If no one knew, not only are all of the 108ers huge White Sox Fans…  But we’re also huge fans of music, movies and television shows.  We’re always quoting lines from movies and/or debating which movie was better.  Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sopranos, the Office, Game of Thrones are a few of our favorite shows but there’s one that stands out over the rest….

 The Wire

For those of you that don’t know this masterpiece created by David Simon and Ed Burns, where the FUCK have you been?  This is one of if not the greatest TV show ever.  Don’t believe me?  Even Rolling Stones has this show listed as the 2^nd best TV show of all time. 

What’s even worse, this show was never given it’s just due when it was on the air.  No Emmy’s, no Golden Globes, no Pulitzer Prize.  This is such a travesty for some of the best written material to ever be put on TV. 

Kudos to HBO for taking a risk and sticking with this show even though the ratings weren’t what they hoped.  All you need to do is look at the cast from this show and see where they’re at now.  The majority of them are a who’s who of the biggest stars in Hollywood right now.

In traditional 108 fashions, we thought we should try to pair up which character is most like your beloved 108 crew.  Hopefully you’ll enjoy this as much as we’ve had fun debating these characters and scenes. 

This has been in the works for at least a year.  I take full responsibility for dropping the ball on this.  I always seem to have to go out for just a taste…

Never forget Bushmills is Protestant whiskey…

 Biguns: Norman Wilson

Biguns is a smooth talking SOB and a wealth of knowledge just like Norman.  The one liners he comes up with are priceless.

Slumpbuster: Orlando

From strip club owner to trying to get their side hustle on.  Slumpbuster is always in it to win it until like that…he’s disappeared.

Aloha Mr. Hand: Frank Sobotka

Aloha Mr. Hand just like Frank will do anything for the ones they care about and will fight through tooth and nail for their loved ones.  A guy who puts his money where his mouth is and supports what he thinks is right, no matter the cost.  He may even have an agreement with the Greeks, we’ll never know for sure.

Bobble Jim: Randy

This guy always gets his resale game on.  Mad respect

Mrs. BeefLoaf: Rhonda Pearlman

The silent brains behind the operation, Mrs. BeefLoaf helps keep the 108ers noses clean from the inevitable missteps they get into with regularity.  She’s also the ring leader of the entire BeefComplex, which houses the BeefDeck, BeefCave and the Hot Tub that brings you the #SundaySoak.  

Mrs. Chorizy-E: Beadie

She may come off as quiet but trust me, when shit goes down she’s one you’ll want on your side.   Shit, she gets a free pass to heaven in my book just for marrying Chorizy-E.

Mrs. MSS: Nerese Campbell

As the wife of our 108 mayor MySoxSummer, she always lets our guy come out even after having another baby.  Granted he has to finish his chores and housework first but she’s a very understanding and gracious person.

Bonita Steakie: Snoop

The toughest one of the 108 crew and she’s only 8.  Don’t get into a play fight with this one, she doesn’t play.

Wally$: McNulty

From running into light poles, doing things in and on the bang bus we can’t talk about, waking up in his car after a Friday night game from too much #108ing.  He’s really bad for people.  I also apologize if I’ve offended you or tried to pull your girlfriend/wife it wasn’t me speaking but the accelerator. 

BeefLoaf: Gus

From always making sure all of the facts are correct and keeping everyone honest BeefLoaf always makes sure we come correct and in true 108 fashions.  Believe me when I tell you he’ll get at you if you miss a deadline.

Chorizy: Prez

From always finding unorthodox ways to look at a topic and analyzing all the odds, I won’t bet against him.  Just don’t go to the projects with him after drinking late in the night.  You might get hit with some fallen debris.

MySoxSummer: Bubbles

The Mayor of the 108 HAS TO BE the biggest spirit and inspiration from the entire 5 season saga.  From his constant “Whitey” sales to bringing his own pimp steaks to the Sox games no one embodies a character more than him.  Just don’t ever put on a red hat if he hands you one.

Wally$

A few years ago we started this blog and we named it From The 108, duh, cause that is where we sit.  The number 108 was based solely on the section that we reside and that was it.  Over the years the #108ing hashtag was developed, we did some work with Tyler Saladino, Todd Frazier and now our new power-crush Daniel Palka.  Daniel Palka has taken the #108ing to the next level, much like his sound-barrier-shattering homers (with their Paul Walker Death Ride (shout out to Chorizy) velocity). It’s been pretty amazing for us in 2018, so it’s no wonder so many people are trying to steal our shine.  For your older folks, shine is exactly what you think it is.  Our glow of doing well, our glisten and sparkle. It’s a good thing, and much like Marsellus Wallace’s briefcase, people done want it.

