Why Derek Shomon is bullish on the White Sox bats

0:00The White Sox podcast with Chuck Garfine is brought to you by Win Creek Chicago Southland. Are you ready for your winning moment? Find it at Win Creek Chicago Southland, where the action never stops. Hey everybody, it's Chuck Garfine. Welcome back to another edition of the White Sox podcast as our podcast, Paloza, continues from White Sox Spring Training at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona. It is brought to you as always by Win Creek Chicago Southland. All right, on the podcast today, we are going inside the White Sox Offense with new hitting coach Derek Schoeman. He's going to give us his impressions of this offense, what they're working on, etc. And you know, the White Sox have had one of the best offenses in spring training here in the cactus league. Will this translate to the regular season? What is going on behind the scenes?

1:01Derek is going to fill us in. I would talk about Long Ball. We talk about Small Ball, and then we get into specifics about players. We're going to talk about Luis Ángel Acunia, Colesmann Company. We want to talk him we're a comic. Corrie Lee, Jared Kellnick, Raidham Acunia, Sam Antonacci, you're going to hear the name he gave to Sam Antonacci, and also how good can this offense be in 2026? So it's Derek Schoeman as we're going inside this White Sox Offense from Spring Training. Let's do it. Well, let's put the White Sox Offense on the White Sox Offense. Montgomery deep terrain field back it goes. His first big league home run. You can't clear the board. Yes. All right, sit back relax and strap it down as time for the White Sox podcast with our

2:06chump, chump garfire. All right, here with the new Hitting Coach for the White Sox Derek Schoeman Derek. Good to see you. How you been? Good to see you as well. How's the camping going so far? Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. We're very, very excited about it. Just guys putting in its own good work. Excited to get the season going. Now everyone, so when you got here way back when and February, what was your message, your first message to the hitters? Energy every single day, you know, controlling our environment, making it very much about deliberate intentional work every single day, you know, the idea of like when the day, what's the day asking of you and attack it accordingly? So you have all these hitters you've never really worked with. How do you build a trust with them, where you can say this stuff, they believe it and they act on it? Great question. I think no different than just like human to human in any other environment,

3:10you take time to get to know them on a personal level. And I think like when they realize that you're honest with them, they realize that you care, right? And so when you love somebody, you care about somebody, you're going to be honest with them. And that's kind of the theme of my coaching style. You know, it's a very, very long season. It's going to require some honesty. But again, like if you genuinely care about these, these guys, you're just going to be honest with them and typically man, they're receptive to it. So what are you learning from them as a group? Hungry. They're hungry. You know, they, they want to win. They want to prove people wrong. It's kind of like why not us type mentality, you know, with a really like young group of players in addition to some older guys that have been very successful at this level. It's a really cool mix. But I mean, their work is like reflective of that. They really haven't been many days during camp. It's really anywhere. I'm like, it was pretty soggy, you know, where I walk away and

4:13I'm like pissed off. It's it's been pretty good. How would you describe your coaching style? I know you're loud. I hear you a lot. You've got a lot of energy. But what kind of coach, what kind of person are you when the day begins? Pointed direct. Try to be really simple in messaging. Keep the main thing, the main thing. Grab a guy by the front of the shirt when you need to to like get them back on track. You've done it a few times already. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I just like, let's just like be really, really deliberate about what we're doing. And like, yes, there's many, many ways that we can go. But like, lowest hanging foot right now is blank and we're attacking that. That's what we're attacking. This is the main thing and we're going to stay on this until we have to move otherwise. Who is stood out for you? What players have stood out for you? For any reason? So when you guys ask this question, it's it's tough because like, oh, 30 guys are like, they are like really really as a group. They all have. I mean, everybody is like really genuinely working

