Steve Stone: White Sox need to focus on the Twins

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1:58comes across flying. Yes sir, that deserves a standing ovation. Steve Stone, with Haim Peyton on 1043, the score. Welcome back, it's Haim Peyton, Chicago Sports Radio 1043. The score on this beautiful Friday morning in the city of Chicago. It's our pleasure now to go out to the Plumber's 911 hotline. Plumbing emergency call 1-833-plumb 911. Local 130 plumbers get the job done right the first time. He is the scores baseball expert and the analyst for the white socks in the Chicago Sports Network. Both Steve Stone. Good morning Steve. How are you? Fine Jared, how are you? I'm doing great John. No problem. Steve, I'm doing great. That was amazing. How are you doing this morning Steve? Okay. Now everything is good. The team came out, didn't have the best series against the Astros, but fortunately the Guardians didn't have the best series against Toronto. So that's how it works. If you're the team that's being chased

3:02as opposed to the team that's chasing, it's a whole lot better because you can lose and not lose any ground and that's what happened in that series. There was a tough series. Steve, on one hand, the white socks return home with a three game lead in the A.O. Central and you feel with 22 to play, that's a very good spot to be in. On the other, Luis Castillo has not been the pitcher they thought they were getting from Seattle outside of one really dominant effort against the Reds. His ERA has been way too high and the command has been way too iffy. How would you approach trying to fix Luis Castillo? Well, at this point, you're not looking for reclamation projects. You're looking for a guy to go out there and get the job done and Castillo is shown in his past. He can do that. So what the socks are hoping is the command gets a little bit better and I don't know exactly from what I've seen and I haven't seen them all that often. Quite obviously I've thrown that many games for the socks but in the games he's thrown, I don't know if he can make one adjustment that might help things a bit and that's

4:05raised the arm slot just to touch because his arm slot is low three quarters and that pretty much means that the ball is going to stay fairly flat. It might move away from the left hand hitter but it's not going to go down at all. It's going to stay flat and I think he's had some problems with left handers. I know when you look at the ERA he's had problems with guys who swing from both sides of the plate. But I think if you can show up the left hand issue and I think that's by getting the ball to go down a bit I think things will work out. But the socks have really good pitching people. Brian Bannister, Zach Bove, Matt Weiss. These are guys that really understand how to take a pitching emotion and take it down and look at the way to make it most effective. They did a really good job with some of these pictures this year. Right now I think some of the pictures are experiencing some fatigue. Outside of that Castillo would, if he were to revert back to some of his earlier years I think

5:08the socks would be really happy and he had that good game. He shows he can still do it. Cincinnati is a pretty decent offensive team and so he threw very well against them. Maybe he can find some more of that magic. Stony Will Vennival talked about using an opener for Castillo but also other pictures down the line as they head towards the playoffs. Do you like that approach? Well I like that approach if it's not Hudson. And I say that because you want to keep the back end of your pen and by the back end I'm talking your seventh, eighth and ninth inning guys. You want to keep them pretty much ready to go each time. Now the socks have a benefit in that Nukem Control Multiple innings. Taylor Control Multiple innings. So that's okay but I'd like to have three guys at the back end who are ready to go on a daily basis and use those guys to help win some games late. The socks have shown enough offense so the lately the offense hasn't been near as good as it's been earlier in the season but they show enough offense to be able to score

6:12some runs and if the back end of the bull kept pen can make it hold up. I think Venn the team is going to be in better shape but that presupposes you have that back end intact. So when you use Hudson as an opener I think that takes one of the guys that qualifies the back end guy out of the equation. Other than that I think the opener is fine. I mean it means the starting picture is not going to face that top of that order for the third time in about the fifth inning and if you can do that that usually helps you because a lot of guys are front loading lineups you know going to the days when that little ping hitter is your normal number one hitter. Nowadays you get guys like Byron Buckston when he's healthy hitting lead off and these are guys you don't want to face five times a game you just assume face them four and if you're a starting pitcher you'd like to face them twice and not three times and that's what the opener serves. Talk with Steve Stone. I'm the hot Peyton show the new morning show here on the score. Steve when you look at this socks team big picture and you mentioned what you do with Castillo and the idea of an opener and Will Vanibos thinking October and that's a good thing.

