Tag Archives: Matt Davidson

Mike Moustakas Could Be A Last Minute Fit

By Cat Garcia

While fans prepare for warmer weather and Opening Day festivities, ball players have begun to welcome a new season by get back into the groove of everyday play.

But not everyone is hearing the crack of bats at Spring Training camps just yet.

From Jake Arrieta to Lucas Duda, there are still a handful of free agents left to be signed before Opening Day, and while the White Sox may not be looking to add a big name or contract to the fold just yet, there have been some interesting rumblings as we head into the first live action games of the year.

MLB.com’s Jon Morosi reported earlier this week that an MLB executive noted third baseman Mike Moustakas may still have a good chance of landing with the White Sox.

In a vacuum, a reunion with the Royals would seem to be the most likely outcome for Moustakas. But the Royals have commited to starting fresh with a young core after winning their first World Series title in 30 years with Moustakas, Hosmer, Cain, etc — all of which have not be resigned yet or have moved on.

Moustakas had a strong season in 2017, hitting a career high 38 home runs in Kauffman Stadium. Moustakas also batted .272/.314/.521 while sporting a 114 wRC+. Not bad for a third baseman who is about to enter his age 30 season.

The question now is simple. Are the White Sox uncomfortable enough with running out Matt Davidson and Co. everyday that they feel the need to sign a player such as Moustakas? After all, White Sox GM Rick Hahn was calculated enough to make it clear to folks pestering him with Manny Machado questions all winter that they were going to do what was best for their long term plan. Would that be to sign Moustakas to a one-year deal, and go after Machado in free agency next offseason?

Considering Moustakas made just $8.7 million with the Royals in 2017 and is likely sitting at home waiting for his phone to ring, he could come at a bargain for the White Sox to add last minute, one that wouldn’t really jeopardize their financial plan for the future, but make the 2018 team considerably more solid on all fronts.

Signing Moustakas for a year and even potentially flipping him at the trade deadline to finish out the season with Davidson or perhaps even a call up for Jake Burger could also be a route the White Sox are looking to take. They would be able to upgrade at third base for a while and cash in on prospects, should Moustakas have as successful of a season has he did with the Royals in 2017.

Going into the season, the dust seems to have settled on which players will be starting at each position, and though it won’t be a brilliant crop on all accounts, it’s passable for a likely non-contending season that’s fresh on the heels of a rebuild. But when it comes to third base, it’s been a bit hazy for several seasons now.

Davidson is obviously the leading candidate for the starting role, but considering he hit just .220/.260/.452 last season, the idea of him taking of the bulk of the playing time isn’t exactly ideal — even in this landscape. Davidson feels more suited to a bench role, where he can hone his best tool — his power — when the situational need arises. But there is no real reason to be running out a player who owned a very characteristic 37 percent strikeout rate in 443 plate appearances last season. Perhaps a possible last minute upgrade to the hot corner has been Hahn’s creative thinking at work all along, or perhaps this is simply a case of “Hey, we need a third baseman and you haven’t been signed yet”.

Whether there will be any truth behind the speculation that Moustakas could land with the White Sox remains to be seen for now, but the main takeaway is that should a transaction come together in the next few weeks, it wouldn’t jeopardize the White Sox’s long term plans to be more active on the free agent market next offseason, but would lock in a solid starting third baseman for the coming season.

As August Grinds, More Injuries for the Sox

In the dog days of August, as players are accumulating around 500 at-bats worth of wear and tear, the disabled list accumulates casualties. Every team goes through it but, lately, it seems like a never-ending parade for the White Sox with the Yoan Moncada newest member of the DL.

Moncada was placed on the 10-day DL Friday after having an MRI, as well as a blood test to check his vitamin D levels, and was diagnosed with shin splits and a contusion. Thankfully, none of this is newly emerged, Moncada was sidelined with shin splints for two games on August 19 and 20.

“It’s a bruise on his shin,” Manager Rick Renteria said. “So, we’re going to keep him off his feet, let it calm down and we’ll see where he’s at in a few days. I think we’re going to keep him with inactivity for seven days. Let it calm down. I know that we’d given him a couple of days and it calmed down significantly, in terms of his opinion. He just aggravated it with a misstep at third yesterday. It was a left foot misstep and then a right step on the bag. It seemed kind of awkward, so he irritated it.”

