The White Sox cannot keep massively SCREWING UP if they want playoff success

0:00This is the Lockdown podcast network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. Hey sports fans, it's JD, the host of Lockdown Cardinals, and did you know with the Discover Cashback card, it's payback time when you earn cash back on everyday purchases. Activate and earn 5% cash back in different categories each quarter on up to $1,500 in purchases. That's 5% cash back at different places each quarter like grocery stores on gas and at restaurants. It pays to discover terms apply. See Discover dot com slash five four details. The white socks have screwed up a lot this season, but the mistakes may last night were the worst of the year. And if that happens in the playoffs, the postseason experience could be a painful one. You are locked on white socks. Your daily Chicago white socks podcast part of the

1:01locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Hello, I'm your house Todd Walter. Today's episode is brought to by Fandall. College football Saturdays are already packed with reasons to get excited. And this season Fandall is giving fans even more ways to get into every matchup to an all the action at Fandall.com. On today's show I'll get to a potential way to get into the game. The last game that I'm going to be playing is the most successful one. And I'm going to explain why manager will not be panicking about the economy. But first let's discuss a team having quite possibly its worst inning of the season. And how if the white socks make those type of terrible mistakes in the postseason playoffs are not going to be pretty much worse than the last game. And I'm not going to be having a major gaff all year.

2:02They're still a little bit young. So it could get worse. And hopefully it doesn't happen in October. Now in terms of defeats. Losing two to nothing in Houston. Get's mitigated by the fact that Cleveland lost a Toronto last night. So no ground was seated in the division race. So the last game that I had decisions in bad bullpen management. Ground was given up as the extra is now had the tiebreaker. That's why I consider it the worst inning. Not the worst defeat. The worst inning. I mean it's even worse than some of those bullpen meltdowns. Because this was a chance to literally win a game. And then force a winner takes a win. Today. Now. Scrupes are going to happen because you still got a young club. And there have been bullpen,

3:02meltdowns, blow leads, etc, etc. But last night. With things like having a chance to extend a division lead. And then force. Winner gets the tiebreaker game today. And that is important in case you're wondering. So. Does come down to a tiebreaker. The white sucks play some of the dumbest baseball. I have ever seen out of them all season. Now. Just keep reminding myself. Cleveland did lose. But still there was a great chance to shave two games off the magic number instead. Such stupidity on the base pass. And now. So. Some poor bullpen management by the manager led to just another heartbreaking defeat. Although mitigating factor. Sean Newcombe he didn't hit Jose Altuve.

4:02And I'm not sure how replay confirmed that he hit him. But he did it. Come on. And anyway. And for those hating on manager who's in this game, the white sucks. I mean, I'm not sure whether I'm on this game. I'm not sure whether or not he's on the winning. Where the white sucks actually finally got something cooking after having just one hit. to the first seven innings. I'm not going to recap the whole inning. Because some of you won't be listening and he does something positive. You got men at first and third, you had an RB, you had an opening triple from Tristan Peters. You got ducks on the pond. You could have had Luis Agnolcunia run for Romo. And that's all Acunia is being used for now.

5:03I mean, Brenton Doyle, he can run. You had some running options, didn't use them. So you completely waste Peters' lead off triple because Peters decides to run for home on Sam Antonacci's chopper to near second base. That was fielded by the shortstop. And I had somebody on the TikTok page say, ooh, it's hit through the shortstop. It was hit, I was just giving a direction in my short anyways. You know, just bad base running for Peters to break for home. Although Will says you go there, you run for home. Houston isn't playing for two outs and yielding a run in that situation. It was a pitcher's duel. And also you can't have Peter sort of hesitate. And Aitatachi, he can't sort of hesitate. And here's an idea, just put the ball in the air. Come on, why is hitting sacrifice wise so hard for this club?