Who are the biggest offenders?  Without question it’s the boys up north.  Is it any shocker that they took 108 years to win a World Series AFTER we got the 108 name out there to the masses?  Fuck no.  Lazy ass Cubes.  That was bad, but last week we were alerted by Armand’s Pizza that the Cubes were trowing shade at us in a “hype” video on their new scoreboards.  Have no idea what I am talking about?  WTF? Read our Twitter!

Editor’s Note – Maybe the Cubes should spend more time explaining to their fanbase that the game is for the kids, not you, you grown ass man stealing a ball from a kid.  You might have gotten your ass kicked at G rate. Not just sayin, we sayin. 

https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2018/07/23/cubs-fans-steals-ball-kid-javier-baez-autograph-video

Glad there was a happy ending for the kid.  Not that type of happy ending #Wally$.  Jeesh. 

Also, several people have come out and said that the guy actually gave the kid a ball already.  Several (I assume Russian) bots have said yes, that’s true.  Even huge asshole Dave Kaplan said to get over it.  Whatever Dave, suck our balls.

I think Trump should look into this, I think they (Cubes-Stream Media) is whitewashing this story. 

Are there other offenders than the Cubes?  FUCKING DUH. Would I write an entire blog just bashing the Cubes?  YES. But that’s not the point.

Enter Kane County Cougars and beer maker Tangled Roots. What is their new beer offering out there in Kane County? 108 Double Stitch Ale. Coincidence?  FUCK NO. What makes it even more insulting is that it’s beer and we FUCKING LOVE BEER.  They peddle some bullshit that there are 108 stitches in a baseball, but we all know the real reason why they used the 108 number.  FUCKING US.  BEER AND BASEBALL = FROM THE 108.  WHO DOESN’T FUCKING KNOW THAT?  You dicks.  Now, this is one of the few that could make this up to us and send us some 108 beer so we can determine if we are ok with you using our shine. Capiche?

So we are looking your way Tangled Roots Brewery. Make like Spike and #DoTheRightThing.

Wintrust Bank uses the 108 name too, but since it’s Sox related I will let that slide.  But you have to admit to yourself (and to me) that you had no idea that there were 108 stitches in a baseball before you knew of our blog.  We were the chicken and the egg.  We were 1st, no fucking question.

What’s my point here?  We are the originals, the OG’s.  And you should have no problem supporting us through your tweets using #108ing when you are doing something wicked awesome usually while drinking mass amounts of alcohol.  We’d like you to use ride share programs of course or walk your drunk ass home.  That’s the 108 way!

Keep tweeting your #108ing photos at us and tag us in all your exploits!  And fellas the ladies are even getting in on the movement, which is really awesome.  Let’s try not to scare them away.  We know some single guys that need a good Sox fan lady in their life.  Especially our buddy Gabe.  He just wants a girl to enjoy baseball and football with.  if you are that lady, tweet at him here! He’s fucking crazy quick with White Sox and Bears trivia, THAT’S WHY HE’S THE MUTHAFUCKING CHAMP! What’s not to love?

Gabe with some girl.

Gabe with local stunnas.

Have you seen anyone trying to use the 108 shine for themselves?  We know you’ll tweet it at us and we appreciate it.  And please make sure that if you wanna show the world that you love #108ing and everything about it, feel free to purchase an OFFICIAL #108ing shirt right the fuck here! This is what it looks like –

And it will be shipped to your door in a few days for only $25.  We have limited sizes remaining, but we’ll do another order.  We’d like to teach the world to 108…

Peace, Love & 108.

-MSS

Hi friends, it’s your buddy BeefLoaf.  This is a rare One Hitter (don’t forget to exhale), where I make a public plea to a local celebrity.  One of the “old heads” of WhiteSox twitter, Tom Fornelli, the artist formerly known as @NotHawk but currently known as @WriteSox despite being quite active on twitter, hasn’t written a blog post at www.writesox.com in over 1 calendar year…….I can’t have it!!  I need to hear from @WriteSox in longer form than 280 characters….PLEEEEEZE!!!!

I understand the rigors of life sometimes get to us and we can’t always kick out 500 words on “Why Leury Garcia getting caught stealing so much is imperative to his development as a Utility Man” or some such bullshit.  I understand that Mr. Write Sox has other commitments, to my knowledge he has a dog that needs to be walked at least a couple of times per day…..he has a writing job for CBS Sports (btw, I’m not a big college football fan, although I do ingest it mostly each Saturday, but you have to check out his bottom 25 rankings, such a fun idea and well executed)…..he has to run models to come up with bets for “Trust the Process”, he has at least a couple of annual spots on PMT to deal with, I think there are also at least occasional spots on 670theScore (or at least some hosts make fun of him or some shit) so I get that life sometimes gets in the way.  But this is just one fan pleading to another, much more famous (if less handsome) fan to PLEEEEEZE make a blog post at www.writesox.com sometime soon, I enjoy them as I assume other fans do as well.

