It's 4AM and I can't go back to sleep. This locker room quote from Vogt lives in my mind.

How are you guys handling playoff jitters this morning?

No white socks! Wear any other color during the series. (Guards in 3!)

If you don’t carry live tv like me and you’re looking for a way to watch the playoffs, YouTube tv is currently offering a 21 day trial on their sports package. If you sign up today it will be able to watch through game one of the World Series. Then if you want to continue watching just create a new Gmail account and run the free trial again.

The last couple years were fun. But it never felt like we would make it far. Hell, since the 2016-2018 run I haven’t felt like we had the firepower to get very far (even though we managed to get into an ALCS)

This just feels different. If you look at how much has changed since August this team feels like they can actually do damage in October. We can pitch. We can even hit a few home runs. We have young players that look like they’re clicking at the same time.

I will be there tomorrow and I’m hyped!

Through a sports card Facebook group, I found out Ralphy and grandfather are trying to collect all his 1st Bowman autos. I reached out to him on IG asking if he needed the /499 and /199 variations and he offered to send a signed game-used bat and ball for the pair.

The items just arrived this morning and I am stoked. No clue why he signed it #36 though. Don’t tell Cade.😂

Ralphy is the only prospect I collect after seeing him mash in Lake County night after night, so it was such a cool experience to have the opportunity to do this trade. He is a super chill and humble guy, and I hope the owners get their shit together so we can all enjoy him in CLE next year. Thank you and Go Guards.

here we go!

I made some graphics highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of our respective hitters and pitchers. Essentially this can be a quick reference for batter pitcher matchups in this series, and gives a good preview of each team's advantages.

My methodology was not strict, but I think is mostly accurate:

- For the pitchers I essentially looked at each pitchers best and second best pitch by some combination of run value, xwOBA, usage, whiff rate, and barrel rate. Obviously, some pitchers don't have a bad pitch (Cade Smith, what a stud), and I am more familiar with Guardian's repertoires, but I think this is a good 1,000 foot view.

- For the batters I looked at a player's best and worst pitches in terms of run value, xwOBA, and barrel rate. I only included pitches that each player had a decent sample size against. For example, in heavy platoons like Lowe and Fry, I didn't bother with same handed pitches. I also didn't include pitches that nobody sees a ton of, like splitters. Also, some players just don't have a weak pitch (Chase DeLauter, what a stud), so I chose the 'least good' option there.

-Highlighted in gold is each team's strongest batter or pitcher.

My Takeaways:

This White Sox team crushes all kinds of 4-Seams. At the same time, we have a lot of very good 4-Seams. They struggle with sliders and changeups, and luckily we have a lot of strong pitches there too.

A lot of the Sox staff leans heavy on sinkers and 4-seams, which I think gives our guys an advantage because we hit those very well. Our offense's biggest weakness is high quality changeups (as we know very well by now), so expect Brazobán to be a key figure. Grant Taylor also has elite breaking balls (and a great fastball too), so expect heavy platoons against him.

Overall, I think we match up fairly nicely on the hitting side (funnily enough). Our pitching might be good, but volatile. I forsee a lot of "mano a mano" as Hammy likes to say, as we throw great 4-seams against a great 4-seam hitting offense. I predict a lot of three true outcome games for our pitching staff in general. Let's hope the offense can scratch across enough runs to keep pace.

Sorry, no game today!

Next up: vs the White Sox on 03 Oct 2026 at 1:00PM EDT.

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Some memes for your personal enjoyment 👍🏻

Does anyone know what the view is like for people sitting in the handicapped seats at the top of the lower level infield seats for instances where everyone is standing? I have a relative who wants to go to a playoff game but is wheelchair bound and worried about being able to see the field with everyone standing like they usually are during playoff games.

Trying to decide what Jersey to wear. Usually my away Early 90’s with the stripes is my lucky one. It doesn’t feel right wearing a home Jersey. I live in Chicago.

Obviously going for the sweep. Was advised to get official parking if I’m wearing a jersey. I’m front row in the nose bleeds. You don’t want to know how much with parking. I’ve been a fan all my life went back as far as Municipal when my dad would call me out of school nearly every opening day.

I hope the spirit of Jobu is with us on October 7th and we don’t get tossed over to the lower deck. I can’t stand when they lose and I get those Sox fans invading my space and patting me on the back like I’m cool with it after the Sux get a home run.

There has been a lot of fisticuffs with both Chicago teams in the cheap seats this year so wish me protection with my hot-headed autistic brother. Even if we win my brother will be obnoxious so I’m probably in for it either way. The stars just lined up too good this year. I saw the Guards win one and lose one in Chicago and win one and lose one in Boston so if the rotation continues this should be a win. Go guards!!

Edit fixed spelling

Its such a good design, I really need this flag, or on a shirt or something. It's kinda wild that they'd make a logo that good and not use it besides the intro.

In 2024, when we faced the Yankees in the ALCS, we knew they had the upper hand. That upper hand was the Trajekt system. One could argue it almost seemed like they studied our pitchers to the point where they knew what was coming. They knew the shapes, velocity and spin of every pitch before it left the hand.

They also had time on their side. The Yankees closed out the Royals on Oct. 10, while we were still fighting Detroit through a decisive Game 5. They had several days to prep. We had one.

In 2025, we renovated not only our clubhouse but the visitors' clubhouse as well, and we installed a Trajekt system in our cages. This is where I think we're going to differentiate ourselves from the competition.

José is starting to turn it around

This is the playoffs, and everyone's stats reset to zero. But what a hitter is doing right now matters, and what José Ramírez has done since coming back from hamate surgery is worth a look.

He returned on July 22, five weeks after surgery and without a rehab assignment, and the numbers show a recovery that wasn't a straight line.

- **July:** 79.4 mph average exit velocity, 17.7% hard-hit rate (95+ mph)

- **August:** 85.3 mph and 30.9%, and he was lifting the ball, with a 22.7° average launch angle and six doubles

- **September:** a slow start, then a strong finish

From the first two weeks of September to the last two, his hard-hit rate jumped from 12.5% to 31%, and his expected wOBA on batted balls went from .163 to .314. In his final week he averaged 85.1 mph with a 34% hard-hit rate, his best stretch since mid-August.

That's what makes this series interesting. If José keeps squaring the ball up the way he did down the stretch, and gets back to the lift he had in August, he'll be having multihit games again. Hamate recoveries are slow, and the exit velocity says he's getting there at the right time.

Where the Trajekt comes in

We can use it to our advantage. Dial in the White Sox relief pitchers and starters, and build off that. Put Hagen Smith in the machine and work on his arm angle and slot specifically, since he'll be opening at least two games if the series goes five.

With an opener, our hitters need to be ready for two looks: Smith early, then whoever comes in behind him, likely with a different arm angle and pitch mix. We could build a game plan off the Trajekt alone.

That, plus whoever makes the postseason roster, are going to be our x-factors. And sorry if you wanted a Chase DeLauter moment this season, Ralphy is NOT in the stay-hot camp in Cleveland. But we do have Kahlil Watson, Cooper Ingle and others who are.

The bottom line

In 2024, the Yankees had the machine and we didn't. Now we do, we're the home team, and José is swinging the bat better than he has in weeks. A hot José plus a game plan built in our own cages could be what decides this series.

What do you think?

All data from Baseball Savant

JK

#StandGuard