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As much as I’d absolutely love the Sox to end up with an NPB star at some point, the a white Sox specifically needed a left-handed outfielder who can actually play the field, and that’s what Benintendi is. Yoshida is a lefty and is by far the best hitter, but he’s a borderline DH. I think the Red Sox evaluated the opportunity to minimize that impact well in their weird, short LF. But the White Sox literally played two first basemen in the OF and their good CF is injury prone. They needed a dude who can cover some ground. Suzuki has the most upside of the group, but he comes with the most risk and is right-handed. The handedness is the least important piece, though. I also think he is the style of personality/has a track record of managing his own improvement, which is the only type of positional talent that ever finds a way to succeed in the Sox organization. But he still probably wouldn’t become as good with this org as he would with an average one, so it’s hard to make the case the Sox won’t get more out of benintendi. As an NPB stan, it pains me. But I think the Sox got the right guy for their needs, even though both the others may play better where they are.

Benetti still can't do that and he's 40 years younger.

If you've been naughty, LaRussa will come down your chimney and drink all your liquor.

This is awesome news!!! Hope everything stays awesome on the Hendricks front!!! Continued thoughts and prayers and well wishes!!!

In a game that goes to extra innings, Oscar Colas gets the save.

I’ll go: Anderson, Benintendi, Jimenez, Robert, Moncada, Vaughn, Grandal, Colas, Andrus —- Alberto, Zavala, Sheets, Gonzalez Cease, Lynn, Giolito, Clevinger, Kopech Lambert, Diekman, Santos, Ruiz, Bummer, Kelly, Graveman, Lopez

The guy has mostly sucked the last 4 or 5 years. He got minor leaguers out in spring training . Who cares?

I see Yoshida is your new Puig

Hawk was never an objective broadcaster. He was the ultimate homer. I loved that about him. Even he is now crappin on the Sox? Something has gone sour in this organization.

Just don't understand the JB hate from some/many here. The guy is a very good broadcaster.

Hes the goat. f*** the haters.

Or a hitter.

All griping aside, this night’s like Christmas Eve, where the magic never ends. 162 games to go and anything is possible!

2 WAR

I really have no idea what the hell is going to happen this season. End of April, regardless of record, if we've hit more than 30 dongs, I'll be very optimistic about winning the division. If not, especially if <20, I won't be spending much time on this team. I know it sounds ridiculous to put so much emphasis on the long ball but this team was built to slug. The slap-happy 1920's style of baseball isn't going to win games in 2023, just as it didn't in 2022.

We’ll see, I know this is hopefully good news for Liam’s healthy and recovery, but seeing how they mishandled the roster/injured list the past few years I have my doubts.

ha - just saw that episode yesterday.

Lol at the idea that the reason the org sucks is because of the CMO.

Ah another season of playing short handed and misusing the injured list, White Sox baseball baby!

TA finds an even crazier side piece but hits .350 anyway

I'm kind of surprised by the Liam news, but it's incredibly encouraging at this stage that they're not placing him there. They could always retroactively place him on it if anything changes, but I'm just glad that he's feeling well at this point.

f*** yeah.

When I was a kid in the 90s without cable, flipping on WGN and seeing that intro always made me psyched.

I get so giddy thinking about what this organization could be with fresh eyes, fresh ideas, and a hunger for winning. I am speaking directly about an entirely new ownership and front office. I have hope and optimism for this season, but man, long-term, imagine what this team could be with an entirely new regime.

He should have been allowed to die in the booth. He was the man. A true legend who I miss calling Sox games. A true fan of the team and one of the last announcers who felt like they were literally part of your family given how long you listened to them call games over the years.

Emphasis on was.

I know Hawk wanted to die in the booth and all that, but that's not exactly conducive to great broadcasting.

Karl Ravech, Roger Clemens, Eduardo Perez and Buster Olney on the call. Radio ESPN1000 For perhaps much needed alternative audio. Will edit lineups when we get them. HYPE

I think that was Sheets that gave him a big hug in the hallway? Gotta love that.

I don't care how out of synch the audio will be, I will be listening to the radio feed without question.