5:14on something. And that something has shown up in a game at some point. And like, we want to highlight that. And just now, obviously like rinse repeat tomorrow. But just like overall is a club. I mean, I think we're having very, very good at bats. We're moving the baseball forward. We're not, we're not missing in the strike zone. We're hitting balls hard. You've seen some of the small ball stuff come out, which is sick because that's been a huge talking point. You know, throughout the organization, but, but specifically with the Major League club about, you know, a weapon that we're going to be able to have this year. Guys are practicing it. And then when it does show up in a game, like you celebrate the hell out of it. So like the first and third safety squeeze the other night. And, and, uh, yeah, I wish, you know what? Like, I, I don't know much about baseball. I know some that you guys are facing the Giants. There's met on first and third and William Bergoya is up. And I see the third baseman for the Giants playing way back. I'm going, this is a run is about to be scored because he's going to lay down a bond. He's probably your best buncher here. Would you say?

6:15Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's fair. Yeah. Okay. Maybe the best for sure. I think he's the best that I've seen. He's one of the best banners I've seen. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And he got that squeeze. Yeah. And he scored the run. Yeah. So that like, what was that like in the dugout when that happened? I mean, everybody was pumped that you can imagine a lot of like sick, awesome, some, you know, explicit words before that. But like, uh, yeah, just again, like prioritizing it, practicing it and then celebrating it when it shows up. So that, that, that part's been really, really cool. So to answer your question in short, really just like the, the group is a whole, and it has been a good spring offensive. These guys are doing good work. Yeah. I want to follow up on that because I come out here and I watch all these games and, you know, I haven't been spring training can be deceptive. Right. You're not. Absolutely. But watching how you guys are hitting and whether it's the early part of the game with the, your starters or the prospects, I just see a better brand of baseball being played here.

7:16And is that what you're seeing? And are you happy with what you're seeing? And is this something that you think can then go into the regular season? Yeah. I think you can be deceptive. You don't want to like, you can't get comfortable or think that this is like an auto show up in season, right? But I do think there is some signal. And I think like the way that our guys are training, you know, it's in pursuit, as I mentioned you before, to mitigate some of those like early at bats in the regular season where you're like, Oh, I'm just still kind of getting my eyes back and still trying to figure out, you know, my zone and, and so on and so forth. So like, I do think there is some signal. We do want to celebrate that the bats are being swung well right now that we are scoring some runs. Because the alternative would suck, right? Like that wouldn't be good either. So yeah, there is some signal. It certainly can be deceptive. I think it's a byproduct of the work being done again to help mitigate some of the early season at bats that you tend to maybe give away because it's just the early part of the season and spring training was a little slower pace. So happy with where it's at celebrating it. The alternative would suck.

8:21And yeah, I just want to finish this thing strong. So I dive into a lot of stats offensively. And, you know, there's a stat that I always look at. I love OPS plus. That just tells me a lot about a player. What's is there a stat or a metric or a piece of information that you look at that is one of your favorites in terms of hitting or not hitting? Yeah, I think OPS is like king, right? It's like the highest correlation around scored. So, you know, my eyes will go to OPS. But then immediately after is like what's influencing OPS one way or the other. So then you kind of start to dive into some of the other stuff and see if there's any signal there. But yeah, typically goes to goes to the OPS. But again, highlighting like the in zone whiff is very low right now for for the white socks offense as a whole. Both for the active 40 man guys and the guys that are in our eyes, which is awesome to see and, you know, hitting ball really hard at good angles. So it's just, you know, highlight it and continue to work on it and get it to show up as often as possible. So in zone whiff rate, that's a newer stat. It's probably last with 10 years, I'm not sure,

9:24but was that a problem that this team that you felt had and needed to do really improve? Not necessarily. I think like last year they could move it forward, but it is something that you just like do want to pay attention to and ultimately it's to get an idea of like what type of offense do we have. I've said like multifaceted several times and it's based on the personnel we have, right? Like we're leveraging their strengths, their athleticism, the things that they do well and I think what comes out of the wash is an offense that's going to be able to move the ball forward, move it forward with authority, do some small ball things, slug a little bit. So, you know, you start kind of looking at it from that lens. It's like there are there's multiple ways that we could score runs and that's cool. And I've been a part of offenses that were, you know, more like kind of a singular way of doing it and it's work. But again, just like what personnel that we have, what do they do? Well, how do we leverage that and then continue to enhance it? I look at this offense and you've

