Will the White Sox Beat the Guardians?

As the White Sox come home from a tough stretch of baseball, they take on the 1st-place Cleveland Guardians. Are the White Sox ready to win and prove they belong? What happens if the White Sox win the series? What happens if they don't?  

Transcript

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The White Sox have been swept for the first time in over two months. And after the high of taking two series victories from the Atlanta Braves and the LA Dodgers, this past week was a reminder that baseball always has a way of bringing us the fans back down to earth. The White Sox started this brutal stretch of the schedule looking like one of the hottest teams, if not the hottest team in baseball, going 4-1 against two of baseball's best teams, the Braves and the Dodgers. But over the last six games, the second half of this stretch, the wheels have come off just a bit. Chicago managed just one victory, finishing the stretch 1-5, and closing out this difficult 11-game gauntlet with a respectable but somewhat frustrating 5-6 record. Now, if I told you before this stretch that the White Sox would come out of it just one game under 500, considering everything we thought about this team before the season started, most of us would probably be pretty happy, you know, and signed up immediately. But knowing what we know now about this team, I think expectations have changed. Not expecting us to win every game or every series, but to go one in five in the second half, the easier half of this stretch of games, um, is below expectations. This team has played so well over the last couple of months that a one in five record feels disappointing. And honestly, at the same time, that's a good feeling. It's a good feeling to know that this team has raised the standard. So today we're going to do what we always do. We will be going inning after inning, talking about some of the bad, talking about some of the good, looking at what went wrong, what went right, and moving forward for a White Sox team that we still believe might be in this playoff conversation. Today is Monday, June 22nd, the day after Father's Day. Before we get started, I just wanted to take a moment to wish a happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there, and a special happy Father's Day to my own father, one of the biggest White Sox fans I know. He's the reason I fell in love with baseball, the reason I became a White Sox fan, and honestly, a big reason to why I'm doing this podcast and how this podcast even exists today. Some of my favorite memories have come from watching games, talking baseball, sharing the super high ups and the super low downs of being a White Sox fan and being a White Sox fan with him. So thank you to my father for passing along your love for this game and for this team. Happy Father's Day. Today we will be taking a look back at the last two series against the Yankees and obviously the series that ended yesterday or day of recording, which is Sunday today against the Tigers. But don't worry. Um, I'm not going to spend the entire episode reliving literally every frustrating thing from our one in five stretch between the two teams. I'm gonna touch on some key moments, some things that went wrong, uh, some of the few bright spots that kept you know the Sox from just being swept twice in a row. But the focus is going to be bigger picture as we have a very important series coming up today, Monday, if when you're listening this today, uh against Cleveland. So because games are still being played on the field, uh, there's also a ton of action happening off the field, right? Trade deadline is rapidly approaching. Front offices around baseball are probably glued to their phones, and rumors are flying left and right throughout the league. The White Sox find themselves in a very interesting position, though, and I'll touch on that in a little bit later. We're gonna discuss um some things I am hoping to see after this this week, and we can really dive deeper next week into some of the players that I think the White Sox should acquire. And I'm gonna give you a reason, and we'll talk about this throughout the episode and why I don't want to bring it up just yet, because I think some things have to happen before we start getting ahead of ourselves. So we've got Yankees, we've got Tigers, we've got trade rumors, we got potential deadline edition conversations to to happen, but that's it for the first inning. Let's head into the second. Now, to quickly recap the series against the New York Yankees, I have a few words I want to say. Thank you to Colson Montgomery, and thank you to Benatene for the big Benny Bomb slam. The only reason we weren't swept in New York was because of the game three, because of game three's grand slam from Benetendi and a just oh and clutch performance from Sean Burke, who so far this year is hit or miss, but his inner Red Sox fandom came to life as he pitched seven and a third innings with one earned run and eight strikeouts, and just completely dominated the Yankees. I say thank you to Colson for hitting home run after home run in that series as he set all sorts of records. According to stats, Montgomery Montgomery became the first player in Major League Baseball history to hit at least 20 home runs within his first 275 at bats in each of his first two major league seasons. Besides these high notes, though, the White Sox struggled in the first two games of this series. Game one looked like he was going to be one of the better pitching duels of the year for Major League Baseball, but quickly uh diminished after the Yankees just beat down Davis Martin. Uh I mean, three and a third innings pitched, gave up nine earned runs. To my knowledge, I think this was the first game of the year where the White Sox had placed a position player on the mound to pitch, which gives you all of the ugly feelings that we've been getting the last couple years. And I mean, also Luis on Jalicunya, I don't think you can throw the ball any slower as a position player on the mound. I think that was the slowest pitching I've ever seen from it. I mean, you can throw it in there, right? You don't have to lob it. I understand we already took