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Despite being one weird ninth inning away from a sweep in Seattle, the White Sox still have a winning record. Granted, it's the bare minimum at 25-24, but they've spent the last nine days at .500 or better, and relative to the last three years, that's pretty much a dynasty.

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The rotation now turns to Davis Martin in hopes of getting the White Sox off to a better start in San Francisco. This past week on Sox Machine, James wrote a lengthy feature on Martin that has all the ingredients of a Fegan Classic, in that it involves a pitcher who loves talking about pitching, and James has been talking to him about it for years.

James didn't make the West Coast road trip, but Sox Machine is still traveling. Josh is in Omaha to watch Roch Cholowsky and his UCLA Bruins in the Big Ten Tournament, and I'll be driving down to Birmingham on Tuesday for the Barons’ annual game at historic Rickwood Field. Thanks for all your support, which makes our wide-ranging coverage of the White Sox, their farm system and their potential No. 1 overall draft picks possible.

-Jim

By JAMES FEGAN

White Sox pitcher Davis Martin wants to be a strength coach when he's done playing, provided he can keep his CSCS paperwork up to date.

"I need to re-certify this year by December and I've got a lot of CEUs (continuing education units) to catch up on," said Martin.

"I'm still holding him to it," said Lane Ramsey, Martin's close friend, former teammate and the director of operations at the facility where he trains in the offseason. "He's going to be the strength and conditioning coach at Pitching WRX for us whenever he's done."

Martin first mentioned it years ago when a post-playing career seemed like a necessity, and issued a polite but pointed correction when I tweeted out the wrong certification title that he holds. But Martin also reiterated it this spring, and once more this week amid pitching the best baseball of his 29 years on Earth, sitting second in MLB with a 1.62 ERA through 50 innings.

Pitching coach might be a more natural landing for a former hurler, but Martin believes the right strength coach can have just as big of an impact. While diligence about his physical routine is no small part of how the former 14th-round pick can touch 97 mph now, his argument centers around his belief that the weight room is a great place to start building the culture of a team.

"If he wanted to affect future athletes and their careers, that would be a great place to start," said Declan Cronin, former Sox pitcher now with the Rangers, who roomed with Martin this spring while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. "Davis really understands there's a lot of pieces that go into the puzzle of making up a pitcher."

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Take a long look at these features that are exclusive to Sox Machine subscribers:

If the White Sox's outfielders are ever all healthy at the same time, who goes? Should the White Sox try jumping the trade market? Why does John Schriffen keep trying to force a catchphrase? Sox Machine subscribers at our 10 WAR and higher tiers had questions, and we did our best to answer them.

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