Hudson looking like 6th starter, not 7th reliever

Written by Jim Margalus on March 11th, 2010

Ozzie Guillen doesn’t often say what many of us want to hear, but he surprised on Wednesday:

If manager Ozzie Guillen has his way, Hudson probably will start the season in the starting rotation at Charlotte.

“To me, he needs to go out and pitch,” Guillen said after Hudson allowed four hits and two runs in two innings against the A’s. “I think we have to keep this kid ready just in case something happens (to a starter).”

This is good news.  Not that putting Hudson in the bullpen was bad news, as Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland, Gavin Floyd and Clayton Richard have shown, but Hudson still needs to work on his third pitch, and a bullpen on a contending team with an unimpressive offense isn’t the greatest place to take lumps in stride.

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Case in point: Aaron Poreda.

Some of you have already seen the line he posted for the Padres on Wednesday, but if not, it bears highlighting:

0 IP, 3 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 0 K

I wouldn’t make too much of this, because he tossed two scoreless innings with one walk and three strikeouts, and had a tendency to lose the zone when he was in the Sox system.

Click to continue »

 

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Spring training, made for TV

Written by Jim Margalus on March 10th, 2010

Ozzie Guillen joins Twitter. Dayan Viciedo receives a public scolding from Kenny Williams for failing to run out a pop-up.  A pitching coach gets heckled in a virtually empty stadium. All in the first week of game action.

In a spring training with very few open spots and fewer problems, it’s funny that so many odd secondary plots are emerging … especially when the Sox are the subject of a reality show for the MLB Network.

Will Linebrink sing the blues?

Joe Cowley spent Monday tweeting often about the presence of cameras, and according to our friend Carl, he also brought it up to Chris Rongey on The Score on Monday evening.  Cowley said that Cooper wondered — perhaps jokingly — that the heckler was an MLB Network plant.

It’s an interesting theory. The thrill of spring training is that baseball exists, and there’s not a lot more to it. Especially when it’s cold(ish) and raining and games are delayed or canceled. So when Viciedo gets hammered while a guy with a fat reputation plods like a fat guy and turns an easy RBI single into a play at the plate, it’s not wrong to raise an eye, although Cowley mentions the Swisher thing, too.

But for giggles, if the Sox and/or MLB Network are actually exaggerating events for effect — probably unlikely, but yaneverknow — I have a few more ideas.

No. 1: During Woodjock, Jake Peavy’s charity musical event, Scott Linebrink joins him onstage for “Hotel California.”  He takes the outro solo, then promptly breaks a string.  Peavy yells, “Damnit, Liney, wait ’til the regular season to blow leads!”  The crowd laughs.  Linebrink storms off the stage, but guest vocalist Omar Vizquel brings them back together with a stunning rendition of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

But wait! Then, it’s discovered that Vizquel lip-synched the entire song, and Linebrink wonders who isn’t living a lie.

Click to continue »

 

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Guillen’s doghouse gets first guest: Viciedo

Written by Jim Margalus on March 9th, 2010

Dayan Viciedo is not doing himself any favors this spring.  He followed up a two-at-bat, two-strikeout performance that looked as ugly as it can get on Saturday by not running out a pop-up in Monday’s “B” game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Sitting in the Camelback Ranch stands with assistant general manager Rick Hahn, Williams yelled from his perch about Viciedo’s lack of effort on this particular play. It was a stern suggestion, with no margin for interpretation, regarding this non-grinder type of move. [...]

“I was more upset than Kenny was. We don’t put up with that stuff here, and we don’t like players playing like that,” said Guillen, speaking on the matter following the White Sox 5-4 loss to the Mariners in the afternoon’s Cactus League contest.

We’ll see what happens, but there’s a precedent. The last time Williams bitched out a player for not running hard down the first base line in a meaningless spring game, he was eventually traded to the New York Yankees for a garbage plate.

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Assorted thoughts:

*Alex Rios, making his debut in the outfield as he gets over a sore shoulder, looked good in his two at-bats, smoking a single to left and crushing a homer just left of center.  He says old video clued him in to how he lost his stance.  Whatever the case may be, he certainly wasn’t pulling off the ball.

