Pregame notes: A chance at a very amusing series win

If the Cleveland Guardians were to win the 2024 AL Central crown, but lose a 13-game season series with the worst MLB team of all-time, would they even enjoy it?

Probably a great deal. Playing contending baseball in the here and now is an exciting experience that electrifies a city. I recommend it to all interested and nearby parties. Besides, all the Guardians have to do to avoid such an ironically amusing fate is win a series against the White Sox. The last 19 teams that have attempted it have all been successful, so how hard could it be?

It's been a rough year on the South Side, slightly rougher than anticipated by White Sox leadership.

“I think if you would have told me we were going to end up flirting with the record I would have been a little surprised,” said Chris Getz. “Now if you would have told me prior to the year that we would have ended up with over 100 losses, 105, 110, I wouldn't have been as surprised."

Bryan Ramos is getting his first start in a game at any level in six days, at designated hitter. He's had kind of a wacky year in terms of both bouncing around and performance. And while he's widely lauded for having the makeup to handle turmoil and adversity, there's such a thing as going to the well too many times.

Maybe not this year, but certainly next year--unless they trade one, in which case it becomes a maybe again--the White Sox will have to find a way to resolve the need to provide extended major league runway for both Ramos and Miguel Vargas, when they're both primarily third basemen.

"We’ll play around with different ideas to get at-bats for these guys in the big leagues," Getz said. " Obviously Miguel Vargas and Bryan Ramos are big parts of our future and we may need to get creative. Tonight Bryan is at DH and Miguel is at third base, that’s a way to get playing time. But most importantly we want these players to feel like they’ve accomplished something in a positive manner. Bryan had a good run at Charlotte recently, is going to get some at-bats here tonight, we’ll go from there."

Is Nick Nastrini the bulk pitcher for Monday night? Or just another guy in the bullpen?

"I think he's built up to where he can give us multiple innings right now," Grady Sizemore said. "The plan is if we need that situation out of him, yeah. It could be one of those things where he only goes out there once, and it looks good, and we want to go to the next guy. It just kind of depends on the game and the situation and where we're at."

Sizemore also mentioned that Nastrini could re-enter the rotation based on need. Since Davis Martin has been capped around 85-90 pitches because he had Tommy John surgery last year, Garrett Crochet is limited to four innings or less, and Chris Flexen hasn't completed seven innings all season, there's a case to be made that there's a need for innings now.

But I guess we'll see.

Fifth overall pick Hagen Smith is throwing out the first pitch Monday night as he tours the city, meets with White Sox officials, slowly fills out that mustache, etc. As you could glean him from walking around in Chicago in khakis rather than throwing a mid-week bullpen in Winston-Salem, Smith's first pro season is over after three abbreviated outings.

Smith said he remained on his normal throwing schedule between the end of his season with Arkansas and his professional debut, so he didn't feel too out of sorts by adding 7 2/3 innings to his workload. He's planning on throwing another bullpen soon in Fayetteville, as he has at the end of the past three seasons, while hooked up to sensors to measure his pitch movement and biomechanics to assess where he's at headed into the offseason.

"We’ve had really good conversations, really good pitching organization," Smith said of his initial experience with White Sox player development. "I talked with my pitching coach at Arkansas, Matt Hobbs. Just coming here, it’s pretty similar philosophy."

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