Opening Day is always a great time, even when the weather sucks, even when the White Sox lose. It’s the first time you’re back in the ole ballyard in months, surrounded by friends, rooting for your team. We kicked it off this year with Opening Day Eve at the Ramova. The next day we started at BeefLoaf’s, headed to Cork to pick up White Sox Dave, then headed to the Bums’ tailgate, after that on to the Sox Patio for some additional food and drinks before finally getting to our seats to see Derrick Rose throw out the first pitch.
And then, the White Sox actually won! It probably looked to an outside viewer that we celebrated a bit too much for a single win at the beginning of the season, but the 2024 season was abysmal. Even for die-hards like us, the max possible wins anyone could have seen in the stadium last year was 23! So yes this single victory was, in a way, huge. But did we learn anything about the 2025 roster?
Sean Burke
Burke’s selection as the Opening Day starter was surprising to many, including me. He came out and delivered about the best result you could have hoped for from him on Opening Day. He went 6 IP with no runs allowed, 3 Ks and no walks. However, the eye test for us in Section 108 was that there were a few times he got bailed out by his fielders and some plays that just didn’t work out for the Angels. Looking at Baseball Savant today, they agree, marking his expected ERA at 7.65. To me, the thing I learned is that Burke is gonna pitch to contact quite a bit. I love seeing 0 walks, but with only 3 Ks, you’re putting the game in the hands of your teammates a lot. So please Will Venable, keep Michael A Taylor out there instead of Benintendi when Sean is on the bump!
The Offense
The White Sox hit 3 home runs on Opening Day. They only had five 3+ HR games in 2024 and only 133 total HRs. I should point out that one of those 3 HR games was the opening weekend. But one noticeable difference was the White Sox putting the ball in the air more. My ear test was that Josh Nelson did not have to yell once from the seat next to me: BALL IN AIR! But looking at the stats today, I see they did a really good job of putting the ball in the air. So that’s good.
They still have no interest in walking. They only walked twice on Opening Day, but one of those was against Nicky Lopez. I’m giving them 1.5 Opening Day walks. This has to improve.
Mike Clevinger
Clevinger came in with 2 on and 2 outs in the 8th inning for what looked to be a 4-out save. He gave up one of the White Sox 2 walks in the game, but that can be attributed to simply not letting Mike Trout beat you if you don’t have to. He followed that by striking out Jorge Soler and getting out of the inning with the Sox lead in tact. The Sox then scored 5 in the bottom of the 8th, so there was no need to keep him in the game. But it brought up a question on how they’ll use Clevinger. Will he be just a closer and someone who they’re comfortable going to for 1+ inning saves? Or will he be the pitcher they go to in high leverage situations? My guess is they’ll give him the traditional closer role, but I’d like to see Venable use him in non-save situations.
Overall
It can only be an overreaction with this small of a sample size, but I’m feeling better about my White Sox over 49.5 regular season wins bet and much WORSE about my Angels over 71.5 regular season wins bet!