Sox Populi - A Chicago White Sox podcast Sox Populi

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Chris Brown is back this season to chat about the upcoming series with the Detroit Tigers. Both teams are down really bad, with the White Sox holding on to the bottom spot of the American League Central. Friends, we’re about to watch some extremely mid baseball, so buckle up.
Here is what we talked about:

What’s new in Detroit?

A whole lotta bad baseball

The demise of Casey Mize

Booing Javy Báez

Trade bait

All-Star picks

Pitching matchups

Greener pastures for former White Sox pitchers

The endless rebuild

Keys, fears, and threats

MLB thoughts and the red-hot National League

You can follow Chris on Twitter and keep up with his work at Motor City Metrics and Tigers Minor League Report.
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It’s time to put Arizona in the rearview mirror and focus on the next homestand, starting with Houston. Andy Brown is back for an update on the 2024 Astros ahead of the series against the White Sox, and a bit of José Abreu banter.
Here is what we talked about:

What’s new in Houston?

An Astros fan in Chicago

The José Abreu of it all

Father Time doesn’t stop for anyone

Should the Mariners even be in first?

The AL West could be up for grabs

All-Star picks

Pitching matchups

Threats, fears, and keys to winning the series

What it’s like not to have a real starting rotation

People are eyeing Erick Fedde, Garrett Crochet, and Michael Kopech?

It’s a weird season

Underdogs might just pull it off again

Will a ground swelling motion happen in the second half?

The Chicago Dogs!

You can follow Andy on Twitter and enjoy his blog All Blogs Go To Heaven, described as Chicago’s online home for pure, uncut, sickos-grade non-MLB baseball coverage.
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It’s a special edition of Sox Pop on the Farm! This one is devoted to the special Negro Leagues tribute game on Tuesday, with the Birmingham Barons hosting the Montgomery Biscuits at 6 p.m. CT on the MLB Network. The Negro League Birmingham Black Barons will be honored by our Double-A club, and more broadly the game will be played in tribute to Black Barons alum Willie Mays (who will be unable to attend). Barons president and GM Jonathan Nelson sat down with Brett Ballantini for a program devoted to the broad Birmingham baseball heritage and the specific mark the Negro League Birmingham Black Barons have made on baseball history:

The renovated, gorgeous Rickwood Field, which opened just a month after the Comiskey Park did, in 1910 — and the similarities that Regions Field incorporated from Rickwood

The Barons have paid tribute to the Negro Leagues and Birmingham’s baseball heritage since 1996, with Turn Back the Clock Days. What does it still mean to Jonathan for his team to play at Rickwood and honor the Negro Leagues?

The biggest challenge of not just moving to Rickwood for a game, but this time in coordinating with Major League Baseball for a “Rickwood Week” (Barons-Biscuits on June 18, Cardinals-Giants on June 20)

Did you know: Hall-of-Famers Satchel Paige and Willie Mays both began their organized baseball careers in Birmingham with the Black Barons?

Other Negro League greats came through Birmingham, including Mule Suttles and Willie Wells — and Country Music Hall-of-Famer Charley Pride, as well

Does Brett get in trouble for wearing his Chicago American Giants jersey, when that club upset one of the greatest Negro League teams ever, the 1948 Black Barons, in the World Series?

The underplayed, but extremely rich, baseball heritage of Birmingham

Worth reminding once more: The Barons play at Rickwood Field ON MLB NETWORK at 6 p.m CT on Tuesday, June 18!

Follow Jonathan Nelson on Twitter @JonathanN_Bham, the Barons @BhamBarons, and find tickets to an upcoming Barons game by clicking this link.
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SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, are actually recording the day after a victory, an event so huge it mandates a change in poet James Russell Lowell’s famed “what is so rare as a day in June” to the more currently appropriate “what is so rare as a day in June with a White Sox win?”
The duo cover high points of the Seattle series (yes, there really were some), including pitching performances from Garrett Crochet, Drew Thorpe (Will thinks Thorpe’s a real old school bulldog type) and Jonathan Cannon and long balls hit by Luis Robert Jr. (among his strikeouts).
That naturally leads to trade deadline talk, about both Robert and Crochet as well as the many other players expected to shed white socks soon.
That in turn leads to long discussion of Leigh’s fantasy of the White Sox getting rid of every veteran, both on and off the field, and fielding an all-rookie team next year in the front office and the dugout and on the field. Will actually likes the idea (how often do sons like their dad’s ideas?) and had some more points to make along the same lines. Heck, he even agreed it would be good idea to go completely outside the lines of professional ball and bring in a successful college coach to manage the very young team.
As we said, fantasy. But likely a more successful than reality is going to be.
Alas, they find out just before ending the recording that José Abreu was released by the Astros.
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Once more it’s Brett Ballantini’s favorite week of the month, when he gets to again call on president and GM of the first-place Birmingham Barons, Jonathan Nelson. Somehow again talking during a tough series pitting the two best teams in the Southern League against one another (Birmingham and Pensacola), the two catch up on all the good coming out of Double-A:

Stats review: Just how dominant have the Barons been?

Drew Thorpe gets the call straight to Chicago ... and will his ability to pitch overshadow his lack of a “big arm?”

Duke Ellis gets the call straight to Chicago. Jonathan feels some generational pride there, but also warns of the danger of speed like his ... to opponents

Oh, and yeah, we’re just tossing out some crazy comps for these players

Thorpe was great in Birmingham, but two starters (Mason Adams and Ky Bush) have been essentially as good

No better way to patch a Thorpe-sized hole in your killer rotation than, oh, to call up the No. 1 pitching prospect in the system, Noah Schultz

What’s the plan for Noah the rest of the summer?

Looping back to speed, even with Ellis gone the Barons are stealing bases at a killer rate (85.8% success as a team, and they’re coming in bunches)

What has surprised Jonathan most about this Barons team?

And, what ho, as we wrapped up our podcast, the Barons had surged ahead in their Blue Wahoos brunch battle

Plus! Bonus Jonathan Nelson content next week, when we run our Rickwood Field/Birmingham Black Barons podcast!

Follow Jonathan Nelson on Twitter @JonathanN_Bham, the Barons @BhamBarons, and find tickets to an upcoming Barons game by clicking this link.
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