the loss, but you I mean, I know there's like you know, unwritten rules about not hitting the home run, and you know, I the unwritten rules about hit uh being a hitter against position player pitchers, but if you're gonna throw the ball at like negative four miles an hour, go all out, New York. I don't know why Luis Sun Hell was throwing that slow, but whatever, we already lost. Um, but yeah, game one was a loss, Sox lost game two, five to ten after a rough outing from Anthony K and the White Sox bullpen. Game three was the only bright spot as we won five to one. But overall, in total, the white socks were outscored from with uh against New York 12 to 23. But at least we avoided the sweep, right? Regarding the games against Detroit, I will be honest with you guys. I did not have the opportunity to watch these games, but to recap, um, we will just break it down as I look at it right now. I know we lost all three, we were swept, obviously. I mentioned that in the beginning of this episode, but to lose three to four on Friday against Tariq Schubel, and words were exchanged. I still don't know what he said or what things were said, but that was very exciting. It looked like we could have pulled a pulled off a W there, but we unfortunately did not. We lost on Saturday, one to four, and then the real loss Sunday or yesterday, if you're listening on Monday, we lost four to five in extras when we were just just milliseconds away from taking the win. I mean that we had two outs in the in the bottom of the ninth, and we I mean Luis and Halacunya, ground ball, threw it the first. I mean, it was a matter of milliseconds, we would have got the win, and um unfortunately it was a tough loss. It really was a tough loss, tough, tough series for us to lose. Detroit's been playing a lot better since the last time we seen them, and I think we just gave him a huge confidence boost. I mean, if you're on the tiger side of this last game, that was probably one of the better games they've had all season. Uh right, they came back from being behind and they took the not only a win on the game, but a series sweep. So good for the Tigers, not good for our White Sox. But that's enough about the losses and the unfortunate events over the last two series. We will be breaking down the series against the Cleveland Guardians. This is a crucial matchup with Cleveland. I'm going to break this down a little bit more later in the podcast, but this series will tell us a lot about where this team should be heading. It really depends on if we can beat Cleveland or not. And I'll talk about this later. But game one, as of right now, it looks like it's going to be Anthony K against Gavin Williams. Also, game one is Toy Story 5 night. It says it's already sold out. The promo has been sold out already. So if you're there, there's a really cool um Chicago White Sox jersey with blue pinstripes and the some of the key characters from Toy Story on the back, around the number, I think it's a number, or it says Toy Story, I can't remember. Pretty cool jersey. Um so game one, Williams, Gavin Williams for Cleveland right now is nine and four, 3.83 ERA in a hundred over a hundred strikeouts. Only a few players on the White Sox roster right now have seen him, and only Miguel Vargas has really done anything against him. He's, I mean, in three at-bats, he has one hit. That's that's pretty much it. Everyone else has either not seen him ever, and I think there's only two other players that has had a few at-bats against Gavin Williams. Tough matchup for the White Sox. Game one, but we'll see if Anthony K can step it up. Game two is Parker Mes. I think I'm saying the name wrong. Meziak? I don't think it's Mesik. Is it Mesik? Mesiak? I think it's Mesiak. I can't, or Mesek. Mesik or Mesziak. I'm a White Sox fan. I don't pay attention to Parker Messiak. Mesziak. Messiak? Versus Sean Burke. Sean Burke, after the outing against New York, I think this is going to be a fun game. I think he could pull off something special after what he did with New York. And now we're back home in Chicago. But Mesik, Mesziak, Messiak, is 7-3 with a 2.70 ERA and 91 strikeouts. Again, most of the White Sox roster has not seen him. And whoever has seen him has very little success against him. Game three. Tanner. Oh, this is another one. I don't I really don't know how to say Tanner Bibay. Bibe? Bibe? Bebe. Against Eric Fetty. Uh Bay. Bibe? Bibay? How do you say I'm gonna look this up? It's two and eight with an ERA over four, 78 strikeouts. This is probably a game I would say we have a pretty solid chance at winning. But then again, we have Eric Fetty on the mound. So who knows? I really have no idea how this White Sox team will match up against Cleveland this year. Usually I'm able to say or think that we we will struggle or we could maybe do some damage, but I think even in our best years over the last decade, we always have trouble with Cleveland. Cleveland's like our our new Minnesota, right? So as of right now, as of time of recording, the Guardians sit back on top of the AL Central at 41 and 37, and we are just a game behind at 39 and 37. But this series, I truly believe, will be a season-defining series. I'm happy it, I'm I'm very happy it's happening at home, too. So we can finally get some White Sox fans back on our side, right? It's pr pretty rough for White Sox players, some of the new guys playing in New York and seeing New York fans and uh Detroit fans were obviously showing up to the to the games over the weekend, so it will probably feel really good for some of these players to see us back in Chicago supporting the team at the right. But that is all I have for just you know an overview of the series recaps as has happened and a just a little looking ahead to this matchup against the Guardians. That's all that's all for the second inning. We will be moving into the third inning. We are now in the third inning. I dedicate this inning to rumors, trades, front office news, um, news around the ball club. So just to get started, recent transactions. Last or early last week, Noah Schalt and Kyle Teal have both started their rehab assignments. So hopefully we will be seeing them back on the South Side pretty soon. Jordan Hicks