Grady's Boys Don't Quit

welcome to the pin Wheels pregame show I am Mitchell Kaminsky since we've last talked A lot's happened Pedro graul fired some of the staff fired Grady seore the new intro manager white socks kind of laid out their qualifications what they're looking for and their next manager they also just pulled off uh one of the biggest upsets of the season this week for baseball standards so let's get into it QR code top of the screen there that's for homage you can scan that q r code it'll take you right to the site you can get yourself a shirt they support the show you should support them too they got everything you're looking for new episode of Hard Knocks came out last night get yourself a bear shirt season's coming up Caleb Williams look pretty good first preseason game uh or hey if you're still like me ride or die with the socks you can get yourself some socks merch too and let the people know about it all right let's get into it uh we were talking last week that it was only going to be it wasn't a matter of if Pedro Graal was going to get fired it was when sure enough right after we had that show white sock and house he is no longer the manager they kind of made a surprising decision though because a lot of people just assumed that it was going to be the uh bench coach um as far as uh montoo uh that would get promoted to to that role Charlie montoo did not get promoted to that role despite the fact he is a former manager up lead some blues Jays teams to the playoffs uh he got canned too as the bench coach so Grady seore promoted to the manager this is a good feel-good story here interestingly enough before we get into Grady I don't know if this is true or not but I did hear uh that one of the reasons that he um montoo that is didn't get that manager job is because he didn't want to do the media obligations he did not want to have to speak to the media every day that's kind of one of the things he have to do as a manager so didn't get the job he he almost more or less did not want the job um was what I had heard don't know if that's how true or not that is but I did find that interesting because he seemed like he would have been the leading candidate especially because one of the reasons they fired Pedro is for lack of development of certain players um that's kind of what they're looking for is just some growth and progress at this point in the season Pedro obviously was not getting that done they' showed clear regression since he took over that role so you would think they'd want someone with the experience there but um you know it's kind of his right-hand man on the bench I kind of like the move that Chris gets made cleaning house promoting gr seore now grd seore obviously uh I grew up watching him play Notorious White Sox kill although back in 2005 we do owe Grady because he helped kind of spark that run late in September dropped a routine Fly ball and that kind of the spark play White Sox playoff one run helped them clinch that division the rest is history but he gets that job after last year so eight years after he had come out of the MLB he decided he wanted to get into the coaching rank so last year he took a job is an intern and you've probably read it already he was getting paid $15 an hour to be a coaching intern with the arizota Diamond Backs he was a coach down at the Arizona fall or Arizona complex League um and Josh Barfield who was in the Diamondbacks organization at the time he was running their player development program he was the one that hired seis more Barfield got the job in Chicago he kind of put in the good word for him hey you know this seore guy I kind of liked him but what he was doing in Arizona White Sox hire him is the official designation major league coach now they have all these shakeups not many people on the coaching staff survive cat is another notable one we'll talk about in a sec but he gets promoted to the manager role I do like this decision because the rest of the season as we mentioned it's all going to be about Player Development and growth Pedro obviously could not he had a tough time reading the room and knowing what the right things is say like part of the re part of being a good leader is holding yourself accountable admitting when you make mistakes not just doubling down and adapting and learning on the fly it didn't seem like he really knew how to do that because you know this team needed accountability which is tough to do when manager rarely held himself accountable and it was kind of tough even down to The Bitter End it seemed like there was times like he just didn't know like what the right things to say like you couldn't couldn't read the room like when he was kissing Jerry's ass on the way out that something like what are you doing man like we all know you're gonna get fired soon this is just sad this is a sad look on the way out you fling to try and save your job and he just like and so like the players see that too all this going on so I can only imagine what was was like behind closed doors as he's trying to motivate this team so now you have someone this is someone that a lot of these guys especially these younger kids probably grew up watching Grady size more very decorated resume multiple time Gold Glove winner three- time All-Star it wasn't for injuries that those career numbers could have been a lot better but you look up his baseball reference page it's pretty impressive and that's with all all of those injuries so I kind of like where gats SW hey hey let's get another let's get a former player in there and help rally these guys early and early on the return quite frankly they've been pretty positive it looks like the players have responded um now he's only four games in very very small sample size but we saw his first game as the intro manager they fall down immediately 7-0 in a cross town game which would have been very easy to roll over the manager just got fired it just turned into wriggley South basically because they got all these Cubs fans in here piling it on yucking it up in the bleachers Here Comes Grady's boys they Rally