posted on Sunday, August 10, 2008 2:03 AM
by
Jim
O good Horacio, what a wounded name
We know Jose Contreras threw his last pitch of the season after rupturing his achilles' tendon covering first base in
the White Sox's 6-2 loss to Boston Saturday evening, but plenty of questions remain. The three big ones:
- Was it the last pitch of his White Sox career?
- Was it the last pitch of his career career?
- Who will fill his shoes?
Answer to No. 3 became a little more clear, as the Sox traded the speedy (and that's it) Paulo Orlando
to Kansas City for Horacio Ramirez.
Ramirez was having a renaissance year of sorts with the Royals, with a 2.59 ERA and a sub-1.00 WHIP over 15 games (24 1/3 innings), both of which can be attributed greatly to the fact that he's walked only one hitter.
Though he was a starter for his entire career up until this point, I'm guessing he'll go to the bullpen to replace Boone Logan as the second lefty, because Logan keeps getting worse.
The Cheat puts his putrid performance into perspective:
In his last 12 outings, he's allowed 20 runs in just, including 4
Saturday, and he's only pitched 8 innings. He's allowed 20 runs in his
last 24 outs.
Ramirez, along with giving Guillen another lefty, gives Guillen a guy who has thrown 40 pitches a couple times this season. That would theoretically open the door for D.J. Carrasco, who has been a godsend in the bullpen, to get a chance to stick in the rotation.
Ozzie himself seems to be leaning that way:
"We might start Carrasco," Guillen said. "I'm not 100 percent sure, but in my heart he should be the guy."
For now, that's fine. Clayton Richard was the only starter begging to get the call with his performance, and we know what happened to him. Jack Egbert is probably the next in line, or maybe Aaron Poreda, but Carrasco has proven he can get major leaguers out at this point. He should keep going until he proves he can't.
I don't expect great things from Ramirez, but there are two things to like about this trade:
No. 1: He's not on the Royals anymore. Laugh if you will, but Ramirez allowed just two unearned runs over 7 1/3 innings of relief, with five hits and zero walks allowed. The Royals roll into town after the Red Sox leave, and the Sox will take any help they can get.
No. 2: Maybe the Sox have this former Royal thing figured out. Mike MacDougal and Andrew Sisco made the mistake of being legitimately good for significant stretches, which is something Carrasco couldn't claim in his Kansas City days. Ramirez was already on the scrap heap when the Royals got to him.
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But that's not the end to the roster juggling, because
the Sox optioned Josh Fields to Charlotte earlier in the day.
I can't see a situation in which the Sox don't replace Fields with an infielder, because the Sox would have zero backup infielders for the other three positions. Chris Getz seems like the only likely candidate because he fills that need.
He played third in today's game against Pawtucket and had three chances. Two were run-of-the-mill grounders right to him that he converted into routine outs, and the other was a shank that landed over his head and on the chalk of the left-field line near where the stands in Fenway jut out to hug the line. Can't hold that one against him.
I doubt he'll wow anybody, and
Aaron Miles seems like the best comparison. But he has a good idea of the strike zone and he can put a bat on any fastball, so he's automatically an upgrade over the previous two backup infielders, Pablo Ozuna and Fields.
And so he doesn't go unnoticed, Juan Uribe has a .380 OBP since taking over as the everyday third baseman.
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Two more thoughts about today's debacle:No. 1: I honestly can't assess this situation because I knew about the injury before I saw the events, but it didn't seem like the Sox booth acknowledged how much pain Contreras was in, as Hawk Harrelson and Darrin Jackson instead chose to linger on how he's habitually late covering first base. That's a fair point, of course, but the timing seemed odd watching it after the extent of the injury was officially revealed.
No. 2: I like when Ozzie challenges his players' manhood, which is precisely what he did to Boone Logan with his mound visit in the seventh inning of today's game. Logan has no grounds to complain considering Ozzie rolled out the carpet for him in spring training of 2006 when he made the jump from A-ball to big leagues.
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Minor league roundup:- Pawtucket 5, Charlotte 2
- Birmingham 11, Montgomery 5
- Miguel Negron went 2-for-3 with a triple, two walks, three RBI and three runs scored.
- Javier Castillo and Robert Valido each had two hits and two RBI.
- Kanekoa Teixeira picked up the win with two scoreless innings of relief.
- Justin Cassell wasn't good, allowing five runs on nine hits over 5 2/3 innings, though he did strike out six.
- Potomac 11, Winston-Salem 2
- John Shelby hit his 12th homer, a solo shot, and also walked.
- Paulo Orlando went 0-for-4 in his Sox swan song.
- Both Michael Dubee and Steve Spurgeon were shelled.
- Kannapolis 5, Greenville 0
- Levi Maxwell threw eight shutout innings, striking out seven while allowing just three hits and two walks.
- Brent Morel tripled and drove in two; Sergio Miranda also had two RBI.
- Bristol 7, Kingsport 1
- John Kateon went 2-for-4 with a homer and four RBI.
- Justin Greene had two hits and two RBI.
- Andrew Garcia went 3-for-4, while Jedon Matthews went 2-for-3 with two runs scored.
- Joucer Martinez allowed one run on five hits over seven innings.
- Great Falls 6, Casper 2
- Lyndon Estill went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored.
- Danny Jordan went 2-for-3 with a solo homer; Jesus Avila had a multi-hit game as well.
- Kevin Skogley struck out six over six for the win.