Sox Populi - A Chicago White Sox podcast

How evenly matched are the White Sox and Royals? They’re currently the bottom-feeders of the American League Central, dealing with rebuilds and a rough April. Will this be a mid-off, or will we at least have a competitive series? I asked Kevin O’Brien from sites such as The Royals Reporter, SABR, and Pitcher List what his thoughts were on the Royals and the upcoming series. What on Earth is going...

The White Sox are fresh off a series win, the first of the season, against the Twins. With better vibes, the team heads to Cincinnati to face off against the Reds. Chrystal sits down with Wick Terrell from our sister site Red Reporter to chat about the road trip. Predicting the Reds season as a whole April and May without Joey Votto Extension talk about the young ace Hunter Greene The biggest thre...

The White Sox are still pretty bad, and the Twins are atop the American League Central. In this episode, Seth Stohs gives a great breakdown of the Twins after nearly 20 years of coverage on the team. Predicting the Twins season as a whole and who has the best chance at MVP How great is a healthy Byron Buxton Carlos Correa and Joey Gallo are good, but what about the starting rotation The biggest th...

Elated by the White Sox actually ending their 10-game losing streak, even if the win was largely thanks to a pitching gift from Rays manager Kevin Cash, SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and temporarily downtown Chicago correspondent, Will, delve into the past but then leap into the possibilities in the future. Anticipated guest star Berto from the west side had to cancel due to a workout in...

Malachi Hayes, Chrystal O’Keefe, Melissa Sage-Bollenbach, Adrian Serrano and Brett Ballantini took on the daunting task of immediately improving the White Sox by taking over the team on Friday night. We discussed changes major and minor, then predicted the next weird thing that will happen with the club. Not to give the whole program away, but our “immediate change” answers include revamping the f...

Without a series win, or even a back-to-back win, the White Sox once again face the best team in the league — the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays are atop the American League at the moment with a record of 20-5, a cushy .800 winning percentage. Author and lifelong Rays fan Alicia Thompson sits in the Dugout this time around, to talk about the red-hot Rays. First things first — buy Alicia’s book Will the...

After a week off due to technical (get rid of the duck!) difficulties, Darren Black again joins Brett Ballantini to talk about the best of the White Sox affiliates, addressing the first two system Players of the Week, Loidel Chapelli Jr. and Wilfred Veras. So, Darren has managed to turn around his coverage record — and the fate of each affiliate — early on in 2023. What’s his secret, and does it i...

Chrystal O’Keefe sits down with Michael Waterloo of The Athletic and Fantasy Pros to discuss the upcoming series in Toronto. The Blue Jays are sitting in third place in a tough division — but were the first team to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays. How will the White Sox fare against the team up north? Give a listen below, and find out. A rundown on the Blue Jays Where will the Blue Jays sit throughout t...

Dante Jones, Chrystal O’Keefe, Melissa Sage-Bollenbach and Brett Ballantini sat down to pull the camera back a bit on our White Sox fandom, and reassess our purpose here. Yeah, there is some origin story background for each of us, but also equal parts sweetness and cynicism. There is a love for the White Sox and what (we feel) they stand for present in all. Joe Resis again tries and fails to catch...

Without a series win, or even a back-to-back win, the White Sox face the best team in the league — the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays are atop in the American League at the moment with a record of 16-3, and way better than .500, at .842. Elizabeth Strom of fellow SBN site DRaysBay sits in the Dugout this time around, to talk about a magical start to the season. How far will the Rays go? Postseason? Devi...

SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and current downtown Chicago correspondent Will (shameless plug — in town to perform in The Cherry Orchard at the Goodman Theatre), wander into the world of mysteries surrounding the 2023 White Sox, many of them mysteries that have baffled Sox fans for many years, to whit: Why do the White Sox year after year have the worst plate discipline in the majors (we...

Will the White Sox finally be evenly matched as they head into a series with the Phillies? The two clubs sport identical records heading into this week’s series, so listen to Kevin Seamus as he breaks down Philadelphia’s season thus far with Chrystal O’Keefe. The 1993 team and Kevin’s love for the Phillies Bryce Harper rumors Where does Kevin see the Phillies sitting by midseason, and again in Sep...

A couple of weeks in and finally shedding some of the preview/pregame/postgame podcasts for a bit, it’s time for the mothership to take off again — this time, with a weird duck stowing away throughout. Darren Black, Malachi Hayes, Melissa Sage-Bollenbach and Brett Ballantini got together for a gut-check on where the team’s at. Hang around, because while you might not see Joe Resis, you may catch s...

