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If I wrote for a newspaper rather than Sox Machine, I wonder if Thursday's article about the mindset underpinning Will Venable's aggressive in-game strategy wouldn’t have been three or four different stories. First because of its length, but also because it was quite plainly three or four different threads that eventually combined into one, and the idea of a single connective thread between the components only revealed itself, uh, during the second or third attempt at writing it?

Venable’s discussion of bunting strategy is from a one-on-one interview we had in Minneapolis at the opening of the month, but wasn’t central to a story about how he keeps the team motivated. I was largely interviewing Randal Grichuk in Detroit for a still forthcoming piece about the offense at large, when a question about his own success led to his articulate response of how the pinch-hitting approach of the team had aided him.

Road travel is expensive and I like to make plans for getting significant stuff out of every trip, even if I don’t have a firm idea of what it should be. So I had scheduled an interview with bench coach Walker McKinven for the Detroit trip that was spent just probing for parts of the Sox operation he felt had upgraded, when he mentioned the work of Bennett Markinson and Johnny Nienstedt on the White Sox's ABS strategy. 

Events of the game had just more or less forced our hands to break down the team’s approach with deploying leverage relievers, and I had my doubts of how much an individual article about bunting or ABS strategy would break through the noise of just the attention that their obvious drawbacks involve. But all these conversations happening in concert laid bare the connective tissue through all of these approaches. It even probably harkens back to the explanations given for why they signed Munetaka Murakami.

Essentially, imagine watching the past five years of White Sox baseball and thinking there was anything to lose by pushing the envelope. As always, maybe one of the most refreshing aspects of the whole process was the team’s willingness to openly discuss a viewpoint that feels grounded in what we’ve all watched together.

— James Fegan

By JAMES FEGAN

The White Sox's approach to in-game strategy, an endless wave of pinch-hitters, openers and defensive substitutions that regularly empties Will Venable's bench before the ninth inning, requires some sort of snappy summary to better explain the overriding concept.

"If we see five dollars on the ground, we pick it up," said bench coach Walker McKinven. "That's kind of the thought process."

This brand of why wouldn't we just go for it reasoning bleeds into every piece of in-game strategy the Sox employ, seeming from first pitch.

Chris Murphy's four outs on Wednesday marked the Sox' league-leading 17th time using an opener this season, which Venable often portrays as a win-win for always forcing the action in some measure. He reasons that either the opposing team leaves their lineup as is, and someone like Bryan Hudson slices through an unaltered slate of lefties. Or they push right-handed hitters up in response, and Venable contends a bulk arm like Erick Fedde gets more right-right matchups squeezed into his outing. When quizzed recently about the prospects of losing relief depth for the end of games, Venable quickly cited Sean Burke averaging longer outings behind openers, best demonstrated by the right-hander handling the final 7⅓ innings of a 5-1 win over the Yankees in The Bronx.

They like being aggressive, and treating the first inning like a leverage situation is part of that.

"There's other factors that go into the opener and there's some negatives to it, like it upset the starting pitcher's routine, but that's a bit subjective and guys can pitch in different roles, and have throughout their baseball lives," said McKinven. "There's a run expectancy in the first higher than pretty much every other inning. We try to apply who we want to pitch to those hitters. It's generally the other team's best hitters. If we can gain a platoon advantage, great."

"We’re going to continue to do it," Venable assured, unsurprisingly.

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While Pope Leo XIV is following a White Sox team that isn't quite halfway done, the White Sox farm system has already entered the back half of the minor league season.

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