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Yes, It's Show Time.
— Thyago Vieira (@ThyagoVieira40) February 13, 2018
Tuesday was a sort of day T-minus-1 to the actual beginning of spring training, but hey, it’s not like anything has gone on in White Sox World in the past, oh, month, so let’s see what’s the haps in Glendale.
In his Letters from Camp, James Fegan of the web site that devoured sports journalism The Athletic shares a series of postcard snaps of White Sox pitchers, some of whom are passing the time comparing pitching arsenals, others who are more focused on making the leather pop:
Catch with some guys who throw hard: Vieira throwing to Hansen, Kopech and Fry throwing to Bummer pic.twitter.com/3uwNujQDOB
— James Fegan (@JRFegan) February 13, 2018
More to the point of notable news, Fegan reports that Nate Jones is rarin’ to go, throwing to a Matt Davidson mannequin (no, it was the real Davidson, tracking pitches to give Jones a feel for having a batter in the box).
Over at MLB.com, Jesse Sanchez honed in on a brewing Mexican pitchers buddy flick starring Joakim Soria and Miguel Gonzalez.
Daryl Van Schouwen at the Sun-Times rounds out White Sox coverage with a focus on Michael Kopech, who admits he was far too amped up trying to impress a year ago:
“Last year I was pretty eager — I’m still eager — but I was trying hard to impress really early and probably went a little overboard. The whole year was me trying to make it to the big leagues, trying to make it to the big leagues, looking too far ahead. And so now I’m taking it day-by-day, one step at a time, and I feel more comfortable doing that, trusting the process.’’
Appropriate to yesterday’s peek at White Sox closer candidates, and more pointedly, comments wondering about the absence of Jones on that list, Van Schouwen reports Jones having thrown seven or eight bullpen sessions prior to camp.
Seems the big fella is in the closer mix.