Series Preview: Guardians vs. White Sox
They’re dead, Jim
The White Sox and Guardians open up a four-game series in Chicago tonight at 8:10PM EST.
The Guardians enter the series at 24-13 with a +41 run differential, a team wRC+ of 105, starting pitching FIP of 4.44, bullpen FIP of 2.61, team Defensive WAR of 5.5, and -2.2 Baserunning Runs above average.
The White Sox enter the series at 9-28 with a -89 run differential, a nice team wRC+ of 69, starting pitching FIP of 4.93, bullpen FIP of 4.44, team Defensive WAR of -21.7, and -2.1 Baserunning Runs above average. A brief note that the only thing this awful baseball team is better at than Cleveland is a slight edge in baserunning... which just goes to show how important it is that Stephen Vogt and staff reign in some of the silly baserunning gaffes the Guardians have committed these first three dozen games of the season.
Matchups:
Game 1: Ben Lively, RHP (2.97 FIP) vs. Eric Fedde, RHP (4.54 FIP), 7:40PM EST
Analysis: Lively’s start to the season has been exciting, and fans will be hoping he can sustain it as team’s scouting notebooks on attack plans against him continue to grow. The Guardians’ best hitters currently are David Fry at 164 wRC+, Josh Naylor at 151 wRC+, Jose Ramirez at 100 wRC+ and Andres Gimenez at 97 wRC+. It would be nice to see a few more Guardians’ hitters eclipse that 100 mark (Gimenez, Will Brennan at 94 and Estevan Florial at 91) by the end of this series, and to have Jose build on a positive series against the Tigers.
Game 2: Carlos Carrasco, RHP (5.35 FIP) vs. Garrett Crochet, LHP (3.92 FIP), 7:40PM EST
Analysis: Carrasco will look to continue his crafty veteran act against some crafty veteran hitters. The best of the White Sox bunch currently are Gavin Sheets at 134 wRC+, Tommy Pham at 127 wRC+, Bryan Ramos at 124 wRC+, and Korey Lee at 117 wRC+. Personally, I’m glad the Guardians won’t be facing Robbie Grossman this series because he’s such an annoying at-bat, but the White Sox have since added Tommy Pham who is exactly the same. Crotchet has the potential to give the Guardians’ lineup fits, so this would be a great spot for hero Fry to step up and for Ramon Laureano to silence the calls for his DFA for at least one day.
Game 3: Triston McKenzie, RHP (5.16 FIP) vs. Mike Clevinger, RHP (9.16 FIP), 7:10PM EST Saturday
Analysis: McKenzie had two solid starts recently and the team will look for him to build on those as they greet old, familiar face, Mike Clevinger, who has a rude return to the big leagues so far. The low point of last year was watching Clevinger dominate Cleveland in a start so, for my mental health, can the Guardians please get to him, this time? Like everyone else has so far?
Game 4: Logan T. Allen, LHP (5.60 FIP) vs. Mike Soroka, RHP (6.71 FIP), 2:10PM EST Sunday
Analysis: Last start may have been the most frustrating of the Logan Allen experience so far, but as bad as he’s been, he hasn’t been as bad as Mike Soroka. Allen should try going right at hitters in the White Sox lineup because they’re not particularly good, and he needs to become more confident finishing off batters with two strikes and not nibbling around the plate.
The White Sox actually won three games over the past week (two vs. the Cardinals who appear to be bad?, and one vs. the Rays), so I guess you can say they’re feeling frisky. Hopefully, this will be another time for the coaches and vets to speak to the importance of treating even the bad teams as real threats, as it was reported that Austin Hedges did earlier in the season as the Guardians went from the Yankees to Athletics. This is still a bad White Sox team who doesn’t pitch well and fields horrifically, but the Pham addition seems to have sparked their offense a little. Let’s put a stop to that.