Gamethread: White Sox at Rockies

Let’s play a game: Who said it, Andrew Vaughn or Socrates?

“Keep it basic and simple and be ready for every pitch.”

If you guessed Andrew Vaughn, you’d be 100% right. Honestly, we’re not sure why anyone on here would guess Socrates considering this site is dedicated to baseball, but taken out of context we might understand why you’d think rockstar Greek philosopher Socrates was giving you a perfect life lesson.

“Keep it basic and simple and be ready for every pitch,” Vaughn said after his first left-field start in yesterday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers. Wise words from a young man and the perfect mantra for the White Sox as they close out spring training.

Lucas Giolito looks to do just that today in his final preseason start, against the Colorado Rockies. The White Sox ace is 1-1, with a 1.56 ERA and 21 strikeouts. Giolito looks more than ready for Opening Day against the Angels; his velocity, pitch movement, and location continue to improve with each passing start. He heads up a rotation of dependable workhorses that at any moment, any one of them, could be in the Cy Young race. And yes, that includes Carlos Rodón, who has put the work in this preseason and deserves to be in that group.

”We’re super nasty,” Giolito said about the rotation.

Or was it Aristotle? We don’t know, we always get the two confused.

Since the Eloy Jiménez injury, the lineup has been a little mix-and-match but still features a majority of your Opening Day starters. Leury García was originally scheduled to get the start in left field, but instead original right field-starter Nick Williams shifts to left, giving Billy Hamilton the start in right. Yoán Moncada will stay in the fourth spot, after his monster moonshot yesterday. Williams, who hasn’t had a terrible spring, is looking to scratch his way to the 26th roster spot and break north with the club. Yermín “Vroom-Vroom” Mercedes gets the DH nod.

And La Russa gave Vaughn the day off — he might be a little tired. The White Sox might also be rethinking the risky “Vaughn in left” plan.

Here’s the original lineup, (adjustments above):

German Marquez will get the start for the Rockies. In 16 innings pitched, he has a 5.06 ERA and 14 strikeouts. Though his career ERA hasn’t been ideal for Colorado, Marquez is an innings-eater and has a way of finding wins. In his five seasons pitched, he sits at 42-30, and over the last two seasons, has averaged 6.24 innings per start. The Rockies haven’t announced it yet, but Marquez will most likely be their Opening Day starter.

The Rockies are 12-12 in spring training. The PECOTA rankings have the Rockies finishing last in the NL West in 2021. And with Kyle Freeland out with a shoulder strain, they could have an even ROCKIER season ... we love puns.

The game starts at 3:05 p.m. CT. MLB.TV will have the game for its subscribers. So sit back and relax because “You can observe a lot by just watching.” (That’s from philosopher extraordinaire Yogi Berra, friends.)