HOUSTON \u2013 Ahead of Game 1 of their Wild Card series against the Astros, the White Sox released their 26-man roster for this round of the postseason.<\/p>\n
While manager Will Venable loves to mix-and-match with different pieces, the actual roster contains few surprises. With a short, best-of-three series, the Sox went with 12 pitchers, allowing them to carry a full complement of platoon outfielders of either handedness.<\/p>\n
Right-handed pitchers<\/p>\n
Hu\u00e1scar Brazob\u00e1n, Sean Burke, Erick Fedde, Jordan Hicks, Davis Martin, David Sandlin and Grant Taylor<\/p>\n
Though Venable said there will be no \u201cbulk\u201d pitcher used in Game 1, he did indicate that plenty of arms used as starters throughout the regular season could see action in short stints. In contrast, Sean Burke threw a traditional pre-start bullpen on Monday, as did Astros Game 2 starter Hunter Brown, so a more typical matchup of each team\u2019s best rotation piece could take place on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The most notable exclusion here is middle reliever Trevor Richards, who logged 78 \u2154 IP in just five months on the team, but also threw 3 \u2153 innings in a save just on Sunday. Brazoban made the cut despite a rough early stint with the Sox after being acquired at the trade deadline, but Venable recently endorsed how he\u2019s looked since returning from a left lat strain.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s working himself in a spot where there\u2019s that trust,\u201d Venable said. \u201c The changeup was really good the last couple of outings. There was a 98, 99 in there with the sinker and four-seamer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sox haven\u2019t commented yet on how they\u2019ll use Sandlin in the postseason, but it\u2019s clear his form while throwing six innings of one-run ball to help clinch a playoff spot in Kansas City opened some eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a big talk after the Kansas City start, and obviously conversations leading up to that,\u201d pitching coach Zach Bove told the Sun-Times. \u201cI told him [about] the progress [he\u2019s] shown in that start compared to maybe one of the first starts of the year, specifically landing offspeed in the zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Left-handed pitchers<\/p>\n
Bryan Hudson, Anthony Kay, Sean Newcomb, Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith<\/p>\n
Smith isn\u2019t so much starting on Tuesday as he is opening up a bullpen game, and no one in this group of pitchers are likely to make a traditional start; certainly not in this round. Kay threw five innings on Sunday, but has been getting prepared for a relief role for a couple weeks now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey asked if I was willing to do it, and I said \u2018Yeah,\u2019\u201d Kay said. \u201cAt this point you know you\u2019ve got to be willing to do anything for the team, and if that\u2019s what it takes, that\u2019s what it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Catchers<\/p>\n
Jake Rogers and Kyle Teel<\/p>\n
Rogers is back on the roster after missing the final games of the season on paternity leave, but Teel should start every game.<\/p>\n
Infielders<\/p>\n
Luisangel Acu\u00f1a, Chase Meidroth, Colson Montgomery, Munetaka Murakami and Miguel Vargas<\/p>\n
Even with Montgomery\u2019s protracted offensive struggles, the Sox infield is fairly static and Acuna\u2019s biggest chance for impact is as a late-game pinch-runner. Chase Meidroth\u2019s sore left hamstring kept him out against the Rockies, shifting Sam Antonacci to start at second base. Venable said Meidroth should play in the Wild Card series, though he is not quite 100% recovered.<\/p>\n
Outfielders<\/p>\n
Sam Antonacci, Andrew Benintendi, Brenton Doyle, Randal Grichuk, Braden Montgomery, Tristan Peters and Tommy Pham.<\/p>\n
White Sox outfielders operate almost like hockey players, shifting lines depending on the handedness of the opposing pitcher. Switch-hitter Braden Montgomery might ease this behavior in future years, but he\u2019s produced better results left-handed and could be pinch-hit for against southpaws.<\/p>\n
With the Astros throwing a bullpen game on Tuesday, and light on reliable left-handed options with reliever Steven Okert out due to injury, when and where Venable is enticed to deploy options like Grichuk and Pham before the arrival of closer Josh Hader into the game, will be a focus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Ahead of Game 1 of their Wild Card series against the Astros, the White Sox released…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-451279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}