A couple of months ago during spring training, the Chicago White Sox created a video that was labeled a “behind-the-scenes” coaches meeting. In the video manager Pedro Grifol reveals an acronym created to describe the way he wanted his team to play: Fearless. Aggressive.
Selfless. Technically Sound. “F.
A.S.T.
S.” doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue, so it was shortened to “F.A.
S.T.” “That’s got to be our identity,” Grifol says.
Cut to a highlight of a Cactus League game in which Yoán Moncada advances from first to third on a single by an energized “This new White Sox squad, they’re taking extra bases,” “This is fun.” “This is the kind of baseball that Pedro wants the Sox to play,” Steve Stone added. The next scene returns to the coaches meeting, where the music swells as Grifol exclaims: “When people watch us play and other teams are playing against us, they need to know who the f— we are and what we bring to the table every single day.
” The profanity, of course, is bleeped out. Fast-forward to Wednesday afternoon at Sox Park, where the team was on the field practicing relay throws a day after left fielder Andrew Benintendi overthrew the cutoff man in a 7-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. Former manager-turned-consultant Tony La Russa sat alone in the stands behind the plate watching as coaches repeated the drills over and over.
The media had assembled in the dugout waiting for Grifol to emerge from the clubhouse, wondering why he was t.