Moncada is hopeful that the injury won’t keep him off the field for much longer than the 10-days. “For now, it’s going to be just the 10 days,” Moncada said through an interpreter. “But it’s going to depend on how the rehabilitation is going. I don’t like to be injured. No one likes to be on the DL. But there is nothing I can do about it. It is the best in this moment for me. I have to rest.”

Renteria is not concerned that the time Moncada spends sidelined will affect the progress he’s made this season. “Honestly, you could see him progressing,” Renteria said. “Both at the plate and in the field. Any injury or any time down for anybody is never a good time, but as far as where he’s at, we know he’s moving forward in a positive direction. We’ll just deal with it and see if we can get him back on track once he’s back on the field again.”

Moncada is currently hitting .188/.328/.356 on the season with three home runs and one stolen base. The most impressive thing Moncada has brought to the majors? His plate discipline. Moncada is currently walking at a 15.6 percent clip, which is helping keep his on-base percentage at a healthy level despite the low batting average and menial power numbers.

Moncada isn’t satisfied, though. He wants to improve and will always look for ways to do so — as soon as he can get back on the field. “I think the results haven’t been as good as I was expecting,” he said. “But now I’m just trying to get my focus and my learning process and to be prepared for next year.”

Another new young face may be seeing his first big-league trip to the DL soon. The White Sox scratched the recent White Sox under-the-radar sensation Nicky Delmonico from Friday’s lineup against the Detroit Tigers due to a sprained right wrist.

“We took an X-ray and there was nothing structurally, as far as the regular X-ray is concerned,” Renteria said pregame. “He took a swing, felt it. So, we’re sending him out to get an MRI and we won’t know until we get that back. So, I can’t comment on where he is, in terms of what degree of injury it is, if it’s long lasting or if it’s game by game.”

Delmonico began feeling pain around the third at-bat of Thursday’s game against the Twins, but stayed in the game, according to Renteria.

“He went up for the last at bat, and he didn’t mention anything to us during the game last night. But this morning he woke up and was uncomfortable. We sent him out to get the X-ray. Nothing structurally wrong. Now with the swing and pain, we’re going to send him back to get an MRI.”

The White Sox should have more information available on Delmonico’s status this weekend.

Updates on a Few Injured Sox

The White Sox family expanded by one today—and not in the form of a new player being promoted.

Avisail Garcia and his wife welcomed the couple’s second child Thursday, a boy that they have named simply “Avi.”

Garcia, who was not in the White Sox lineup on Thursday in anticipation of the birth of his child, will likely be ready to go for tomorrow’s series opener against the Detroit Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field.

“I know, had we been out of town, he probably would take his [paternity] leave,” Manager Rick Renteria said of Garcia. “But it seems like he might be able and available for us tomorrow, so we’ll play it by ear.”

“I’m going to give him as much time as he needs,” Renteria said. “If he wants to come in late to be able to come out and play tomorrow night I’ll do that. Anything I can do to accommodate, whatever he wants to do to allow him to be here with us.”

Since Garcia was reinstated from the disabled list, he has been on a tear in the month of August, hitting .420/.455/.500. He’s only struck out nine times in 50 at-bats.

“His at-bats have been pretty good,” Renteria said. “Yesterday he ended up driving a ball to the right side that was a pretty good pitch, he’s looked fine.”

White Sox catcher Geovany Soto is still on the road to recovery after being placed on the 60-day DL in May while he underwent arthroscopic elbow debridement surgery.

“Physically everything is 100% inside the arm, they’re just kind of waiting on the healing and on the process of strengthening so that’s where I’m at right now,” Soto said on Thursday.

“We still have to see how everything responds and everything has been going great. So, I just want to feed off of that and just worry about that right now.”

Soto is not currently participating in baseball activity and is mainly working on strengthening his arm in anticipation of his return to play.

Despite his lack of time spent on the field, Soto has been keeping a close eye on White Sox’s progression lately, and still looks for ways to contribute inside the clubhouse.

“We’ve got great guys here, the most important is that they come up here and they want to learn,” Soto said of the recent influx of new young talent, particularly pitchers. “They want to get with the program, and a lot of them look for help and it’s really refreshing to see. We’re here to help them and guide them. I’ve been around and every time they come home I try to help them out, give them my two cents whatever the situation might be to try to help them.”

After 13 years in the majors, Renteria knows that despite Soto’s playing time this season, he is still able to serve as a strong veteran catching leader.

