Adnan Virk (@AdnanESPN) wears many hats at ESPN, one of which is anchoring Baseball Tonight. Virk was gracious enough to sit down with me for an exclusive chat about a whole host of topics, including some Chicago baseball.
For the White Sox, the epic collapse of 2012 was a tough pill to swallow, and things have only gone downhill since. However, with the pleasant sounding “pitchers and catchers report” benchmark just 11 days away, hope springs eternal and we talk baseball tonight.
In 2015, following an offseason for the ages, it’s time to get bullish, and not bearish on the Sox.
The White Sox vastly improved their team across the board this winter. General Manager Rick Hahn is doing a bang up job. He was especially adept at filling team needs within the hot stove league. With the addition of hurlers Jeff Samardzjia, David Robertson, Zach Duke and Dan Jennings, the South Side pitching staff will be much improved.
“Don’t sleep on the White Sox, they made some good moves improving that bullpen,” said Virk.
“I never would have thought the White Sox and the Padres would be the most active teams come baseball’s offseason,” continued the Baseball Tonight anchor.
See, ESPN does talk about Midwestern baseball teams, it’s not all “Eastern Seaboard Programming Network.” And Virk answered my questions about the ESPN East Coast bias in a frank and honest manner here.
Said Virk of Hahn: “I think he’s kind of under the radar because they’re not the Cubs, they’re the second city citizens so to speak.”
Virk is completely right. The Cubs made a lot of noise this offseason, and that over-shadowed the fact that the White Sox, arguably, had an even better roster ledger when you factor in the additions and subtractions.
“I thought Robertson was good, they picked up another arm in regards to their bullpen. We know how great Jose Abreu is. So I think the White Sox will be better than people think,” said the Toronto born sportscaster.
Indeed the White Sox filled their team needs by focusing on the pen. Virk agrees with me that AL Central is there for the taking. We’ve seen it year in and year out. Almost nobody is eliminated in that division race until August.
“That division isn’t strong either, the Tigers lose Scherzer, the Indians regressed, if you’re looking for a surprise team, maybe the White sox will put it together.”
Jose Abreu is a guy who’s made the Baseball Tonight highlights with regularity.
Virk: “He’s a super star and after just one year in the major leagues, it’s staggering!”
The South Siders also added a couple of big name position players to their lineup: Adam LaRoche, Melky Cabrera. The former is a tremendous upgrade at the DH position; the latter was one of this offseason’s biggest prizes.
(Virk also had a great conversation with Joe Buck, in which Buck said something incredibly self-aware about why he’s so polarizing.)
The interview (podcast) discussion of the White Sox begins around the 9 minute mark)
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital, eBay, Google News and CBS Interactive.
You can read Banks’ feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper and listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)