Duke Coughlin, Jordan Lazowski, and Nik Gaur are joined by MLB.com White Sox beat reporter Scott Merkin to discuss White Sox and the impending Trade Deadline. What are the vibes like in the clubhouse? Who could stay and go? And what are some of Merkin’s favorite memories of Mark Buehrle?
The crew also discusses the idea of whether or not they want the White Sox to trade Tim Anderson and break down some recent comments from Pedro Grifol. Have they been worth the uproar they’ve gotten?
Hey, first time listening to the podcast. I really enjoyed a significantly more measured and nuanced take on the Sox right now.
When you talked about how the White Sox manage injuries, I feel like a missing piece to the discussion was how the lack of organizational depth seems to impact how the Sox seem to handle injuries. Of course Grifol needs Eloy in the lineup with no legs, because who else is going to be productive at DH? Same story for Vaughn – who else on the roster is going to be productive whatsoever at 1B? (At least that isn’t already covering another spot for injury). So we are left with Vaughn in a walking boot and not on the 10 day IL hoping he can get maybe get back in the lineup earlier than that 10 day IL stint would have allowed. This team is THAT desperate for that production because it is not anywhere else to be found on this roster. And I am not questioning Eloy or anyone’s toughness – I think a bunch of guys on this team play hurt more often than not and more hurt than we ever hear about. It’s a long season and it beats everyone up. But I just don’t understand the philosophy of playing core players like Eloy, Vaughn, TA, etc hurt constantly. They’re not going to be valuable to the team if they tweak something in the first half of the season and then aren’t allowed to recuperate. Better IMO to play some of these players 5-10% less games if that translates into greater overall player health with better and more consistent production for the entire season.
Call this the Royal Flush, because this whole team needs to be flushed!