is back on the team. Uh obviously, he pitched in the 10th inning against Detroit. Uh, he wasn't the reason we we lost. I mean, there's multiple reasons, but he pitched what, like the last, like against the last hitter of the game, I think. But he's back, and I think if you've been listening to my podcast, then you know how I feel about Jordan Hicks and the White Sox. Hint number one. Throughout this player's 18 years in Major League Baseball, he only had nine career stolen bases. Junior Perez made his MLB debut after spending I think nine years in the minor leagues, and he hit his first career home run. So that was a pretty cool moment. He was also called up because Everson Pereira, another name I can't say Pereira Pereira uh spent just maybe like 30 seconds back on the team just to be sent back to the injured list. Um so, but good moment for junior press. Next, rumors lots of rumors are flying around the league right now, like they should be. We are kind of like in the early stages of the trade deadline uh frenzy where just every rumor is flying around, every idea is flying around. It doesn't really get realistic until maybe like the final two weeks before the deadline, or maybe like week and a half, but like right now, I think we're in that stage where anything can go, every team is or every fan is trying to build a list of their favorite, I don't know, 500 players they want, and then they're just gonna keep breaking it down. I think I'm gonna break down this list next week, and I'm saying this because if the White Sox can beat Cleveland and prove that they can hold up against this Guardian's team, which in the past couple years, obviously, or even with like I said before, even when we're good, we can't keep up with Cleveland. If we can prove that we can keep up, even without Mooney, without Teal, if we can prove that we can at least get two of the three in this series in Chicago against Cleveland, I think these lists and these trade rumors and these ideas of acquiring some big names, starting pitchers, obviously, that's what we're hoping for. I think that is okay, and that's what I will be doing. But if Cleveland comes to Chicago and we lose two of the three, or worse, we get swept in Chicago, I think we will be having a different discussion next podcast. Because I don't think it's a smart idea to be removing or trading away pieces of what could be a fantastic future on the Chicago on the South Side of Chicago for a team that can't even hold up against the Cleveland Guardians when when we weren't even having postseason aspirations. We weren't hoping to make the postseason. Before the season even started, we were just hoping to get more than 70 wins. So now that we're sitting here thinking postseason, but we in but we have a chance of beating Cleveland or losing against them, this could really sway either way. It could really sway the way this season goes from here on out, and that's why I don't want to be talking about you know the type of rumors I'm really engaging with or the type of ideas that a lot of fans are talking about around the around just social media. I don't want to jump right into all this until after this series against Cleveland. Next piece of news. I wanted to talk about this because I think this is gonna be so much fun. Every episode I talk about Rok Cholowski. I will not be talking about Rok Cholowski this episode. Listen to last episode if you want to hear what I think about the White Sox drafting Rock or Grady Emerson or other. But this episode, I want to talk about what's going to be happening next or alongside the 2026 MLB draft, and that is the White Sox alumni home run derby. That will be on July 11th. It is going to be so much fun to watch. The six players, one, two, three, four, five, six players are just some of the most random White Sox players in the history of this organization. So what what I wanted to do was I wanted to look up each player. I want to look up each player up on Google, and then you know when you can scroll down a little bit and they have like some just additional questions that people may be asking. And one of them was what is uh so for example, what is Scott Persenic Pasednik doing now? So I did that for each and every player, and I just took the very first line for every single player that's going to be in this alumni home run derby, and man, is this so much it's it's this is so funny. So I'm gonna start with one, I'm gonna tell you the name the six names, and I think most of you already know who's in it. I'm gonna give you a score out of 10 of how excited I am to see them on the White Sox. I is this happening in the at the rate? I think it's happening at the rate. How excited I am to see these players back at the rate, or just hitting home runs and in White Sox gear, just representing the team once again, and then I'm gonna be showing I'm also gonna be you know telling you guys what the uh answer was to that Google question, you know, what is so and so doing right now. So the first one, Scott Pasednik. I in out of score out of 10, how excited I am, I'm going to give it a 10 out of 10. I am so excited to see Scotty Pods back hitting the ball. I mean, the guy looks like he can he could probably sling it. I mean, he could probably hit the ball pretty well. Still a fit fit guy. I mean, he every time he comes on. Oh, you know, before I say that, let's just talk about what Google said. So, what is Scott Pasetnik doing now? Google said works as a Chicago White Sox team ambassador, making public appearances, signing autographs, and conducting media work. And then I also added he also created one of the more emotional moments of this of this season with with Ozzie Geen, and that's when he announced that the White Sox would be retiring Ozzy's number. Um, so super excited for Scott Passenic. Second player, Alexi. Ramirez. Right? And I would be sitting here saying, saying Alexi, like like Hawk Harrel Harrelson would, but I'm not gonna do that because I no one can match his tone and his energy. But how excited am I out of a score of 10? I give it a 100 out of 10. That's how excited I am to see Alexi back on the field. How old is Alexi? I think he's in his 50s. I think maybe late 50s. But asking the question