Before today's game against Kansas City, the
White Sox called up four players from Charlotte. Charlie Haeger and Boone Logan returned to the majors, while Ryan Sweeney and Chris Stewart are seeing their first action. Since I took a look at the bench yesterday, I may as well continue with the four new additions.
Haeger: Tonight's affair is the kind of game in which Haeger can be useful -- when the Sox are in a big hole and don't need a reason to burn relievers. Let's hope that was his last appearance. Because he throws the knuckler, he can't really enter with runners on base or in a close game, but he can at least keep Brandon McCarthy available for early relief the next time Javier Vazquez can't make it through the sixth, but the game's still tight. He evidently rid himself of the jitters, as he looked relaxed, and his knuckler was thrown at a reasonable speed (70-72 miles per hour). Looking at their mug shots, he's evidently the only one of the four who can properly bend his cap. For what it's worth.
Logan: He's now the second lefty in the bullpen, but I'm looking at his
minor-league splits and they're quite bizarre. Against lefties, he gave up as many runs (10) as hits and walks, and only one of those runs was a homer. I'm not sure how that's possible, aside from some bad luck and bad relievers behind him not protecting his inherited runners. He had excellent strikeout rates against righties, so it'll be interesting to see how he fares his second time around. Righties had more trouble with him than lefties in the bigs, too, so Neal Cotts is still going to have to get a batter out once in awhile.
Sweeney: The 21-year-old made his big-league debut in center tonight, replacing Ross Gload, who replaced Brian Anderson, who replaced Rob Mackowiak. The game ended with him standing on deck. I'm not liking the
Moonlight Graham vibe here. Anyway, he's automatically the second-best center fielder on the team, but with Mackowiak inexplicably starting ahead of Anderson again today, he's basically third-string. He's lefty, so he doesn't bring anything unique to the table offense-wise. He could be a possible replacement for Scott Podsednik next year, but I'm not sure how sitting on a major-league bench will improve his chances. He did improve drastically after the All-Star break, slugging .565 compared to .384 before the break -- it's looks like he's over the wrist injury that limited him to one homer in all of 2005.
Stewart: He's having a decent season during his first turn in Charlotte, but since he's 24, he's not destined for MLB starterhood. Still, he has a decent defensive reputation and is used to catching Haeger's knuckleball.
Unfortunately, he has reverse splits, so he's not really any risk of usurping Sandy Alomar Jr. as the best right-handed catcher on the team offensively. He's worth a start, though, because Alomar's got nothing.
I'd like to see Josh Fields make his way up here soon, though he can't bend his bill correctly, either. The Sox could use a big right-handed bat, and although Fields struggles to make contact, his
1.067 OPS against southpaws makes him worth a test drive.