Over the last 10 years, only
four Sox pitchers have pitched at least six scoreless innings while striking out at least six and not walking a batter.
Make that five, after Gavin Floyd's performance against the Tigers
in his first Sox victory today.
Of course, that
Kip Wells is one of the other four is a good reason to temper enthusiasm. It has been a while since I saw Wells pitch, but my memory seems to tell me that he and Floyd are quite comparable -- low- to mid-90s fastball, good curve, decent slider and mediocre changeup. Neither pays much attention to baserunners, either -- the Tigers seemed to swipe those three bags fairly easily today. I could be wrong, though, so somebody please tell me if I'm talking out of my butt here, because otherwise this I'm going to keep drawing the connection.
Still, it was a lot of fun to watch Floyd manhandle Magglio Ordonez today, and better yet,
he and Don Cooper may have found a mechanical issue:
Floyd made a slight adjustment in his delivery before Sunday's start that paid huge dividends.
"I'm not going over my head anymore," said Floyd, explaining how he
keeps his hands in front of him when he takes a step back to pitch,
instead of swinging them up. "That simplified everything and I feel
real good with it."
That could be a mere coincidence, but it's nice to see a coach actually attempt to identify issues with new players instead of sitting back and shrugging.
At any rate,
Ozzie Guillen is flirting with the idea of a six-man rotation, and Floyd's six shutout innings today may press that issue. I don't know if a true six-man rotation is needed, because Floyd should have an abundance of opportunities either filling in for Jose Contreras or giving John Danks some time off. If Danks makes all his starts in August, he would be nearing a single-season high in innings pitched. If you factor in the increased effort needed in the major leagues, he's probably already exceeded his prior maximum workload.
Either way, the more opportunities for Floyd, the better. If the Sox are serious about
trying to acquire Miguel Tejada (a deal
that's been discussed before here), Floyd could free up an arm or two to make the deal happen if he resembles the pitcher who shut down the Tigers today, and not the one who was lit up his first two times around.
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It speaks volumes about the White Sox farm system when
six moves are made, and none of them have much of an impact on the club's medium-range future:
To Charlotte:Donny Lucy: Considering that he saw a fair share of action in Spring Training, I'm guessing coaches respect his ability behind the plate. He better call a good game, because he turns 25 on Wednesday and has never slugged .400 in his professional baseball career. He walks a fair amount and runs well for a catcher, but batting eye only goes so far when considering big-league pitchers will make him swing the bat until he shows them they should be more careful.
Thomas Collaro: He's a big guy who enjoys swinging really hard. His walk-to-strikeout rates are awful and haven't shown any signs of improvement, though at least they haven't gotten worse. He did draw a walk without whiffing in his first game with the Knights, but he followed that up with a three-strikeout game, so he's already righting himself.
Adam Ricks: He doesn't really have any discernable big-league tool, as far as I can tell. He can play multiple positions, I guess.
To Birmingham:David Cook: He's 26, and this is only his first appearance in Double-A. Going from the numbers alone, it seems like he struggles in his first season at a level, then succeeds. At that pace, he'll be spending his prime in Charlotte.
Kyle McCulloch: It's weird that last year's first-round pick has been put on the backburner so quickly, but Kenny Williams did dampen any enthusiasm quite a bit by shuffling the entire scouting department around after the pick was made. McCulloch had a great June in Winston-Salem, but followed it up with an unimpressive July. The good news is that Lance Broadway didn't light High A-ball on fire, either. The bad news is that Broadway's strikeout rate was quite a bit higher.
Cole Armstrong: He could be the most interesting of the bunch. He made his introduction in Spring Training when he held onto the ball after a collision at the plate
to preserve the Sox's first victory in Tucson this year, and has had a strong year in Winston-Salem. He turns 24 later this month, though, so he doesn't have any room to regress in Birmingham this time around (he went 3-for-25 in eight games last year).
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Minor league round-up:- Charlotte 6, Durham 4
- Andrew Sisco had an impressive outing -- he gave up three earned runs over six innings, but two of them came on one swing. He only allowed three hits and one walk while striking out seven.
- Charlie Haeger pitched two scoreless innings of relief to pick up the win in his return to Charlotte; David Aardsma walked one and struck out two in a scoreless ninth.
- Jason Bourgeois went 2-for-4 with a double and three runs scored; Earl Snyder had a homer and three RBI.
- Mobile 4, Birmingham 2
- Ryan Wing gave up four runs on six hits over 4 2/3 innings. He did strike out six.
- Cook hit a two-run homer.
- Kannapolis 11, Lakewood 5
- Fautino De Los Santos picked up the win in relief, allowing only one hit and one walk over three scoreless innings while striking out five.
- Chris Carter hit his 23rd homer and had two RBI; Lee Cruz also went deep.
- Maurice Gartrell went 3-for-5 with two runs scored; Mike Grace had a three-RBI game.
- Winston-Salem OFF