on Google, what is Alexi Ramirez doing right now? Alexi Ramirez is serving a provisional suspension from baseball following a positive test for multiple performance-enhancing drugs during the 2026 World Baseball Classic. I mean, you gotta, he's gotta do something to keep up. To keep up with with all the young guys. I mean, he had to do something. Next, Gordon Beckham. Uh seven out of ten. This is how excited I am to see Gordon Beckham back on the field. Listen, I when he was a player on the Sox, I was so so on on Beckham. Now that he's you know on the broadcast, announcing every you know, here and there, I'm so so on on Beckham. But this is what Google said. Works as the greatest television broadcast analyst in the history of Chicago, calling games for ESBN and the Chicago White Sox on the Chicago Sports Network. And yes, I did add greatest television broadcast. He's obviously not the greatest, but he's okay. He's okay. Um, it's gonna be fun to see Gordon Beckham um hit the ball again. I think he probably he can probably do he might be better than he was back then. We'll see. Next, Daniel Polka. Let's just let's just grab the most random player in White Sox history. And remember when Daniel Palka Polka was like good for like 14 days? I mean, that was this is such a random thing. You could have picked any other player in White Sox history, and it would have been more meaningful than Daniel Polka. This is such a I don't know, I I don't want to be you know too hard on that guy, but this is like I can't even pick a more random player. I'm trying to think of someone just this is like getting Alejandro Diazza back, hitting actually that might be more meaningful. He actually he had a pretty good debut. You know what? I have no idea. I have no idea who. But this is I don't know. But Google, he as according to Google, serves as an assistant baseball coach for the University of Rhode Island. I had no idea. Um, but my score of excitement, one out of ten. Second, Liori Garcia, five out of ten. I mean, it I think it'd be more meaningful if he was like 10 years removed from the game, but I think he literally, I think he was just designated for assignment from like Atlanta, like this year or last year. I don't know when. But Google has him. Google says, what is he up to today? He is participating in Chicago West Sachs alumni events and charity games following a release by oh release by the Atlanta Braves organization, and then the big name Jose Canseco. Nine out of 10, because I didn't really see him play. Obviously, um he's 61, but man is he probably going to. I think he's the only player in this list that has more than 50 career home runs. Um, how much does Polka have? I think he only hit like 40, and that was all with the White Sox in like one, you know, like a span of two weeks or something. But no, make uh what is Jose Conseco doing today? Making regular appearances at national baseball card shows and playing in celebrity poker tournaments. Good for him. He's probably gonna win, but he's 61. I don't know. I think it's down to Conseco or assistant baseball coach for Rhode Island. Polka might actually win. I mean, he's the only guy on this list that's still pretty young and you know, it was known for hitting for power. If not, Palka, I might actually give it back to Beckham. Maybe Beckham has something to prove. You know what? Let's do it. Let's sign him. Free agency. Let's do it. Let's make history, White Sox. Let's Beckham's gonna win it, and then we're gonna sign him to like a free agent contract. He's gonna roll through the minor leagues, come up, and uh who knows? Maybe he's uh postseason World Series MVP. That's all. That's all I have for the third inning. I'll see you guys into the fourth inning while where we will focus on a couple of players. See you there. Welcome to the fourth inning. This is a player-focused inning. I tend to just really get specific about some stat lines and some player stories on specific players on this team. So I want to I don't want to take too much time in this inning. I know this inning can be either really short or really long. I'm gonna try to get somewhere in the middle. I want to talk about two players. The first player is Colson Montgomery. He has been having a just great season. He is so exciting to watch every time he comes to a bat. I I mean, myself, I like to just pause and watch. Kind of like when Mooney comes up, you just want to pause and see what happens. I feel the same way every time Colson comes up to the plate. And I think that's a good thing to have. I feel that way about a couple players. Uh Colson, uh, Mooney and Vargas. But to break down his stat line, right now he's hitting 224, on base percentage of 320, slugging of 502, OPS of 822, OPS plus of 125, meaning he's 25% better than your average MLB player in 2026. In 300 at bats, or 72 games, he has played one more game than he had played in 2025. At 71, he's played 72 games now officially. In 300 at bats in 2026, he has 59 hits, 13 of them are doubles, 20 home runs, 45 RBIs, 28 walks, and he has a stolen base on this year as well 92 strikeouts, which is 11 more strikeouts than last year. I mean, numbers are pretty similar. 300 at bats versus the 284. Um my bad, 263 at bats versus the 255 at bats in 2025. I'm getting at bats and plate appearances wrong on my side. But why I want to bring up Colson is I'm looking ahead. And I'm looking ahead at what could potentially happen in this draft, where the White Sox will most likely draft Rock Cholovski, who is a fantastic shortstop. He can also play third base as well, so can obviously Miguel Vargas, so can Colson Montgomery. I do not think Rock Choloski has experience playing in a different position outside of that side of the infield. What I mean by that is I don't think he has experience playing any positions in the outfield, and I don't think he has any experience playing on the right side of the infield. So what happens when we draft Rock Cholowski while we are staring at what could be our dynasty or franchise shortstop in Colson Montgomery? Do we meet do we move Colson to third base? Do we move Cholowski to third base? What happens to Vargas? What happens in this infield? And what I I keep thinking