10:25got some interesting table centers, Acunia, Midroth, Benny into some pretty good boppers. Is that how you kind of are like envisioning this offense? Yeah, take them for what they are and like where's like the next squeeze? You mentioned like Acunia and Midroth Acunia for a little man in stature, hits the ball significantly hard. So just continuing to attack the things he needs to attack and hit balls hard at good angles, you know, on a line and then it's the same thing with Chase, right? Like Chase is not somebody that we're looking to go hit 25 pumps. Like that's not his game. His game is to spray the ball all over the yard, move it forward when he needs to and do so in a way where, you know, maybe the contact is just a little bit more quality than it was last year, right? And so it's not changing the profile. It's just enhancing what he is already. Watching Acunia, I didn't know I was going to feel this way, but he has a swagger like a Jose Ramirez.

11:26Do you see that with him? I would love for him to be a Jose Ramirez. He is, it's like quiet, kind of like kind of shy, but gets after it. And when he gets in the box, it's like almost he call like fearless, right? Like he's in there, digs in, every at bat runs hard, like just plays the game super, super, super hard plays the right way. I want to ask you just about some more specific guys. So Colson, Montgomery, what's going to be the, you know, it's the key or A key for him to take the next step or just, you know, what's his kind of mentality right now? He's going into the year after what happened last season where he just came out and I don't say nowhere, but considering where he came from and then boom, he had all those homeruns and was one of the best hitters in baseball in the second half. Yeah, it's, Colson has an unbelievable level of awareness. It's very bright, especially when it comes to like his swing mechanics, which is a, which is a

12:28huge tool, right? Like it's a superpower. And so I think for Colson, it's, you know, for me, say it already, like keeping the main thing, the main thing, there are things that he does and thinks about that puts him, puts him in really good spots. And it's just not deviating from that bucket of solutions will say when things go south, if and when they go south, right? So that's the ask for Colson. It's like just continue to lean on the things that you know have worked in the past because you know that they help get you into a spot where you can go out there freely and do your thing. You know, he said to me, it was probably like the third week in February, he was, his swing wasn't feeling good. And he was kind of concerned a little bit and then he brought up Dawson Hayes and Austin Hayes is like, dude, it's February 17th. Like this is, don't go crazy about this is that you've got time. Can you kind of take us into if that's okay? Like some of the conversations that you've had with him, whether it's something to do with this or just anything that has been interesting to you about Colson as a hitter. Yeah, I'm kind of like alluded to it,

13:31right? Like smart guy. Like knows what he's looking at. The conversations are just really like getting that spot where you're staying within yourself. That's it. Where you are like, you put both feet in the box and you are free. Free to be the athlete that you are. That is a super explosive twitchy athlete. It's just like reinforcing that as much as possible. And he knows what that means and he knows how to get there and it's just making sure when he does DVA because everyone does like, how do we get you back on track as fast as possible. And this is where it's valuable having the guys like Hayes and Benny to go up and be like, dude, like, it's going to happen. It's February. And guess what? Like, it's going to happen again in season. Everybody, like the valley comes for everyone. It's just a matter of how long are you in the valley. And so I think, you know, we're talking about with Colson. This is how he kind of mitigates how long he's in that thing when it does show up. He's done a good job. He's done a really good job. All right. So we're coming. He was here for about a week or so and then he went to the World Baseball Classically back soon.