from down seven they cut that deficit to 76 they actually have a chance to win that game in the ninth inning but then story of the white sock season they can't hit with Runners scoring position actually they can't really hit with Runners out of scoring position they can't really hit anytime anywhere so if that wasn't surprising they couldn't score him they him a Fighting Chance couple days later he picks up his first Victory as a manager beating the Yankees 12-2 this is a pretty massive upset uh just from the fact and I want to talk about Kai Bush's performance a little bit um as well but I saw stat uh from from that game that the white socks and I'm gonna make sure I get the right make sure we're say this is from br br betting but apparently the white socks uh in that game that was one of the largest upsets since 2017 the Yankees were the first team since 2017 to be minus 350 or longer favorites and lose by 10 or more runs to the 29 and 91 white socks that's a pretty good victory for the seis mois team um you know I think they they responded well actually in these four games despite being and three they do have a plus four run differential uh right now which you know I it's pretty good they haven't lost a game by more than three runs they've been in the fight um all four of his early games is manager which is encouraging to see now I don't want to overreact to that yet because White Sox did lay out what they want as their next manager and you kind of see this like the early signs and like hey you know what this White Sox team they're kind of fun to watch again they're showing some effort that we thought we're were going to get at the beginning of the Season you knew they weren't going to win many games but they've been in all of these games they've been competitive like when they were down against the Yankees the other night three nothing like usually like the old white socks yeah I'm probably turn that off this one I was still like okay let's see if they can hang in there like that you still felt like they were somewhat in the game now we also made this mistake because I don't want to get tooo far on the weeds of being like hey Brady should be the next manager just because he's gotten off to a good start that let's let's let's let's pump the breaks on that a little bit people like him because he's not Pedro Pedro was so bad that anyone you put in that position was going to look better and a lot of it and actually Chris beat me to the point I was going to make it's Miguel Cairo all over again people hated Tony anyone that was not Tony was going to be viewed as favorably so when Miguel Cairo first got that job back in 20 or after Tony left for his health reasons they started off really good and it was like Hey Miguel's got this team rallying around him they look good again you know a little bit of shot in the arm this guy should be the manager moving forward well they finished the season only two games I think they were 18 and 16 under his watch only two games over 500 it was really about a kind of leveled out it was about what it was with Tony as the manager but because he wasn't Tony and everyone hated Tony he was the guy that everyone was like hey yeah should be so I don't want to make that mistake again with Miguel or with gry sizeb it's a couple guys games sure it's a long season there's still over a month left we still got all of September to get through I got a tough schedule coming up so let's pump the breaks on that a little bit I like how I like what the white sock said now they've lost the benefit of the doubt because they aren't a very good I mean we we we crap on them every week it's obvious they're not like the most button- up organization they did not do the most thorough of Job searches when they hired Chris gets uh obviously the last time they hired a manager pedri Gul that turned out to be a disaster as well so spotty track record they've kind of lost the benefit of the doubt but I did like what Chris gets had to say when they were talking about what they were looking for in their next manager this was something I was concerned about with Pedro Gul that he had been so bad in the White Sox they had the last time they had hired a manager with no ties to the organization this what we're talking about they need fresh ideas people outside the box from winning cultures winning organizations we know how to implement that in Chicago with some experience that's what they needed in the past white sock's always like oh no no we got to get someone ties to the organization because that's what's comfortable that's what's safe last time before Pedro they had hired someone from outside the organization Charlie Manuel back in 1998 so I was wor Pedro done such a bad job Jerry be like oh see yeah this why I can't go out at the organization got to get got to get someone from inside the family so luckily Chris getat came out and said no we are looking for someone outside the organization wearing a current uniform right now managerial experience would be preferred not required so that was encouraging to see I'm glad they are taking that approach I do hope they do keep an open mind with Grady though just because and now I don't think they should immediately promote him just because it's been a good good first couple of games obviously but it's going to be tough for the white socks e even though you did get a jump on that job search I many people are knocking down the doors to come take this white sock job it's not a very desirable job for established managers like Terry Fran cona there were some Rumblings oh White sock's gonna get him to come out of retirement after his health issues no he's not coming out of he's not he's not gonna man absolutely not and I think there's a lot of guys that like the the good established managers they're not going to be wanting to take this like you're going to take a team that's ready to win this team's like far from it so it's that that's kind of kind of whittel down your list of candidates I think it's probably GNA be someone that had that if I had a bet I would probably bet it's