I'll repeat what I said earlier about him in a few recent threads. He worked with the hitting coach in Miami during the winter. Judging from the ST results which we know may not be indicative of what will happen in the season. But this is what I saw. He did not K a lot. He also did not walk a lot. He started hot then faded. He did K a decent amount in the minors but he still manged to hit for a high average and hit for power and many times massive power . Right now I'm not so concerned about his K rate as I am his GB rate which seemed observationally high. I don't know what his GB rate was in the minors so I could be talking out of my ass . I do understand trying to get him to hit like Vaughn , Eloy and Anderson who make it look so easy going to the opposite field. However I am questioning if that was the right approach with Colas. I guess I would've been more comfortable with him just using the same approach as he did in the minors. Yes it would mean more K's and maybe a high batting average isn't very sustainable in the majors when you can't take walks (unless you are Anderson). But we do not want to see Colas turn into Anderson. We want a power hitter and maybe specifically a pull hitter for power who gets the ball in the air and also hits doubles. Didn't see many doubles from Colas in the spring either only 2 with 3 HR's so the OPS was only .703. So my gripe is that maybe the coaches shouldn't have worked so much with him on going the other way. Maybe it zapped some power while cutting down on the K's and turning him into a slappy GB oppo hitter reminiscent of the dreaded Menechino approach. I also think now that he is opening on the 26 to start the season that it doubly magnifies why it was silly not to bring him up last year. He could've used the same approach that he did in the minors and if it didn't appear to be good enough THEN maybe work on him going the other way or at least looking for pitches up andout over the plate or inside and spitting on pitches away rather then just trying to make contact with them like we saw so much from Robert last year . They also could've worked with him on hitting the cut off man and got used to his home field and some fields around the league. The hitting coaches seemed to try to get him ready for the majors without actually seeing how he would do in the majors and then making adjustments. Grifol seemed to specifically talk about Colas when he talked about guys who had things to learn defensively. I seem to remember that when he got to AA he changed something and it was then that his numbers really started to soar even higher in AA then they were in A+. There's nothing inherently wrong in power hitters striking out. There are a lot of great hitters who have high K rates. But he definitely has to figure out how to be more selective and make pitchers come to him. That's when you start to see more pitches in your hitting zone that you can tee off on. Robert has the same problem but at least in the spring it wasn't a K problem for Colas, it became a GB problem.

Grifol has me excited. I really think the White Sox got their version of Mikel Arteta. Someone who is a perfectionist and will demand excellence and really create his own team culture. For anyone who is a soccer fan, they are probably familiar with Arteta's demanding style. From what I gather, Grifol has this as well. Like Arteta, Grifol isn't afraid to get rid of once thought of untouchable players if they aren't getting with the program. We'll see but I think this hire is reason enough to be excited for this season.

I’ll say: 1. TA 2. Robert CF 3. Jimenez DH 4. Vaughn 1B 5. Grandal C 6. Moncada 3B 7. Benintendi LF 8. Andrus 2B 9. Gonzalez I bet Colas sits tomorrow and Benintendi should be down in the order

I was thinking around 725-.750 OPS. More than anything, I hope him and Andrus are a stable force, batting 8th and 9th most of the time. Maybe push the rest of the so-called stars to stay in the starting lineup as much as them.

Well, he sings for 4 seconds every game and that is too much for some people to tolerate.

I really don't want Colas to sit in the first game

Soxtalk losses their s%*#.

the hot hand...out of spring training? That doesn't exist. Start the best players.

You reckon they need that 40th player to keep the active roster full through the end of May?

Not sure where to put this, but found it interesting.

If the lineup san Yaz stays mostly healthy and they win 78 games, the pitching will need to be an absolute dumpster fire.

Of all divisions I think the Central might be the hardest to predict. I feel like there’s an argument for the Sox, Twins and Guardians all to have anywhere between 75-90 wins. I’ll say the Sox win 86…does that get us in the playoffs? No idea

White Sox 92-70 Twins 85-77 Guardians 83-79 Royal 69 - 93 Tigers 68 - 94 White Sox 2nd best record in AL. Yankees win east. Angels!! win west. Astros, Jays and Mariners are wild cards, in that order. All of Eloy, TA and Robert play over 120 games. Eloy hits 40+ homers. Giolito is an all star and everyone gnashes their teeth when the Sox don't re-sign him. Pedro Grifol is AL MOY.

Pitching collapse second half and first half hitting machine returned closer to the mean...

I'll take Kopech in a landslide.