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Chapter 1: What is Derek Shomon's coaching style?
What is your exact coaching style? How do you go and talk to these players?
Yeah. I think like person first mentality, right? Like we have to humanize them. We have to like consider that always and let that kind of be like a blueprint into the next step that you want to take. But you, you love hard on them. You, you be honest with them because you love them. You care about them. That those principles I think will always hold true for me.
Understanding like it takes time to, to create trust, right? Like it takes time to get buy-in and it doesn't fall like numb on me that I am the new hitting coach in town. And like some of these guys have gone through multiple hitting coaches already in their professional career. So like just understanding like that vetting process takes a second and, uh, you mitigate that by just being yourself.
Chapter 2: How does Derek Shomon build trust with players?
Um, and again, like always prioritizing the person always, always, always in forever. Um, and, aside from that, like, yeah, I am very loud. I like to make sure that I bring the energy every day. I want loud music. I want us to be loud in the dugout. I want our other hitting coaches to be loud. Like I just want high energy levels as consistently as possible.
Um, and as a part of that, like we are celebrating the little things, sometimes the things that get overlooked. Right. So that's the type of coaching style I have. That's the type of culture within our realm of hitting that I like to create and foster. Um, You will certainly hear me at games this year from the dugout in the best of ways.
And you realize, I mean, knowing that you grew up with this organization and the fan base, that that is going to resonate very strongly with this White Sox fan base.
Chapter 3: What energy does Shomon bring to the White Sox dugout?
Like, I already saw when you were officially announced, you know, kind of doing my research on Twitter, that a loud contingency of Sox fans are like, this guy's going to fit in just fine with this group. Like, you kind of get that feel from your vibe and just sort of what you're already presenting yourself to the fan base that this is going to be a good fit. Yeah. That's good.
It's good on you on that part.
Great to hear. That's great. You fans, I appreciate you. And just know everybody's working to put something really quality and special on the field.
So Ryan Fuller, who came over last year as well, he is the hitting instructor. He's worked very closely with Colson Montgomery and worked with him a little bit earlier this past season in the minors and in Arizona. And then, obviously, Colson came up and really became – you know, a 20 plus home run guy in a very short amount of time.
How much interaction have you had with Ryan Fuller at this point?
Oh, Ryan, I talk almost daily, man. I've said it on record several times already, like the work that he's done along with the rest of the hitting department, like there were serious strides made last year with the Chicago White Sox offense as a whole from the big leagues all the way down to the DR. I think that's really important to note, right? Like
we, we like to just like really hone in on the major league level, but like, we need to understand what's happening elsewhere. That is eventually going to influence what happens right on the field at rate field. So like there was so much good stuff last year, so much progress made that said, now it's like, we have to continue making progress. We have to continue getting better.
And there is no one better to be in that seat overseeing all of this as a director of hitting the Ryan Fuller. I think like,
very calculated also connects with people exceptionally well like we saw what he was able to do with colson and like uh building that relationship with him right and um what kind of came out of the wash there but yeah fuller and i talk fuller and i talk almost every day to some capacity i mean that's great to hear obviously that there is becoming a more cohesive unit which obviously can only help this team grow further and further like you said you know there were positive steps
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Chapter 4: How does Shomon plan to celebrate players' achievements?
Working towards common goal, working towards getting these guys as mentally and physically prepared every single night to go out and compete at the major league level. Right. In a way that is sustainable. Right. for 162 plus. So because of the Ryan Fullers and the Joel McKeithens, who's returning as the assistant, and I am super pumped about that.
I'm just excited to like get in the room as we are now and continually with that group because it's not just me, right? Like this needs to be a real team effort. I've seen when the team effort is in place, the kind of
uh fruit that you can like get from that labor and so uh very very excited about just like working with the group as a whole as far as the white socks hitting department is concerned and i know that our players are going to benefit that because it's not siloed out it's like we are all there are no eagles we're egos we're all in this together row in the same boat as they like to say right that's right that's right
So you came from the Miami Marlins. You were the assistant hitting coach there this year, 2025, this past season. I made a tweet back in September. I was noticing some parallel lines, as we mentioned, about the White Sox improvement that they showed in 2025. You know, 2024, the Marlins, they lost 100 games.
2025, they came in and, you know, a couple more series wins and they would have been right in the middle of that third wildcard spot, as we know. And now, as we also know, you know, the Marlins were responsible for literally sending the New York Mets packing that last series.
Do you see the similarities that I see between the White Sox and the Marlins that the Sox can make a potential jump the same way the Marlins did in twenty twenty six?
Absolutely. I think that was one of the most like intriguing things about this position was there are there are a lot of parallels and it makes it super exciting. Very, very young roster, very talented young players. Right. As a whole. But the again, like the strides that they made year over year from 24 to 25, like we saw the Chicago White Sox roster.
or line up last year, make better swing decisions. I think it was the best swing decisions they had made in the last three or four seasons. That matters, right? And that's my product of the work that they did, and they value that, and they want to continue to work on that and continue to improve that. That was something that we harped on with Miami, right?
Like Miami was 30th in 2024 in chase rate, worst in the week. or swing decisions in the league based on that and saw massive improvement last year, just because again, like the white socks, like we prioritize that. So you start to like see these parallels and it gets super exciting. Young guys, talented, making better swing decisions can move the ball forward.
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Chapter 5: What is the significance of Ryan Fuller in the hitting department?
Listen and follow Free Range with me, Von Miller, wherever you get your podcasts.
It's always encouraging. I think like guys knowing that if we're keeping our side of the street clean, like we're in the fight and that's what it comes down to. I think what we want to avoid is like the, we have to win like this many games. Like, yes, the wins matter. Absolutely. We are chasing a W every single night and we're trying to get there any way possible.
But if we like take it back a few steps, it's like, what does keeping our side of the street clean look like on a daily basis? And if we're doing that, We're probably going to be in a good enough spot to be competitive in this division. There are pieces in place to be competitive in this division. What we will never do, at least what I will never do, is talk about what we don't have.
It's always like this is what we have and this is what we are going to move forward with. And I think that, again, is super important. And that was a big piece of Miami is like we're not going to sit here and talk about what we don't have relative to the teams in our division. This is what we got.
and it has to get better yep but it will get better they are and then it turned in like they are getting better we are getting better right yes like we're playing good baseball literally good right a couple more series wins and they would have been battling with the reds and the mets for that last spot which is crazy to think about and it's interesting because they were also a second half team right they were a second half team and i could almost see the socks if
Second half of 2026 really turning on now that everybody's gelled together. I could see them making a similar push, which is why I made that comparison back in September. I'm like, there's some parallel lines here. And then, of course, they go and pluck the assistant hitting coach from Miami. And I'm like, okay, maybe they're listening to me.
Yeah, maybe they were. Did it get some extra likes? Was it a good tweet?
Oh, it was a very good tweet. Oh, I can share it with you. Yeah, maybe they really are listening to me, which I'd appreciate.
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