree with @Y2Jimmy0 on not using high picks outside of the first round on college position players. No more McClain/Lodise/Saucke please.

He really doesn't have time to build innings this year anyway, but he really should go back to the rotation next year, somewhere.

Hey Venable, please no goofy lineup tonight.

It's well documented from multiple outlets. Bannister thought Taylor couldn't accumulate starting pitching innings quickly enough due to his injury history etc. Instead of pitching in a relief role in the minors; he's doing it in the big leagues. The expectation is that he'll come to 2027 spring training as a starter. The team has reservations about his health as a starter due to extension, pitchers with similar profiles etc but I believe that Taylor and his representatives will push for a chance to start.

Bennett is pretty tough so hopefully we get good Davis tonight.

From Kiley's final draft rankings. Sharing the top 3 guys that are in the mix for the Sox. He also goes into what could go wrong with these players. I also found it interesting that these 3 and Flora (49) are the only players that would crack his top 100 MLB prospects list. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/49297819/2026-mlb-draft-rankings-top-250-prospects-roch-cholowsky-grady-emerson-vahn-lackey

Win the next two games by a substantial margin. I hate it with a passion when we lose to the Red Sox.

What have you done with Bonemer?

Roch! Roch! (Season starts) Roch! Roch! Roch? Roch? Lackey? Lackey! Emerson? Emerson? Lackey? Emerson! Emerson! Emerson!

Need some pitching!

Win the game, please.

And/or Shirley. I'm a litter easier on Bannister because he inherited a big hole. Building takes time, especially from the abyss. I thought they might have been able to make a reliever out of Cannon. And still interested in why they decided Taylor is just a reliever.

The chaotic side of me wants an Emerson pick just to read the crash outs.

https://www.mlb.com/orioles/video/black-history-month-harold-baines

Did you happen to run into one of these guys at the end of last season? Or since Vasil is a wizard, perhaps he performed a memory charm on the Sox fan base after 3 100-loss seasons in a row?

I have also been very clear on needing to acquire a SP via trade throughout many threads including this one. I thought McDougal could be the answer to one rotation spot, but the team appears to be going in a different direction. If that’s indeed the case, I think McDougal has the stuff to come in and potentially be a solid high leverage reliever pretty quickly. There is no guarantee however, but I can understand the idea if they feel the cost for someone like Chapman will be more than they’re willing to pay.

Bobby Jenks is terms of coming up as a rookie and filling the closer spot. Not suggesting he’s going to be as good as Bobby Jenks was.

Five factoids today: July 8, 1941 – Edgar Smith became the first White Sox pitcher to win the All-Star Game, held in Detroit that year, after the A.L. rallied for four runs in the ninth inning. The winning runs scored on Ted Williams three-run home run. Smith pitched two innings, giving up two runs on two hits with two strike outs. Smith was joined on the team by Luke Appling (SS) and Thornton Lee (P). July 8, 1943 - Sox pitcher Orval Grove almost got himself a no-hitter and against the Yankees to boot. Joe Gordon’s bloop double with two out in the ninth spoiled it, but Grove did win the game 1-0 at Comiskey Park finishing with a one-hitter. It ran his record to 7-0 at the time. He’d finish 15-9 with a 2.75 ERA for the year. July 8, 1947 - White Sox shortstop Luke Appling played a key role in the A.L.’s 2-1 win in the All-Star Game, held across town at Wrigley Field. Appling, 40, had been named to his seventh and final All-Star Game as a substitute. With the A.L. trailing, 1-0, Appling pinch-hit for John “Buddy” Lewis of the Senators, to lead off the sixth inning and singled off of Harry “the Cat” Brecheen. Ted Williams singled Appling to third, and “Ol’ Aches and Pains” came home with the tying run when Joe DiMaggio grounded into a double play. The next inning, pinch-hitter Stan Spence singled in Bobby Doerr for the A.L.’s eventual game-winner. The other Sox representative that year was Rudy York (1B) July 8, 1958 - Sox ace pitcher Early Wynn got the win in the All-Star Game in Baltimore as the A.L. defeated the N.L. 4-3. Wynn entered the game in the sixth inning with the score tied at 3-3. He pitched a perfect inning. Then in the last of that inning the American League scored the eventual winning run on a single by the Yankees Gil McDougald scoring Frank Malzone of the Red Sox. In addition to Wynn, the Sox representatives were Luis Aparicio (SS), Nellie Fox (2B), Sherm Lollar (C) and Billy Pierce (P). Fox and Aparicio were named starters. July 8, 2016 – In a game at home against the Braves, the White Sox pulled off their third triple play of the season. That hadn’t happened in Major League Baseball since 1979. It happened in the third inning of an 11-8 loss. Shortstop Tim Anderson fielded a Freddie Freeman ground ball, tagged out lead runner Chase d’Arnaud before stepping on second base to force out former Sox infielder Gordon Beckham and then threw to first baseman Jose Abreu to throw out Freeman. Both the Red Sox and A’s accomplished the feat of three triple plays during the 1979 season, according to the Society for American Baseball Research’s triple play database. The White Sox turned a triple play on April 22 against the Rangers and turned the second on May 18 against the Astros.

Wasting bullets in the minors lol. McDougal has looked serviceable for 113 of his career 311 minor league innings, and even then he was rocking a WHIP of 1.332 in a very pitcher friendly environment. That WHIP in the minor leagues would rank him in the back 30% of MLB relievers. When adjusting for environment, his 1.54 WHIP puts him in Erik Fedde territory (140ish of 150ish arms). The way we talk about McDougal here has always been a bit odd to me. It's not like the guy has forced the issue.

That's the crazy situation the Sox find themselves in. The fan base (rightly in my opinion) wants them to make this a successful year on the field and in the won/lost column given the last few years. But the Sox themselves are still trying to develop (rightly in my opinion) many of these kids and try to set the foundation for the future. Hard to reconcile the two opinions.

Bobby Jenks? I'm seriously envious of your optimism. Before, McDougal was your solution for the rotation woes. Now he's suddenly Bobby Jenks. Hicks is the 2nd or 3rd best reliever on the team. I'd take Hicks over Hudson. I've only been wrong about Hicks for 8 years now too so I'm due!