about is two things. One, if we put Cholowski at shortstop, we would probably move Montgomery to third, and Vargas is pretty good at playing first base. So what does that mean for Mooney? Mooney can be our designated hitter, right? We can before the season, I think we knew that Moonitaka would be a below average first baseman defensively. But so far this season, I think he's been fairly well at first base. But if we can keep him healthy and keep him as a designated hitter, I think that's a great rob. But then again, we only have one more year of Munitaka. We need to extend him. I always bring this up every single episode. Extend Munitaka before it's too late. And I'm I feel like too light, too late is probably I'm gonna say too late is spring training next year. If he is not extended by spring training next year, I think we are going to be talking about trade ideas and rumors next season regarding Moonitaka. That's why we need to sign and extend him as soon as possible. The other thing I'm thinking about is let's say it's the same scenario, right? Chalowski's at shortstop, Montgomery's at third, and now Vargas is at first. What happens to Mooney? If he doesn't want to extend with the White Sox, and and he knows that he he's expressed it with Chicago, he's expressed it with Chris Katz. Is it such a bad idea to? I know I'm saying this, don't hate me for saying it, but I'm have to think on the business side of baseball. Is it a terrible idea knowing a player doesn't want to extend with us, knowing he came to the White Sox wanting to prove himself, and that's exactly what he's done, and then he will be looking for the big contract with a team that he thinks might win it. Is it a problem or is it a good idea that the White Sox trade him knowing he doesn't want to extend? And the haul we could bring back for a Munitaka Murakami trade could be huge for this White Sox team. We could trade for not just a front-end piece of our rotation, but we could trade for an ace for this White Sox rotation. I think that would be great. I think that would if I think that would be the best possible outcome if Munitaka does not want to keep playing for the White Sox. And I know I'm saying this, and I know you guys don't want to hear it, but you have to look at the baseball or the business side of things when it comes to right, players, players and and extensions and contracts, and just the business side of the game. And if he doesn't want to stay with the White Sox, we have to utilize this player, Munitaka, and get everything we can out of having him. And if that means extending him for what I think would be a good extension would be six plus years, uh six plus around six years, 150-200 million dollars, who knows? Give him the money, Jerry. That's best case scenario, but plan B would be to trade him when we are full well aware he does not want to stay in Chicago. Trade him with a year left, with as much time left, so we can bring back one hell of a player, or a few players. I don't want prospects, I want MLB ready players. That's what I'm getting at. I know I said I wouldn't be talking this long. That's it. That's all I have to say for Colson Montgomery. That turned into a Rok Chalowski slash Munitaka conversation. Hint number two. This player played for more National League teams in his career than he did American League teams. Next, this is gonna be quick and easy, and it might be painful, but Edgar Kiro needs to be sent back down the moment Kyle Teal comes back up. That dude cannot hit a baseball. I mean, I think if I got up there myself on the mound and I threw a couple fastballs, a couple of fastballs, I'm talking like I can actually do this. If I threw a any pitcher in the league throws a couple of fastballs on the edge of the strike zone, get two strikes on Edgar Kiro, and fully tell Edgar that there is gonna be a low change up, or maybe a low and inside slider coming his way, and Edgar is fully, fully well aware he will still swing and miss. This dude, I his weakness is just throwing his body 14 feet ahead of the plate and striking out. And I think he was good at being you know ready for that pitch for like a few games. Um, I think it was against LA, maybe, or Atlanta. He like showed that he was showing improvements against that type of pitch sequence, and then suddenly against Detroit, change up, change up, and when he does get a hit, it's like he's surprised he actually hit the ball. So send him back down. I want to see Kyle Teal be the everyday catcher. Obviously, he's coming back from rehab and he's a catcher, so he can't play every single day. But I don't want time to be split between Teal and Romo. I want it to be like 75-25. Give me Kyle Teal 75% of the time. Give me Drew Romo when you think Teal needs a break, when you think the matchup between Romo and the pitcher is better than Teal. But for as of right now, I am completely okay with Akiro going back to AAA, just focusing on the mechanics, focusing on hitting. He's great at you know um challenging the ABS system, but that's all I can say positive about Edgar so far this season. Other than that, I mean, it's just horrendous. Um just real quick, Edgar. I'm looking, I'm looking it up real quick. I don't want you guys to go. Um it's been so bad. His goal his Google image is still in angels, Angels hat. That's funny. Um 2026 batting average is at 185, on base percentage is 253, slugging is at 233, his OPS is at 486. 