7:15What concerns you the most as we sit here with 22 games to go? Well look thinking October is all well and good and I think that's the long term goal although with 22 games left it's not that long term but what the socks have to do and these guys know that these guys they're meeting every day you know you have pictures meetings and hitters meetings you have bullpen meetings you have a lot of meetings with all the personnel to share the knowledge they have to give them a leg up on a performance but the only thing that they should be thinking about I'm pretty sure this is how they do it they're thinking about Minnesota tonight that's the only thing you have and that's something that the socks the socks are thinking about I don't think they're looking too far down the road I think they play the twins tonight they play the twins all weekend the team hits better at home and hopefully that will come into play usually when it's warm in our ballpark the ball flies we've got some guys who can hit it out of the park and I think that's what they're looking at so right now the long term goal is obviously the postseason the mid-range

8:17goal is to probably get that get that number two seed because that comes with a buy and if they get a stop for the number two seed then they have to play in the first round and every round you play gives you an opportunity to get knocked out so going after that two seed going after the the buy is essential but the short-term goal and the goal that should be for each and every guy in the locker room is you got to win tonight against the twins you keep on doing that you find yourself in postseason play Steve I want to talk about a comedy oh for four last night three strikeouts your evaluation of his first season on the south side but we know the powers there but the strikeout seems to be a problem well it certainly is but he's going to do that because he's done that his whole career and when you have a power hitter it's very few of these guys who can hit for power consistently and don't strike out a lot I mean Miguel Cabrera comes to mind many Ramirez comes to mind these are guys who made contact and hit the ball a long way I think for for Moonay I think he has tremendous

9:23power and I do believe that he's probably right now it was in the throws of a terrible slump as we know but he's not swinging at that many pitches out of the strike zone like like every hitter he's going to occasionally fall victim to the right handed straight change that dies blowing away out of the zone but for the most part the velocity of the swing and I can't quantify this because I'm not an analytics type guy but the velocity of the swing I think today is very similar to what it was when he was hitting you know the the first 29 home runs and so hopefully he'll get that stroke groove again if that's the case he's a huge force at the top of the lineup as it turns out in the number two spot so I think all hitters go through streaks like this his has been extended it comes at a very bad time as far as the stocks are concerned you know it's really interesting when you find a lot of hitters who have leg issues afterward if those legs aren't exactly a hundred

10:26percent it's very difficult to get the drive you need to stay on the back foot and then accelerate through the strike zone and so I think leg issues not only hurt pitchers but they also hurt hitters I don't say that he's hurt now because I don't believe he is I've seen him run he looks pretty good but things change when he came back from that injury that was a long time to miss in the middle of the year I think it was six weeks he got back as quickly as he could and right now the stocks need to turn around from him because he's a big man in this lineup he's a guy that you have to game plan around when he's swinging the bat like he can't heading back to campus timed web grade your entire tech setup switched a Verizon buyer bring a qualifying smartphone and get a smartwatch and a tablet on us that's all your essential gear for zero extra dollars ace your classes track your fitness and stream your favorite shows visit Verizon dot com or your local store today bring an eligible phone to purchase a new phone with device payment on post paid service plan required up to 64999 watch and tablet device payment purchase with new line on $20 per month tablet plan and $15 per month watch plan for 36 months required less up to $650 promo credit applied over 36 months per device

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12:29Steve how surprised were you when the socks acquired Tommy fam and what role do you see him playing moving forward I know he's a right-handed bat I know they maybe struggle against left-handed pitching Randall Gritchick is done quite well in that role in a limited capacity I just don't know how much to expect out of Tommy fam well I think one of the reasons they got Tommy fam was they viewed him as a winning type player they viewed him as a player who is not not uh well not a guy who is going to lay down in key situations he's going to guy that comes to the ballpark every day with a great deal of intensity and I think one of the reasons they got Tommy fam is that not only for what he can do on the field but also what he will do in the dugout and the locker room he's a guy that reads every day with a great deal of intensity and I think you can see it on his face you can see it in his play and in order for him to come back to a team as he's coming back to the

13:33socks he had to leave a pretty good impression when he was here the first time and I think if you look at his career he's been on a lot of teams that won and I think his personality is one that he's not going to play around too much he's a guy that goes out there and tries to beat your brains out I think they like his demeanor both as I say in the locker room and in the dugout and I think as much as his ability to still get some big hits for you I think he's going to really help in the areas that are non-game related. Stoney how promising was it to see Davis Martin have some success and his first start back from the IO? Well I think it was great and I think it was something that for his psyche and the teams it was something that was a good thing to happen at the time it did because he still has some starts left the rest of the year the socks as you guys know are desperately looking for guys who can at least go into the sixth inning on occasion that hasn't

