Chicago White Sox

Alright boys, today is the third game of four against the Tigers and the Sox have a chance to take the series with a win today. The Sox have won three straight and have vaulted themselves to the 7th playoff spot, sitting 1.5 game behind the Indians for 2nd place in the Central. With a series against a tough Cubs team this weekend, we can’t afford to take our feet off the neck of a weak Tigers’ club yet. We need to keep beating up these bottom dwellers and building ourselves a little cushion. Today’s pitching matchup should be a fascinating one. Two well regarded pitching prospects are finally making their major league debuts. For the Sox that would be Dane Dunning, a former top 100 prospect (before TJS) who was outstanding in the minors. While he doesn’t have elite fastball velocity, his combination of pitchability, a diverse set of quality offerings, & a bulldog mentality creates a pitcher who is far greater than the sum of their individual parts. IMO, he has a real chance of becoming a legit #3 starter in the majors. As for the Tigers, they will be starting right-handed Casey Mize, the 1st overall pick of the 2018 draft and consensus top 20 overall prospect. Mize is a kid with real “ace” upside, throwing four above average pitches and actually being able to command all of them. His main weapon is a 70 grade splitter that Jim Callis once referred to as “one of the most devastating pitches in baseball”. Let’s hope the Sox have done their homework on him, as I can see both his splitter & slider poising real challenges for us. Again, today should be a fun one. With Robert likely out, we should see Luis Gonzalez’ first major league start. He had himself a memorable major league debut last night that included a missed catch, an outfield assist, a HBP, a mini base-running blunder, and a run scored. Can he top himself tonight? We shall see, but we could definitely use an unsung hero tonight against what could be a tough pitcher for our RH bats. Let’s fucking go boys!!!!

Dude really needs to slow his roll

We’re officially back in the playoff mix!

Yeah, I’m not expecting him tomorrow, but would love to be surprised there.

I’ll admit that I feel much better going into the 9th with a 6 run lead than just 2 and Colome coming in ?

Moncada needs to find a way to stretch those legs, because it seems like he strains them every time he runs at max speed.

Insanity

Madrigal would have put that pitch in the left center seats.

Excellent news there.

Ball 4 grand slam

Mazara slam for his first White Sox HR

Why? Just normal concerns or something more to it?

Basabe makes that catch and saves us a run.

Bummer, Burdi, & Heuer is a nice foundation to build around and obviously Foster has looked good so far too.

The change and slider are why Fangraphs had Burdi as a 50 FV prospect as a reliever before his injuries.

Agreed...likely precautionary.

Burdi’s changeup faster than Keuchel’s fastball.

Yup

Nice work Heuer!

This team is still very much a work in progress, especially on the pitching side of things.

Have you been reading this thread? I am one of the people defending him, but I also can be objective and acknowledge he’s been bad so far this season.

Lopez 2018 4-seam spin rate = 2102 Cease 2020 4-seam spin rate = 2541

It’s his 19th start in a pandemic fueled season and despite posting 98th percentile velocity and 93% percentile velocity spin you are completely writing him off. Like I don’t know many times you have to do this before you realize jumping to conclusions on still developing young players is fucking stupid.

To be fair, Cease has been pretty bad this year despite a good ERA coming into tonight.

I think I’m getting to the point where I might have to put you on ignore because these hot takes are just embarrassingly bad and I’m starting to feel bad being a dick to you all the time.