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That's an Opening Day Winner ‼️


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Pitching has a way of making everything else look better and feel easier. They were the worst team of all time last year because of their bullpen.

Burke is going to live and die by the fastball command. It's his big question mark for me. He found it about midway through the third and pretty much cruised from there. 

A better team might have punished him early, as the angels are bad, but that made the outcome that much better. Good situation for him and he took advantage. 

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  On 3/28/2025 at 12:09 PM, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Pitching has a way of making everything else look better and feel easier. They were the worst team of all time last year because of their bullpen.

Burke is going to live and die by the fastball command. It's his big question mark for me. He found it about midway through the third and pretty much cruised from there. 

A better team might have punished him early, as the angels are bad, but that made the outcome that much better. Good situation for him and he took advantage. 

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I think he said in his post game the wind was effecting his fastball. 

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Venable looks pretty smart having Burke be the opening day starter.  I think it was an even riskier move than with Crochet last year.  But it paid off.  Sure, the Angels are not a great team, but Burke looked good, confident, and fairly sharp.

The bullpen looked decent.  Murfee may be a great signing, and Booser could be a trade candidate at the deadline.

The offense was surprising.  Benintendi's hand looks healthy, Slater made a good first impression, Vargas continued his hot start, and Sosa looked great.

I know it's only the first game against a meh team, but after last season, we'll take every damn good thing we can get.

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  On 3/28/2025 at 1:32 PM, hogan873 said:

Venable looks pretty smart having Burke be the opening day starter.  I think it was an even riskier move than with Crochet last year.  But it paid off.  Sure, the Angels are not a great team, but Burke looked good, confident, and fairly sharp.

The bullpen looked decent.  Murfee may be a great signing, and Booser could be a trade candidate at the deadline.

The offense was surprising.  Benintendi's hand looks healthy, Slater made a good first impression, Vargas continued his hot start, and Sosa looked great.

I know it's only the first game against a meh team, but after last season, we'll take every damn good thing we can get.

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I’ll keep saying it, but I think people are sleeping on this offense a bit.  It will be one of the worst in the league, no doubt, but I expect it to be substantially better than the s%*#-show we put out there last year.

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Don't want to overemphasize this because it was one win and the Angels are a terrible team.  But the manner in which the win happened definitley felt like a statement win.  Not saying this team is likely going to make the playoffs but it definitley felt like a statement of intent that this team will be worth taking seriously, even if they end up well below .500.

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Fans were generally shocked to see the first Opening Day win in 11 years. Lots of high fives among fans when Benintendi iced the game with that 3 run home run. We went to Bulls game after and that was epic.  It will be a tough season for the Sox but that win meant a lot to me personally.

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  On 3/28/2025 at 12:09 PM, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Pitching has a way of making everything else look better and feel easier. They were the worst team of all time last year because of their bullpen.

 

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I would say that the Sox were historically bad due to the offense.  As measured by OPS, the #29 team was closer to the #13 team than the #30 team (Sox) was to the #29 team.  If measured by runs scored, the #29 team was closer to #16 than #30 to #29.   The bullpen was bad, but was #29 (measured by ERA or WHIP), ahead of the Rockies.  And the gap between #29 and #28, while wide, wasn't nearly as wide as the offensive gaps.   

Some marginal improvement in the offense should have a significant effect on the win total:  Like if Sosa and Vargas could get OPS in, say, the mid .700s. 
Same with bullpen, although to a lesser extent.  

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  On 3/28/2025 at 1:56 PM, Chicago White Sox said:

I’ll keep saying it, but I think people are sleeping on this offense a bit.  It will be one of the worst in the league, no doubt, but I expect it to be substantially better than the s%*#-show we put out there last year.

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They really tagged that kid that practically went straight from college to the pros, as they should have. Other than that, the offense was pretty bad yesterday until that point. We already knew this was going to be the case though.

Burke settled in nicely after the first two innings and the defense was much better, especially without that noodle armed f*** out in left field. 

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  On 3/28/2025 at 1:56 PM, Chicago White Sox said:

I’ll keep saying it, but I think people are sleeping on this offense a bit.  It will be one of the worst in the league, no doubt, but I expect it to be substantially better than the s%*#-show we put out there last year.

