The White Sox first round playoff roster – BeefLoaf style

The White Sox clinched a playoff spot on Thursday, they’d been away a long time and I am not sure if they went up there and told all of yous.

Ever since that happened, I’ve kinda only been thinking about potential opponents, and what the playoff roster will look like. I did a blog with a round up of potential opponents a little while back. We also discussed our preferred playoff opponents on the most recent 108 podcast episode. But hadn’t taken a close look at what I think the playoff roster should look like. Below is the current roster from this morning. Feel free to look at a more detailed version of my bullshit table at Fangraphs.

A couple of notes. One, the first round of the playoffs is a best of 3 series, which means, you need less starting pitchers than usual. Two, the first round of the playoffs is played entirely at the home team’s stadium. The White Sox haven’t quite clinched home field for the 1st round, but it’s pretty much a formality. The first series will be right up the street from me on Shields.

A specific White Sox observation is that not many people get plate appearances on this team. Of the total plate appearances for the White Sox coming into today, 93% of those plate appearances were taken by the top 12 position players, 89% by the top 11 and 85% by the top 10. This is basically a plug and play lineup and will continue to be so for October unless a key injury were to occur.

Let’s get onto the shit…..who is OUT from the current roster?

Dylan Cease & Reynaldo Lopez

Reynaldo Lopez has done a real nice job lately getting back into our consciousness and Dylan Cease is having one of the most weirdly productive, but also terrifying seasons I can remember. Regardless, both of these guys are out. I don’t see a good usage for them in a short best of 3 series. Rest up boys, we’ll be bringing yous back for the next round.

Jose Ruiz

Jose is a bulk reliever and only really here right now to fill out the back of the bullpen, we have some good relievers making their way back from injury, so we’ll have to let Jose enjoy some time off (probably for the rest of the year.

Ross Detwiler

Big Boss Ross pitched pretty damn well this season, but I just don’t think there is a lot of use for him in the best of 3 series. This bullpen already has plenty of lefties and isn’t likely to need more.

AIGHT….who is IN?!?!?!?

Aaron Bummer & Evan Marshall

ldo…

Zack Collins

I’m not a Zack Collins stan, in fact the Future Sox crew would probably say I pick on him. That’s not true, I want him to be good, he just hasn’t been good yet. That’s not why he’s here though. I want Ricky Renteria to be able to aggressively leverage his 2 outstanding Catchers in the lineup for each game. The best way to do this is to give him a 3rd catcher who will be placed in glass and broken only if needed. That’s Zack. Zack also has the additional utility of hitting from the left side and having ginormous power. He’s in. He’s in every round for me.

Danny Mendick

I think most people would add another pitcher here and I can’t blame anyone who would, but the White Sox have this weird position player roster that likely won’t need any pinch hitters, but even with 5 bench players already, there is only 1 infielder. So while this may seem like a waste, I could more easily envision needing to use a 6th infielder in a game, than I can see using like 9 relievers in a game.

THE BEEFLOAF PLAYOFF ROSTER

As you can see, I excluded Carlos Rodon from the 1st round roster. I think he’ll have more utility on the playoff roster when the rounds get longer (best of 5 or best of 7). In this 1st round, you are really hoping the White Sox only have to play 18 innings and really, 13 or 14 of those innings are hopefully pitched by Giolito and Keuchel.

Have a thoughts on the White Sox playoff roster? Want to call me a moron for this grouping? Hit me up on the twitters.

-BeefLoaf