Per
Mark Gonzalez:
The White Sox finalized their 2008 coaching staff from within by naming Juan Nieves bullpen coach.
Nieves last served as the Sox pitching coach at Triple-A Charlotte
and has supervised the development of several young pitchers, including
Ehren Wasserman, Lance Broadway and Heath Phillips.
Nieves pitched in the majors and helped closer Bobby Jenks develop a
sharp breaking curve in the Puerto Rican League several winters ago.
The blog entry also seems to finalize the hiring of
Jeff Cox, even though there are no official releases yet.
This could turn out to be a significant move, if only because the following pitchers spent time in both Charlotte and Chicago last year:
- David Aardsma
- Lance Broadway
- Ryan Bukvich
- Dewon Day
- Gavin Floyd
- Charlie Haeger
- Boone Logan
- Mike MacDougal
- Nick Masset
- Heath Phillips
- Andrew Sisco
- Ehren Wassermann
That's a dirty dozen if I've ever seen one. You could make it a baker's variety if you threw Bret Prinz on top, but since he's out of the organization entirely, he shouldn't really count. I wonder if he's loose yet.
What's the most impressive (and by "impressive," I mean "hideous") is that none of those pitchers used Charlotte as a true rehab assignment or warm-up. Lance Broadway and Heath Phillips were September call-ups, but everybody else on the list served detention. Compare it to the previous two seasons:
- 2006: Seven pitchers
- Half-and-half: Agustin Montero, Logan, Sean Tracey, Haeger
- Rehab: Cliff Politte, Dustin Hermanson
- Warm-up: Jeff Nelson
- 2005: Seven pitchers
- Half-and-half: Jon Adkins, Brandon McCarthy, Kevin Walker
- Rehab: Orlando Hernandez, Damaso Marte
- Call-up: Jeff Bajenaru, David Sanders
In other words, the trail between Charlotte and Chicago experienced roughly three times the traffic. The silver lining is that almost everybody on that list
fared pretty well in Charlotte, but for some reason
hit a brick wall immediately upon promotion.
Ozzie Guillen and Kenny Williams could reap rewards if Nieves comes in as a second ptching coach. Don Cooper had a good track record of fixing hard throwers entering the season, but perhaps he was overwhelmed by the volume of erratic arms cast upon him in 2007. Nieves might be able to help lighten his workload, and if so, maybe Williams' bullpen plan could be salvaged after all.