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Yeah, they'll be bad, and there will be losing streaks, but I agree about the offense.  We saw at the end of last season what a healthy Benintendi can do.  Sosa and Vargas have looked much better, at least through the spring.  Robert, if healthy, will do Robert things.  Tauchman and Slater should supply some power.  And we should see some of the younger guys come up throughout the season.

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  On 3/28/2025 at 1:59 PM, Colome's Hat said:

Don't want to overemphasize this because it was one win and the Angels are a terrible team.  But the manner in which the win happened definitley felt like a statement win.  Not saying this team is likely going to make the playoffs but it definitley felt like a statement of intent that this team will be worth taking seriously, even if they end up well below .500.

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It’s really early, but I think the manager change will prove to be massive.  Grifol was such a fucking joke of a leader that anyone would have been an upgrade, but I kind of think Venable is the real deal (again, I bit ridiculous to make claims after one game I get it).  I just think Will is what you look for in a major league manager:  leader of men, former player, up-to-date on analytics and modern in-game strategies, still young enough to resonate with today’s players, willing to work with the front office, etc.

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  On 3/28/2025 at 2:14 PM, T R U said:

They really tagged that kid that practically went straight from college to the pros, as they should have. Other than that, the offense was pretty bad yesterday until that point. We already knew this was going to be the case though.

Burke settled in nicely after the first two innings and the defense was much better, especially without that noodle armed f*** out in left field. 

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Don’t get me wrong, we will be bad, but I think that’s more due to lacking a lot of impactful hitters vs. having a ton of sub-replacement ones.  I think we will be in the 90 to 105 wRC+ range at most spots outside of catcher and maybe SS.

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  On 3/28/2025 at 2:26 PM, hogan873 said:

Yeah, they'll be bad, and there will be losing streaks, but I agree about the offense.  We saw at the end of last season what a healthy Benintendi can do.  Sosa and Vargas have looked much better, at least through the spring.  Robert, if healthy, will do Robert things.  Tauchman and Slater should supply some power.  And we should see some of the younger guys come up throughout the season.

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Honestly, the bigger issue with Benintendi is his defense.  He’s found a way to maximize what I consider to be very poor raw power for a corner OF and I can a see a lot of his 2H improvement actually sticking (probably settles around a 110 to 115 wRC+ if healthy).  But his defense has been atrocious since coming to the Sox and is well below what I would have ever expected.  I think I read somewhere that he dealt with a hamstring issue last year or two and if that’s over with then maybe there some hope he can just be normal bad out there and not a total disaster.  That would actually make him a positive value player.

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  On 3/28/2025 at 11:09 AM, Falstaff said:

What is your take with Vargas at 3rd base? I was only able to see the highlights of the game but he looked competent on the plays I saw.

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Yeah, he made the plays hit to him. There was a game in ST where he looked absolutely terrible. Maybe he had bad clams that morning. 

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  On 3/28/2025 at 2:00 PM, tray said:

Fans were generally shocked to see the first Opening Day win in 11 years. Lots of high fives among fans when Benintendi iced the game with that 3 run home run. We went to Bulls game after and that was epic.  It will be a tough season for the Sox but that win meant a lot to me personally.

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Damn that was a Bulls game for the ages. You picked a great one to go to

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  On 3/28/2025 at 2:37 PM, Chicago White Sox said:

Honestly, the bigger issue with Benintendi is his defense.  He’s found a way to maximize what I consider to be very poor raw power for a corner OF and I can a see a lot of his 2H improvement actually sticking (probably settles around a 110 to 115 wRC+ if healthy).  But his defense has been atrocious since coming to the Sox and is well below what I would have ever expected.  I think I read somewhere that he dealt with a hamstring issue last year or two and if that’s over with then maybe there some hope he can just be normal bad out there and not a total disaster.  That would actually make him a positive value player.

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Full-time DH his ass.

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  On 3/28/2025 at 11:41 AM, pcq said:

Slater has quick hands. Someby needs to step up and earn some PT at 1B. 

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Miquel Vargas should be the 1B. I’m really surprised they kept Vaughn. I’d honestly rather see someone like Rizzo or Tellez there

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The lineup yesterday made sense. The platoon deployment of Sosa and Slater made sense and worked out. The moves to the pen made sense.

They’re not going to win many games but I’m expecting a professional baseball team and a manager who knows how to use his roster. 

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