Chicago White Sox gamers participated in an impediment course with youngsters on the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago throughout a shock go to Thursday in Bridgeport.
The Sox skilled a number of hurdles final season on the best way to 101 losses. They’ll try to search out the trail to enchancment with pitchers and catchers scheduled to report back to spring coaching Feb. 14.
Manager Pedro Grifol isn’t interested by the primary sport of the season or past.
“I’m thinking about the first week of spring training and we’ve got to win that first week,” Grifol stated at Thursday’s occasion. “We’ve received to enter spring coaching and put together ourselves to win baseball video games. We’ll take it 5 to seven days at a time and we’ll proceed to guage the week and proper the issues we have to appropriate and go from there.
“There’s a lot of work to be done before that first game. There’s a lot of conversations between our staff and the players and we’ll be ready to play come day one.”
There have been pitching and hitting summits for the reason that closing out of the woeful 2023 season.
“Once that last game was over, the calendar changed for us,” Grifol stated. “There’s been actually good communication. (General supervisor) Chris (Getz) put in the pillars he desires the group to abide by. I’ll have my model of play I need to see on the sphere and the gamers will probably be part of the method.
“There is a lot of things that are different (this spring compared to last). The energy in spring training I thought last year was OK, but it’s hard to evaluate it because we had so many guys who weren’t there (with the World Baseball Classic taking place). But that’s something we’re going to focus on, the details are something we’re going to focus on.”
Grifol is aware of it must be extra than simply speak.
“When I put myself in the eyes of the fans, we’ve got to prove it on the field,” he stated. “I can stand here today and say, ‘We’re going to do this or do that.’ That’s not what this is about. This is about us preparing ourselves to play and prove to our fans — they had a difficult year last year — that we’re going to come out and play a different style of baseball.”
Grifol stated he’s most enthusiastic about attending to spring coaching “because the energy we have, that our players are showing, the energy that our front office and coaching staff is showing. We have five new coaches on our staff. And plus what we did last year. We’re motivated, we’re excited to come back and prove to this league that we’re capable of doing some good things. I just feel it, there is a good vibe.”
Grifol likes the strikes the workforce has made this offseason and anticipates a whole lot of competitors at camp.
“Last year we went into spring training probably six or seven starters deep, this year you’re probably looking at 15-16 starters,” he stated. “Some of these guys are young, some ended the year in Double A, some in Triple A. Just to look at our depth compared to where we were at this time last year is really encouraging for us.”
One of these skilled starters might be Dylan Cease, who has been talked about in commerce hypothesis all through the offseason. Grifol stated Cease has been “unfazed” by the chatter.
“I talked to him yesterday, it was a great conversation and we talked about him (pitching) opening day,” Grifol stated. “And he’s making ready himself for that and he feels nice. He’s throwing pens, he doesn’t have any soreness, he’s enthusiastic about this membership. He’s excited in regards to the guys we’ve acquired, enthusiastic about our catching. Brian Bannister is a part of the group (as senior adviser to pitching), he’s excited to get to work with him and (pitching coach) Ethan (Katz).
“He’s unfazed by all these trade talks and all this stuff. If it happens, he understands the business. But like I told him and he told me, right now he’s our opening-day starter and get ready to do that.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com