Will Munetaka Murakami & White Sox WIN the American League Central? | CHGO White Sox

**Sean Anderson** (0:06)
Hey yo, welcome to the CHGO White Sox Podcast, presented by our friends over at bet365.
Where winning is everything. Welcome in to Studio West, our West Loop offices here in downtown Chicago. I'm your host, Sean Anderson. Alongside me, Herb Lawrence.

**Stephen Nicholas** (0:24)
Hello.

**Sean Anderson** (0:25)
Man, I love hearing that. Welcome in to the CHGO White Sox Podcast, where we're being produced today by our pal, Stephen.

**Stephen Nicholas** (0:31)
Hello. I was talking to a herb.

**Sean Anderson** (0:33)
Yeah, where's your herb impression? He's finally back.

**Stephen Nicholas** (0:35)
I could probably still do those. I used to do a good intro to the show as if I was Sean. I could probably still do it.

**Sean Anderson** (0:41)
Feel free. The floor is yours. We got an hour to fill.

**Stephen Nicholas** (0:43)
That's true.
All right. Hey, yo. Welcome to the CHGO White Sox Post Game Show. I'm Sean Anderson, coming to you live from the West Loop Studio here in Chicago. I'm joined by my guy, Herb Lawrence. Hello.

**Sean Anderson** (0:57)
Who are you supposed to say?

**Stephen Nicholas** (0:58)
Follow him on Twitter, at HectorWalt23. And then you just go into it.

**Sean Anderson** (1:02)
All right.

**Stephen Nicholas** (1:02)
That's pretty good. Thank you for that embrace. I mean, I'm going off of memory. That was that's been a while, right?

**Sean Anderson** (1:06)
That's pretty good.
Hit the thumbs up button if you haven't already for Stephen's impression. Make sure you're subscribing. We got Matthew Cortese back saying Herb. Herb is back and we are very excited about it. Yuta is also in Honolulu. So shout out to Yuta, our Bulls fan, who's hanging out from Hawaii. Herb, it's great to have you back, but unfortunately, we do have to let you go. Apparently, you said Dansby Swanson was a prep shortstop on last on Saturday show.

**Herb Lawrence** (1:31)
Did I? I said he's a prep shortstop?

**Sean Anderson** (1:33)
Yeah, I guess you slipped up and you know what? We're not going to give you grace. Finally coming back, you're fired.
We're kicking you out, sir.

**Herb Lawrence** (1:42)
It's been real. Bye.

**Sean Anderson** (1:43)
So you appreciate it.

**Herb Lawrence** (1:44)
It's a weird thing. I watched him beat the hell out of Illinois when he was at Vanderbilt and he got drafted that day.

**Sean Anderson** (1:50)
Yeah, it's not really that big of a deal. I think honestly, it's first show back in a while and it's I was trying to name like 15 short stops.

**Herb Lawrence** (1:58)
I was just thinking short stops. It went one one that I mixed up. But hey, sorry, I'm out, guys.

**Sean Anderson** (2:03)
Hey, some people were very happy you were back and some people needed you to be admonished. So there we go.

**Herb Lawrence** (2:08)
I do not. I do not mind being being corrected as I am a pedant myself.

**Sean Anderson** (2:14)
Yes. And to be pedantic is important. I mean, people need to be right about things.

**Herb Lawrence** (2:19)
Correct.

**Sean Anderson** (2:19)
At the end of the day. So now we all just want to be correct.

**Herb Lawrence** (2:23)
Bring them on.

**Sean Anderson** (2:23)
On today's show, we'll be talking about Munetaka Murakami, his home run derby appearance. We'll be talking about the White Sox first half play. And then we'll be talking about the second half. And if this team can actually win the AL Central, I think they can. We'll look at the journey that they've gone on and we'll talk about the teams that possibly are threatening. Yesterday was the home run derby. Jordan Walker is the 2026 winner. Congrats to Jordan Walker. Fairly fun derby. If you didn't watch it, maybe you were like, I think Doug E. Fresh who listened to it on ESPN Radio. That sounds like a great idea.
Tough broadcast, fun night. Munet did all right. Was on the brink of getting into round two but didn't make it.

**Herb Lawrence** (3:03)
Yeah, I just thought that, you know, it was it's a hard thing to do to purposely hit home runs when your whole training has told you not to hit home runs. Even though the event is such, I'm sure Munetaka Murakami, which they were talking about in the broadcast, he struggled in this same event in Japan because I'm sure that like his training all up to that is like just, you know, cut the ball in half, get some top spin on the ball or some backspin on the ball instead of trying to hit the ball over the fence. And you could see the swings. He wasn't going outside of his regular swing. He was just hitting the ball like he usually does in BP with some easy stroke, which is fine. And that's exactly what I wanted him to do. Compete, do exactly what you want to do, but don't get hurt. The last thing I wanted the White Sox to have is a guy who just came back from the IL to go on the IL again because he was trying too hard at the home run derby. We've seen that way in the past. So I think was the famous one is Bobby Abreu last year. I think PCA tailed off in the second half of the season. Also as a P Dan also, you're going to get me on the second half and first half thing. They played 95 games at 162