Chicago White Sox

Interested to see what the pitching plan is for tomorrow after Burke. Got to think that Hagen & Taylor are not options for tomorrow.

So Caulfield made up the probables?

Sandlin has been getting LH batters out really well since his last call up. 0.93 FIP and +11 K/9 is awesome, although obviously small sample size. I’d rather roll the dice on him leading things off for us this post season than Fedde.

We are stronger against RHP than LHP, so that’s one plus for us. My ideal lineup this week would be the following. Figures below are wRC+ vs. RHP on a full season basis and then just the last two months. S. Antonacci, LF (132 | 107) K. Teel, C (117 | 135) M. Vargas, 3B (126 | 138) M. Murakami, 1B (138 | 82) A. Benintendi, DH (105 | 78) T.Peters, CF (125 | 133) B. Montgomery, RF (117 | 120) C. Meidroth, 2B (90 | 71) C. Montgomery, SS* (78 | 49) Need to be careful with getting too platoon crazy once the Astros move to the bullpen. Antonacci & Peters have been hitting LHP fairly well as of late and shouldn’t be pinch hit for unless it’s late in the game and ideally with multiple guys on base. Braden is our weakest player against LHP, so the leash can be shorter there. Grichuk should be saved for biggest PH opportunity against LHP and not just Benintendi’s replacement. I actually hope they find a way to keep Pham on the roster to PH for Andrew if the time comes. Doyle should be late game defensive replacement PH option for Braden if Grichuk has already been used. Acuna should remain as mostly a pinch runner weapon and defensive replacement if one of the stronger RH bats pinch hits for Colson.

Bring Wayne Randzazzo home to Chicago!

Are they really pitching Burke on three days rest? Feels like he should start game #2 on regular rest and give us the best chance to win that game. He’d then be on regular rest for games #2 & #5 of the ALDS (if we can somehow make it there). With no other reliable SPs, I’d try to optimize his chance for success. Martin shitting the bed yesterday is super concerning. Is his calf still hurting him or does he just not have the stones to pitch in high pressure situations? Regardless, it’s going to be very hard to rely on him this post season. Given the lack of other options, he’s probably still part of the mix for game #3. Honestly, I may start Sandlin game #1. As insane as that sounds, he’s our hottest SP at the moment. Hagen should get two innings in relief and Taylor should get one to close things out. Not sure who throws the other couple of innings that will likely be needed. Ideally Kay would piggyback with him but that may not be possible if he starts today. I just can’t bring myself to start Fedde game #1 of a playoff series. He needs to pitch at some point, but I’d rather roll the dice on Sandlin in game #1. Also, the failure of the Castillo trade looms large here. It’s absolutely crazy that we have one reliable SP going into the playoffs. There is no one to blame but ourselves for that. I won’t dwell on it any further, but is super frustrating nonetheless.

You’re right.

I could see it happening, but don’t even know what his value is at this point. If you can’t anything that helps you, then might as well hold and send his ass to AAA next year to work on stuff and pray for a turnaround.

Fully agree. Unfortunately the lesser of two evils in that situation.

I honestly don’t know what you do with Colson next year. He hasn’t been a major league quality player these last two months. Don’t think you can enter the year with him as your SS.

Ah…gotcha

Jerry has aways rocked a league average or better payroll when competing. We have years of data to support this.

Sorry, but agree to disagree on this. They don’t go out and add Castillo’s $22M salary if that were going to tap them out.

Where was this reported? Based on this, it sounded like was no longer eligible for the regular season roster. https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2026/09/16/tommy-pham-activated-munetaka-murakami-benched-for-all-important-series-finale-in-cleveland-will-venable-chris-getz-drew-thorpe-edgar-quero

Where is this limited payroll idea coming from?

Why are they going to go the “cheap ass route” after making the playoffs and see a huge revenue increase?

He wasn’t? I swear I saw Fegan report that in the Sun Times. What is he doing then?

Thorpe was shut down…he ain’t getting called up.

They will add SP this offseason…let’s not be ridiculous here.

This game is far from over.

Royals had two on and got nothing. Sox need to come back tonight and hope the baseball gods curse the Guardians with some bad luck tomorrow.

I just can’t believe we are in a must win game and we are sticking with Acuna out there.

That might be true, but the quick hook with Martin was certainly to improve our chances of winning tonight.

Royals look like they are disinterested in scoring more runs.

Acuna against RHP has to be worse than Colson. We are also down three and could use a lucky HR.