14:31What was your communication like with him considering the language barrier? A lot of yelling. A lot of hand gestures. A lot of yelling for Kenzo to come over and translate for me. Shout out to Kenzo. He's done an excellent job. Munez, like a savvy man, like, he understands, right? Like, obviously, Kenzo needs to get in the mix if it's a longer conversation. But he's definitely he's definitely doing his part as far as understanding what we're saying or putting in the work so we can understand what we're saying. But yeah, I mean, you've seen it on the field. It's it's a lot of, you know, high energy stuff and getting him in the mix as much as possible. What about him as just a hitter and the work that he puts in his work ethic? He seemed to have just by watching him a plan. Every his whole day seemed to be very, very structured in the way that he goes about what he needed to do needs to be a hitter. Yeah, structured, routine, oriented, lengthy, intentional, deliberate all words that could describe kind of Munez process

15:39and for good reason. So yeah, he does not shy away from the work at all. I think like this is going to be a guy at some point, probably going to have to like tell him to go home and get some rest. But that that point's not right now. We're just letting him like stick to the routine and kind of get himself into some new environments that he didn't have access to when he was over in Japan, which is cool. So yeah, yep. So he likes that. Yeah. What did he communicate anything to you about what it was like getting that kind of technology in his, you know, in his world? He just said it was awesome. Like he really, I mean, he was like, this is amazing. And hit a bunch of, you know, like guys he was going to see in the WBC before, before leaving. So, so that was cool, but yeah, just kind of watching like a kid in the candy store type deal. Did you happen to notice he's in the dugout in the first couple of games of the WBC and Shohei is with him and he had, you're nodding and he has, so he's got his, you know, kind of

16:40batting stance there and Shohei looks at him and has him lift his hands up a little bit, a little adjustment. So what do you think that was? Was going on there and do you think that might even help him? Yeah, he's constantly like making micro adjustments on his own. Obviously, like, I don't know the context. I have not talked to him yet about it. But yeah, I don't think that that is any different than, you know, looking over into our dugout and seeing guys talk through stuff. And you know, if you watch our games close enough or long enough, like you're going to see Austin Hayes going through like, like very intentional dry swings, whether he's like doing it on his own, or he's pinned me to a wall and he's showing me what he's feeling or whatever the case is. I don't think it was any different than that. But yeah, I can't speak to like the exact context, but just like player to player relationship, player to player helping each other, which was, which was cool to see. A few more questions about guys. Corey Lee made some adjustments to soft season. He said he worked with Dr. Fuller, Joel McKee, especially. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

17:44And he kind of described to me what he was doing and it's totally working on the field. So take us inside what's going on with Corey Lee and why he's been a different hitter here in spring. A better hitter. Yeah, mechanically speaking, just made some adjustments so it can help keep him behind the baseball influence, you know, better ball flight to different parts of the yard. That's really the gist of it and shout out to Joel and Ryan for a lot of work with him in the all season. I think it's began at the back end of last season. And Corey just went all in on it and he's had an exceptional, exceptional camp. I feel like every, every time he puts the ball in play, it's, it's, you know, over 105, you know, yesterday breaking ball down like stays through it, clips it out of the yard. So he's, since he's gotten here, I mean, the training's been been really, really intense like fast like he walks in and it's like, I want game speeds as fast as possible. And that's been cool to see. So yeah, yeah, really just put his body in better positions

18:44to influence better ball flight and open up some different parts of the field. A hitter who has such amazing upside is Jared Kellnick. And when he hits the ball, I mean, there's, I don't think there's anyone on your team that can hit the ball as far as he can. Where is he right now and his potential if he makes the team? Trending in a very good direction. And I think if you were to ask him that question, he would tell you the same kind of some of the stuff he's feeling, you think about the last ball he hit yesterday, that line drive over the shortstop's head at 111. There was 111. Okay, so I didn't look it up. He hit it. I forgot to go look at what the exit velocity was, but he crushed it. Yeah, when when Jared is smashing balls on a wine over the shortstop's head the other way, like he's in a very, very good spot. And he knows that he came in and was obviously all smiles. But yeah, absolutely very much trending in the direction that he needs to be trending. That's great to hear. Brad McArmory, he, I don't know if there's anyone who works more in the cage than him. Mune, maybe. Mune, maybe. Okay, they would rival each other on that

