Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
Hello and good morning. We broadcast live here from the south side. We're at Wings and Rings on Halstead before the home opener and there's free parking in the back. Shuttles to get you to and from the game. If you show proof of White Sox game day tickets, you can get a free side. So come by and say hi. Rahimi Harris and Grody are here until 2. We had to wait an extra day.
The rain was pretty plentiful yesterday, but we are here again. and happy to join you. Layla Rahimi, Mark Grody, Marshall Harris, all here, and getting ready for, I think, a situation that you would have expected to see. A former White Sox starting pitcher, who they traded for, famously, thanks Cubs.
Dylan Cease on the mound with his fresh seven-year contract for the Toronto Blue Jays facing probably the White Sox's biggest hope, at least on the current status of this pitching staff. Now, that's not to say Schultz and Higginsmith can come up early, but...
For now, Grant Taylor's the most exciting prospect pitching-wise the White Sox have who's up, and he's facing a guy who is a known commodity in Dylan Cease. In a perfect world through a White Sox lens, if you have Dylan Cease that you have to face in your home opener... you're glad to have a guy like Grant Taylor in the mound in a perfect world because that guy is your next big hope.
He's your next version of Dylan Cease. But the problem is he's only starting because he's serving as an opener in this game. And that's not anything that instills courage that the White Sox have figured anything out at starting pitching. If you go look at the MLB stats... For team pitching, the White Sox, as a team, their starting rotation has an ERA over eight.
It is by far the worst in Major League Baseball. Desperate times calling for desperate measures. And this, this smells of desperation. I'd love to say, Grant Taylor's going out there, the White Sox. But if he's only going to throw, you know, 50, 60 pitches, he's just going out there to try to get through the lineup one time.
We do know that per Scott Merkin, it is Grant Taylor opening followed by Sean Burke. That is the plan. And yeah, because Grant Taylor has only thrown two innings worth of pitches so far this season. There was speculation as to whether or not he would initially start in 2027. That timeline has been moved off. I'm really happy that Grant Taylor is the opener today.
I know it's symbolic of things already having to change because of the starting rotation, but there is nobody with the White Sox organization that should be surprised when you look at their starting rotation of Shane Smith, Davis Martin, Sean Burke, Layla's guy, Eric Fetty, and God bless him, Anthony Kaye, Everybody knew. White Sox fans knew. Eventually, you're going to veer off of this path.
And Layla already mentioned the guys that we're all obsessing over, those being Noah Schultz, Hagan Smith, and Tanner McNugle. They're not ready yet, but they're cooking right now. They are preheating right now at about 300 degrees right now in the oven. They are getting to work. But, okay, I want to see Grant Taylor and his 98-mile-per-hour fastball. By the way, he'll touch a hundo.
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Chapter 2: Who is pitching for the White Sox and Blue Jays in the home opener?
Dylan sees so far this year, it's small sample size, five and a third, 12 strikeouts. He has averaged 98.7 miles per hour. Grant Taylor has made two appearances. averaging 98.7 miles per hour. So you're going to be seeing some heat out there from both of these guys, which could be entertaining and potentially very low scoring.
The reason why this is so problematic and such a just hit your head against the wall, the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, it comes, guys, in a weekend, which we're going to see today.
Connor Griffin, the most highly touted prospect in all of baseball, make his first start for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and then he's going to get paid immediately thereafter. They have to wait until he makes a start so he can get the incentives to get the extra draft compensation. He's going to get a contract, nine figures.
That's on the heels of the Pirates already having a player under contract on a nine-figure deal. You know who doesn't have a player under contract for a nine-figure deal and who has never done that? The Chicago White Sox. And you're wondering, praying, hoping that this is one of the last times, if not the last time, that we look at a home opener.
through this lens and see a guy over there that the Sox could have had if they had deep enough pockets to sign a guy that is making over $200 million on his contract versus just having a great hope that you get, you bring up, only to have to, you know, trade him away later. I have adjusted my expectations accordingly. I have.
