Sox Machine: Chicago White Sox blog

Count down for the count?

Tonight was one of the those rare nights where I'd rather be living in New York than Chicago.

Living equidistant between NYC and Boston, I didn't hear of Jose Contreras' possible DL trip until I came home from the bar, and by then the frenzy had wound down.  As it stands now, at 10:30 EST, Contreras' hip and back feel a lot better now than they did on Sunday, and it's nothing Kenny Williams considers serious.

Had I been in Chicago, I probably would've found out via an uber-preliminary Bruce Levine report, where the notoriously half-informed radio reporter would say El Conde hasn't been able to walk and amputation is a distinct possibility.  And then I would've been glued to whitesox.com or the radio to hear what's next.

It's true the Sox need Jose more than any other pitcher on the staff, especially with the way Mark Buehrle has been throwing the ball lately.  But if Herm Schneider says it's not serious, then I believe him.  I can't recall the last time he erred on the side of optimism when it came to pitcher injury prognoses.  When Mark Buehrle hurt his foot shagging fly balls last spring, Herm said that he might be out three months.  He was hardly out three days, but there Herm was, making sure it wasn't anything severe.  Jose had arm issues in March, and Schneider didn't say anything until he knew.

Unlike the North Side, there's no reason not to believe what the White Sox say when it comes to injuries.  The only time I can remember in recent history where they did not prepare Sox fans for the severity of an injury was when Frank Thomas tore his triceps muscle in 2001.  Even then, the Sox didn't know what they were dealing with, and Schneider made that clear.

The idea of Charlie Haeger starting makes me uncomfortable.  I saw him pitch in Arizona and his knuckler didn't miss any bats, though Scott Merkin blames the thin air, which could be true.  But I don't see the harm in giving him a one-shot deal while preparing Brandon McCarthy for the next spin in the rotation.  I would see harm, however, in Haeger taking up a bullpen spot for any significant length of time, because it'd be suicide to put him in a medium-to-high leverage situation. 

If he's a passed ball waiting to happen (Chris Widger and A.J. Pierzynski aren't experienced catching knuckleballers), then he can't come with runners on.  And if he can't get it dancing, a game could blow up on him in a hurry.  He'd basically be in there in the mop-up role, and that's one spot that Matt Thornton and Boone Logan already occupy.

He would be the first knuckleballer to pitch for the Sox since rough, tough Charlie Hough started 46 games for the Sox from 1991-92.  Hough pitched just about league-average ball despite being well in his 40s by the time the Sox got their hands on him.  Conversely, this Charlie H. has only been throwing the knuckler for about a year and a half, so color me less confident this time around. 

One point he has working in his favor is that he'd be facing Anaheim if Contreras needed 15 days to recover.  The Angels might just take enough bad swings at his floaters to help him get through five.