14:35happened very much in the last though I don't know a couple of weeks and so but Davis was overwhelming early in the season I don't think he's going to be quite that good again when he was fresh for this year but I think that that rest on the injured list really helped him I think the blister cleared I think he'll be fine in that respect but the stuff looked really good and the fact that he did it against a pretty good Houston team in their home ballpark was also of notes so I was very happy for him he is a really wonderful guy outside of his pitching ability and I just felt very good for the socks because of that and for specifically Davis. Seeing the white socks is often as you do and as closely as you're able to to see the day-to-day progression of a guy like Tristan Peters how would you describe the way that number one he ascended to the point where he was an all-star and then recovered after the all-star break from a slump that would have maybe sent

15:36a lot of guys reeling and maybe you wouldn't have seen the bounce back but he did do exactly that he was the American League rookie of the month and I think that you look at his his emergence this year Steve I don't know that there's any more surprising story in baseball than Tristan Peters being in everyday center field or for the white socks. Well I think I think that's well put I think also that when you have a team that is reeling from three straight 100 lost seasons and then they put together the kind of year the white socks have and still hold you know here we are with the 22 games left and you're holding a three game lead in order to get to that point you have to have a couple of guys come through that are surprises and Tristan Peters is one of those guys you have to have some of the veterans having their best year Miguel Vargas is one of those Kosovo Montgomery having a very good year in the power and run production arena so I believe that Tristan is one of the great stories in baseball for this year because you take a look at what happened early he was

16:41just a player in spring training a guy that was going to give him an insurance policy in center field and a guy who could swing the bat from the left side give you a little speed and a guy also who could bump then they started to take away the bump and he started to hit doubles an amazing amount of doubles and then he became he became an all star which was amazing so but I think the key thing that you said was that he might have taken the league by surprise then the league made an adjustment to him and that adjustment caused him to go spiraling down a bit but it's the rare guy after that league makes that first adjustment it's the rare guy that can make the adjustment back to the pitchers as quickly as he did and start to hit the ball every bit as well as he hit it in the first half of the season I think that's one of the more remarkable things usually you see that for a long term veteran who knows exactly what his body feels like when he swings well exactly where his hands should be exactly how how he should use his front foot you know those are the guys

17:45who usually don't stay in slumps too long but you don't expect a young player like Tristan to be able to come back after the league made the adjustment on him and come back pretty much every bit as good as he was before as the five home runs and five games would indicate so I think it's been a remarkable story he's he's a good guy he plays hard every day which is all you can really ask of these guys and I think when the tail of 2026 is fully written whether you do it on a league wide basis or team wide basis Tristan Peters is going to be one of the great stories of the when the least guy still was brought to the south side I was thinking that Eric Fettie was probably the odd man out that hasn't been the case stony he gets to start tonight what are you hoping to to get out of Fettie I think he's been pretty good I mean by and large the socks had him the first time and he was great consistently and it turned into a trade they got him back this time because he was a veteran they really like in their clubhouse he was a guy who can help young pictures and

18:50but I think just in his performance he's done a terrific job over the last though I don't know you know let's say six starts and maybe a couple times he had an opener and pitch very well so I think he's one of the guys that this team is depending on and I think with a veteran who's had success in the past when the team is counting on you when your pitching coach is counting on you and your manager is counting on you you can feel that and that gives you a little extra each and every time out and hopefully he gets his command early and the stuff can be as good as it's been because I think by and large he's been pretty good and the thought of taking him out as either the bulk reliever or starting rotation guy I think that's by the boards I think we're gonna see Fettie going down the stretch we got a minute left Steve but I wanted to ask you about Kyle Teal he could be back as early as tonight how does he fit in and what's reasonable to expect well I think he fits in very well when he comes back you play him if you can't play him there's no

19:51reason to bring him back but you you saw what happens and I don't know if they're gonna go with the three catcher situation the three catcher situation might make it a lot easier to let's say pinch run for Roma late in the game something along those lines but a lot of teams will do that a lot of teams will go with three catchers some teams don't and then it depends on you know the versatility of the two guys you have but if Teal is back and I would assume if he is back and playing he's healthy enough to play he's the guy you have to lean on because he's a guy who can really help you offensively he makes the lineup a lot deeper he can hit a whole lot of doubles at this point and hopefully hopefully he'll be able to come back and make an impression in the last 22 Steve thanks so much for your time have a great weekend thanks Steve okay guys it's it's a pleasure to be involved in the new show with both of you guys take care and I'll talk in a bit it's our pleasure Steve Stone from the Chicago Sports Network and the Scores baseball expert

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