Can you believe the White Sox are heading to their fifth series already? Time flies when you’re not having fun. I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to Dream from FTNBets about the super-fun Baltimore Orioles. Where does Dream see the O’s sitting by midseason, and again in September How does Dream feel going into this first series Keys for the O’s to take this series The biggest threat on the O...

As a sort of test podcast and video feed, we switched over to a new format for the Sox Populi family of programs, to considerable success in spite of Darren Black losing his camera for a sec and Brett Ballantini not knowing where to look to engage with viewers. But that backstage nonsense aside, Darren and Brett sat down to talk about the hot (?) Charlotte Knights, who have seen some breakout perf...

Can you believe the White Sox are heading to their fourth series already? Time flies when you’re having fun. I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to Ben Jones from Fans First Sports Network’s Twins Talk and SB Nation’s Twinkie Town to talk about his team. The Twins are leading the American League Central at 6-3, two games ahead of the White Sox. Where does Ben see the Twins sitting by midseason...

Throughout the season, I plan to preview our upcoming series with a fan from every team the White Sox face. We’ll chat about our game expectations, players to watch, and much more. For the third episode of Visiting Dugout, I sat down with Graves to chat about the upcoming series in Pittsburgh against the Pirates. The Pirates are back at PNC and ready to welcome the prodigal son, Andrew McCutchen P...

It is a very interesting group of players at Low-A Kannapolis, and by interesting, well, note the word used isn’t intriguing. But the two most interesting arms from the 2022 draft will be Cannon Ballers, so hey, Darren Black hopped on with Brett Ballantini to discuss them, and some of the other, more imperfect, prospects: Darren defends Noah Schultz from the immediate Randy Johnson comps, while Br...

Unlike a year ago, the clear bevy of Single-A talent in the White Sox system resides in High-A Winston-Salem. And that’s not only due to matriculation from the 2022 Low-A Kannapolis team. With so many promising players starting the year at Winston-Salem, Darren Black hopped on with Brett Ballantini to discuss all of the promise residing in High-A this year: But first, Brett initiates a mini-rant a...

SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and current downtown Chicago correspondent, Will, were just settling in for their first podcast of the regular season when the White Sox announced that Eloy Jiménez is headed to the IL with a theoretically minor hamstring issue. Not good. On the good side, the praise is for the Cuban contingent, especially Luis Robert Jr.’s incredible fielding and Yoán Monca...

If Project Birmingham didn’t ensure it, the roster heading into 2023 sure does: The Barons are the centerpiece minor league organization for the White Sox. With so many promising players starting the year at Birmingham, Darren Black hopped on with Brett Ballantini to discuss all of the promise residing in Double-A this year: Cristian Mena and Matt Thompson may be starters headed in a different dir...

After the most brutal home opener we can remember, Melissa Sage-Bollenbach, Kristina AIrdo and Brett Ballantini got together right after the final out to review a sad trombone of a 12-3 Sox pasting by the San Francisco Giants. Kopech, Kopech, Kopech, he went from lights-out early 2022 to whatever ... this ... is. Funny, we don’t discuss “tipping pitches” but we do mention leaving hittable, straigh...

Brett Ballantini invites some of his SSS friends, including Tommy Barbee, Jordan Hass, Melissa Sage-Bollenbach, Dante Jones and Brian O’Neill, to chat about what is looking to be a damp Home Opener against the Giants on Monday: Wow! Two of four in Houston, leading in every game, potent if inefficient offense, solid starting, some speed and defense — who are these guys? Can the momentum of some ear...

Happy Home Opener! Throughout the season, I plan to preview our upcoming series with a fan from every team the White Sox face. We’ll chat about our game expectations, players to watch, and much more. For the second episode of Visiting Dugout, I sat down with Britt of Willets Pen to chat about Chicago’s first homestand against the Giants.  Britt shares her thoughts on the not-great, but not-bad Gia...

It’s another season in Charlotte, and hopefully a good for a Knights team that wasn’t just bad in 2022, but embarrassingly so, as just one-third of Charlotte starts were made by legit starting pitchers. Darren Black hopped on with Brett Ballantini to discuss the highest level, yet somewhat AAAA status, of the Chicago minor-league system: The biggie: Will the Knights start actual starting pitchers...