Jake Burger has been an awesome story for the Chicago White Sox. With some serious injuries to deal with early in his development, it was not easy for him to become a full-time Major League Baseball player. Now, it is looking like he will be for a long time.
Burger was a first-round (11th overall) pick in the 2017 MLB Draft out of Missouri State. He was known as an insanely good hitter and that is what he has become with this team. He is also one of the league’s nicest players as he seems to be kind to everyone that comes his way.
When it comes to making it to the Major Leagues, there are always “leadership type players” that always take the younger guys under their wing. For the White Sox, you expect to hear guys like Yasmani Grandal, Jose Abreu, and Tim Anderson fit that bill, and rightfully so.
However, there is a player on the White Sox that Burger enjoys having around for this reason and it is someone that might surprise you. Jake Burger went on the South Burbs Hitmen Podcast earlier in the week and revealed that AJ Pollock is his favorite teammate.
AJ Pollock and Jake Burger are surprisingly two great Chicago White Sox friends.
"“For me, that guy is AJ Pollock. Obviously, Tim Anderson, Yaz (Yasmani Grandal), Jose Abreu, they’ve all helped me and they help me every single day but the one guy is AJ Pollock for me.”“We talk about approach every single day whether I’m batting in front of him or he’s batting after me, we kind of talk about it and say this is what he’s trying to do and maybe we need to focus our shift to this.”“That’s been the guy for me”"
He also went on to mention Joe Kelly as someone he talks to a lot because they sit next to each other in the clubhouse. The idea of these two players being so huge for Jake Burger as they are both new to the White Sox organization.
The thing Pollock and Kelly have in common is that they both come from the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and we know how successful they’ve been there. It is nice to hear that they are helping the younger guys in ways that fans don’t really see on the field.
AJ Pollock has had a lot of success in both the regular season and in the playoffs during his career. If he can get any of that knowledge on how to be successful in Jake Burger, he is going to have a great career. It was so clear during the episode that Jake is an incredible person in addition to being a great baseball player.