6:09You just go back and watch the replay, Gordon Beckham and the CHSEN broadcast broke it down perfectly. Just too many hesitations, not smart baseball. And if you can't hit sacrifice in the playoffs, and that's kind of where I'm focusing more on. These types of games cannot, these mistakes cannot happen in October because that's going to send you home really early. But if you can't hit sacrifice wise in the playoffs, especially when games like nothing, nothing through eight, have a good chance of happening, it's going to be a short stay. But just sticking with Romo on the base pass, bad idea. Although it is one that manager Will Venable said they did discuss maybe going with the pinch around. I think it's a read that you know, he goes a little hesitant there. He's a really your face runner, really a sensual guy. And you know, just not giving him. Yeah, we talked about it.

7:11We thought you know, trust him through there. St. Tom Milley's catching the shutout out there. We're going to see a go back out with the plan. So definitely a bot, obviously. You go go back, you know, probably would have chose to do it. But it was a decision to talk about it and not forget that we're in a good spot and trust him in the way. Catching a shutout, stop being so obsessed. Sometimes with what Romo does behind the plate, especially you got Jake Rogers. It's an experienced backstop. It's not like you'd be handing the game over to Edgar Carroll's weak defense or Corey Lee's bad pitch calling. You needed a run there. And you could have gotten to, I'm going to talk about my account, he's single. Had the right decision's been made. So you got to tell Peters not to run unless the ball is in the air, in the outfield. I mean, yeah, if it was the second or fourth inning and you want to see if you can, the contact play can work fine. Although they never execute them well either.

8:12You had time. You just didn't have the time to do that type of stuff. And then you have a slow runner who makes a bad read and then Miguel Vargas can't come through. Bad base for it and can't happen in October. Not when the margin for air becomes slim. Because again, you only have a finite amount of games. But then the eighth where, okay, try new cup. Was the hit. Maybe it was an error by my drop. It wasn't, but has the hits. Then basically loads the bases. And at that point, he's over 40 pitches. Why stick with him? Well, this is what Will Venable said. I didn't handle him. Really well. I was getting a 40-moist go. Slurred, no. I was getting a little bit of a problem. I was getting a little spot there. I think the new stuff I got in here, because he got a little bit of a cross there. I bet it's not on the other side. He's saying it's fun. I'm not talking about that. I trust Newcombe, but not when it's 40 pitches. I mean, I know they like to extend them.

9:13And he's been good at multi-innings, but don't wait for outs. That may not come. And that's why I get upset with Venable because yeah, Grant Taylor warming up in the ninth. Well, this cup was trying to come back after Newcombe finally gave up his first two runs and forever. I mean, the problem is with Venable, he's not managing the game in front of him. And I'm not saying to fire him, but he leaves himself to be second guest because again, he's just managed the game that is in front of you. Not the game that you think is possibly happening or not based on the principles. And it's just, oh, you played so dumb, so stupid, so reckless. I mean, there's a difference between being aggressive and reckless. You can't be that reckless. Not when you're a contender. Well, the manager did discuss Moonay's slump and I wanna get into that next.

10:14A big thank you to our friends at Amazon for this, limited break. This back-to-school season spent less on your kids with Amazon. Well, now crazy to back to school shopping. Experience can be. It starts with a few items on the list and then suddenly you're shopping for supplies and clothes, lunch gear, tech, and about 10 out of things, you didn't see coming, especially when school starts and then your kid wants to decorate the inside of their locker, it adds up fast. When you buy clothes for back to school, then your kid has that gross per about two weeks later and you're right back to where you started. Sometimes it generally feels like my daughter's growing faster than what my budget can keep up with. Or when you stop shopping for a few back to school essentials and realize how quickly the list grows, supplies, you got clothes, lunch gear, headphones, it just keeps going, especially a fads change on the first day of school and suddenly kids go from loving princesses and fairies to demon hunters and then you gotta go get a new backpack. That's why I find a little prices on all things you need makes such a big difference this time of year and that's why my wife and I were always turning to Amazon for our back to school shopping needs and just our shopping needs in general helps us find a ton of deals, saves us some money