“Obviously his experience, his time, conversations when he’s watching catchers take the hitter through a particular sequence, once they come in [he might] share with them the confirmation that they did a nice job,” Renteria said of Soto.

“[He offers] validation as to what [hitters] did in that particular situation or [he might] talk them through something that they might have done a little differently in order to help a pitcher through,” Renteria continued. “He’s been around, he can see things from the dugout, he can see what the catchers are doing he can see what the pitchers are doing and just continue to relate and have conversations [with players].”

No time table has been set for Soto’s return.

Matt Davidson has began in rehab assignment with the Charlotte Knights, after a rainout on Wednesday, Davidson started as a the designated hitter in the makeup game on Thursday afternoon. He went 0-3 with three strikeouts against Norfolk. Davidson is currently rehabbing the injury he sustained after taking a pitch off the wrist from Marcus Stroman, and was placed on the DL on August 4 for a bruised wrist.

Tense Moments after Moncada-Garcia Collision

It all started with Adam Engel–in case anyone forgot that happened.

Though he was not one of those stricken by an injury serious enough to remove him from the game, Engel started off what would be a strange White Sox affair with a thunderous crash into the centerfield wall attempting to rob a Josh Donaldson home run in the first inning. Engel fell to the ground and didn’t move for a few seconds but stayed in the game.

Later, the peculiar evening would continue. In the sixth inning, Guaranteed Rate Field fell quiet as new, young superstar Yoan Moncada collided with right fielder Willy Garcia in an attempt to save a bases-loaded hit off the bat of Blue Jays’ second baseman Darwin Barney.

While Moncada was the one who was carted off the field, Garcia admits that he was knocked out upon impact and did not remember the play until he was shown video. “When I saw the video I saw the collision, I was like, ‘Wow, that was hard,’ Garcia said post-game. “At first, I was knocked out. I didn’t remember anything before I saw the video. And then I saw the video, and I said, ‘Wow, it was hard.’”

The last time Guaranteed Rate Field felt so grim was June 29 when then-Yankees outfielder Dustin Fowler crashed into the right field wall during his Major League debut. Fowler ruptured his patella tendon which ended his season before he even stepped up to the plate.

But, luckily for the White Sox, a team for whom Moncada has been a glimmer of hope amongst the dog-days of a rebuild process, the injury to the second baseman was simply a quad bruise right above the knee. Moncada is listed day-to-day.

“I thought both of them were down,” Renteria said of his initial reaction to the play. “I thought they were both out, is what it looked like to me. Neither of them were moving.”

Willy Garcia has been placed on the 7-day concussion list and the White Sox have promoted Nicky Delmonico from Triple-A Charlotte to fill the vacated roster spot. Delmonico will wear number 30, and be the second player two make his Major League debut with the White Sox this week, following the promotion of Aaron Bummer on July 27.

The White Sox found themselves down six runs and two players at one point on Monday evening, and headed in the eighth inning they trailed 6-1. That didn’t phase this team though, as Matt Davidson hit a walk-off bloop single to score the winning run, after contributing to the score by hitting a 2-run homer to the opposite field just one at-bat earlier. This was the second walk-off win led by Matt Davidson in as many games.

“It’s huge for us,” Davidson said of the victory. “I’ll take it. We’re all contributing, to win like that is awesome.”

Davidson attributes some of his recent success to a team meeting the White Sox held in Kansas City. “I think we had a good players’ only meeting” he said. “Us individually as position players talked about what we needed to do together as a position players. I think it’s good for the chemistry and we’ll continue to do it going forward.”

Jose Abreu spoke of the team meeting and Davidson’s recent success as well. “We had a meeting a few weeks ago in KC and we talked about how we can do things better on the field,” Abreu said through an interpreter. “I think that [Davidson has] been taking advantage of that situation, using the whole field and that’s something that lets you know that the kids are trying to do better and trying to take any piece of advice that you could give them.”

Abreu noted that despite their recent struggles, he’s proud of the way this team continues to fight for every win. “I’m just happy, not just because of the win today but because of how they’re playing, how we’re fighting,” Abreu said.

“It’s probably lifting him up to the sky right now,” Renteria said post game of Davidson. “He’s feeling good about himself. Obviously the situation was to put together a great at-bat. He didn’t try to do too much. Put the bat on the ball and was able to allow us to drive in the final run and win the ballgame. It just takes you, for him, to a point where your confidence builds a little. I think you gain more and more trust in who you are what you’re capable of doing.”