If you agree with your buddy BeefLoaf, please tweet this post @WriteSox and tag him so he knows we love him and want bloggings from him.

Yoan Moncada is the most talked about White Sox player in the first half of the 2018 season and with good reason, he was the lynch pin of the big Chris Sale trade that was made in the 2016 Hot Stove season.  White Sox twitter has bounced ferociously around with its early opinions on Yoan, they have bound from future superstar to current bust and everywhere in between.  The majority of the concerns related to Yoan Moncada’s player profile, going back to his days as a Carmine’s farmhand, have to do with strike out rate.  Early in his career, Yoan is striking out at a 34% (which is 4th highest out of qualified hitters, Matt Davidson sitting directly ahead of him at 36%), which is just enough to keep us all a little bit concerned.  The interesting part (at least to White Sox fans) is that a non-inconsequential portion of Moncada’s K’s are of the backward variety and even further, many of these have been on questionable calls, either on the final pitch of the at bat or somewhere along the way.  These things are Enrico Pallazzo in Naked Gun bad.  The frequent posting on twitter of the mlb.com gameday feed screenshots showing a red strike ball outside of the strike zone box has White Sox nation thinking that the UMPS ARE AGAINST US!

Maybe….but why?  Why do they do this to our guy?

I have a few theories……

He’s too beautiful

It cannot be disputed that our guy Yoan Moncada is a beautiful man.  This sort of thing can play a couple of different ways, amongst men.  1) Depending on numerous factors, a very handsome man can end up unanimously and unspoken respect and admiration from his fellow man.  This generally leads to this person getting the benefit of the doubt when a decree is close in nature.  There are other ways to gain “benefit of the doubt” but it is usually at least some part genetics paired with other personality characteristics.  This ain’t what’s happening here, it’s likely 2) Jealousy.  Men, especially older, overweighter and less attractiver men will go out of their way to slight the handsome adonis.  The jealous fellas will sometimes ban together to employ their influence against Mr. Handsome.  Maybe this is what is happening here.  Maybe all of the umpire groupies are suddenly taking an interest in Yoan.  Maybe Country Joe West’s side piece made mention of Yoan Moncada’s handsomeness and it didn’t sit well with him so he spread the word amongst the other umps who are protective of their mistresses (umpire mistresses is probably more of a TMZ article than a 108 article, but I figure it’s worth touching on at least) as well, so they’ll do anything in their power to make this dude look bad, less attractive.

He’s a rookie…on the White Sox

You hear this as a common theory as to why young players don’t get calls.  It is more of an inverse theory, the real theory is that veterans get more calls.  I don’t know if this has ever been studied, but it would seem human nature that SOME veterans will eventually get the benefit of the doubt from umpires (or officials in any sport for that matter).  Some combination of relationship building with said officials and / or excellence at your craft will get you additional calls which Yoan clearly isn’t getting at this point.  Look, Yoan’s estimation of the strike zone is excellent, but he’s not Barry Bonds (yet) where umpires pretty much know if Barry didn’t swing, it’s not a strike.  He’s got a long way to go to get to that point.  Also, he plays for the White Sox and although we’d all like to assume professionals do their job just as well no matter the conditions, umpiring White Sox games might not incentivize umpires to be at the top of their game.  Tanking may or may not effect parts of the game that we don’t even think about, particularly those parts that involve the umpires getting to Chicago Cut 5 minutes earlier.  I’d suggest Yoan not complain at all about these terrible calls, I suggest he do something to ingratiate hisself with the umpire crew.  Maybe buy them a nice bottle of wine or possibly some Cuban cigars, i dunno.

Velocity is tough on Umps

I love Joe Sheehan.  He’s 100% my favorite baseball writer.  The two things I like best about Joe Sheehan are…1) He has a gift for words.  He can really write in a way that his writings stick with you.  He entertains while he is driving a point home.  This is important, its the reason why I happily pay for his writings.  A LOT (too many) people are writing the same type of articles, but his make me laugh.  2) Joe thinks deeply about the game and comes up with theories about the game that start off as esoteric and sooner or later become mainstream as people start to come to similar conclusions.  One of these conclusions is that increased Velocity is the main problem in baseball’s playability issue.  One of the tenets of this theory is the rise in “framing” or as Joe might call it “umpire fooling”.  The theory goes like this, the human eye, even selected for the most talented of person (in theory, MLB umpires) is not equipped to accurately judge a baseball with this level of velocity, so they are easily fooled by a catcher that can appropriately set up to fool them.  Not to mention general errors made by an umpire who isn’t being fooled, but who is being told that games are too long by the dumb fucking commissioner.  Yoan complicates this problem a bit, but just taking too many pitches.  Swinging at more hittable pitches and crushing them should help (at least partially) alleviate this potential issue.