And we had to when we figured out what the plan was, and it became, okay, well, if this is what you guys want to do, you want to shorten the timeline, as we've mentioned, by having Chris Getz be your general manager, you want to, you think, speed up the process, then the best way to do that, and we mentioned it yesterday when we were talking about the Rule 5 scenarios that had gone down,
when you have to DFA your rule, or not DFA, but when you have to release your Rule 5 guy. So because of that, you know, we're asking, okay, well, what does that mean for the talent who is here? And how are the talent doing who have been traded for? Let's go back to the Dylan Cease trade, for example.
And that was the trade that involved Jairo Iriarte, Samuel Zavala, Dylan Cease goes to San Diego, Drew Thorpe, and Stephen Wilson. Stephen Wilson got traded to Tampa Bay. Drew Thorpe, we are waiting to see if he's going to be okay after Tommy John surgery. That's a rite of passage at this point. I'm not as concerned. Samuel Zavala is now in AA with the Birmingham Barons.
And Iriarte, who I think was a real centerpiece for that trade as far as what he could be as a reliever.
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Chapter 3: What are the current challenges for the White Sox pitching staff?
And you weren't. But I want to see that out here. Yeah. Drew Thorpe, I got a little hope for. But I did laugh going through the where are they now portion of all these players. And you did it perfectly with with Iriarte and Zavala. Steven Wilson, just reading Steven Wilson, 31 year old righty for Tampa Bay. Thirty one. And he's with Tampa Bay nowadays. So you think he's going to be younger?
I don't know. It just kind of cracked me up thinking about that. He gives journey, man, when you talk about him and see where he's been and what he's done. Well, and I get it. You want an arm that is serviceable immediately because you gave up an arm that was undoubtedly serviceable immediately. You want an arm that you can have as a prospect, and that's what Iriarte was supposed to be.
Zavala was young. When he got to the Padres, he was 16. So he's still very much developing. And not even just for White Sox years that I like to joke about. I mean real prospect years. So he's still in his early, early, early 20s. So for him, I'm looking forward to seeing what he's doing with Birmingham. He showed a lot of good signs at high A. So... It's still a wait and see.
It's only been two years since that deal. That's the other part of this. So you just don't want to call the entire thing a bust. And ideally, you know, it's like the trade where you see a core of your team, like what we saw with Chris Sale leaving initially and how they were able to flex those trades and get a lot more in return, I think, at the time. Yeah.
at least immediate to the big league club but in this case we're still asking the same questions about talent evaluation and rightfully so with a one in five team right now pitching i think should have been farther along than where it is no i completely agree with that and going back to the the trade and the guys that you mentioned that the White Sox have brought in since.
I look at them as, especially arms, I look at them as scratch-offs. Like, you scratch them off and see if, is this going to be something that's going to be five bucks? Is this going to be 20? But what is the reward that you're getting? And you hate to get a scratch-off where there's nothing.
And it feels like a couple of these guys could end up being nothing if you go back and you look at whether it's Jairo, Iriarte. I mean, you want more. The biggest and most optimistic and most hopeful thing I'll say about today's home opener is, If Grant Taylor is good today, there won't be any talk about, well, it was just the Blue Jays that he got through. No, no. Good point.
If he's good today, that gives you so much more hope that you can build on. And maybe we do see that quick conversion into a starting pitcher. There's no reason if he is good today that you don't run him back out there as part of the rotation the next time out. Well, that's it. I know that this wasn't ideal with your timing for Grant Taylor.
This wasn't the plan at the beginning of spring training or even right after Sox Fest. But at the same time, I wouldn't call them desperate times, but I would say urgent times call for more urgent measures.
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Chapter 4: How do recent trades impact the White Sox's future?
And I don't mind seeing Grant Taylor get this opportunity. Especially when a lot of people think, and I see our friend Josh Nelson here from Sox Machine who's joined us at Wings and Rings. But, you know, James Spiegel was on last night with Rami Makhlouf, and he thinks that Hagen Smith and Noah Schultz are going to be here this year. So if that's the case, get the band together.