Notes at the Break

Each baseball season brings a clean slate in April and, by mid-July, sometimes the world feels as though it’s been turned upside down. That seems to be the case this season, especially for a young group of South Siders, who have found themselves in the midst of a season that was suppose to propel them into “total rebuild mode” full of lows, yet hasn’t been without it’s fair share of highs.

As we enter into the official second half of the 2017 season this weekend — let’s take a look at the three most surprising outcomes the White Sox have witnessed over the first half of the season.

All-Star Avi

Coming into the season, White Sox fans had heard the same tale over again. Avisail Garcia looks good, he’s lost some weight, he’s going to have a breakout year. The tape felt broken and so did White Sox fan’s hope for any sort of success out of the promising Venezuelan star entering his age 26 season.

But as it stands at the All-Star Break, Garcia has flourished, showing the longest stretch of consistency the White Sox have seen out of him since he came to the South Side. He’s in the top 10 of AL hitters (min. 300 PA) in batting average, and in the top 20 in OBP and slugging percentage. He’s also sporting his lowest strikeout rate since 2012. The downside? Garcia is clinging tightly to that high BABIP of .371, indicating that a lot of the production that the White Sox are seeing from Garcia could be chalked up to good luck. The good luck has lasted, however. Garcia also has the second lowest walk rate on the team, at just 4.1 percent. But hey, it’s working!

Kahnle Reinvented

Let’s keep in mind that now superstar bullpen arm Tommy Kahnle didn’t even break camp with the White Sox this season. His control issues continued to rear their ugly head, but due to injury to Sox righty Jake Petricka, Kahnle found himself called up in the midst of making a few noteworthy changes on the mound that lead to huge success. Kahnle always had the heat, he just wasn’t able to harness it. He claims he moved his head toward home plate during his delivery, made a few tweaks with his legs and, boom. It’s the All-Star Break and Kahnle is still sporting a 2.65 ERA in 34 innings pitched. It gets better though. Kahnle’s FIP is currently sitting at 1.56 — good enough to land him at third best in the AL behind Craig Kimbrel and Roberto Osuna. He’s also striking out 15 batters per nine and walking just under two—a far cry from the Kahnle baseball had seen in years past. Sometimes small mechanical tweaks are the key to extraordinary success, and Kahnle has certainly proven that to be true in 2017.

The Matt Davidson Show

After an unfortunate accident in which Matt Davidson fractured his right foot during his major league debut last June, Davidson noted that while rehabbing he had a lot of time to think about his approach at the plate and make some changes.

The high hopes that many had for the young third base prospect began to dwindle as the seasons passed down in Charlotte and Davidson wasn’t able to sustain healthy enough results to merit a spot in the big league roster. Davidson is now 72 games into his first full season in the majors, and if you’d told folks that in 2017 he’d be leading this White Sox team in home runs while holding onto a steady place in the lineup — they simply might not have believed you.

But Davidson leads the team with 18 home runs and, while his batting line is quite lopsided, sitting at just .245/.284/.515, he’s still hitting the ball over the fence with regularity that’s been to the White Sox’s benefit—including a streak in which he homered in four straight games. The downside? Plain and simple — that 41 percent strikeout rate he’s sporting. Eventually teams will learn to adjust to Davidson’s sweet spot, and the home run fest will come to a halt. Unfortunately when that day comes, there isn’t much left to prop of Davidson’s success.

There have been a lot of surprises on the South Side in 2017, including a plethora of starting pitching injuries (something the White Sox are not used to) and the always exciting presence of the talent that’s down on the farm. Perhaps the biggest moment that the White Sox are waiting to roll out though? The arrival of number one prospect Yoan Moncada. Fans will have to wait just a little while longer for that treat, though.

My Right Arm for a Lefty Bat

Over the course of the White Sox six-game losing streak, runs have been tough to come by. No kidding, right? That’s what makes a losing streak. Still even when the White Sox have clicked, there’s been a glaring deficiency: A lefty bat.

Friday night against Jhoulys Chacin, the White Sox two-through-six hitters were all right handed. Chacin, also, is right handed. The White Sox entered the game hitting .218 off right handed pitching–last in the league. The White Sox two-through-six went 2-15 with one walk and three strikeouts against right handed pitching. The White Sox could really use a lefty bat.