someone that's a first-time manager that's been on the staff of uh a team that's been winning or that's in a winning team in the past they probably gonna give them the first opportunity so that'll be interesting to see but I don't want to fall into the Miguel Cairo trap again I I think let's let's be cautiously optimistic with Grady let's not overreact too early on just because he's not Pedro doesn't mean he's good now I will say though like I I do think um I do think he's connecting to these guys early I do think he's giving them a bit of a shot in the arm I'm very intrigued to see how they how they play the rest of the season because there no secret I'm not really looking at the win loss record it's more play of development how do these guys play are they playing hard each each day and are some of the young guys that might be a a core piece moving forward showing Improvement in progress like Brooks Baldwin's been a guy yeah the numbers don't jump off the page he's only hitting like 211 but he's been a guy that looks like he's been showing some improvement he's been steady in the field he's come up with some big hits at times that's been encouraging to see let's see some more let's see some more of that the rest um the rest of the way so uh yeah and you know for Grady too he's got to be managing every game and I think he even came out and said this he's got to be managing every game like World Series because he's trying to he's trying to turn some heads and get a job that's very rare the fact that I mean it is kind of crazy he it is a feel-good story for sure which is why I'm rooting for the guy to be an intern getting paid $15 an hour and then one year later be managing a major league baseball team I mean that's that's pretty impressive so we'll see we got Chris Roco in the chat Brandon Hyde with Baltimore supposed to be the guy for a rebuild I can see it I actually heard um they got the former um former Cardinal's manager too they were interested in there's a list of potential candidates that were like floated around see if I pull pull that up but I I'm going to give it's interesting because Chris gets is the general manager I wanted to keep an open mind and give him the benefit of the dep and I think he did really well with the Dylan CE trade is kind of his first big test this trade deadline not crazy about but I mean the jury's still out we got to see how these guys perform the prospects they got back but on paper looked like we kind of kind of underperformed there so this manager hire is going to be a big it's going to be very telling as far as next steps is judging him as the GM but with the new GM you always do kind of want to pick your guy I think they gave Pedro a fair Shake he gave him he gave him a chance like they gave him El opportunity to keep that job quite frankly like if you were that bad in your job like you probably wouldn't stalk around as long as Pedro did so I thought they were more than fair to the guy let him stick around as long as they did even after that see they even gave him a chance with the secret meeting with Jerry and gave him a couple more games so but this is gonna be this is gonna be very telling um for for Chris now he's going to finally get his guy in there that they want and you know well we'll see it's going to be it should be very telling now let's take a look at something that also came out this week white the MLB pipeline they came out with their updated Prospect rankings and let's be honest the white stocks kind of have to it sucks we already were duped by the first rebuild being invested and everyone bought in not many people buying in this time I don't blame them it's hard to get as excited about a lot of these guys uh but it is kind of interesting looking at where this team was a year ago to where they are now so I'm going to pull up this is where they were top 15 prospects from last year 2023 uh well around this time last year so we got Coulson Montgomery number one Oscar Kos who you haven't heard much from him nearly at all Brian Ramos we saw him a little bit this year um Jose papey old Jose Rodriguez at six he's no longer in the organization Mana he got traded he to the Diamond Backs uh Vera is out of the organization Matthew Thompson who was dra by the Cubs yeah white socks picked him up and then he's now back on the Cubs so interesting Journey for him but a lot of guys no longer with the team or they just haven't heard much from so let's go this is what the the updated ones are of top 15 I will go through the top 30 of these Noah Schultz Number One You're Gonna notice common theme a lot of these guys pitchers in that top 15 Montgomery he slid down to two he's struggling a little bit in triaa I would not be opposed with him finishing out the season Triple A I do want to get a lot of these guys some time in the big leagues but I I I I think for Coulson I don't think it' be the worst thing if he finished the season um up in Triple A you know just get him as many reps as he can he had a couple injury issues last year Hagen Smith White Sox recent draft pick he's up at number three Edgar Carrol and he's a guy I would I would not mind seeing a call up later later in the year he's been tearing the cover off the ball in Triple A he's looked really good um Cory Lee had the home run the other night but we kind of talked about this last week offense hasn't been near really where it needs to be and for a team that's struggling to score runs and even that Yankees game last night like they had runners in scoring position in that ninth inning they had a chance to tie that game just couldn't there there's not enough impact bats in that lineup so he might be a nice spark I would not mind seeing him called up he shown that he looks like he's ready he was raking in double A carrying that over to Triple A AR Arte uh we got him from the Padres he's all the way up at number four uh wco uh young kid dra from out of high school didn't even play college ball big power hitter I mean we saw some good things from him from strength training Brooks Baldwin he's up in the majors doing his thing