Between Lucas Giolito's mysterious abdominal muscle issue and AJ Pollock's troublesome hamstrings, the White Sox's season-opening series against Detroit could have easily been defined by the things that failed them.
Instead, the Sox took two out of three, including an effervescent 10-1 pummeling of the Tigers on Sunday. It was the kind of performance that shifted the focus from what went wrong to what's going right.
With 24 hours before Vince Velasquez starts the home opener for the White Sox, there's a considerable chance that we'll be dragged back into crisis mitigation discussions. For the time being, let's turn our attention to positive tales of strength and conditioning, because there were a few.
Luis Robert's legs
In 2021, you wouldn't have ever known that Luis Robert suffered a season-threatening hip flexor strain in the first half by his second-half numbers, but the injury's toll revealed itself in smaller ways. His sprint speed dropped a foot a second, his defensive metrics diminished from "great" to "good," and he attempted just two stolen bases in 43 games after he returned.
He needed just the first three games of the 2022 to match that stolen-base total, going 2-for-2 against the Tigers. The first one was the kind of uncontested steal of second with runners on the corners that the White Sox so often yielded themselves, while the other swipe featured feed besting arm.
Robert also scored from first on a José Abreu's double despite the fact that he didn't really round off third base. It was an impressive display of speed, but it gave him only one angle to the plate, and it could've ended disastrously given his history of slide-related hand issues.
So it's great to see Robert back in flight. Now he just needs to remember how to control it.
Andrew Vaughn's base
During the last month and a half of the 2021 season, Andrew Vaughn lost his ability to hit balls in a threatening fashion. Two-third of his batted balls in September registered as medium contact while his line-drive rate sagged below 10 percent, so anything he hit the air was usually lofty enough to be caught without a remarkable effort.
Those struggles made more sense when Vaughn detailed the back and leg problems that ground him down over the course of his first-ever six-month season. A fresh start to the season brings a refreshed Vaughn to the plate, and the results are, well, refreshing.
Six of his 10 batted balls cleared 98 mph when "hard contact" starts at 95 mph. They went to all fields, and two of them ended up over the fence.
Whether he's in a better condition to deal with the wear and tear remains to be seen, but for the time being, he's making the Oakland A's request of Vaughn for Frankie Montas look like price gouging.
Reese McGuire's arm
Over the course of the 2021 season, the Tigers realized that they could run on the White Sox with impunity. They stole 25 bases in 27 attempts over the 19 games, including a 13-for-13 performance over six games in September. They stole more bases against the Sox over the final month than they did against any other opponent all season long.
So it's worth noting that after the first three games of the 2022 season, the Tigers did not steal a single base. They only tried once, and Reese McGuire cut down Austin Meadows with an incredible throw on a pitch in the dirt.
It's especially impressive considering Michael Kopech was on the mound, as Kopech yielded 10 stolen bases in 10 attempts over just 69⅓ innings in 2021.
When looking at Sunday's lineup, Tony La Russa's decision to start the left-handed McGuire against a left-handed pitcher against Tarik Skubal seemed like an afterthought, or at least an awkward outcome of wanting to give every position player a start during the opening series. But between McGuire helping Kopech contain the running game and winning the edges of the strike zone with his receiving ...
... he gave La Russa a reason to play him when when the opposing pitcher isn't a great matchup.
Ideally most of McGuire's starts will come with a righty on the mound, but it's not worth getting upset about random starts that don't allow him to provide a platoon advantage, because he has strengths that can be leveraged in other ways.
Josh Harrison's hands
The White Sox traded Nick Madrigal in part because he was hurt and couldn't help the Sox in a great win-now situation, but also because the Sox might think that his value can be replaced on the open market for a modest cost, especially if Madrigal keeps getting hurt.
César Hernández's brief White Sox career suggests that it's easier said than done, but Josh Harrison and his action-oriented style of baseball represents another crack at it. Through three games, he and Madrigal have both reached base three times for a .231 OBP, but Harrison has packed more action into his line:
| Player | PA | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harrison | 13 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Madrigal | 13 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Beyond sheer offensive production, Harrison offers a few things Madrigal doesn't. While Madrigal has never played a position besides second base, Harrison started at third base on Sunday, and he made a fine ranging play cutting across the shortstop position on a shift.
He also brings a more visible on-field personality to the field, which is starting with an imaginary motorcycle whenever his speed is required.
He also revved the bike upon touching first base on his RBI infield single Sunday, but it was his second celebration over the course of 90 feet. When he saw that Jeimer Candelario wasn't going to be able to recover Harrison's hot shot in time to make a throw across the diamond, Harrison started asking a passing truck to sound its horn.
Between the contact, the versatility and the mannerisms, Harrison is exactly as advertised in the early going. The question is whether the medium contact finds enough holes to avoid slumps over the course of the season, and so we'll be checking in on this tale of the tape from time to time.
