Lip Man 1

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/white-sox-prospect-hagen-smith-reaches-career-high-pitch-count?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage

From the Sun-Times: Venable said ace Davis Martin wouldn’t make his scheduled start Tuesday at home against the Braves “just to give him a little extra rest to make sure that he’s in a good spot and feeling good.” Catcher Kyle Teel has ramped up his baseball activities while traveling with the team as he recovers from the knee injury delaying his 2026 debut. The prized backstop is sprinting and hitting off a tee, but he’s not up to full speed on catching drills and still doesn’t have a timeline for getting back on the field. Rookie starter Noah Schultz (right knee patellar tendinitis) is “making good progress” on his way back from the right knee patellar tendinitis that sidelined him after Memorial Day and is scheduled to throw another bullpen session this week, Venable said. And outfielder Everson Pereira (pectoral strain) looks like he could be back with the Sox soon. He slugged a two-run homer in his second game of a Charlotte rehab assignment Saturday.

It also depends A LOT on what JR allows him to do regardless of where they are in the standings.

They realistically need more than one.

Well the good news is they aren't going to get swept. Given the schedule the next two weeks that's a very big deal in my opinion. I think we can hold all the talk, at least by some that Sandlin is a "stud" pitcher. He's got a long way to go before that moniker can be applied. And with Richards in the game you know the game is probably lost. Bullpen has begun to regress overall again the past week, which is not good news, given the schedule.

Four factoids today: June 7, 1965 - Sox third baseman Pete Ward’s appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated was derailed at the last second when Muhammad Ali beat Charles “Sonny” Liston in the rematch for the heavyweight boxing championship. Ali got the cover shot when the fight photos arrived at the weekly magazine literally at the last possible publishing time. Ward was sent four test copies of the cover that never ran, as a keepsake by Art Berke, a White Sox fan who worked at the magazine as Director of Communications. The caption that never ran? “The New White Sox Power For A Pennant.” June 7, 1974 - During a game against the Red Sox, a fire broke out at Comiskey Park. It started in the main commissary under the right field stands. Several thousand fans were forced to go on the field for safety reasons but they left the grass in great shape without any damage. The game was delayed for approximately 90 minutes resuming at midnight. The White Sox eventually won 8-6. Dick Allen had three RBI’s in the game. June 7, 1977 - The White Sox used the number one pick in the baseball draft to select Harold Baines. Sox owner Bill Veeck who lived in Maryland for a time, had first seen Baines when he was playing as a youngster in Little League. Baines' career eventually led him to being elected to the Hall of Fame after spending most of his time with the White Sox who retired his number #3. He is among the franchises all-time leaders in numerous offensive categories from games played to home runs to RBI’s. June 7, 1978 – In a game at Minnesota the White Sox used a six run second inning to help beat the Twins 8-3. The Sox got four hits that inning along with an error, two walks and a hit batsman to help the cause. Pitcher Ken Kravec was the beneficiary and picked up the win, which was the 6,000th in the history of the franchise.

Sox Machine had this notation in their spare parts column today. It is from the Athletic story on injuries: "Eno Sarris and Brittany Ghiroli dig into MLB injury data, and the reasons why "days lost to injury" is or isn't an important metric. Sometimes it reflects the reality of some rosters getting stuck banking on bad bets (the White Sox lost the second-most MLB days to injury from 2024-26), but sometimes a team courts that metric knowingly by amassing high-risk depth, hoping that enough players will stay healthy to carry the load (the Dodgers lost the most, by far). Other organizations that lose the fewest days just might be churning through options fast enough that players who look hurt aren't retained, and thus don't count against their tab. One thing that caught my eye, just because it's suddenly relevant to the White Sox:

Very nice win. They won't get swept and have a chance to take the series. Just keep hanging in there.

No one should be surprised that a McCaskey led endeavor is screwed up totally.

We'll see if we ever actually get to see that lineup.