Kai Bush Highwire act the other night his first two starts it's been very interesting with Kai bus at number 10 left-hander um we picked him up last this is a rickan rickan pick up Mr Kai Bush got him from the angels and that Geo trade I've actually you know those first two starts I've been pretty impressed because he clearly did not have his good stuff I think the first start he was very nervous he walked a lot of guys his next start against the Yankees much better team he had seven walks seven walks and he was able to navigate around all those walks and four and two3 I mean he only gave up two runs and that's pretty impressive like that young against that good of a lineup being able to keep your composure and limit the damage like he did I thought was very impressive now he can't live like that all the time he's got to start throwing more strikes he only threw 27 strikes in that second start so that's not going to fly um and usually you make that many mistakes especially to a team that's got aan SoDo and Aaron judge in the lineup you know you're not getting away with that too much moving forward but the fact that he's only in his second Major League start in a hitter friendly Ballpark and he limited the damage like that and he counted his composure on the mound that was a very promising sign I don't think his stuff is blowing anyone away but his stuff plays in the big leagues for for sure just start hitting that Strike Zone he starts pounding that Strike Zone uh I think they might have something there so I I I really I like what I've seen from from Kai Bush early on now this is the interesting one to me too you go down to 13 or Jacob Gonzalez I should say he's a he's a 12 shortstop second baseman picked him up in the draft last year first round pick Brian Ramos 13th and this just shows how much progress we've made look where he was last year he was third now all the way down to 13 so farm system getting a little bit deeper uh back half half of the top 30 here um the big one that's you samala guy we got um in that trade for Dylan c big interesting one for me here Jake erer down at 23 that's one it's now we've kind of gotten a year from the Jake Berger trade and burer got off the slow start in Miami Miami obviously sold a lot of the pieces but has 22 home runs this year he's been he's been hitting a lot of home runs and white socks the guys that can hit hom now with now Eloy he would have been a nice DH having the farm system because they rolled the dice on eer who is once considered a top pitching Prospect in baseball injuries have really kind of hurt him he just hasn't really found his footing yet with the white socks uh there in Triple A so that's kind of that's a little concerning to see I I hope it works out for him but man it was a frowned upon trade at the time now it's you know it's also not looking not looking great now speaking of Trades white socks it's still pretty early from that trade headline but our own Craig Rollins Sports moer sportsmockery.com if you are still following the White Soxs do got a lot of good stuff on there with me Craig and shy Sox fan Mike there's been some good good articles make sure you check that out a Craig had one today I encourage you to read it but I did think it was interesting I kind of want to do a little brief overview just kind of checking in on what some of the players the white socks traded for at the deadline have been doing since they've come here we'll start with Miguel Vargas Miguel Vargas he been the biggest one uh he was kind of the um Crown Jewel I guess lack of a better word the most Pro he was the most valuable piece they brought in from all these traits he was part of that three- team deal he came from the Dodgers um he was known for his plate discipline you might have seen him in that uh funny video that was circulating around social media where he was sitting in the Dugout after loss in Oakland looking extremely depressed thinking what has happened in my life I was just on the Dodgers we were gonna win the World Series it was fun and now I'm in this baseball hellscape even his former teammate Tyler glass now came out with like yeah man like I feel bad for him like winning winning C everything when you're in a losing team like that it sucks because it kind of just trans like winning covers a lot of problems he hasn't hit been hitting all that well with the socks but he has walked seven times and his first 46 plate appearances which doesn't sound crazy but for white sock standards that's pretty good that was one of the things that was on his resume in the Dodgers organization he showed good plate discipline he he he's able to draw some walks that's translated over here so while the offensive numbers haven't been great I have been encouraged by that I'm hoping the bat's gonna come around he did hit a home run uh in in Minnesota uh one of the things that Pedro did that I didn't really like he was playing him in the Outfield he can play in the Outfield he can really play all over but he's more of an infielder you got to put that I put him in the infield where he's a little bit more comfortable uh Grady's been doing that so far hopefully they keep him doing that when you're in a position where you're comfortable usually the off it helps with the offense we saw it with Yan Mona second base kind of uncomfortable there moved to his more natural position he uh I mean for one season I should say uh popped off but the offensive numbers definitely spiked up so uh Vargas you know that's it hasn't been great but it hasn't been terrible some of these other guys though that really stood out uh Gerald Gerald rosard Rosado Butch uh he's come he came over Paul D Young trade he was just only a little bit he was kind of like you know that was kind of a throwaway deal Paul the young rental player so you're not expecting to get much uh Rosado though he was a reliever in the Royal system he had some pretty good stuff um and he's been showing that reliever Stu so far he has six strikeouts and two or three and twoth thirds Innings um he's he's looked pretty he's looked pretty