All series talk goes in here. Non series talk goes somewhere else. No PBP, that can be found from other sources if you need it. All games are broadcast on AT&T Sports SW unless otherwise noted. 5-20 TBD vs. Brad Peacock (R) 7:10 5-21 Dylan Covey (R) vs. Justin Verlander (R) 7:10 5-22 Ivan Nova (R) vs. Gerrit Cole (R) 7:10 WGN 5-23 Lucas Giolito (R) vs. Corbin Martin (R) 7:10 MLBN (out-of-market only) Wednesday's game is on WGN if you are out of market but still get that channel.
Just doing a little reading about them and looking at some CWS stats, I have no idea how this team is 21-24. Terrible starting pitching, terrible bullpen outside of Colome, middling offense with only 3.5 guys who should scare any pitcher - Anderson, Moncada, Abreu and McCann (in the 1/2 of the games he plays). Yet they've gone 8-8 against Cle/NYY/Bos. Giolito finally seems to be putting it together this year, tough matchup on Thursday for Martin.
They swept the Rays also. They appear to have had some clutch bad defense (i.e., they make most of their bad plays when it doesn't matter), played a lot of AL Central games except the Twins, and got a couple of series with the Orioles. I expect reality will be hitting the White Sox in a few hours.
They got swept by the Rays (Snell/Morton/Glasnow is a tough draw!) But yes, a reality check is in order. On further review, their pen as it stands now is not as bad as I thought. Their lesser-used guys are having more success than the guys getting most of the innings. They're talking about a bullpen day on the mound today since they've lost 2 SPs in the last week.
Hope Peacock's back to two-starts-ago Peacock. Well, that would be a little too good to hope for; I will hope for him to feel as comfortable as he did that game.
So, we have 8 healthy fielders. I'm sure Springer is available, but even if he is we're still absurdly thin without Diaz. If he's gonna be out for any significant time we need to call up Mayfield (or Straw if we're ready to give him MLB innings on the infield)
If this isn’t the time to bring up Alvarez, at home against the white Sox, with these injuries and white continuing to be white, then I don’t know when is
Hope Peacock's back to two-starts-ago Peacock. Well, that would be a little too good to hope for; I will hope for him to feel as comfortable as he did that game. Hinch and Luhnow, I've noticed, are very good at letting guys prove definitively that the team needs to do something else with them. When they send someone down and call someone else up or take someone out of the lineup, it's hard to argue the guy didn't earn it. And the player knows as well that they earned it. Kind of the exact opposite of our other coach down the street. White's gotta know that he's on quickly-thinning ice at this point.