486. His OPS plus get this his OPS plus is at 37. That is 63% worse than the average player in Major League Baseball in 2026. I'm I just he needs to go back down. Listen, I like him as a player. He's so young though. He's extra how how old is he again? Uh 22, he's 22 years old. He can definitely afford the time to be back in the minor leagues for maybe the rest of this season. Unless he shows improvement quickly, but give him the time. He needs the time. He's 22, he's struggling. I think he might have been pulled up a little too soon. Maybe. I mean, last year's numbers weren't I mean they were okay, they weren't the best. His OPS plus was 94, which is 6% lower than the average player that in last year, but to be 63% worse than the average player in 2026, I mean that is it's cra and I know his he defensively he's not this bad, but I I don't think they equal out. I I I mean, it's one thing to say you can be a really good defensive catcher and a really bad hitter, like most catchers pretty much are. Not bad hitter, but they're just below average hitter, but really good defensively. It's another thing to say you're just a pretty good or a little above average defensive catcher, and you're just like one of the worst offensive catchers in the entire league. So that's where I stand on Edgar. Hopefully he gets sent down when Teal comes back because we definitely do not need three catchers. And if we send Romo down, not saying Romo's any any better, but he's just like a hair better than Edgar. I think that's the route we should be going. We should send Edgar down and Teal and Romo take on the catcher position from here on out until this season is over, or until Edgar can prove that he is ready for major league pitching again. That is all for this inning. What inning are we on right now? The fourth inning. Let's move into the fifth inning. That inning is dedicated to trivia. I'll see you guys there. We are doing the same thing this episode, but the issue is I have already shared two of the facts throughout this episode. What I mean by that is I've already given you fact number one, fact number two, and in this fifth inning, I'll give you fact number three. And later in this podcast, this episode, I will give you number four, the final clue to who our mystery player is this episode of June 22nd, 2026. So your third hint for this mystery player is this player is a six-time all-star and a one-time world series champion. And remember, this player is also it's always this every trivia, um, every trivia question or questions, every episode is regarding a White Sox player. So don't be guessing any just any player. It will be a White Sox player that is current or a present player or a past player. So again, the third hint is he is a six-time all-star and a one-time World Series champion. That is all for the fifth inning. Look out for the fourth and final clue. And if you get the answer correct, I will not be sharing the answer. And congratulations for last episode for everyone that got the correct the answer correct. If you get the answer correct, or if you think you have it correct, you can comment wherever you're listening to this episode, or you can comment as well on the uh social medias. I'm on X or Twitter or Twitter or X, whatever you call it, at Top of the First, a Chicago White Sox podcast. You can find me there. Just tweet out, or tweet? Is it tweet? Uh just you know, give me a give me a little uh call out. Let me know what uh what you think the answer is. But that is all for the fifth inning. We will be moving into the sixth inning. See you guys there. Usually this inning or the last couple episodes, I spent them doing predictions. I think this time around I will be doing rankings. Uh last week I did a prediction. I was predicting when Hagen Smith might be making his MLB debut, and I could not be farther from the correct answer because Hagen Smith is now on the I. Probably won't be making it back for or making it to the to the major leagues for a while now. But this episode, we will be doing a ranking, and I will be ranking the top seven most exciting players I think are on this team right now. Seven players that I think are exciting for me to watch, and at the same time, I think there's seven players that you guys probably agree with. I would like to know what your seven are, uh, so you can comment them uh wherever you're listening, or you can hit you know reach out on social media. But my seven from seven to one, not one to seven. So my seventh or the seventh most exciting player on this team so far this year is Chase Mydroth. I think, I mean, it's easy to move him up. It's easy to it's easy to say Chase might even be a top three player. He is he's just full of energy. I mean, he is like The mascot without the uniform. He's so he's just full of energy. Every game I keep thinking about when we beat the Dodgers and he caught that pop fly, you know, as he was running to towards you know in right field and he caught it to the end of the game, and he was just so excited. After every home run he hits just so excited, and it's it's so it feels good to see. And that's why he's he's my seventh most exciting player. He does everything right, and um it's nice to know he's on he's on this White Sox team. Sixth, Grant Taylor. Grant Taylor has been such a fun player to watch. He comes out there, gets on the mound, whether it's gonna be one inning, two innings, has he done three innings? He probably has done three innings and one outing. He just he is so focused when he's on the mound, and I I love it. I love watching him play. He did just give up a home run um on Sunday, but for for everything he's done so far this season and putting him in these high-leverage situations, such an exciting player to watch. In fifth place, starting out the top five, fifth place for me is Davis Martin. I mean, yes, I'm happy. I'm I'm so happy that he's uh just completely turned it around from last year. He's the most tenured White Sox player in this entire organization, even longer than Ben Atendi. But for him to just figure out a couple pitches, really focus on on uh how to make him a better pitcher and focus on the different types of pitch sequences and and just understanding the pitcher he can be, you can see it when he's on the mound. You can see it that you know, after the third out, he's walking back to the dugout, he has a a different sort of confidence about him. So I wouldn't say he's exciting to watch. You know, you're not gonna have lots of wow, although a lot of his pitches are wow worthy, but he just I think he's I think he if there was a list I made that was who are just the most solid players on this team, like someone I can just completely rely on, I think he's up in the top, top three, top three, maybe two. Um like we all saw in the New York game. So I don't think he's that reliable. Not just yet. He got he got messed up a little bit in New York, but he so far exciting. Number four, Sam Antonacci. You never know. You literally never know. I keep thinking back to