*Daniel Cabrera may not throw 98 m.p.h. anymore, and he still may have no idea where it’ s going, but at least he’s extremely slow to the plate.

*Sergio Santos struggled with fastball location as well, but he looked like he had more confidence in his slider.  Watching the reactions he induced with it, you can see why.

*Bill Melton said Mark Kotsay was “well liked” moments before bouncing into a 6-4-3 double play.  I’m thinking of calling him “Biff.”  We need a new nickname now that the Gentleman Masher has moved on.

 

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Raining Arizona

Written by Jim Margalus on March 8th, 2010

In what will be a blow for Camelback Ranch attendance figures, Sunday’s White Sox-Cubs tilt became a Cactus League rarity — a rainout.

Mark Gonzalez informed us through Twitter that the last Sox rainout was March 11, 2006. I remember that one well — the game was played in the Phoenix area, but because the forecast looked so terrible (some areas saw snow), my buddy Matt and I decided to hang back in merely cold and windy Tucson and catch the Mariners-Diamondbacks game instead.

That day, I watched a first-round bust for Seattle get knocked around the park.  Nine days later, the White Sox acquired him for Joe Borchard.

Though the Cubs-Sox game was canceled, it won’t hurt Jerry Reinsdorf’s finances.  Tickets to canceled events aren’t refunded at Camelback Ranch — they can only be exchanged. Click to continue »

 

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Armstrong less than meets the eye

Written by Jim Margalus on March 7th, 2010

If I had no access to minor-league box scores, stats or splits, or maybe if I were just a more casual fan, I would look at Cole Armstrong and wonder why the White Sox went out of their way to acquire Tyler Flowers.

Counting Saturday’s 15-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs, I’ve now seen Armstrong play 11 times.  And because I have a big 100-game scorebook I take to every game that counts, I have a record of Armstrong’s performances when I’m watching.  Over 32 plate appearances, here’s his line:

.517/.531/.871

It includes such performances as his back-to-back 2-for-2’s that briefly put him in the backup conversation a couple spring trainings ago, a big three-run homer in the last game of my Carolina trip last summer, and his amazing Triple-A debut against Richmond:

Cole Armstrong, June 28, 2008.

Maybe I’m Armstrong’s performance-enhancer.  That would be pretty sad. For both of us.

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I WATCHED SIX HOURS OF BASEBALL TODAY! Some thoughts on the players needing to make positive spring impressions:

*Carlos Quentin should be put on Mark Buehrle’s spring training schedule.  He looked ready for Opening Day, taking Carlos Silva deep twice while driving in five. He’s sore, but not there:

“I say general soreness,” Quentin said. “No sorer than it would be if I was healthy three years ago. It’s fatigue. Soreness as in maybe my feet just ache –  both of them. That’s must from being in cleats.

“It’s not a thought in my head where I’m concerned about that specific location. I’ll clarify that. So besides spring training, it standard soreness, I’ve been very fortunate and it’s a very touchy subject for me to talk about. It’s been very good so far.”

If he’s trying to limit his running, this is a good way to do it. Click to continue »

 

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White Sox Outsider 2010 is on sale

Written by Jim Margalus on March 5th, 2010

In what is the most exhilarating and nerve-wracking day of my year, I have an announcement.

White Sox Outsider 2010 is available for sale!

Here’s what’s up:

And below is a brief sampling:

Now, a personal appeal. Click to continue »

 

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Eulogizing Jermaine Dye

Written by Jim Margalus on March 3rd, 2010

Normally, I wait until after a player has officially found work elsewhere before I serve up the eulogy. I’m making an exception for Jermaine Dye.

For one, he’s had a rough winter — at least as rough as somebody who feels insulted by annual salaries worth more than my job pays over a lifetime.  It’s easy to knock him for poor strategy, and I’ve done my fair share.

And also, it’s going to be confined to print, anyway.  I received the proof copy of White Sox Outsider 2010.  Once I make a couple of tweaks — probably as soon as tomorrow — it’ll be ready for sale.  I may as well give potential customers an idea of what’s inside this book (which will be $19.95).

