Marshall Harris

And what I think it's allowed Will Venable to do, and this dude is in the driver's seat and maybe a couple of laps ahead of everyone else for American League Manager of the Year right now.

He's been able to punch the right buttons because he gets in situations where he feels like, I know what my guys can do.

And I think the best example of that is when you go to the eighth inning of last night's game.

Because understand this.

He had, what, Andrew Benintendi replace...

Gritchick, and that was who hit the grand slam on the first pitch that he saw.

Disgusting.

He had Jacob Gonzalez, who was hit by a pitch when he comes in, and he has Sam Antonacci, who leads off the inning with the double after he replaces Luis Angel Acuna.

The fact that he has the bench depth to be able to make those moves late in games against relief, middle relief, not late inning, we're down by three relief, but just in a game where the—

The outcome is still in doubt.

Will Venable, more times than not, has been able to punch the right buttons because he's had the players available to him that have gotten the job done.

No, no, I understand that.

I can see why you would believe that, because other teams have expectations.

The White Sox have a simple expectation.

That's to play hard, do your best.

But there's not, hey, we assembled this multi-nine-figure team that's top ten in payroll, and we expect to be division champs.

That's not what's going on here.

It's very much a development year for the Sox.

Now, if it's development that comes with an AL Central title, no one's going to complain, players included, but they're just doing their job, and I think they believe in Will Venable, and they all understand their role, and that's whether they start the game on the bench or they start the game in the starting lineup, knowing either way, they may come out of the game as a starter, they may get in the game later in an important situation, and they've been able to rise to the occasion a lot, especially when you look at the series against the Yankees.

They got beat up in those first two series.