Not back together, but just together. And go ahead and see what Grant Taylor can do in this position. And get them stretched out. You know, not to use a Cubs comp, but I'm sorry I have to do that sitting here on the south side, sitting off the 35th.
But I think that it's important to note that when we saw what happened with Cade Horton, when you do try to stretch him out, when you do try to keep him on a reasonable pitch count in order to become a starter, outside of a fluke injury with illness, it can really pay off for you come the end of the season or when you feel like that time has developed.
Cade Horton starting for the Cubs today against Cleveland. We'll see what he does for an encore after his excellent start against Washington. There are some, I had to dig a little bit, but there are some positives for the White Sox too. You guys want to hear a few positive things about that? I have some too. Go first. Okay. Let's see if you can raise me on this.
The Sox have eight home runs this year. That is fifth in the league, ladies and gentlemen. Hey, who's that above, Mark? I'm just curious. Is this a more commie? Marshall and I made a bet, and the street has already paid me my dollar that I need to give to him. I found it on the ground yet again. And that was four? I told her that the White Sox would out-Homer the Cubs this year. Okay.
And I'm sticking to it. Marshall, you're crazy. And then I was like, if I'm wrong, I'll find a dollar on the street again to pay you. And then yesterday I found a dollar on the ground. Okay. The White Sox need something. So I'm with Marshall on that. So eight home runs. They are fourth in stolen bases, if you would like. Mark Homme does have three home runs this year, which is very heartening.
Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery both hit grand slams this year. Colson Montgomery, by the way, you know I love a good stat cast check. I'm a baseball savant girl. And I was trying to find the team bat speed. Credit to the 108. They had a recent measurement of the team bat speed, and the White Sox were very high, and the Cubs were not, by the way, as a team.
But Colson Montgomery cracking the top 12 in average bat speed at 76.3 miles an hour. And he's in some really nice company. It's Jordan Walker for St. Louis, Junior Caminero with Tampa Bay. Giancarlo Stanton, maybe you've heard of him. O'Neal Cruz, a guy we've heard of. Cam Smith, by the way, is up there in Batspeed. And then some more familiar names.
Joey Weimer is also somewhere up here toward the middle. Weimer! And yeah, after I said we talked about him way too much this past opening series, at least there's some proof there. The Sox have reason to believe, and as I've mentioned, Everson Pereira is a part of that group. He's 27th in average bat speed, and I feel like that is currency that you can use right now in baseball.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of the Bears' stadium situation?
There's several other people you can choose. I refute the question. I'm taking Mune. I'm taking the guy with less RBI. Anybody who's not the team leader in RBI, With the way the question is worded, it should be eligible. And so, therefore, I'm taking Mune. It's just another dude to click. Like, there's eight other people. I don't know that I trust anybody else to click. Mune, he's my guy.
I accept your answer. Then you don't get a click. Oh, I get a click. Mune.
Chapter 6: How does Mark Burley's legacy impact the White Sox?
That is your pick to click. He is my pick to click. This is just like how we do non-Caleb Williams questions. What's the difference? Caleb Williams has done stuff. Well, like outside of Caleb Williams, who are you? He's the quarterback. Who do you think is the most important person on the Bears? He's the quarterback. Munataka Murakami. He doesn't even lead the team in RBI.
Munataka Murakami is the most important White Sox. I'm taking Marshall's side on this one because I thought it was a little bit. Why are you two? You two agreed to the question in our meeting and suddenly you guys are anticipating. Sometimes we save stuff for the air. Yep.
I got to say that it was unfair of Ray to knowing how much Marshall Harris loves Munataka Morikami, that he would leave him out of that. I thought that was directed right at Marshall, and I don't appreciate it. If Mune was out here leading the team in home runs and RBI and everything else, cool, but he's not. So therefore, well, watch Andrew Bennington be go off now. He could fight.
