Shoulder problems shelve Miguel Gonzalez again

After spending the weekend getting pasted by the Houston Astros, the White Sox pitching staff fell into further disarray today. The Sox placed Miguel Gonzalez on the 10-day disabled list with right rotator cuff inflammation, and called up Chris Beck from Triple-A to take his place. To make room, they moved Danny Farquhar to the 60-day disabled list as he battles with his brain aneurysm.

Gonzalez looked like he was pitching hurt, as he failed to crack 90 mph with his fastball during his last start, and past dips in his velocity have often been connected to shoulder woes. Here’s your regular reminder to trust the writing on the wall:

Carson Fulmer is going to start today’s game on regular rest rotation-wise, although he made a 24-pitch bullpen appearance on his side day. He was encouraged by his ability to throw strikes with life. James Fegan says Fulmer usually doesn’t lean on mechanical tweaks as talking points, but that’s not necessarily encouraging if consistent mechanics have always been his issue.

Credit Chris Beck for punching his way back up to the big leagues after being outrighted over the winter. By some measures, he’s been the worst White Sox reliever to pitch as much as he has. He has a 6.38 ERA over 83 games, which is good for a 67 ERA+. Only Ronald Belisario is in his neighborhood, posting a 68 ERA+ (5.56 ERA), but over 21 fewer games.

And even then:

  • Beck: 6.28 FIP
  • Belisario: 3.54 FIP

But hey, he’s pitched well in Charlotte, holding opponents to just four hits and three walks over nine innings while striking out 13. That last stat is notable, because Beck has never been one for racking up strikeouts in the minors, even over small samples. Perhaps it’ll all come crashing to an end, but he got somebody’s attention for the time being.

Beck has been used as a three-inning starter in the two weeks since the Sox called up Chris Volstad, and he’s was the scheduled starter for Tuesday. He can start a bullpen day, or can participate in one behind Volstad or Hector Santiago as the Sox sort out subsequent starts.

To take Beck’s place, the White Sox promoted 29-year-old Matt Tomshaw from Birmingham. That’s notable because he occupied one of the five rotation spots for the Barons, and now theoretically there’s an opportunity for Dane Dunning to finally make the jump from Winston-Salem. For the time being, the Barons added Jake Johansen from Charlotte’s disabled list, but Johansen hasn’t started a game since 2014.

As for Farquhar, it became clear that the 60-day disabled list was in his future after reading Bob Nightengale’s story. He said Farquhar will remain in the hospital under the watch of neurosurgeons for at least the next three weeks.

[Farquhar] underwent an additional complicated surgery Saturday night to relieve swelling around the brain and remained Sunday in the ICU unit at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. He’s in critical, but stable condition.

“He’s a fighter, and he’s in the fight of his life right now,’’ Chicago White Sox vice president Ken Williams said.  “They had to do another surgery, cracking his skull open, and putting a clamp on it. My God. […]

“His wife and mother were at the game that night, and by the time they got to the clubhouse, he was already in an ambulance heading to the hospital. Can you imagine what they went through, and are still going through?’’

Regarding Farquhar, I wrote about Justin Verlander barking at Tim Anderson an inning before Farquhar collapsed for my Monday column at The Athletic. A very personal tragedy shaped Anderson’s style, and now the White Sox are dealing with one on a team-wide scale.

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PauliePaulie

Jesus, Kenny.

dwjm3

Kenny sure has a way with words ..awkward

Amar

I’m sorry, but what’s wrong with what Kenny said? Kenny is an emotional guy, and this is an emotional time for the White Sox.

Jesus, PauliePaulie more like it

dwjm3

It isn’t appropriate to talk about somebody getting their head cracked open..It is needlessly graphic and not really an appropriate way to describe a person that is incapacitated. 

If Kenny is an emotional guy maybe he shouldn’t comment unless it is through the filter of a spokesman 

MrTopaz

It really undercuts the Sox’ position when in their press release they ask people to respect the privacy of Farquhar and his family, and then Kenny comes out yakking about cracked skulls and brain clamps.

As Cirensica

This. That comment reminds me of Ozzie saying the first thing that comes out of his mind without thinking.

Gutteridge70

yep

Amar

Fair enough, I agree with you … I had no idea where PP was coming from with his comment

As Cirensica

This is why I advocated during the off season to sign more starting pitchers. Inning eaters. Bullpen is awful and with crappy pitchers starting, I predicted a heavy workload for everyone which is already happening. This overuse could damage arms that matter in the future or could be trade chips (Nate Jones / Carlos Rodon / Lopez / Giolito). MiGo may be done and all replacement pitchers we have may not be able to eat 130 innings. Someone needs to pitch. We should have been the ones signing Bartolo or Dickey or someone that can soak up innings.

Hown is Buehrle doing?

zerobs

There’s Volstad and Santiago. Not to mention a few guys not on the 40-man: Covey, Roach, House, Danish can all be purchased from Charlotte if MiGo is indeed done. Dickey can still be signed if need be.

As Cirensica

All those pitchers you mention don’t solve the problems if they can’t go beyond 4 innings unless Ricky carries a boatload of pitchers and Narvaez

PauliePaulie

They wanted to give Carson a shot. Also had the return of Rodon and promotion of Kopech to consider. Thus, MiGo, Volstad and Hector.
Then the season began and the roof caved in.
Don’t know how many reliable starters would have been wiling to sign under those circumstances anyway.

zerobs

Yep. There’s only so many starts in Charlotte to go around. If you’re going to be the #3 veteran in Charlotte, you’re going to look around to see if you can be the #2 or #1 AAA veteran in another organization.

L2R

Already expressed my dislike of “rebuilding” the team and here is my concern not even 20 games into the year. How many prospects become stars? Will we have 4 or 5 come out of this and then need a few pieces to fill in the gaps? That puts right back where we were in 2013 and 2014.

I am hopeful to hear we start rebuilding the front office before we hear that we are rebuilding the team again!

Reindeer Games

“Why try to be better than 75 wins, when there’s a chance we could just end up as a 75 win team again” is a real interesting take.

Trooper Galactus

If they want or need Dickey, they can still sign him. I was kinda surprised he didn’t get any offers given he was decent in 2017.

As Cirensica

Me too. And as a knuckleballer, he never gets hurt. His a fun team mate. Great guy all around, and he guarantees around 175 of non-garbage innings per season.

Maybe Dickey didn’t want to play another year

John Lackey hasn’t signed with anybody. He can also eat a decent amount of innings.

Trooper Galactus

I think Lackey is absolutely toast at this point and doesn’t have a knuckleball to keep him afloat.

ParisSox

I think I had him in my offseason plan

Patrick Nolan

Seems like pretty good news at this point.

katiesphil

Thanks for the update, Jim. I can only imagine what this is like for the kid and his family.

Gutteridge70

Thanks Jim. News sounds as good as it can get considering the severity of his injury.

ndsoxfan

Great article for the Athletic, Jim.  I’ve really enjoyed watching Timmy this year and I’m so sick of the Dozier and Verlander bullshit.  Best wishes to Danny

zerobs

Maybe Timmy shouldn’t be stealing when down 5-0. Maybe Verlander shouldn’t be using Flonase every day.

Ted Mulvey

You can’t spell Flonase without “Alf nose”.

Gutteridge70

For a guy going to the Hall of Fame Verlander has a thin skin. If Mark Burhle had been been offended by a Timmy like antic , he just would have smiled after he picked his annoyer off.

L2R

Could someone please make a few T shirts that says,

Jerry’s managers won’t quit! 🙁

I will buy 2