The Glendale spring hits with fury. Guys with numbers that might as well be in the three digits hit the main fields, everyone has put on 15 pounds of muscle and/or is in the “best shape of his life,” reporters garrulously start counting down to Opening Day or adding up the tiresome tropes of spring training.
Meanwhile, we eat it all up, because, for some of us, it’s like, 20° out. Or, it’s been a third of a year since there was any White Sox baseball. Or, it’s been more than a year since the last Chicago White Sox team that lost fewer than 100 games ...
To that end, rather than waxing insightfully about any one aspect of spring training so far (“what was Hahn wearing?” ... “Rawlings glove intrigue?” ... “Rick Renteria blah blah blah,” let’s just have a little fun with the dumb days of spring, shall we?
We’ll keep this daily update going until games start, or Machado signs, or the dumb stuff stops.
Tim Anderson
Nonsensical quote of spring so far transcribed by Daryl Van Schouwen, spoken by Ricky Renteria: “Shows through [Anderson’s] improvement that he is desirous of being an elite player. When you establish a routine, continually improve just by default guys see it and understand he is leading by example.”
Alec Hansen
An early, brutal take from Scot Gregor, not usually known for soft takes on things he doesn’t like:
Remember me? #WhiteSox pitching prospect Alec Hansen pic.twitter.com/bnauRR2qJa
— Scot Gregor (@scotgregor) February 15, 2019
Eloy Jiménez
Cut-and-paste, rinse and repeat, but man, Eloy’s BP is tasty:
Eloy Jimenez crushing some BP. I could watch this all day. pic.twitter.com/sieNgAIkKi
— Chuck Garfien (@ChuckGarfien) February 15, 2019
Manny Machado
Among the varied Manny pablum came a gem from Jon Heyman on Friday:
Heard in Miami circles: It’s about the deal, he’s disappointed with the offers so far and Machado is willing to wait for what he think he’s worth (said to be about $300M). There is some strategy to this, as his market may improve if Harper goes off board first.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 15, 2019
Carlos Rodón
Rodón, via Scot Gregor, regarding his 0-5, 9.22 ERA September and whether he ran out of gas: “For lack of a better term, [they were] horseshit starts. That’s pretty much it.”
And another inspiring quote from Rodón, this one courtesy of James Fegan: “It felt like a normal year but it actually didn’t really feel like a normal year, because a normal year for me was going through an injury.”