He's a lefty out of spite to our desecration of this game. And by the way, Mark Kami and Wednesday was over three with two strikeouts. I feel like he's due at this point.
Chapter 7: What are the expectations for the Cubs this season?
My pick to click, I am going to go with my guy, the guy who I said at the beginning of the season that I'm most excited to watch this season and see progress, is Colson Montgomery. He's already got the Grand Slam this year. So I am going with Mr. Montgomery with honorable mention to Munataka Morikami. You know what? I like both of your picks. I just like mine a little bit more. That's okay.
That's okay.
Number three.
This afternoon, the Cubs are on the road to take on the Guardians. Pre-game coverage begins at 235 with first pitch at 310 in crystal clear FM quality on 104.3 The Score and the Northwestern Medicine Cubs radio network. Here's question number three. How much does Cubs versus Guardians in Cleveland mean to you 10 years later?
So I thought about this from the aspect of how do the Guardians address this? Because this is their home opener. And you're facing the team who dealt you your greatest heartbreak in the last 10 years. It was also their game seven. It was also their rain delay. It was also their home game. And so I'm very interested to see how they address this, if at all,
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Chapter 8: Who are the standout draft prospects for the Bears?
It being 10 years since they won the American League. It's a somber moment, but it's also their home opener. So do you try to address it in a good way? Do you just take it as the home opener and it is what it is and it's a coincidence to you? Or do you honor the team that got to the World Series in a way that makes it make sense? So I want to know how that goes there.
This is a day where I would like to have the network known as Sports Time Ohio. R.I.P. Is the MLB, the extra innings, the free trials up? I don't know. It might be up. But if it's not up, you can always tune in that way. Well, T-Mobile also has it, too. So you just got to know somebody who's got T-Mobile. Okay, that works as well. I'll say this. Layla, they should just ignore it.
They should not in any way pay homage. You won the American League. No, there's no way they mention it. No way. If it's a 10-year anniversary of winning the pennant, that's one thing. To do it against a team that you lost the World Series to, that's a bad look. Not happening. It is weird how the schedule worked out that way. What do you think, Mark? What does it mean to me 10 years later?
I mean, you were there. I was there. Yes, I was lucky enough to be doing pre and post for the Cubs at that time. So it means a ton. The first thing, though, when I hear 10 years, it's like, oh, man, it's starting to get away from us a little bit. You know, it's been a decade since the Cubs won the World Series. And I know it took as long as it did for the Cubs to get back.
and win a World Series, so I guess that there's a little bit of earned patience at this point, but I don't want to, like, for people a lot younger than me and younger than us, I don't want them to have to have the decades go by. It was like with the White Sox when they won in 2005, then all of a sudden it's 20 years later, and you're like, oh, man, where has the time gone, and will they get back?
But, yeah, no, it means a ton. I love, like, I'm just going to, like... revel in this this year all the special things that the Cubs are probably going to do for the 10 year anniversary I can't wait and I'll share one memory from from game seven that I always love to to share when the rain delay hits of course I'm doing
pre and post game so it is my job to fill the time and do rain delay theater which i actually was i love doing because it was just fun to do that and to kind of do the tap dance but in this case it sucked because there had been a rajay davis home run joe madden had made mistakes in the game and i remember i believe it was joe oh that was producing the game back in our studios and he said he said um you could take phone calls if you want
But there's a lot of angry people that are on the phones right now. And luckily, that rain delay barely lasted. And we never did take phone calls during that postgame. How far away were you from taking phone calls? How long would the rain delay have had to go? I would say I probably would have gone maybe 20 minutes or so. And then I would have absolutely have opened up the phones.
But the phones that were waiting, and this is the irony of it, the Cubs win the World Series. Cubs fans were pissed off and understandably at that moment mostly because of Rajay Davis and then there had been some suspect decisions made by Joe Maddon as well. Oh yeah. The clean inning if you will. Yep. If you will. Number four.
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