Last Groundhog Day, Major League Baseball took the colloquial notion of the holiday a little too seriously. The free agencies of Manny Machado and Bryce Harper dragged into their fourth month, with rumor cycles repeating themselves approximately every three weeks. It wasn't until the last day of the month that we knew for certain that the White Sox indeed had nothing to show for it all.
This time around, February feels a lot more like the dozen or so others I've covered between here and South Side Sox. The heavy lifting has long been over, SoxFest was used as a platform to introduce all the new faces, and now we're mostly biding our time until pitchers and catchers report. Sure, Yasiel Puig still needs a home, as do a bunch of rosterable utility infielders, but the White Sox have a complete roster regardless of what happens from here. It might not quite be adequate to win the Central, but they're running out credible MLB talent this time.
Looking ahead
Monday marks the last full week of the offseason, so that also marks the start of Prospect Week on Sox Machine.
After that?
- Feb. 12: Pitchers and catchers report
- Feb. 17: People pretend the full squad hasn't already reported.
- Feb. 22: The first spring training broadcast of the season.
Looking back
Some stories I wanted to touch upon before Prospect Week begins...
Make sure you check out the Shop Talk post by ecrusty, who delves into why López might like his changeup (whiffs in the zone!) more than he should (the non-whiffs get hammered!).
James Fegan delivered a couple of posts worth filing away as the White Sox try to bounce back from a disappointing season across a lot of the farm. It's hard to know how much of the White Sox's talk about modern-day markers (Edgertronic, Rapsodo, force plates) is going to be reflected by performances this season, but at least they seem to have realized that it's not great to let others paint them as "old school" when their record suggests they're closer to "out of touch."
Two former White Sox employees have been charged with hooking a broker up with complementary tickets and making over $800,000 on them over a four-year period. Analytics in the ticket office helped the team get to the bottom of it:
The Sox’s data analytics team had flagged him as a StubHub seller who had “sold more White Sox tickets than anyone else by a substantial margin.”
They also determined that more than 96 percent of his ticket sales involved complimentary vouchers, which go to friends and family of the players, youth groups, commercial sponsors and others — and are not meant for sale.
Pointing to the 11,000 tickets Lee allegedly sold during the 2018 season, the agent noted that the next most successful three sellers on StubHub sold just 129, 113 and 108 tickets, respectively.
In terms of accent, cadence and colorful language that has "blue" on its palette, Frank Menechino sounds like the hitting version of Don Cooper. If you're looking for data-intensive discussion, he doesn't delve into it. The closest he gets:
If you have resources, you better be using them. No matter what it is, 'cause if one thing can help one guy, then it's worth it. Use your resources. Do your due diligence. Make sure what you're saying is right.
There's nothing worse as a hitter when you have somebody telling you, "Hey, let's try this, let's try that." Throwing stuff and see what sticks. That's not good, especially in a big leagues. You gotta do your due diligence, use your resources, and I'll use whatever's available to me when necessary.
If you give him the benefit of the doubt, he brings an everyman approach to modern-day principles. If you don't, it's still an entertaining 15 minutes of radio.
Menechino inherits a familiar challenge, in that the White Sox have a lot of ultra-aggressive hitters. Tim Anderson is one of them, and he credits Todd Steverson with some major assistance in winning the batting title.
“I took what (Steverson) gave me,” Anderson said. “That’s my routine. He taught me my routine and taught me everything I knew in the box. I’m going to stick with it.
“I never really had a teacher. Then I met (Steverson). I was able to lock in on hitting besides just doing it. So when he showed me the recipe, I kind of learned it. I know what I’m doing now when I’m in the box.”
