After months of anticipation (I booked my hotel package in September), SoxFest 2019 has come and gone in the blink of an eye.
A few thoughts and opinions from the three-day event at the Chicago Hilton.
1. 5 Hall-of-Fame members on one stage: Easily the coolest moment of the weekend for me came Friday night when the White Sox had a seminar featuring five Hall-of-Famers and a Cy Young award winner on the same stage.
I wish I could have gotten a little closer for a better picture, but you can see
Harold Baines,
Jim Thome, moderator
Steve Stone,
Frank Thomas,
Tim Raines and
Carlton Fisk in the picture above.
I wonder how many organizations in baseball could put together a star-studded panel such as this for their fans. That's more of a rhetorical question than anything. ... I'm sure there are a few other teams that could, but credit the Sox for getting all these guys in the same room.
It had been a couple years since I had seen Thome at SoxFest, even though he works for the organization. A recorded message was shown last year at SoxFest, with Thome thanking Chicago fans for their support on the occasion of his election to the Hall. It was good to see the man in person this time.
2. The Machado pursuit is real: Not surprisingly, GM Rick Hahn fielded a lot of questions about the team's pursuit of superstar free agent
Manny Machado. Hahn can't speak specifically about negotiations, of course, but in a rare moment of candor, he said he would be personally disappointed if the Sox fail to bring Machado into the fold.
I remain skeptical, and I'll award Hahn no points unless he gets Machado to sign on the dotted line. Trying isn't enough, but it's quite clear that the Sox are really trying. Hahn went out of his way to detail the organization's top-to-bottom effort to get Machado on the South Side of Chicago. Everyone is involved from the front office to players to community relations staff.
At a seminar Sunday, players were asked whether they were involved in the Machado recruitment.
Michael Kopech answered first and said he was not. But right after that,
Yoan Moncada raised his microphone to his mouth and immediately began speaking rapid-fire Spanish. Through an interpreter, the second baseman noted that he and teammate
Yonder Alonso had face-timed Machado right before the start of SoxFest opening ceremonies Friday, and they basically told him that he needs to get up here and join the Sox.
The saga continues.
3. Fifth starter? The Sox don't have one: Are you ready for
Manny Banuelos to be a member of the 2019 starting rotation? I asked Hahn about it Friday night. I said the Sox have four starters:
Carlos Rodon,
Reynaldo Lopez,
Lucas Giolito and
Ivan Nova. I don't see a fifth. Who might it be?
Hahn did not rule out an acquisition from outside the organization. Thank goodness, because I think they need one. He said right now the competition for the job would be between Banuelos and
Dylan Covey, who failed in the role last season.
It was quite clear from Hahn's answer that Banuelos, who was a top-30 prospect seven years ago before injuries curtailed his career, has the inside track. Apparently, some scout "pounded the table" and told Hahn that Banuelos could help the Sox win right now, so they acquired him in a swap of minor-leaguers with the Los Angeles Dodgers three months ago.
Personally, I think it will take a lot more than Banuelos to cover the 204.2 innings that
James Shields pitched as a member of the Sox's rotation last season.
4. Moncada's struggles: On Saturday, I asked manager
Rick Renteria about Moncada.
The "Jason from Wheeling" in the first sentence of this Chicago Tribune story? Yep, that was me.
I want Moncada to continue taking his walks. I don't want him to swing wildly at bad pitches, but he needs to be more aggressive. He needs to put the ball in play more often. He makes hard contact, so there's every reason to believe his production will go up if his strikeouts come down.
Renteria told me that Moncada was working with him and hitting coach
Todd Steverson in Arizona a few weeks after the season ended. They are making a physical adjustment in the way Moncada grips the bat. Previously, his grip apparently limited his plate coverage, making it difficult for him to get to pitches on the outer half as both a left-handed and right-handed hitter. Renteria also wants Moncada to accept the idea that a productive out every now and then isn't the worst thing. They've been going over situations to try to improve his mental approach to hitting.
I also asked whether Moncada might be moved down in the lineup, with the arrival of veteran outfielder
Jon Jay. It sounds as though the answer to that is no, because Moncada wants to bat leadoff and told Renteria so. But, the manager did acknowledge that Jay's presence on the roster gives him another option for the top spot in the batting order.
5. Don't worry about Madrigal: There's a Baseball America article out that made note of
Nick Madrigal's struggles in hitting the ball to the pull side of the field during his professional debut last season.
I wasn't real concerned about it, given the small sample size, and when Madrigal was asked about it, he didn't express concern either. But since it's being talked about, I decided to ask player development director
Chris Getz and amateur scouting director Nick Hostetler about it during a Sunday seminar.
Hostetler noted that Madrigal suffered a broken wrist during his season at Oregon State last year, and that he had seen the 2018 top draft pick the day before the injury. And, Madrigal had turned on a fastball and cranked it over the left-field bullpen. So, maybe that wrist wasn't 100 percent at the end of 2018, and maybe that was sapping him of pull-side power.
Getz made note of Madrigal's consistent approach and elite bat-to-ball skills, and it's expected that he'll make adjustments to the inside pitch as we go along.