Awful AnnouncingMLB's labor pitch to end blackouts may disappoint fansMajor League Baseball's latest effort to end local blackouts through labor negotiations may disappoint fans because of small changes,

Two factoids today: June 6, 2021 – He got his first managerial win with the White Sox back in 1979 and for Tony LaRussa it was a sense of deja’ vu. When the Sox shut out the Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field 3-0 it was win number 2,764 in his Hall of Fame career. That put him second on the all-time list surpassing John McGraw. In the postgame press conference LaRussa mentioned the fact that his career started in Chicago and that now as he passed McGraw it also happened in Chicago, 42 seasons later. June 6, 2024 – The 2024 season saw the White Sox set, seemingly every other day, a new record for futility. On this day after the Red Sox hammered them 14-2 at Guaranteed Rate Field, the White Sox set the franchise record with 14 consecutive losses. It broke the mark of 13 set in August 1924. Boston pounded out 24 hits, six for extra bases in the rout. But incredibly the mark wouldn’t last two months!

That dovetails with Getz's quote from last week where he said he expects Teel back around the same time as Muni.

Sox by the way have lost 7 of their last 10 road games.

Not a good start to what figures to be a grueling two weeks.

I can only tell you that I've been told by multiple people that JR did have a lot of say in the draft, to be fair I don't know if that is the case now. Here's one example from a source who covered the team for years: “With :30 seconds left in their selection time on draft day JR would say things like “You know this college right-handed pitcher has the lowest injury risk.”

https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears/2026/06/05/hammond-bears-chicago-indiana-nfl-george-mccaskey-kevin-warren-mike-braun-wolf-lake

Three factoids today: June 5, 1935 – White Sox rookie pitcher John Whitehead saw his eight-game winning streak to start his MLB career snapped, losing to the St. Louis Browns, 2-0. Whitehead would finish 13-13 in his rookie campaign, with 18 complete games. “Silent John” pitched in 127 games over four-plus seasons on the South Side winning 47 times before he was traded to the Browns. His 8-0 start to his big-league career was one of the best beginnings in franchise history ranking right up there with Gary Peters going 19-8 in 1963 and James Baldwin starting out 9-1 in 1996. June 5, 1960 - Sox pitchers Russ Kemmerer and Frank Baumann both fired complete game shutouts in beating the Kansas City Athletics in a double header. The Sox won both games by the same score of 2-0. The A’s combined for only 10 hits on the Sunday afternoon. Baumann would wind up leading the league in ERA that season at 2.67 finishing 13-6. Kemmerer would fashion an ERA for the year at 2.98 with six wins after coming over from Washington in May of that season. June 5, 1967 - Eddie Stanky did it again. The Sox manager let loose a verbal assault on Red Sox All-Star Carl Yazstrzemski. Before a three-game set in Comiskey Park, Stanky was quoted as saying, “He may be an All-Star from the neck down but in my book he’s a moody ballplayer...and I don’t like moody ballplayers.” Red Sox fans were incensed and let Stanky and the Sox have an earful, as well as throwing tomatoes at him whenever he went to the mound when the Sox went to Boston the following week.

I knew that, he talks about Nancy quite often.

From my interview with Chuck Tanner: ML: 1972 was an amazing season what with Dick playing at an M.V.P. pace, Wilbur Wood was a legit Cy Young candidate and you had very good players in guys like Carlos May, Stan Bahnsen, Tom Bradley, Terry Forster and a young “Goose” Gossage. At what point did you say to yourself, ‘you know we can win this thing even though no one expects us to...’ CT: “When we came out of spring training I thought we were going to be good because we had three top pitchers in Wilbur, Stan Bahnsen and Tom Bradley. Johnny Sain and I told them the same thing we told Wilbur, ‘we’re going to pitch the s%*# out of you and you can make a lot of money because you can win a lot of games.’ Stan thought it over and said O.K. although he also said “you know I could also lose 20 games!” (laughing) (Author’s Note: Ironically Bahnsen would lose 20 games in 1973 even though he had a better ERA then in 1972 when he went 21-16. Wood would go 24-17 in 1972 and Bradley 15-14. ) ML: If Bill Melton doesn’t have a herniated disc and go on the DL in June do the Sox win the division? CT: “Damn right we win it, we were right there and that’s not saying anything bad about Ed Spiezio who did a fine job for us.”