19:47front for sure. Yeah, yeah. Are you close to telling him, hey, maybe pump the brakes a little bit or know that you don't want to do that with him? No, I think he's monitoring like the amount of swings he's getting. And if it, you know, not coming from me, it would come from somebody else from the best place. Yeah. Yeah, you know, works, works really hard. I think he's having very, very good conversations with some of the other hitting coaches. I know Joel and him had a, had a really long talk the other night, I think in San Fran, yeah, in San Fran. And Joel said it was a fantastic conversation. So like, I love just being like from afar hearing that that stuff's going on. I think that's really cool. So yeah, good, good experience for him this camp. Definitely a hard worker. I think learning to kind of like understand how to play the game a little bit more at this level. Play the game in what way? Just I think, you know, planning and kind of like the, the whole idea of like, how's this guy potentially going to try to attack me and how am I going to counter that? And that, you know, the little stuff that

20:52matters at this level. He's been inquisitive and I think he's taking some of that information and will absolutely apply it. So funny because every name, I just happened to bring it up and I'm realizing this and I can bring up almost anybody in their clubhouse. You mentioned the hunger. Like these guys are just everyone that I talk about, they're just hungry. Whether it's Jared Kellnick who hasn't reached his potential, Cory Lee who same and then you got guys, young guys who are trying to, you know, make it in the major leagues. Is that kind of like just bursting out of the clubhouse and on the fields? Yeah, it is. And I think when they feel a culture that's built around care and love and honesty, it only enhances that. It only enhances that hunger. They know that they have people around them that want to see them succeed, want them to get better for their own good, but for also the club is good. And, you know, that hunger, hopefully it's a lofty

21:54goal, but translates into outlasting the other team, all mine, playing all mine. And you're going to lose games, but play all mine every single night. Have grindy at bats, be a pain in the ass in the box every time you're in there. That's what I think shows up when you have a group that's this hungry, regardless of who it is. And then I'm bringing up Sam Antonacci, who has really made a name for himself. He already had a big name here, but then on the World Stage and World Baseball Classic, how much has he impressed you with the little things he's doing and the big things? Psychopath. Yeah, impressive. Different temperament on the field than off the field. And yeah, it's like killer mindset when he's in the box. And I mean, when he's between the lines really, yeah, I mean, super impressive camp, super, super impressive. Again, a guy that's got some tools. He's going to do some things for you. It's not just like Homer or nothing. Certainly it's

22:54the ball really hard, but he can also take a knock the other way and he'll throw some walks and take some bags. And there's some real stuff there. Yeah, when you said psychopath, you see that in the nicest way. That is a nice, nicest ball possible way because I know you did because if the people don't know him, I mean, most fans are just getting to know him. He is off the field, quiet, polite, very nice, mild mannered, and then the game starts. And he is a psychopath. He's out of his mind because that's no, that sounds like he's out of control. He's just flips a switch. Yes, competitor. Yes, he just flips a switch. He's not the shy guy. Like, he just flips a switch and it's go, it's go mode. Yeah, he's a killer out there. And smart. Very smart. One last question. I'm not going to say everything's going to go into place, but how good of an offense can this be in 2026? How good do you think this offense can be based on your professional opinion? Are you asking me? Yeah, I think it has the potential.

23:58It has the potential to be a top 10 offense. I think it has the potential to be that. When firing off at all cylinders, you see us as a top 10 offense. Yes, I would agree with that. Yes, I would agree with that. Yeah, I mean, it's also spring training. And I'm always like, I see the potential in this guy, in this guy, in this guy all around the diamond. And that doesn't ever happen. He can't get everybody on board. But where is everyone? Where one I see is on board is they're trying to get, they're trying to maximize their abilities and they're all trying to play as a team. Yeah, we're not going to chase any number there. We're just going to continue to prioritize the things that are important as we've done during camp. And I do believe that what comes out of the wash is a very good Chicago White Sox offense this year. Awesome. Thanks for the information, the knowledge, Europeans, I appreciate it. Show is your nickname show and I'm looking forward to what this offense brings here in 2026. Yes, sir. Thank you, Chuck. All right. Appreciate it. Derek Schillman here on the White Sox podcast. Hot Karelson, take it away. All right, our Chuck, this edition of the White Sox podcast.