11:17to spend on things. My daughter really wants us to spend there like her Christmas wish list. So remember with Amazon's low back to school prices just spend less on your kids because every dollar you don't spend on them is a dollar you haven't spent on them. Shop back to school at Amazon and just spend less on your kids. Welcome back to Lockdown White Stocks. I'm your host, Todd Welch. This is now my third season podcast and you've been covering the team well before that. I've also covered Major League Baseball for outlets that's just the associated press and just really to wrap it up too. I mean, he had granted, you know, Major will have had Grant Taylor warming up in the ninth while the team is trying to rally back against, oh, Josh Hayder. Come on, I mean, I know you gotta be somewhat ready but they should have been playing for the fact that it was a zero, zero tie, it was a pitcher's duel. Probably two runs or a run was gonna decide it. And that is why I just, I get very frustrated with this team in general sometimes

12:19and the manager and that's fair. I think that's fair to get frustrated with the manager. Don't call for his firing because this team is one more games than they've lost because of Will Venable. It's just you can get a little concerned when you keep having those issues and then responses like that that maybe he's just a neutral manager and you would like to have an above wins replacement manager. But oh, and again, like, Will's not where the one thing that you can't put on Will even though he shouldn't have put him in that position is okay, you go through Romo. Romo's a catcher. He should know that despite Moonay's slump, they're still gonna play him deep. Charge for home. Even though you're slow, you probably still sort of got in there. Yeah. Well anyway, Moonat talk of America and me. He's not pressing according to Will Venable.

13:20Although here's one thing I think people might not be considering when it comes to his month long slump. It could just be regression back to the mean of all his projections at the beginning of a season. You know, maybe the projections that happen in the preseason are turning out to be solid forecast. And instead of just slowly getting there or consistently getting there, it just abruptly happened. Although I will say this for the love of everything. White socks, Twitter, can we stop calling a Moonay home run today? Please, Mooney is not, like, it's just, you're setting it yourself up for failed expectations. And I know home runs is part of his three true outcomes, but it'll happen when it happens. What I want to see is in September a month where he avoids an average that basically indicates

14:23in automatic out and provides where he's providing no slug as well. Because this is how bad his August was. He hit 147 with a 343 slugging percentage. Even in April when he hit 228 for the month, he still had a 522 slugging percentage. He hit 244 May, 556 slugging percentage, 258 in July, 532 slugging percentage. So in May and July, he wasn't exactly a, you know, three true outcome. He was getting some hits, he was getting some doubles and some singles. But now he's basically been an automatic out except for he can still get on base. So is he pressing now that he's in a slump? Well, here's what manager Will Venable had to say. I think that there's, you know, different ways to look at it. You know, one, you take key and barbie and kind of put them in the same group as far as the way that I look at it where they both sit on 29 home runs, you know, there's milestone

15:26itis that is a real thing in this league for certain guys. But they haven't given into that, you know, they're both making really good swing decisions. They don't look like guys who are pressing or trying to get that 30th home that they're being very consistent in their approach and their swing decisions. In the case of Mooney, yes, there's been more swing and miss, but the swing decisions are still there. He's still helping us win, getting on base, a ton of scoring runs, playing good defense. So, you know, he doesn't seem like a guy that's pressing. I know that he's working his butt off to put the ball and play more and drive the ball like we know he can. I don't know how many of these, you know, 110 mile an hour fly balls that he's straight up that, you know, you feel like he's just kind of a tick away. So, you know, no panic with them. And at the same time, you know, Mooney is in a good spot, making good swing decisions and hasn't shown any of the indicators of a guy who's pressing or stressing off it. Again, just circling back to where there is some benefit to having Will Vettable as your manager. He's playing in the big leagues. You know, Miles Storitus, he knows that guys