good so far in high he did have one rough outing but uh since coming to the white sock organization he's been he's been pretty good um so far too Trey maau uh he get we got him from the Baltimore Orioles in that Eloy am Menace trade uh he's been pretty solid too um the other night Triple A Charlotte through two scoreless innings didn't give up a hit one walk one strikeout um he's pitched six Innings so far in Triple A he's only given up one hit in those six Innings struck out six batters during that time frame um and you know he's he's been pretty he's been he's looked pretty good so um he might he might get you might see him in September at some point late late late call up so that that's been he's been good to watch uh other one that you might not he's kind of flown under the radar we got him in the trade with the Phillies with Tanner Banks kind of that late trade deadline um deal William berola uh and he's been very I mean he's been really good too since that trade with the white socks he's hitting 367 with a 474 OBP in 10 games he's got five RBI he's stolen seven bases already um and he's got the same amount of walks as he does strikeouts um you know pretty small sample size but it's been encouraging to see what he's been able to do especially for a guy uh like like Tanner Banks you know we'll see if any of these guys amount to anything um Vargas is gonna be the one to really pay attention to going on but you know some of these throwaway pieces they they've look good early on in the minors so that's encouraging we'll be back with you that's all we have for you this week we'll be back uh next week same time at noon um white socks got they got one more against the Yankees tonight and then I believe they had on the road for the first road road game of um Mr SE Moore's career as manager uh they're gonna head to Houston and then San Francisco so that's a tough road trip I sure there will be plenty to discuss once we get back there uh you know couple guys to keep keep watching Kai Bush's next start very intrigued by him uh Jonathan Cannon you know bit of a rough outing last night but he's been encouraging too um and then Dorp I think he I think he I believe he got a little dinged up his last start but be interesting to see how he finishes out the season to so looking for development from some of these guys but baseball's been a little bit more fun to watch early on not gonna fall into the Miguel Cairo trap like we did last year cautiously optimistic at least the baseball is watchable again oh one more thing I do want to talk about you know what before we get to that I do want to kind of talk about some of the nonsense that happened in the cross town series off the field I can't believe we skipped over all of this it was really funny because I saw Paul canero had the promo to try and get people hyped up for this cross town series and he was talking about how like you never forget your like first cross town series moment whether you're a player or a fan like it's gonna it's all about like first like someone's gonna experience their first Tri cross toown moment this time around and I thought this weekend was the perfect snapshot of like what chaos those cross town games are because it's always a show as a fan I used to love those rivalries and now it's like not even worth going because it's a zoo at these games I remember my first Cross Town game I was in second grade we're in the upper deck 500 level and we had a pair of state troopers behind us um they were off duty state troopers at the time but they were hammered they had a great tailgate and I got a beer spilled all over me by one of them uh in the fifth inning Carlos ambran was pitching that game he threw a temper t tantrum after giving up uh a bunch of runs in the first inning and he was yelling at drik Lee and he got pulled after that Jake PE was pitching that was my first so I remember all that and then I got a beer spilled on me too but in the stands this weekend we had a massive Brawl on The Concourse which like don't know why no security stepped in but it's just in the middle of the Outfield Concourse people are swinging uh but then we had a guy that tried to bring in a Jerry sell the team banner and they got security all over him like stink on a monkey trying to rip the banner away from him and props to this guy he wouldn't give him the banner he flew that thing he held on to that thing ball high and tight good running back ball security guys's trying to get it from him soon as the last the game's over the guy like security gave up guy had the banner still he was taking photos with guys on the ramp all the way down that was hilarious and then we got two other idiots who jump on the field and the one guy is he's trying to get security hurts his foot so they to bring out the medical cart for him so they could get him off the field because he couldn't walk anymore I thought that was a perfect encapsulation of what goes on at these cross town games Paul Eric was right you don't forget your first cross town memory because stuff like this usually happens on the off the field which is more entertaining than usually the product on the field at least in the White Sox side because it's always a show when you get a bunch of drug Chicago ons together and these fake rivalries I just thought that was hysterical especially on the foxcast they waiting for the delay they got to get the stupid medical card out because two idiots decided to rush the field um hey more power to him that's that's that right there it's what the cross town rivalry is all about spilling beers on people in the bleachers and fighting typical Chicago baseball Behavior that's all we have for you thank you so much for listening we'll be back pin Wheels pregame show same time noon next Wednesday tonight at 8 believe regular pin wheels and Ivy will be running you can listen to Aldo fids they'll talk about the Cubs what's going on there do they think they have a shot of making the playoffs they gave people some hope Bullpen still sucks we'll see thank you for listening have a wonderful rest of your week