Places the blame: https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears-stadium/2026/06/05/chicago-bears-stadium-illinois-indiana-arlington-heights-hammond-blame

https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports-media/2026/06/04/jason-benetti-white-sox-chicago-nbc-sunday-night-baseball-brooks-boyer-jim-deshaies-hunter-pence-cubs-giants-anthony-rizzo-bob-costas

Five factoids today: June 4, 1959 - 1959 was a year for marathon games for the White Sox. This was the first one that went at least 17 innings, and all took place against Baltimore. In this game first basemen Earl Torgeson’s solo home run in the last of the 17th, off Jerry Walker, was the difference in the Sox 6-5 win at Comiskey Park. Bob Shaw pitched five relief innings to get the victory. The Sox rallied from 4-2 and 5-4 deficits to get the win. The game lasted 4:37. June 4, 1972 - It is forever known as the “Chili Dog Game” one of the most electrifying games ever played in team history. In the second game of a double header with the Yankees, the Sox having already won the first game 6-1, Sox manager Chuck Tanner wanted Dick Allen to be ready to pinch hit in the last of the ninth inning if needed. Allen at the time was wolfing down a chili dog since he had played in the first game, was sitting out the nightcap and was hungry. He quickly had to put on a uniform getting the last of the chili dog all over the top of it which caused the clubhouse boys to give him a new, clean jersey. With two men on and the Sox losing 4-2, Allen was called to hit. On the third pitch from future Sox relief pitcher Al “Sparky” Lyle, Allen deposited the ball into the left field lower deck for a 5-4 win and a sweep of the twin bill. A bat-day crowd of almost 52-thousand exploded. One of the greatest one-liners in Sox history took place as Lyle was walking in from the bullpen. Mike Andrews was on first base. He and Lyle were roommates when both were with the Red Sox. As Lyle approached the mound Andrews called out, “Sparky”, you’re in deep s%*# now!” As a side note, future sportscaster Keith Olbermann, a Yankee fan, wrote about listening to this game in his book that he co-authored with Dan Patrick “The Big Show”. Olbermann wrote that when Allen hit the home run, he threw his radio out of the second-floor window of his parent’s house. Allen watches his game winning home run 6-4-72 June 4, 1973 - Sox pitching ace Wilbur Wood appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. At the time it looked like Wood was on his way to 30 wins, given he already had 13 before June 1. The cover’s caption read, “Wizard With A Knuckler. Chicago’s Wilbur Wood.” But because of a massive number of injuries to the team Wood would ‘only’ finish with 24 wins. He started 48 times, had an ERA of 3.46 and threw an incredible 359 innings. The Sox that year wound up using the disabled list 38 times. June 4, 1977 - In a game at Comiskey Park versus the Yankees, Richie Zisk, the “Polish Prince,” hit a rooftop home run near the left field line off Don Gullett. It was a solo shot in the second inning. He’d become the seventh Sox player to do this. Unfortunately, the Sox would lose the game 8-6 as the Yankees had a seven-run top of the second. June 4, 2016 – It was a trade that could wind up living in infamy. G.M. Rick Hahn sent young hurler Erik Johnson and 17-year-old Fernando Tatís Jr. to San Diego for veteran starter James Shields. Tatís, the son of a former Major League slugger, had been signed less than one year earlier and had yet to play a single game in the White Sox system. Three years after the trade, Tatis was in the Major Leagues, was garnering M.V.P. votes and was considered one of the top young stars in the game. Prior to the 2021 season, Tatis signed a 14-year, 330-million-dollar contract extension with the Padres, anointing him as perhaps one of the premier talents in all of baseball. It was suspected that Tatis was inserted into the deal to help persuade San Diego to eat some of Shields onerous remaining salary; that short-sighted gambit succeeded, as the Padres sent 31 million along with Shields, lowering the White Sox obligation to Shields to 27 million over four years. Hahn would admit in 2025 that San Diego originally wanted two pitchers and the Sox weren’t willing to do that… enter Tatis. Shields 5.31 ERA ranks second only to Jaime Navarro for highest in team history among pitchers allowed to throw at least 400 innings for the club. The warning signs were there…in his last start for San Diego, Shields allowed 10 runs against the Mariners and was publicly ripped by the Padres owner.

The original diagnosis (if you believe the Sox medical staff) was 4-6 weeks, not 6-8 weeks. That said I don't think he returns until after the All-Star break.

It all depends if they are still in it in 4-5 weeks. That will determine what else may happen.