Got any theories why Umpires Hate Yoan Moncada?

Hit me up on the Twitter Machine

Fine, FUCK YOU!  It isn’t perfectly, the 2nd half as our White Sox have played 95 games already, but you get what I mean, here’s the things I need to see in the 2nd half…..

– Improved ballpark conditions when handling a crowd – There are some special days and promotional giveaways coming up in the near term and it would be nice to see the White Sox handle these crowds a little better than they have recently.  Get people in the ballpark faster / easier, keep the bathroom lines from getting out of hand, etc.

– Thyago Viera in high leverage situations – After having tied so much of my emotional capital into the voluptous Bruce Rondon, I need a rebound reliever.  You know how it is, when you get into it with the super curvy one with heat, you end up with some exciting memories and your heart broken.  I don’t care if he goes all Ebby Calvin Nuke LaLoosh on us to start, I think it is time we see Viera in the majors, I mean, our bullpen can’t possibly get any worse.  I know I can’t be more damaged.

– At least 8 Michael Kopech starts – enough fucking around, if we are going to let Lucas Giolito lumber out there every 5 days with a ~7 ERA, I think we can start seeing what this kid has in the majors.  I know I predicted this delayed promotion, but there isn’t anything that he can work on more effectively in AAA than he can against major league hitters, so lets get this shit movin’.  Plus, I’m pretty stoked to see if he changes course again in his romantic status once he’s exposed to the gorgeous ladies of our fine city.  As MySoxSummer and I have noted, he loves the booty, and Chicago women most definitely got the booty.

– Tim Anderson finish off the first 25 HR / 40 SB season in White Sox history – As someone that doesn’t get perturbed often, I have been getting quite perturbed at White Sox twitter tryna move Tim Anderson off of shortstop.  He’s the only true shortstop in the org with a legit MLB bat.  Don’t @ me with Madrigal, he wasn’t even the best shortstop on his college team and he’s going to unseat a league average defensive shortstop in MLB…..Puh-LEESE.  I want Timmay to keep on crushing through this season and end it with a truly historic performance in 2018.  Let’s leave no doubt Tim.

– Maximum plate appearances for Daniel Palka – I know Avi Garcia is coming back from the DL, I know Nicky Delmonico is coming back from the DL, but IDGAF, I need to see the maximum amount of plate appearances for Daniel Palka down the stretch.  He’s the only one of the non-Avi Garcia OF’s on the roster with legit big league power and we need to see as much of him at the plate as possible in order to allow for an accurate evaluation of his talents before we start running into Eloy Jimenez needing time and then soon after some of the younger kids.  The guy has NEVER MISSED leg day and we should want to see what he’s got.  His allegiance to the #108ing way of life has nothing to do with this take…NOTHING.

What do you NEED to see in this final 67 games of 2018, holler at me on the twitter machine…..

As some of you may know, the 108ers did a Prediction Show in March of this year to flush out all the things we thought would occur during the 2018 season.  Since we are at the all star break, I figured I would go through these predictions and see what we hit on and what might leave a little bit to be desired.  I will include the predictions in their entirety, but in case you’d like to watch the original show, our blog post for that is included right here.

Yoan Moncada will lead the team in HR’s, SB’s and OBP – BeefLoaf

The BeefLoaf got a little Moncada crazy….here’s how it’s looking

Moncada               White Sox Leaders

HR – 12                    HR (Davidson) – 14

SB –  9                    SB (Anderson) – 21

OBP – .312               OBP (Narvaez) – .356

The home runs still look like they are in play, the rest…..DON’T

James Shields will throw 200 innings – Chorizy

James Shields will have more wins than Lucas Giolito – MSS

Shields has 126 IP, which puts him on a current pace for 202 IP

Shields wins 4, Giolito wins 6….close, but not yet.

Avi Garcia will hit 30 HRs – Chorizy

Avi Garcia has been nothing but hurt in the 1st half, but he still has 9 HR’s in only 148 PA, what could’ve been.

Nate Jones will spend 0 days on the DL in 2018 – Chorizy

Michael Kopech’s 1st start will be a WIN vs Chris Sale on Hawk day, September 2nd – MSS

This is still in play…..Kopech has yet to join the big club.

Eloy Jimenez will crush 3 HRs vs the Cubs in September – MSS

Going to have to wait till September to determine an outcome here

Cubs / Sox September series will include a fight – MSS

…waiting……

Ricky Renteria will lead MLB in ejections with at least 10 – Chorizy / BeefLoaf

Ricky is playing possum this year with only 3 ejections at the All-Star break, maybe the summer heat will kick this number up a bit.