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Jermaine Dye probably should have been an Arizona Diamondback.

After he agreed to a two-year, $10.15 million deal with the Chicago White Sox in December of 2004, the D-Backs came calling multiple times over the course of the day.  The fourth and final time, the Diamondbacks added $1 million to the Sox’s offer.[1] Most others in Dye’s place would have accepted the higher offer, especially when considering that Dye and his family live in the Phoenix area.  Most people watching would have understood.

Look at Omar Vizquel.  Vizquel nearly signed a two-year contract in the range of $9 million earlier in that offseason.  At the last minute, the San Francisco Giants swooped in and offered him the third year he desired.  That changed his mind, he took the Giants’ offer, leaving Kenny Williams stunned.  Williams certainly didn’t hold it against him – he signed Vizquel to a one year, $1.3 million contract five years later.

Dye hadn’t played a game for the Sox, and he hadn’t signed any paperwork.  There was nothing stopping him from accepting the Diamondbacks’ advances, but for whatever reason, Dye felt like he had to uphold his oral agreement.

So Jermaine Dye signed with the White Sox, and in the process, irrevocably altered the history of the franchise. Click to continue »

 

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Two spring training stats worth watching

Written by Jim Margalus on March 2nd, 2010

We’re getting closer to some real action in Glendale, as Scott Reifert delivered the lineup for Tuesday’s B-game against the Los Angeles Dodgers:

  1. Jared Mitchell, LF
  2. Jordan Danks, CF
  3. Tyler Flowers, C
  4. Dayan Viciedo, 1B
  5. Josh Kroeger, DH
  6. Jayson Nix, 2B
  7. Brent Lillibridge, SS
  8. Brent Morel, 3B
  9. Alejandro De Aza, RF

Wow, it just felt good to type numbers in that order. Gavin Floyd, Carlos Torres, Daniel Hudson and Daniel Cabrera are scheduled to pitch.

Anyway, the start of the spring training schedule also marks the start of friendly reminders about how the numbers don’t count. All of them are completely true.

If you need evidence of how spring training stats can mislead, look no further than two players who stood out in Glendale last season:

  • Wilson Betemit, who led the White Sox in spring homers (six) and RBI (18) last year.
  • Josh Fields, who led the Sox in OBP (.455) and slugging percentage (.638).

One could wring some meaning out of their performances, because they had great Aprils before crashing in May, but one good month doesn’t help much.  Jermaine Dye kills this theory, too, because he failed to slug .300 in Arizona, and then he ripped the ball when the regular season rolled around.

But don’t write off every single number you see, because there are two numbers that help.

Walks and strikeouts.  At least for hitters lacking a track record.

Brent Lillibridge and Dewayne Wise combined to draw two who walks over 154 plate appearances, while striking out a bunch.  That obviously followed them into the season.

Chris Getz, conversely, showed a pretty good balance between the two in the spring.  While real major-league pitching made it a bit tougher on both ends, strike zone judgment wasn’t a weakness for him.  Gordon Beckham put the bat on the ball in his first spring, and he continued to make contact while being rushed through three levels afterward.

Also, while it’s dealing with two incredibly small sample sizes, Tyler Flowers struck out every other at-bat in both spring training and his major-league call-up.  Dayan Viciedo was also hack-happy during his brief spring career, walking once and striking out seven times.

If you’re curious, I put together a chart comparing spring walk/strikeout numbers with regular-season ones below the jump.   Click to continue »

 

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Quantum Kenny

Written by Jim Margalus on February 28th, 2010

If this is the last episode of “The Offseason,” the Oral Sox guys nailed it:

 

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Book news, and more self-promotion

Written by Jim Margalus on February 26th, 2010

Good news — my proof copy of White Sox Outsider 2010 is hitting the printer.  I’m going to give it a once-over for quality control, and when it (hopefully) passes the test, I should be able to put it up for sale sometime next week (Tuesday? Wednesday?) .  Thank Johnny Damon and my corrupt database for the delay.  And thank you for your patience.

A simple link dump will have to suffice today. I’m through with you, words.

Click to continue »

 

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