That’s not so say they don’t have just such bats. After starting hot with two doubles in the season opener and steady work through April, it’s been a rough May for Melky Cabrera. Melky (who’s obviously a switch hitter) has much better numbers against right handers (.256/.308/.341) this year than left handers (.182/.250/.273) but neither slash line really jumps off the page. That such a veteran and versatile bat has been cold to start the year has been tough for the Sox to swallow. Good news is Melky is hardly striking out. Perhaps it’s just a run of the mill slump. After a putting up a .289/.429/.667 slash line in Spring Training, Cody Asche looked like he might give the White Sox some of the balance they needed. At least he’d be counted on to give a competitive at-bat in a platoon split with Matt Davidson in the corner/DH role but Asche’s struggles have been mighty and lengthy. Yolmer Sanchez gives a bit of pop off the bench and in situational roles but the switch-hitting, sawed-off utility man is buried behind Tyler Saladino and Tim Anderson in the middle of the infield and, Matt Davidson and Todd Frazier at third.

Omar Narvaez has been productive, but in a very unsurprising way. His .377 OBP is second on the team (Avisail Garcia is first at .382) but he simply doesn’t hit for power. Don’t get me wrong, a .260 average and a .380 on-base is just fine for a backstop but it seems the plan all along was to have Narvaez work in a time share with Geovany Soto (now Kevan Smith with Soto on the DL for the second time). That plan, too, makes sense as Narvaez has just 388 plate appearances above high A ball with 183 of those coming in The Show. How nuts is that? Kind of makes you look at ‘ol Omar (he’s 25) in a different light.

Which brings us to another switch hitter: Leury Garcia. The Middle Garcia. After plugging two home runs in Friday night’s loss to the Padres, the Median Garcia is hitting .304/.343/.489. It gives him the second highest average, the third highest on-base, and the third highest slugging percentage on the White Sox this year. Leury the Middlemost has never hit for power. Ever. His career slugging percentage in the minor leagues is .275 though, to be fair, he did hit the crap out of the ball in the 2011 Arizona Fall League (.361/.379/.590). Right now, past be damned, Leury might be the most intriguing player on the White Sox. He just turned 26. He can handle at least three and possibly up to six positions at major-league average caliber. He has raked. His strikeout rate, which was at 27 percent all through his minor league career and 33 percent in all of his major league time, is at 14 percent this year. Fourteen percent! That’s in the DJ LeMahieu-Francisco Lindor-Ian Kinsler-Anthony Rizzo range.

I have no idea if Leury can rise above the Mean and become Leury the… well… other meaning of mean. Odds are, no, he can’t keep up this kind of production. But, hell, every early-season column ends up with that same conclusion and that’s absolutely no fun. So, for now, enjoy what we’re watching and just maybe the White Sox have helped Leury elevate from the middle ground.

Fear Not Joy, Baseball Fans

Chicago White Sox’ Matt Davidson celebrates his solo home run off Minnesota Twins relief pitcher Ryan Pressly as he heads to the dugout during the seventh inning of a baseball game Friday, April 14, 2017, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

By Connor McKnight

Don’t fret over dingers.