Less Bunts / More Blunts – MSS

?????

White Sox will trade for Adam Jones – Chorizy

Eloy Jimenez and Michael Kopech will not play an inning with the White Sox until September – BeefLoaf

This is currently on pace with neither phenom being promoted as of yet….

The White Sox will sell out 10 games this season – MSS

The White Sox will lose 90 100 games in 2018 – Chorizy / BeefLoaf 

The White Sox are currently on pace to lose 106 games…..

James Duda will buy the 108ers a concession in 2018 – BeefLoaf

Special Guests to increase in the 108 in 2018, et al – MSS

This is most definitely occurring, the 108 has been “LIT” as the kids say so for this season

OJ Simpson will throw out the first pitch at a Miami Marlins game – Chorizy

Marlins attendance is last in MLB and it is down like 1,000,000%, so this seems likely to happen, even though it hasn’t happened yet.

New Sox Order (@newsoxorder) will sneak 70 cans of Hamms into the ballpark (ie Section 108) – Chorizy

Zach, Keir and Colin…..we are waiting…..

The 108 crew will start going to games earlier and earlier due to the White Sox announcing who will throw out the ceremonial first pitch – MSS

Eh, No, but we did go early to see Danny Farquhar throw out the first pitch

Todd Frazier will be photographed wearing the Jersey Demolition shirt in September when the Mets play the Red Sox – BeefLoaf

Open…

May 28th, the Reds take on the Twins, and the Reds will giveaway a Marge Schott bobblehead killing Harambe – Chorizy

$1 hot dog Wednesday nights will be cancelled before the season ends – BeefLoaf

$1 hot dog nights / days will have a 911 style conspiracy theory started by the Pride and Passion Crew, about why we can’t get our hot dogs anymore – MSS

After the most recent Wednesday night vs. the Cardinals, it would appear that $1 hot dogs are going the way of the Dodo

The Slumpbuster will make at least 7 Saturday games – Chorizy

I believe Slumpbuster is at 0 or 1 made Saturday games, which means, IF he’s at 1, he’ll need to make the last 6, so no.

The 108ers will win the “Split the Pot” at Sox Park – BeefLoaf

Not yet, but it ain’t for a lack of trying……

BeefLoaf will attend the most games in 2018 – MSS

This is a close battle between MSS & BeefLoaf, but since BeefLoaf doesn’t keep track of how many games he attends and still has a couple of vacations upcoming, it’s looking like MSS will take the crown again this year.

The 108ers will eat Portillo’s with Jason Benetti – Chorizy

Jason hates us even more than he did before, so this isn’t looking likely.

The Wally$ card will decrease in value after people figure out that he doesn’t wear Davidoff Cool Water cologne – BeefLoaf

This might be the MOST INCORRECT prediction of the list.  People still fuggin’ LURVE the Wally$ card.

Baderbrau will create a 108 branded mexican lager “El Drunks in the Outfield” – MSS

#RIPIP Baderbrau

Our tickets will be checked > 700 times by the ushers – Chorizy

Actually, we’ve had our tickets check less this year, than last year…..SO FAR….but we’ll see

The Slumpbuster and Biguns will make it out for at least one #SundayFunday game this year – BeefLoaf

Aloha Mr Hand will spend more time in 108 this year, than in his kick ass seats behind home plate – MSS

The 108ers will be on TV several times this year – MSS

Jason Benetti will make disparaging comments about MSS weight and will repay those comments with food #dick – MSS

Jason Benetti did talk about our friend Sam Pavelka on the tv broadcast earlier this season.  He however is still scared of / hates the 108ers so no mention directly of us or our hijinx on the tele.

– BeefLoaf

I read and listen to lots of underground White Sox media, whether it be tweets or blogs or podcasts, I try to keep up to date with the groups of people whom I consider fans, or that are doing more or less “passion” work.  As my favorite, Nassim Taleb would say, “Amateurs are the best!“.

In a recent ChiSox Weekly podcast (hosted by the affable Jon Suarez @ChiSoxJonda and Tony Marchese @chisoxmkz) the fellas had Josh Nelson (@soxmachine_josh) on as a guest and they got to talking about future White Sox teams and trying to slot players in all over the diamond from the minors and dreaming up free agents that would fit into the next good White Sox team.  They had a hearty chuckle over some of the fine folks on this current White Sox roster.  While I tend to agree you “hope” that all the prospect pan out and reach their incredible ceilings, we all know that shit ain’t happening.  In fact, there is probably some dude on this 40 man roster that you don’t expect, who ends up a big contributor to the upcoming teams you’ll really care about.  The teams that I will be able to give away select games of my season ticket package for.  This got me thinking….although I’m not nearly the most qualified person to do this, why not take a look at this roster and see how it can be managed, into the future with respect to minor league options and the tightness of the 40 man roster.  Maybe someone who does know this stuff will see this feeble attempt and improve on it, but until that happens you fuckers are stuck with my take….first a little background.