that uh that game in Seattle where he was just like ever I forgot what he even did. I mean, it's so hard to to kind of pinpoint every little thing he does, but he just plays out of his mind. He's so fun to watch, so exciting to watch. You don't, I mean, what he second pitch of the game was it today or uh sorry, I'm recording this outside. Was it today or yesterday? I can't remember. I didn't watch the Detroit games. What opening uh he opened the game up with the home run, which is also another thing. That's an that's the second home run I've seen from him where it's it's high and in. Is that like a hot spot for him? The high the fastball high and end. High and in, that's a uh interesting, interesting spot for a hitter to really show off their power for for at least a lefty, too. Um, but no, Anchin Antonacci has been so fun. And I knew this guy was gonna be fun. I knew I knew he was gonna really show up ever since I saw what he was doing in the world world baseball classic. So fun, fun player. Now, starting off the top three, I think you guys can guess the three. They are the big three, and I'll just list them off real quick. Vargas at three, Montgomery at two, and yes, even though he's on the aisle, Munitaka is number one. I mentioned I kind of mentioned earlier, but these are the three players where you just gotta like you gotta stop what you're doing. Every time they come up to the to the plate, just you just gotta stop what you're doing and watch. You never know whether it's gonna be a double, uh home run, RBI, a clutch situation, a clutch hit, a a big time moment. These guys are always bringing just some of the best hits so far this season, and um I'm so happy that Chicago has a has a big three, or at least the South Side has has a big three again. Who I mean who was the last big three in the 2021 team? I was it um now I'm trying to figure out who would you consider the big three? Abreu, Anderson, Jimenez? See, that's the problem with that team. It's like Jimenez, but like he like barely played 2021. Then you want to say mancata, but mankata was better in like 19, and then you're like, oh who, and you this is that was the problem with that team. This team, we have a solidified big three Munitaka, Montgomery, and Vargas. And I also made this list a top seven because I think everyone else kind of clumps into clumps into one. Like you can have like four players tied in eighth, another four players tied in ninth, another like ten players tied in tenth. But I think this is a good list. I would love to see what you guys are are are saying are the most exciting players to you. Again, this is just my opinion. I this is not like an article I found or some kind of stat line I'm following. This is just my opinion on who I think is most exciting, right? Like when Munitaka comes to the plate, I'm watching. Montgomery Vargas, I'm watching. When Antonaci literally does anything defensively, offensively, I'm watching. Davis Martin, yeah, he's been our ace all year. Grant Taylor has been the best arm, second best arm in out of the bullpen, Newcomb's been great, and Chase Mydroth, just solid. I mean, that's he he doesn't really hit for power, he's right there on contact. I mean, he's just a solid player. So that's that's my rankings of of top seven most exciting players so far on this team. That is all for the sixth inning, moving to the seventh. I like to just be honest here. If you've listened to my past episodes, I just kind of talk to you guys. Uh talk about plans, ideas, next episode ideas, podcast ideas, or just talking to you guys in general. I've nothing new to really say here. Again, this podcast or each episode comes out every single Monday. I do live on the East Coast. Yes, I live on the East Coast, but I was raised in the suburbs of Chicago. So I yes, I was born and raised somewhat very near Chicago. And but because I'm on the East Coast, I usually post these episodes at 6 a.m. or I think it's 6 a.m. Eastern time, which would be 5 a.m. Central time. So that's kind of what the goal is for this app for this podcast. I have lots of ideas regarding social media, regarding podcast episodes, regarding interviews, but I think I want to get a little bit more. Um I just want to be a little more consistent with these episodes. I mean, I was I was gone for two months um with just life, and now I am back doing episodes. So I want to be a little bit more consistent, but I do have ideas for a first interview, uh, or for actually first couple interviews that I just want to just get people on. And actually, another thing I want to do is maybe just if any of you guys are listening and you think you have something you want to say about this this White Sox team, and you think you have something you want to share and uh want to have a conversation with me about this team, reach out. That might be interesting too, just to get the voices of fans, right? It's sometimes it can be annoying hearing analyst after analyst and professional analyst um talk about this team, and former professional baseball players talk about the White Sox and current players, and but how often do we get to hear from the fans? How often do we get to hear from someone like me or someone like you that's listening right now? So I think that would be really cool to see a couple of fans in a call just talking about their favorite team, the Chicago White Sox. Again, I want to reiterate that this is a pretty big series coming up against Cleveland. So if you're in Chicago, show up to the game. The Sox need it. We need it, the team needs it. I said it before, this is a season-defining series. What happens in these next three games will alter the rest of this season. This is why the White Sox probably aren't making a lot of moves right now. Uh Chris Getz isn't doing a lot of things, making a lot of trades. I think he's waiting out to see what happens in this series. And I guarantee if the White Sox pull off a series victory here, whether that's two games or all three, Chris Getz will make a move by middle to end of next week. Uh that's that's too that's too broad. You know what? Let's let's be a little riskier. If the White Sox, if the White Sox sweep, Chris Getz will make a move within the the end of next