That’s the best advice I can give you after two weeks of baseball
I’ll explain.
Whether it’s in phone calls to the Post Game Show or tweets to the Mailbag, there have been some White Sox fans worrying themselves over quality production from Avisail Garcia and/or Matt Davidson. Both players, it seems, come with their own, individual hang-ups. I’ll see if I can describe them to you.
“But Garcia has ALWAYS been streaky! He’s been through weeks like this before where he looks like the second coming and then, all of a sudden, he turns into empty at-bats and all the swing and miss you can handle. Why should I be excited about him now?”
For Davidson, it’s a bit different: “Sure, a .909 slugging percentage is wonderful but what about that 50% strikeout rate? There’s no way he’s worth getting hyped over.”
Early baseball does weird things to everyone. My best advice, though admittedly it’s probably more patronizing than you’d like, is to not worry about it. Just let yourself enjoy it for a little bit. Let the weirdness of the small sample size wash over you, secure in the knowledge that a month from now, we’ll have numbers attached to players that firmly constitute their worth and tell us exactly what we’ve been dying to know for months… probably.
There’s no mistaking the fact that the White Sox have, by and large, pitched themselves to right around the .500 mark. The bullpen has been fantastic and holding slim leads while the Sox starters have only once taken a game into the seventh inning (Jose Quintana’s second start of the year). The offense hasn’t exactly achieved the “feast or famine” cliche–even in low scoring games, the Sox have gotten runners on to threaten. It has, however, lived and died on the power bats of three players; Garcia, Davidson and Geovany Soto. With Soto on the DL with elbow inflammation, the list gets thinner. Still, my advice is revel in the little things.
For instance on Friday night, Davidson, facing Ryan Pressly’s 97 mph heater, looked absolutely lost through four pitches. Pressly had thrown a clean first inning, striking out two, and looked in command of his breaking stuff and the fastball. Davidson tipped the first pitch, a 93 mph fastball foul. The second, another fastball, perfectly hit the low and away corner of the strike zone for strike two. Davidson, now 0-2, managed to lay off pitch high and away that could have easily been called strike three. It wasn’t, and by the grace of the baseball gods, Davidson would see another pitch. The fourth, a curveball low and away, was a waste-pitch that anyone could have seen coming. Davidson took and prepared for the 2-2. Mind you, he hasn’t seemed comfortable, taken a quality swing or had a quality take all at-bat. The closest things got were knowing on 1-2, after three straight fastballs, a breaking ball was coming.
The fifth pitch of the at-bat was a belt-high 90 mph slider that did anything but. Davidson pounced, rode it out to right field, and gave the Sox the 2-1 lead.
Watching Davidson, strikeout problems and all, hang in an at-bat he seemingly had no right to be in and STILL drive a mistake pitch out of the ball park is a blast. It can be for you, too.
I don’t mean to just whistle Dixie. It would be nice to see Tim Anderson lower his sights some and lay off the high fastball. Todd Frazier seemed to just start taking quality hacks before food poisoning took him (and his lunch) from where they were supposed to be. Tyler Saladino has had some incredibly patient at bats but has yet to be completely rewarded for solid contact. Jacob May is yet to get a hit.
These are things you’re right to want to turn around and smart to keep an
Connor McKnight is the pre- and post-game host for Chicago White Sox baseball on WLS-AM 890. He also hosts White Sox Live, a weekend radio podcast .

It’s Been One Week

Although the White Sox haven’t played as many games as they’d planned through a week of the season, there’s plenty to dig in and digest. Obviously, we’ll have to wait a bit longer–at least one full trip through the rotation would be nice–to make any grand statements but here’s what popped most in the Sox first three games.

–Jose Quintana will probably be just fine. He gave up six runs on three home runs against the Tigers. First, he never gives up three home runs. Second, he hasn’t matched up well against the Tigers in the past. Third, with the rainout on Wednesday, the Sox have the chance to start Quintana three times and skip the as-yet technically unnamed fifth starter. They’ll do just that. Q will be fine.

–Matt Davidson hit a 428-foot home run in his first at-bat of the year. He rounded all the bases, did not get hurt, and finished the game. That did not happen after his only at-bat last season. It’s been a long, long road to the Major Leagues after being acquired from the Diamondbacks in 2013. Davidson did not have a good spring, by any measure. He had a fantastic first game and, if nothing else, can take that confidence and run with it.

–Tyler Saladino has seemed extra patient in the leadoff spot. His eye has been sharp, his takes have been keen and when he’s swung early (like belting the second pitch of the game Friday night against Phil Hughes deep to center) he hit the ball hard (but was robbed by Byron Buxton who made a preposterous catch).

–James Shields’ velocity is up. That may mean a lot, if it’s true. Fangraphs.com has an excellent article up about velocity across baseball and how it’s being measured this year as opposed to last. Whether he’s throwing harder or not, he got swings and misses on the fastball in his first start. That simply did not happen last season.

–Geovany Soto became the seventh player in MLB history to homer twice in a game for both the White Sox and the Cubs. The others are Ron Santo, Jay Johnstone, Vance Law, George Bell, Sammy Sosa and WLS’ own Darrin Jackson.

–Jake Petricka will start, pretty much, on the DL this year. A lat strain has sidelined the right hander after just one appearance. He was healthy this offseason after hip surgery put him on the shelf all last season. His absence hurt the Sox as they careened out of contention last year. Hopefully, he gets back quickly. His ability to throw ground balls is an asset to the bullpen.

There’s more but we’ll leave it there for now. Catch all the latest on the Sox live on White Sox Weekly or check the podcast.