Once a player has graduated to a team’s 40 man roster, they are granted 3 minor league option (years).  This is sort of like the teams being granted 3 life lines for each player.  A minor league option is used, when a player spends 20 days on a minor league roster each season.  Some players will never use their options, they are stars quickly as they ascend through the minors and go to the majors with all 3 options in tact, running through their service time into arbitration and finally reaching free agency.  That isn’t the type of player we are talking about here.  We are talking about the proverbial grinders, people with a skill that is valuable, but other skills that are lacking, we are talking about people with upside potential that is as of yet unrealized.  When Rick Hahn talked about building a “sustainable success” he not only meant having a beavy of top 100 prospect talent coming up to fill in the major league roster, he was also implicitly talking about having useful players on either the major league roster or in AAA with available options to cover injuries.  As an example, think about how the Dodgers have conjured up Chris Taylor and Max Muncy out of thin air over the last two seasons.  You want that type of organizational depth in your system.  This is why I find this part of the equation so much more interesting.  You guys can have the top 100 prospect lists (101 at BP), I’ll take the edge of the roster lottery tickets as fodder for conversation because to me, the out-of-the-money options are just inherently more fun to talk about.  LEGGO!!!

WARNING!!!  These options are pulled from www.rosterresource.com which is a great informational website, but I am assuming the info is correct without cross-referencing so, YMMV, BFD, GFY, etc…..

Catchers

Chorizy and myself have often said that Kevan Smith or Omar Narvaez would be the perfect #3 catcher on a good team.  The kind of player that hangs out in AAA most of the year, but plays ~25 games when you have one of your top two catchers banged up and gives you a serviceable performance (we said this before both of these guys started hitting everything in sight, but it was a reasonable thought even before).

Kevan Smith 1

With just a single remaining option left for Smith, you might like to see the White Sox carry him to start the year in 2019 if nothing else but to save that option.  Smith is an atrocity at throwing out runners and he doesn’t walk much, but otherwise, he’s a fine #3 catcher as we noted above, plus he has boyish good looks and that’s important for White Sox because we want to avoid the ballpark from looking like the sausage fest that was the Barstool at the Park tailgate.

Omar Narvaez 3

Now, Omar is a perfect candidate for being on the periphery of the roster for the “good” White Sox teams forthcoming, with his 3 minor league options.  If the White Sox decide not to spend money in the upcoming free agent market, I’d suggest they trade Welington Castillo and just run with Smith / Narvaez no matter how painful that is just to keep the option years at their behest.  Omar has legit on-base skills no matter how you cut it AND he’s starting to hit the ball with more authority.  I know…Zack Collins….Seby Zavala…..let them dudes marinade while we let Omar come into his own, we might have something here that just needed some time.

Outfield blob

Nicky Delmonico 3

Everyone that has prospect fever discards Nicky like that 3rd Maxwell Street Depot cheeseburger that you just can’t force down after a long night of boozing (for the record, I’ve knocked back 7 of those puppies back when I was in my 20’s….and this was in a 30 minute span….ah to be young again).  Nicky can’t really run, he’s a brutal defender and he doesn’t hit for as much power as you’d like, BUT, he is left handed and has good on-base skills, the skills he has are important, especially for a guy with 3 options.  The White Sox will get good use out of Nicky even if he’s saddled with LF/1B/DH duties, much like our next guy……

Daniel Palka 2

The White Sox shouldn’t need Daniel Palka’s options, he’s the only bat out of this group with legit MLB pop #108thicc. He’s the type of guy that could be the strong side of a LF / DH platoon and knock you 25 HR in 450 PA, he’s got that kinda power.  If he gets demoted over one of these other fellas, WE. WILL. RIOT!

Charlie Tilson 2

Adam Engel 2

Let’s put these boys in the same basket, we’ll give a slight nod to Tilson because he’s a local kid and rumors have it he’s got future 108 talent in his makeup.  Tilson’s hit tool also puts him slightly above Engel even if he’s a worse defender.  I wouldn’t bend over backwards to hang on to either of these dudes, but if I had to pick one, it’s Tilson.  Re: Engel……I often laugh when people give you, the “he’s got a good glove, too bad he can’t hit”….fam, we could go get half the failed punt returns in the NFL, give them a glove and have them work with DBo for a couple of weeks and they’d be able to run down fly balls in the OF better than some of the guys you say this about.  Engel is a guy who is destined for multiple organizations because someone will think they can fix the bat.  Actually, I think he will eventually have a productive half season with the bat, like 3 years from now in some other town.

