AND THAT’S A WHITE SOX WINNER

[Rowand44]

That was fun!

 

I really hope everyone just enjoys this season even when this team has their low moments. The highs are going to be super fun like today.

 

Great start!

[BlackSox13]

Yep, bound to be plenty of highs and lows but I do expect to see the youth improve as they gain more experience. This team will be fun to watch regardless.

 

Nice rebound from Shields after the first inning. Gutsy performance.

 

Really hope Davidson makes me eat my words as the season progresses.

[Lip Man 1]

Pitching was shaky, James Shields is done but the offense looked terrific.

 

I said last year that I thought Matt Davidson may be a keeper and could help when this team is good again in 2020. Great start by him obviously.

 

Let's hope this season turns out better than the last one where the Sox scored in double figures on opening day!

 

April 1, 2011 – The White Sox started the season with a torrent of runs in blistering the Indians 15-10. It was the second highest total of runs scored on opening day in franchise history. The Sox led 14-0 after the first five innings. Carlos Quentin drove in five runs and newcomer Adam Dunn knocked in four.

[OmarComing25]

Jeff Sullivan

@based_ball

last year, over 118 games, Matt Davidson never hit a ball harder than 113 miles per hour. he reached 114, 114, and 115 today

[heirdog]

Anyone else concerned that each of Matt Davidson’s subsequent HRs had less distance, launch angle and exit velocity? He was coming back down to Earth with each shot and I think it’s fair to assume he won’t keep up this pace as he clearly was getting tired as the game wore on. ????

[daggins]

Anyone else concerned that each of Matt Davidson’s subsequent HRs had less distance, launch angle and exit velocity? He was coming back down to Earth with each shot and I think it’s fair to assume he won’t keep up this pace as he clearly was getting tired as the game wore on. ????

 

Yes, by game 82 he won't be able to hit it out of the infield. By game 160 he will expire on-field from exhaustion.

[jphat007]

Fun!

[Reddy]

So, uh, definitely a bit more stoked now.

[bmags]

Yes, by game 82 he won't be able to hit it out of the infield. By game 160 he will expire on-field from exhaustion.

 

Game 162 he will be an actual baby struggling to make its way out of the uniform.

[Wanne]

April 1, 2011 – The White Sox started the season with a torrent of runs in blistering the Indians 15-10. It was the second highest total of runs scored on opening day in franchise history. The Sox led 14-0 after the first five innings. Carlos Quentin drove in five runs and newcomer Adam Dunn knocked in four.

 

lol...I was just talking about that game with my Dad...thinking we'd be unstoppable.

 

As for Davidson...nice to see and I really don't think this is an abomination or anything. This is really the first year that he can just relax and hit and not look over his shoulder anymore...or whether he's going to get sent down. Good for him. He'll have his tough days...but honestly I'll be disappointed if he doesn't slam 35 at least. He just looks so much more comfortable at the plate.

[Balta1701]

lol...I was just talking about that game with my Dad...thinking we'd be unstoppable.

 

As for Davidson...nice to see and I really don't think this is an abomination or anything. This is really the first year that he can just relax and hit and not look over his shoulder anymore...or whether he's going to get sent down. Good for him. He'll have his tough days...but honestly I'll be disappointed if he doesn't slam 35 at least. He just looks so much more comfortable at the plate.

I want to see him take walks more than hit dingers. The dingers will come, I want to see him back to having a normal amount of patience at the plate. He does that and we're talking a solid hitter.

[daggins]

Davidson was red hot to start last year and then cratered, so i'm tempering my expectations. All I want to see from him is less K's. Say by the end of April, his K rate is at or below 30% - then you can start to get excited.

[beautox]

Jeff Sullivan

@based_ball

last year, over 118 games, Matt Davidson never hit a ball harder than 113 miles per hour. he reached 114, 114, and 115 today

 

[CWSpalehoseCWS]

Probably the most fun opening day game in a while. Great to see the offense explode with Anderson and Davidson getting it done. Also, really impressed by Engle. He had some good AB's. This team definitely has a different attitude than years past. Two years ago, this team would have rolled over and died after the 1st inning Shields meltdown.

[chitownsportsfan]

Probably the most fun opening day game in a while. Great to see the offense explode with Anderson and Davidson getting it done. Also, really impressed by Engle. He had some good AB's. This team definitely has a different attitude than years past. Two years ago, this team would have rolled over and died after the 1st inning Shields meltdown.

 

I agree that it starts with attitude but thankfully this team also has the talent (at least offensively) to make it matter. I'm highly encouraged by the mechanical changes that Davidson and Engel have made and I'm encouraged that TA took a walk today. Obviously it's great to see Avi and Jose and Delmonico and Sanchez pickup where they left off last year. Feels like the Sox have only 1-2 or two holes in the lineup on any given night and that's a change. Some nights, if Davidson and Engel are producing like this, maybe they won't have any easy outs. Makes it tough on a pitcher.

 

Can the Sox score 800 runs this year? They are off to a promising start. Of course they might give up 800 as well. Was not impressed one bit by Shields. His stuff was flat (that's putting it nicely) and I don't believe he hit over 90 mph on his fastball. He had little command on his off speed offerings and entirely too many of them floated right over the heart of the plate.

 

 

[flavum]

A couple more games tonight, but out of the 22 starting pitchers today, James Shields and Chase Anderson threw the most pitches with 97.

