Chicago White Sox Surprising Turnaround This Season
Despite injuries, the Chicago White Sox, led by Will Venables, have surpassed expectations and remained enthralling. Can they make a deep postseason run?
Video Transcript
Wait, let's go over to the other city, or the other s- team in that city, the Southsiders.
Chicago White Sox, I mean, boy, this has to be one of the biggest stories of all time here when it comes to what they were expected to do.
This was a team that could've lost in what many people thought was gonna be 100 games.
Will Venables, the manager of that team, it's either him or Kevin, Kevin Cash, I would think, the manager of the Rays, as your manager of the year in the American League.
But what a job the White Sox have done.
Truly my, my favorite team to watch all season long.
I'm not even a traditional White Sox fan, I'm a Cardinals guy, but the most entertaining team when I turn on the TV has been the White Sox because of how much, you know, just the young players that they have morphing into really legitimate stars in front of our eyes.
Obviously, the South Side Samurai, Munetaka Murakami, has been fantastic.
But they've dealt with injuries with him, and they still kept on winning.
Kyle Teal was a really valuable player coming into the year.
He's been missing a lot of time as well.
It hasn't mattered.
Shane Smith, who was kind of seen as potentially the ace of the rotation just two years ago, has been in triple-A all season long.
It still hasn't mattered because the pipeline of triple-A players that have funneled into this MLB roster are all morphing into something really special.
Hagen Smith out of the pen this week, or this past month rather, has been absolutely electric.
Ultimately, this team is legit right now.
They are in that World Series window, especially when you're talking about how the AL this year is performing at the top.
I genuinely think the White Sox have a chance to go to the World Series this season.
Tell me about the Rays here, Rob.
I mean, it looks like now they're stretching out their wings now, and it looks like the Yankees aren't gonna be able to catch them.
Judge has been out of the lineup for a while.
Eric Neander, the general manager, I never thought would've put a team together, especially with the fact that they were going after a new ballpark.
They ended up getting that.
That was great news, keeping Rays baseball in the Tampa Bay area.
But can this team make any noise with a down American League this year?
Could you see them in the ALCS?
Oh, yeah.
100%.
I, I think them and the White Sox and the Red Sox are kind of in a tier on their own in my eyes as it stands today.
And the biggest reason why, obviously, with the Rays is just how dominant their pitching has been.
You know, a- a- and they've gotten the most out of even a guy like an Ian Seymour, who, yeah, he gets touched up quite a bit.
He has an ER- ERA north of four, but he's got some dominant strikeout stuff that if you get into the postseason and you kind of utilize, you know, those short inning spurts, he could be a really special lefty to utilize in those spots.
And obviously, Drew Rasmussen's been fantastic.
Shane McClanahan's been great.
And Freddy Peralta, if he's your four going into the postseason, hey, y- you're gonna take that all day long.
The question becomes for the Rays is can they score enough when they are potentially going up against a firepower heavy offense?
I, I don't necessarily know, but Junior Caminero is kind of like the PCA of this team.
When you have that type of player in your bag, anything is possible.
Do you agree with Junior Caminero that, you know, the World Baseball Classic, maybe that was the first time America got a chance to see that kid and how young he is and how great that kid is.
Has he become one of the big time power hitters in the American League, in your opinion?
I mean, you know, he- they're just putting that team on his back.
They got a bunch of guys in the top end of that lineup that are getting on base, and he's just I didn't think he was gonna have any protection, Rob, in that lineup, but he's got protection.
He's knocking the ball out of the ballpark, and he's creating a lot of souvenirs for fans this year.
Yeah.
A- and honestly, you kind of nailed it with the protection element because last year, Junior Caminero, when he was making contact with the baseball, was roping line drives, and it did really kind of feel like the power potential of Junior Caminero kind of, you know, moving on in his career was gonna be something that was gonna be awfully present.
And Jonathan Randa- Jonathan Aranda stepping up as of late ha- or this season rather, has been awesome for that lineup.
Also, the addition of Liam Hicks has been really, really fantastic because, you know, if you want to bring in a righty to face Junior Caminero in the sixth or seventh inning, well, right after that, you got Liam Hicks who's hitting the cover off of righties.
And so ultimately, you've got the counterpunch built into your lineup in those premium spots.
It's the bottom half of the lineup that sometimes struggles to turn the lineup over to the top half.
But Junior Caminero, man, I Truly one of the special bats in baseball.
I would say at this point in time, he's a top three Major League Baseball player when you're talking about the offensive side.