Out of options

Yolmer Sanchez 0

Matt Davidson 0

Leury Garcia 0

The main reason that the 108ers were touting Matty D getting DFA’d before the season is that he is out of options and although he might be slightly better than some of the fellas above in the outfield basket, he’s really basically relegated to DH with a little 3B / 1B sprinkled in.  Matty D also has big power, but unless Jose Abreu finds a different address sometime soon, he’s a redundant part.  In an ideal world you’d figure out a way to keep him and just see if the walk rate continues to rise and you get a solid part-time player out of him because of his power.  If they trade Abreu, he’ll draw everyday 1b reps, which is another reason to trade Abreu.  He’s also a handsome kid, so the stuff I said about Kevan Smith above, ditto here.

Yolmer is controllable one year longer than Leury, so he gets the nod initially, but Yolmer is also less versatile than Leury, so there is that.  Yolmer is also running into a situation in which, he’s sort of mismatched at 3b, he just doesn’t have the pop to play there long-term and the White Sox just used their 1st pick (4th overall) on an up the middle player, making his theoretical future value decrease.  One of these guys should likely be traded given the redundancy.  Despite the fact that Leury is more versatile, we need Yolmer to stay because he is so much goddamn fun!

Pitchers

Lucas Giolito 1

The fact that he has only 1 option remaining (a relic of his Washington days) is the reason why you’ve gotten to enjoy the fruits of his ~7 ERA labor for the entirety for the 2018 season.

Dylan Covey 3

We’ve enjoyed good and bad Dylan Covey this year and I’d envision that we see him shuffled back and forth between Charlotte and Chicago on the regular over the next couple years, picking up injured pitchers starts / bullpen assignments along the way. He still has material upside, but even if he never gets there, his 3 options make him a valuable player for an org in the rebuild phase.

Reynaldo Lopez 1

Lopez belongs in the bigs, this option is valuable tho’ in case they need to re-tool him into a reliever at some point and want to do it midseason.  Although truthfully you could just do it with the big club and never need this option.  Regardless, it is good to have.

There you have it!  Hit me up on the twitters with where you think I’m full of chit!

We unfortunately have to relay some sad news today.  During the 108’s random drug testing, we have discovered that Chorizy-E has been using a performance enhancing drug.   The drug in question is a little known Balco cocktail called the “Janikowski”.  It’s a mix of excedrin, tums, horse viagra, adderall, and LSD with a chocolate coating.  His suspension will take effect immediately and bans him from any Sox games and any social media.

Chorizy-E has issued the following statement:

To the Fans,

I take full responsibility for the mistakes that led to my suspension for the 2018 season.  I regret that my actions made the situation worse than it needed to be. To the Adult Beverage Industry, the 108, the Beefloaf and MySoxSummer families, the Uber/Lyft drivers and you, the fans, I can only say I’m sorry.

I accept the fact that many of you will not believe my apology or anything that I say at this point. I understand why and that’s on me. It was gracious of Beefloaf to offer me the use of the Beefcave for this apology but I decided the next time I am in the Beefcave, I should be inebriated doing my job.

I am serving the longest suspension in the history of the 108 for PED use. MySoxSummer has said the matter is over. Beefloaf has said the same. The 108 have said the next step will be to start drinking.

I’m ready to put this chapter behind me and drink some beer.

This game has been my single biggest passion since I was a teenager. When I go to Spring Training in NWI, I will do everything I can to be the best drinker and teammate possible, earn a spot on the 108 and help us get drunk.

Sincerely,
Chorizy-E

Despite his apology and seeming admission of guilt, Chorizy-E still plans to fight the suspension and hopes to be back in the 108 for the 2018 season.  His hearing is scheduled for July 27th and will take place on the Beefdeck (weather permitting).  While Chorizy-E was not available for comment, his lawyer Vinny Baseball said he’s confident Chorizy-E will be re-instated based off of their belief of “special rules for special players, dude.”

Hi friends, it’s your pal BeefLoaf, coming at you with a different sort of blog post.  I’m usually the guy in the 108 crew that writes the tongue-in-cheek basebally type stuff…….I don’t normally hit you up with critiques on ballpark conditions or fan pieces, but the 108 boss MySoxSummer has granted me some one time immunity to write up a painful article about the situations where Wrigley Field is better than Sox Park.  I was recently at a game at Wrigley Field for a “work outting” and happened to notice several areas where I thought the game / fan experience was better.  The areas I am about to get into are downright embarrassing triumphs for Wrigley Field over Sox Park.  They don’t just edge out our favorite teams ballpark, they run 60 yds for the touchdown, Deion Sanders high stepping it half the way,

and then they celebrate in the star at the middle of the field, TO style.  Well, let’s get on with it.