 

Four starting pitchers (so far) got Wins- Shields, Syndergaard, Severino, and Verlander

[RockRaines]

Anyone else concerned that each of Matt Davidson?€™s subsequent HRs had less distance, launch angle and exit velocity? He was coming back down to Earth with each shot and I think it?€™s fair to assume he won?€™t keep up this pace as he clearly was getting tired as the game wore on. ????

He saw the ball and smoked it every time. Thats a huge step for him. It was extremely positive IMO. He's a pretty perfect DH that can also sub in the field. If he cuts down the walks his power will offset the K's. Heres to hoping the light came on

Edited March 30, 2018 by RockRaines

[chitownsportsfan]

He saw the ball and smoked it every time. Thats a huge step for him. It was extremely positive IMO. He's a pretty perfect DH that can also sub in the field. If he cuts down the walks his power will offset the K's. Heres to hoping the light came on

 

I mean if the dude wants to go ahead and hit 260/310/530 more power to him. I'm in complete wait and see mode but those were some very pretty swings this afternoon and seeing the walk was just as nice. I've been a doubter because he really only has one tool that plays and that's power. He has to massively improve his overall offensive impact to be a roster-able player and that includes making the very rare jump in strike zone command. He can't have a f***ign .260 OBP and be a MLB player.

 

So far so good.

[hi8is]

I had to leave home after the 2nd inning... three hours later I was able to come back and resume the game. Call me shocked. ????

[chitownsportsfan]

I'm rewatching the game and I know some will hate this but man Jason is bad at actually calling the game. On that first Davidson HR, Jason had absolutely zero idea it was crushed. He was a good 2-3 seconds behind the camera. Now, 80+ year old Hawk isn't calling that off the bat, but 60 year old Hawk certainly is -- and more broadly -- so are most play by play guys. That ball was f***ing smoked. If you are at the game that's a no doubter -- call it as such, get the excitement.

 

anyways, I hope he learns more about baseball as he gets more experience. I will say on a positive note he wasn't in constant "ask stone a question with an obvious answer" mode.

[chitownsportsfan]

What great prose from Fegan tonight:

 

Matt Davidson said he doesn't know much about Tuffy Rhodes. The Southern California native had just turned three years old when Rhodes went deep three times on Opening Day in 1994 in Wrigley Field, but after Thursday, Davidson pledged to look him up.

 

The frozen rope Davidson hung around the left field foul pole at Kauffman Stadium off a fat slider from Matt Flynn — the seventh of nine Royals pitchers led out to slaughter in a 14-7 Opening Day laugher — put Davidson in company with Rhodes and Dmitri Young as the only major league hitters to launch three homers in a season opener. But Davidson's phone is probably blowing up too much to perform a Baseball Reference search.

 

“That’s always a good thing,” said Davidson, who couldn't even categorize where all the calls were coming from. “Everybody, really. Everybody who has helped me out through all my career, all my family. There have been a lot of people who got me to this spot.”

 

One of those people who was unwillingly part of his journey was Royals starter Danny Duffy, who shrugged off some spring shoulder pain only to see his fastball lag in the fourth, and then get sent into the left field fountain for Davidson's first blast of the game, which was a back-to-back shot following José Abreu. And another would be Adam LaRoche's old reconnaissance buddy Blaine Boyer, who might repeat his claim that the Sox are “biblically evil” after Davidson and Tim Anderson both launched their second homers of the day off him in the fifth.

 

“I was happy for him, I didn’t try to catch him,” said Anderson, who had his first multi-home run day since college while also drawing a walk and scoring from first on a single. “It would have been nice to but he had a good day at the plate.

 

“Ricky’s boys don’t quit. We just go out and have fun and we put together some good ABs and helped [James] Shields out and got back in the ballgame.”

 

Shields and Anderson looked like they would combine to be the story of the day in the first inning, when a hot Whit Merrifield smash glanced off and under Anderson's glove, turning a possible double-play ball into a four-run inning capped by Lucas Duda's three-run homer. But by 6 p.m. local time, the crowd that was roaring and taunting the White Sox's failures was packed onto I-70 as six Chicago home runs and six strikeout-free but functional innings from Shields quieted any first-inning complaints there might be for Renteria & Co.

 

Much more at the link. Get. The. Subscription.

[RockRaines]

I had to leave home after the 2nd inning... three hours later I was able to come back and resume the game. Call me shocked. ????

Same. I went into a meeting at 3:30 and came out at 5:30 and wow.

[greg775]

Davidson was red hot to start last year and then cratered, so i'm tempering my expectations. All I want to see from him is less K's. Say by the end of April, his K rate is at or below 30% - then you can start to get excited.

Not to be a dick who pats myself on the back but do you all give me credit for my Davidson love? As you know I praised him all last year and got blasted for doing so.

[RockRaines]

Not to be a dick who pats myself on the back but do you all give me credit for my Davidson love? As you know I praised him all last year and got blasted for doing so.

Good job Greg. I hope you are right for the duration of the season

[Dam8610]

Not to be a dick who pats myself on the back but do you all give me credit for my Davidson love? As you know I praised him all last year and got blasted for doing so.

 

One game, Greg. Like someone else said, let's see a sustained improvement in walk rate and K rate before we get too excited. It was certainly nice to see the power display, today, though.