Considering Saturday's Red Sox-Braves Grapefruit League game ended with a pitch clock violation, I was prepared for chaos when the White Sox opened their Cactus League schedule on Saturday against the San Diego Padres.
Alas, while the effects of the pitch clock were noticeable, it was only because innings flew by. The game only needed 45 minutes to get through three, and that more or less set the pace over the final two-thirds of the game.
Part of me wanted an inset with the pitch clock to understand the force compelling the pitcher and hitter to adhere to the timing they chose, but without a visible timer, it presented the feeling that I was watching a game from the 1980s, or a vintage Mark Buehrle start. NBC Sports Chicago briefly teased a pitch clock in the score bug in the fourth inning ...
... but I didn't see it at any other point.
That seems like a useful feature for explaining the game's new rhythm, especially if a pitcher or hitter triggers an automatic call, but the pace of the 6-2 Padres victory didn't really demand such an intrusion on a regular bases. The game only bogged down in the ninth inning, which featured four San Diego runs in the top of it, and fittingly, the game's only pitch clock violation. Mike Morin committed the offense with runners on the corners and nobody out.
But that turned out to be the inning's third-largest indignity, because after Jose Azocar doubled home a run to make it 4-1, Luis Liberato's pop-up was surrounded by four White Sox and caught by no one.
And then the Padres executed a double steal on the battery of Caleb Freeman and Carlos Perez.
These sequences, along with a two-run output due to a lot of ground balls and first-pitch swings, all would've fit comfortably within the 2022 oeuvre, but credit Pedro Grifol for figuring out how to shape the response beforehand.
“It’s like I said from Day One. I want to see some mistakes,” said Grifol before his team’s 6-2 loss to the Padres. “And then that way, we learn together."
The first part is complete. You can see if any more occur this afternoon with an MLB.tv subscription, as the White Sox will play the Angels at Salt River Fields.
Eloy Jiménez in right field
In the fourth inning, David Dahl swatted an inside-corner Kendall Graveman sinker into the right field corner and motored all the way around to third. I was ready to chalk it up as the first easy triple on Eloy Jiménez's watch.
And then I learned that Oscar Colás had replaced Jiménez at the start of the inning. Colás looked like he took a cautious approach to the corner because he anticipated the ball continuing its hook after it bounced, clipping the angled side wall and caroming back into play. Instead, it straightened out and took a direct line to the corner, and Colás throw was well late.
Jiménez did not get tested over the course of the first three innings, as the three San Diego singles that greeted Lance Lynn were not in his air space, and then Lynn retired the last nine he faced.
the first game without shifts
The White Sox didn't exactly master defensive positioning before shifts were banned, so it's hard to assert whether any grounders that found their way through the infield would've ended up in a glove last year, especially when the camera work is rather ragged.
That said, Jiménez's single through the middle in the first inning seemed like the kind of hit a White Sox right-handed might see more of.
A game in a Statcast park would allow us to compare the exit velocity, launch angle and direction of Jiménez's grounder and pair it to so many similar bouncers with a runner on first. Without those specifics, we have to guess a little, but here's a similar-looking grounder off Kris Bubic that resulted in a formerly routine 4-3 from the other side of second base.
Maybe the bases still aren't big enough
Major League Bases installed larger bases this year, increasing the size from 15-inch squares to 18 inches in order to potentially generate more safe calls. Theoretically, there's more base to hook on while sliding past, more room to avoid a fielder's attempt at blocking a path, or simply because the basepaths are now 4½ inches shorter.
I used hedge words like "potentially" and "theoretically" because Romy González still wasn't able to stay on the bag, which turned a stolen base into a caught stealing.
You couldn't see it from the third-base side ...
... but the other baseline revealed the disconnect.
Jake Burger isn't out of it
In a scenario where Colás is the everyday right fielder (or close enough to it), it's hard to see how Jake Burger gets regular at-bats, because Eloy Jiménez isn't going to be pinch-hit for as a DH, and Andrew Vaughn is complemented by Gavin Sheets.
In a scenario where Jiménez has to play more right field than anybody wants, Burger would get his shots as a complement for Gavin Sheets at DH, and both of them went deep on Saturday to provide a prototype for the arrangement.
Burger hit the more impressive bomb, clearing the left field wall by plenty.
In fact, he hit it too far. A report from Sox Machine Veterans Committee member Dan said it cleared the lawn and nailed an unsuspecting kid on the concourse. I suppose that's not the worst thing to happen to Burger in spring training, but the guy's had enough misfortune that his good news doesn't need to keep him in check.
