Gamethread: White Sox at Rockies

Dylan Cease gets his final spring tuneup this afternoon, a chance to see whether his excellent first start or the struggling control/command and dependence on enemy rockets going right at defenders of the rest of the spring is the real Dylan.

But first...

Fivethirtyeight.com posted its 2021 MLB predictions today, the first to do so since Eloy left a pec on a wall and the White Sox engaged in a little nostalgic dumpster diving to sign Nik Turley and Jake Lamb. The computers’ attitude won’t please Sox fans - 85-77, five games behind the Twins, with a 42% chance of making the playoffs and 25% chance of winning the division - though 2% crack at winning the World Series.

Whether those predictions are accurate or laughably low will depend a lot on whether Cease becomes a real major league pitcher. He’ll have the probable opening day lineup behind him today, with Lamb making his first Sox appearance even though the Rockies are tossing a lefty and he’s usually only allowed to face southpaws if he has a signed note from his parents.

That lineup bodes well for runs, since the Sox generally kill mediocre lefties and the Rockies’ starter is Austin Gomber, the bottom man in their rotation. Cease will be facing most of the Rockies starters, such as they are:

R. Tapia, LF
J. Fuentes, 3B
T. Story, SS
C. Blackmon, RF
C. Cron, 1B
R. McMahon, 2B
E. Diaz, C
C. Owings, DH
G. Hampson, CF
A. Gomber, SP

Based on that, Cease won’t have one advantage he’s used well this spring - Gomber isn’t batting so Dylan won’t be able to strike out the pitcher to get out of jams.

Gametime is listed as 2:10 Central. One Colorado site lists it as an mlb.tv free game , but mlb.tv doesn’t seem to agree, so it may just be skeletal Gameday.