Bathroom lines

My man MSS wrote this exceptional article about how to fix some of the bathroom issues at Sox Park that occur anytime you get > 20k people at the ballpark.  I was at Wrigley on a Wednesday, for a 1:20pm start and there were 41k people there….and guess what, not a fucking second wait for the bathroom.  I went to the can for the first time in the middle of the game, 5th inning and I was in and out in a flash.  My initial observations were that the troughs are a key to this.  Now I know, some of you might find the “meat gazing” aspect of the troughs as a negative (or possibly a positive, I don’t know), but they are efficient af.

The bathroom that I was using, which was on the lower level, directly down the RF line, had outer urinals and inner troughs and the bathroom was set up to have traffic flow out towards the exit as you make your way to wash your hands.  I talked to my boy KC (he’s a long time Cub fan and we’ve worked together almost a decade now…he’s my trusted source for all Cub fan stuffs) and he told me that they put in extra bathrooms to accommodate the fans.  To me, this is a shocking development…..a professional sports team putting money into an aspect of the fan experience that isn’t a direct revenue generator.  I’d prefer more attention to these sorts of details and less to free t-shirts.

Tickets being checked

We’ve gone into detail on twitter and in various blog posts how fucking ridiculous it is that in a sparsely crowded Sox Park that the 108ers (usually sitting in our section by ourselves AND full season ticket holders) would get their tickets checked multiple times in a 9 inning game.  I don’t know what dipshit is in charge of this policy, but they clearly don’t exhibit their “talents” on the northside.  At Wrigley, there is no such policy that I could note.  We never got our tickets checked….in fact, I didn’t see anyone get their tickets checked.  What a nice experience.  Wrigley Field staff is very helpful though from what I can tell, I saw them being asked questions by fans and happily directing people around the ballpark.  It was a small sample size, but the employees seemed happy to be there.

Getting into the stadium

As I mentioned before, there were 41k fans at the game I attended and shockingly, there weren’t lines down the fucking street to get into the ballpark.  Wrigley Field staff get the fans through security and into the ballpark quickly.  There were A LOT of staff and gates / metal detectors open.  I didn’t have to wait in line, I was literally in the ballpark in under a minute.  At Sox Park, if there are 22k fans on a Sunday afternoon, it takes 15-30 minutes to get into the ballpark.  The quicker you get into the ballpark, the sooner you can get to your seat and enjoy the product, the sooner your group can buy hundreds of dollars of overpriced beer.  #Business

Sound

This was most impactful to me, but I had various people tryna shout me down when I was talking about it.  Wrigley Field sound is loud and makes you feel like you are at an event.  Of course, MSS, always bustin’ balls noted “It could’ve been the 41k people that made it sound like an event.”  Good point, a big crowd does make an event feel bigger and more fun to watch.  I think Wrigley Field does a good job with the level of “over-the-top” sound that they push through the speakers out into the ballpark.  It makes you feel like you are at something BIG, something FUN!!!  I talked to a couple of Cubs fans about it and they feel like it is over done and annoying, and maybe I’d feel that way over 81 home games, but I can only give you my visceral reaction and it felt awesome and really got my enthusiasm up for an event in which I had absolutely no rooting interest.  I got so hyped I was ready to rock the Kid’N Play dance, but my man MSS wasn’t there to fill out the 2nd half of the hustle

Bars Open more then 20 mins after the game

(Budweiser Brickhouse Tavern)

The post-game experience at the Budweiser branded bar which is located just off the NorthWest corner of the stadium was terrific.  There was no rushing killing the loss leader post game special 5 minutes after people arrived.  There was no “last call” an hour after conclusion of the game.  The service was fast and friendly.  We had a large group and we had only one dedicated wait staffer, but we were getting drinks quickly and it was a fun atmosphere.  It was clear that they wanted you to stay out, drink, eat and party for as long as you could stand.  The ChiSox Bar and Grill could take notes from such establishment, because the food at ChiSox is most definitely better, but the all around experience is worse because they don’t stay open late enough or work to cater to their patrons like this bar does.  If ChiSox Bar and Grill operated like this bar, the 108ers would end up cracking open their 401k’s to keep a flush drinking budget for hanging there.

In conclusion…..I still think Wrigley Field is a fucking dump.  That’s been my position for ever and it still stands.  You can’t put up a few scoreboards and some extra paint and cover over the fact that it’s an old tired ballpark, but you can tell from the reasons I posted above that management DOES CARE about the fan experience and wants people to come away talking about it.  Fuck, I’m a FULL SEASON TICKET HOLDER for the WhiteSox and I noticed enough stuff in one afternoon to tell the whole interwebs (the literally dozens of people that will read this).  Both teams are selling an entertainment product, but at Wrigley, they really treat the fans like a customer.

If the White Sox management is reading this……DO BETTER!!