16:28are kind of looking at that. And he's at least saying that it doesn't seem like Mooney or Mooney, you know, we keep going back and forth, is trying to just get to that 30th home run. And you do see that? I mean, he's at least not expanding his zone or pressing because 17.6 walk percentage in August, pretty much on pace, did have a higher strikeout percentage though, for any month at 36.8% and he did have his lowest habit at 196. But when you dive into kind of the bat tracking on fan graphs as well, it's kind of hard to see what is going on because nothing deviated in August in terms of like bat speed and squaring up and that type of stuff from what he was doing the previous months. You know what, it could be? It could be this thing called variance, sorting itself out and kind of getting to what some of the projections had. Because currently his slash line is 217, 357, 487

17:31with a WRC plus of 136. Now, fan graphs is Jordan Rosenblum. During last off season, he did a little experiment with all the previous preseason forecasts, you know, like zips and steamer and oopsie and all that stuff. And he kind of put that all into a pot, combined it. And here was the projection that was sped out. 221, 345, 448 slash line, a 123WRC plus and even wrote, it's possible for Americami to be at 135WRC plus. And he also projected Mune to hit 31 home runs. So if you look at his numbers right now, he's a bit behind on the average, ahead on the OPP and slugging percentage, but he also spotted himself bigger numbers by having an all star first half of the season. So this just could be one of those things where the projections could be close to being right.

18:31Although how Muta talking got there, it just wasn't a consistent output. But one where it was that, you know, if this was out of chart, it shoots straight high and it takes a significant dip. And yeah, watching the dips can be tough. Now moving them down in the batting order, I mean, I've seen that suggestion, but he's still providing value obviously in taking walks and last night's single shows. It could be just, you know, as the swing decisions and the approach that Venable said have still been good, I think what has been missing is when he was kind of really locked in in May and July was, if he obviously couldn't get his pitch to drive, but he saw it as strike to hit, he would just do what he could with it, you kind of just blew a single basically. And I think that swing kind of left his, you know, that club figuratively left his golf bag and he kind of came back yesterday. So I think that's kind of what he needs to see. And it's just one of those things that might be variance

19:34and the game has come now from our economy. And he's got to work through the adjustment to the adjustment. And if you can do that and I am hopefully he bangs out some home runs and today's game would be a nice start, but I'm not going to join the social media calls for it. Hey, it's going to happen today. Just something he's going to have to work through. Well, one adjustment being made is Shane Smith is the latest arm in Charlotte who has moved to the bullpen that even will venable things is how this year's opening day starter can get back to the big leagues this season. Let's discuss next. College football fans is time to push your analysis of tests with college football pick them from Fandall. Each week you can make 10 free against a spread picks, finish from one of the week's top pick totals and you can win a share of $500,000 in bonus bets. There's no entry fee and no wage required. Just make your picks based on your college football knowledge, and see how you stack up. And the competition doesn't stop there. Make your picks before kick off, follow a live leaderboard throughout Saturday,

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21:36Winning the whole thing, less trading at a 4% chance. So if that dream becomes a reality, $100 trade would pass $2,465 and $54. On CalShi, you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house. As the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position. Trade on things like who team is taking in the draft. Trade on the outcome of the game. Or just more on CalShi. Dumb all the CalShi have, and use code lock down to get $10 when you trade 10. K-A-L-S-H-I-CalShi, trade on anything. E-T plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply, event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. CalShi products are not available in all jurisdictions, prices, values and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calShi.com slash regulatory. Welcome back to Lockdown White Sucks, part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day. And now the number one sports podcast network. Shout out to all the every dayers. I do appreciate your loyalty. And it seems like every time a starting picture has struggled in the miners, the solution is just, make them a reliever.

