Danny Richar's performance in
tonight's victory over Detroit showcased the kind of player he can be.
I counted three plays of above-average difficulty against the Tigers tonight. He made a spinning throw in the first inning to get a forceout at second in the first. The second was a play in which he ranged far to his left to snare Ivan Rodriguez's grounder. It would have been routine, but Richar was holding Carlos Guillen on second.
The third might have saved a run, as he managed to backhand a ball up the middle and flip to Juan Uribe in time to nearly turn a double play.
The 0-for-4 at the plate is a little misleading, because he did reach once on an error that he forced. He smoked a liner that Marcus Thames had trouble tracking, and he couldn't backpedal and catch the ball at the same time.
That line-drive swing has been the only thing missing from Richar's game. Although saying that is like saying foot speed is the only thing keeping Paul Konerko from being a threat on the basepaths. At the end of the day, he's still only hitting .196.
Yet when comparing him against the other struggling Sox rookies (not counting Josh Fields), there's enough there to keep me on the Richar bandwagon. Look at it this way:
- Richar has seven extra-base hits in 102 at-bats. Jerry Owens has nine extra-base hits in 271 at-bats.
- Richar has 12 walks in 116 plate appearances, a far better rate than any rookie not named Andy Gonzalez (including Fields).
- Richar strikes out half as often as Gonzalez does.
Richar has three skills that no other Sox rookie has -- four, if he maintains the high-quality level of defense. He just has this nagging problem that, when the ball hits his bat, it tends to go either straight up or straight down. If only the Sox had some kind of instructor whose job was to focus on these kinds of issues...
**********************
Lance Broadway and Heath Phillips received their September calls, giving two more rookies the chance to be torn to shreds in the White Sox bullpen.
I don't particularly have high hopes for either, because they both reminded me of two Sox pitchers we've seen in the recent past. Broadway looks like a Bad Jon Garland, and Phillips resembles a Tired-Armed Mark Buehrle.
That sounds more negative than it should, because this is the first year Broadway's thrown a much-needed two-seam fastball, and Phillips has outperformed his stuff in Charlotte the last two year. Phillips in particular joins the Sox after a tremendous second half -- 7-0 in 10 starts, with a 2.43 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP.
On the other hand, Phillips struggles to break 87 with his fastball. We saw what happened when Buehrle sat around 85-86 -- the changeup wasn't as effective, and they also could afford to wait back for the loopy, low-70s curveball. Those are Phillips' other two pitches as well. (On a kinder note, Phillips has a similarly effective pickoff move.)
Broadway, meanwhile, simply walked too many batters -- in fact, his rate nearly doubled from Birmingham to Charlotte. Free passes have been one of Garland's biggest issues this year. He's already walked more batters in 2007 (51) than he did in 2006 (41) or 2005 (47), and he's still 23 innings away from cracking 200. That said, Garland has still walked far fewer batters in the majors than Broadway did in Triple-A, and there's nothing else about the Texan's game that suggests he's able to overcome those kinds of control issues yet.