week. If they win two out of three, Chris Getz will make a move by let's say Wednesday next week. That's my oh, I guess I did do a prediction this episode. That's my prediction for the episode. But that's all for the seventh inning. We will be moving uh to eighth inning, news around the league. So I'll see you guys there. The eighth inning news around Major League Baseball. The first update for the 2026 All-Star Game is really showing how underappreciated Miguel Miguel Vargas is right now. And I think there are a couple players that deserve this all-star uh opportunity. This the opportunity to play in the all-star game. I forget how the system works. I I think there has to be like a representative from each and every team. I don't like that rule. I really don't. I think it should be the best players uh statistically in this in this game, and I know that's kind of hard sometimes. I know it's kind of hard because it's also, you know, we vote, the fans vote. But when you look at when you look at the votes, and I mean more than half of the the players that that are in first place for their their designated positions are from the Blue Jays. I mean, it's kind of hard when the United States are voting for I mean 29 teams and all of Canada is voting for one team, right? So I think there needs to be some sort of change. I don't know if that's a discussion. I I haven't looked that up. It probably is, but I would like to see the all-star game that has the best players in it statistically versus the most popular players in the league, right? The most marketable players. I'm kind of tired of seeing the Bryce Harpers and and the uh I don't want to say the wrong name here. I was gonna say Aaron Judge, but no Aaron Judge is definitely deserves to be in the all-star game. But I guess Miguel Varg, I mean Miguel Vargas, he's uh I think he deserves it. I think he does. Colson Montgomery, I know he's battling against Bobby Witt, and Bobby Witt Jr. is you know probably the best shortstop in in the American League. But realistically looking at it, how far is Colson off? I mean, defensively, Bobby Witt Jr. is better, but Colson's been great defensively. Power-wise, Colson's been better. But when it comes to batting average and probably on base and you know stealing bases, Bobby Witt, Bobby Witt Jr. has that. But Colson Montgomery can't be that far off. I don't know. That this is the only thing I want to talk about. There's some other things going around Major League Baseball, which I want to break down if they if they become true. Have you guys heard about the the drafting rule where where high school players can't be drafted? That's I don't think that's an official rule. I think that's just an idea right now. So I won't break that down. Maybe I will next week if I find out that it actually is happening for real, which I think is just a dumb idea in general. If you haven't looked that up, please look that up. It's uh M will be proposing that players can't be drafted out of high school. I think that is a terrible rule. I think that if players have the skill set and the qualifications of playing in Major League Baseball sooner than college players and they're performing better and they they show that they can do it better, then why not be able to draft them? I I just don't see why they're proposing well, actually, I think I do see why they're proposing it, but that's a that's a whole nother conversation. But that is all for the eighth inning. That's all I have to say for news around the league. We will be going into the ninth inning White Sox breaking news. See you there. I truly think, I don't maybe I'm wrong, but I truly think that this season can completely change if the White Sox lose this series against Cleveland. If we take one of three, I think it's okay, but if we get swept at home, which I don't think is happening, but it let's say we do get swept, and Chris Getz realizes that this fairy tale of a team that was never supposed to be in a postseason pitcher, that was only supposed to see just minor improvements, right? The goal was 70 plus wins, probably. I think Chris Getz would re-evaluate and and and just step on the brakes for a little bit, right? Understand that this team isn't ready to hold up against the Cleveland Guardians, and uh we shouldn't be treading away pieces. Not when we're not ready. Fourth and final hint, as a pinch hitter, he went one and one in his MLB debut against the Florida Marlins in 1997. And and I'm fully on board with that. But if we do win, if we take two, if we take three, especially if we take three, I am well, I am completely on board with Chris with Chris Getz saying, let's be agreed, let's be the most aggressive team in baseball. Let's go for it, let's let's trade for you know player A, player B, player C, whoever it is, and I have some players in mind, but we'll talk about the next episode because I don't want to jump the gun if the White Sox can't beat the Guardians. So if the White Sox can do this, next episode is going to be very fun for me. If the White Sox cannot pull off two to three wins against Cleveland in Chicago, it's gonna be uh it's gonna be a rough episode. Not looking forward to it. But again, again, uh what I've said before is we I think this team has uh increased expectations. The standards, the standard for this team has been raised, and that's a good thing. It's a very good thing. I think no matter what happens at the end of this season, we have seen improvements. The growth has happened. Whatever it is, off the field, on the field, everything behind the scenes, front office, coaches, staffing, development tools, whatever it is, off-season tools they've been using, it has worked. So we'll see what happens in the next three games against Cleveland. I'll be watching. I know you'll be watching. Let's just uh let's go for the win. That's what let's go for this series victory. That's it for this episode of Top of the First, a Chicago White Sox podcast. If you've enjoyed the show, make sure you follow, rate, and review wherever you're listening. I will be back next Monday with another inning by inning breakdown of your Chicago White Sox. Until then, thank you for listening, and I'll see you at the top of the first.