22:37They did it with Hagen Smith. They did it with Tanner McDougall. And now they're doing it with Shane Smith. Come on down. You're the next contestant on returning you from a starter to a bullpen arm. And you're the next contestant on returning you from a starter to a bullpen arm. And things do feel like they're coming full circle for Shane considering last year, heading into spring training. The feeling was you'd probably be stashed in longer leaves since he was a rule five pick. But he ended up getting a rotation spot after a rash of injuries to other young arms. By the way, Kai Busch still alive. Has a last train though and he's being shut down yet again. Perlander Barrawe still alive. Gonna be throwing from the mound next week. And that's why like when they said Jordan Leisure, well he'll be ready for spring training. Don't buy at it. Anyways, Smith could be possibly coming back as a reliever. And the fact that he could provide some velocity out of the bullpen, I'm fine with the decision. And also it feels like no matter what he was doing

23:37at Triple A, he was just not gonna recapture having command consistently throughout the game that made him an all star last year. And the stuff is, it's still talented. So why not see if it works in short spurts? However, I'm just, I'm getting a tick tired of every solution to pitcher struggling, especially the starters is, well let's just move him to relief. Now I do get that the one beautiful thing about pitchers, especially those that are developed to be starters is you can always move him to the bullpen. Again, that's why you always draft up the middle. Catcher, pitcher, shortstopper second basement or center fielder because of the positional versatility. But you would like to see this organization that wants to be a development organization actually consistently develop starting pitchers and maybe fix the problems rather than just say, okay. Done enough time for the bullpen. However, at this point, if they can get Shane's foreseemer and change up, correct just enough

24:40to work for an ending or two out of the bullpen, I say the bullpen can use it. And manager will be edible, thinks the same. I think he's an option. Yeah, I mean, I was looking at the videos today, obviously we talked through the kind of transition into the bullpen and you get the reports every day. I was looking at videos today. I think it looks really good. So I think as we know, we're gonna need different help down the stretch here that will certainly be an option. And while it's a small sample so far, two innings, no runs allowed, just one walk and one strike out. It's much better than obviously his previous starts where he had one good outing, otherwise, that two ending outing that he had, it was because he had command issues. He barely got it. And I know the pitching development has Sean Burke and Davis Martin as success stories. And it looks like the staycation for Martin was all he needed as he pitched five and two thirds innings of shut out ball yesterday. And that was obviously more of the good version of Davis has, you know, he did know obviously overwhelmed, but he did limit the damage. But it does feel like the only solution this team has for struggling arms is just moving to the bullpen.

25:42And it would be nice for once if they could actually fix a guy, although I guess I have to be fair and realize, you know, like when it comes to Burke, for example, it could take time. And with Shane Smith, it could just take, you know, he's going to need it off season. Or getting, could just be a bullpen arm who had his career year, that just happened to be in his rookie season. But the change up in the four seamer when working can be nasty. So I get that it might be time to pair down as arsenal to those two pitches and limit his exposure for getting out of whack. It's what they did with the egg and Smith. And that's why I'm kind of interested to see how Grant Taylor and Hagen Smith's career pans out. Well, that wraps up this edition of Lockdown White Sox. I'll be back tomorrow with Fan Pull Friday. Make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel at Lockdown White Sox. Or ever get your audio podcasts. This shows available in places such as Apple or Spotify. You can email me with questions or comments to lockdownwhitesox.gmail.com. You can also follow the show on Twitter, at Lockdown Sox. You can follow me at Taj Adub. And also this shows a TikTok page at Lockdown White Sox. And thank you for making Lockdown White Sox your first listen every day. For your second listen, find Lockdown MLB Game Night.

26:43Every night until World Series Champion is crowned. Get local analysis on a national scale. Find MLB Game Night and lockdown on MLB on YouTube or listen to your podcast. Have a great day and I will talk to you later. I beg you to...

27:44Thank you for making Lockdown your first listen every day. For your second listen, find the all night Lockdown MLB Game Night. Every game every night until World Series Champion is crowned. Get local analysis on a national scale. Find MLB Game Night on Lockdown MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts.