Jimmy Cordero has a right to bare right arm

After the White Sox sent Tommy Kahnle to New York a few years ago, their next two relievers to hit 100 mph weren’t worth watching. Bruce Rondon flamed out after about a month, and Thyago Vieira can’t find the strike zone regularly enough to make cracking 102 mph worth it.

So when Jimmy Cordero surfaced with the Sox in July working triple-digits — but with a breaking ball that lacked reliable sharpness — I couldn’t yet quite yet tell what was going to distinguish him from those other hard-throwing righties who couldn’t find permanent employment.

Then Cordero showed up on Wednesday, gun blazing:

This isn’t the first time Cordero has fought his sleeve, or at least the one on his alternate jersey. He opened his previous outing in a similarly compromised fashion, and occasionally hiked it up all the way. When he didn’t, he still did a windmill move regularly between pitches to free things up:

But when he pitched against the Twins on Sunday wearing the 1983 Sunday uniforms, he seldom futzed with it. The little windmill is part of his pre-pitch prep, but he only really hiked up the sleeve when he had time to fill as a batter got back in a box, and he didn’t seem to care where it settled.

Reviewing footage of his other appearances, it appears to be an issue with elastic on the edge of the sleeve on the black alternate jersey, and he spent all of the ninth inning battling it. Here’s how he set up for each of the first 14 pitches.

It’s hard to say whether the sleeve or the Tigers gave him a harder time, but he ended up allowing two-out walk and a triple to spoil the shutout.

I already enjoyed watching Cordero because he gets some goofy swings on his sinker, and his changeup seems like a legit second pitch, especially complementing the tailing movement of his two-seamer. Still, I appreciate his willingness to take “add a wrinkle” literally. Rick Renteria also seemed to enjoy the gun show.

It’s all fun and games when it’s a blowout, but I’m curious about whether this is merely a nervous tic in a sport that’s full of them, or whether he actually finds his jersey constricting. The White Sox have a couple uniforms without the elastic edge on the sleeve, but the Sox seldom wear their two kinds of home whites. If it’s a problem, he’s not going to be able to run from it as long as the starters’ preference is so clear.

Seeing Cordero’s struggles with fabric, I jokingly argued that he should get his own personal 2000s White Sox vest throwback. I treated it as a joke because I didn’t take those vests seriously — to me, the Anaheim Angels’ version poisoned the sleeveless jersey of that era by default — but it proved to be a surprisingly popular idea, kidding or not.

That said, going totally sleeveless won rave reviews, at least when Yasiel Puig was doing it…

… so if the White Sox can find a way for Cordero to let it fly, they might have a cult hero on their hands. It’d only be the second-craziest idea of the day, after one the White Sox and Yankees already approved:

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karkovice squad

Get the man a pair of shears. More in the tradition of Kulszewski than Sale, tho.

As Cirensica

Speaking of Puig and muscles… I love this:

Derek Dietrich. Still a douchebag. pic.twitter.com/2c9sejkV3i

— Barstool Chicago (@barstoolchicago) July 21, 2019

Patrick Nolan

You resisted making a Sale joke. Impressive.

joseValentinsMustache

Now my head is thinking about if the white sox sold guaranteed rate to Harley Davidson and we had all leather uniforms with white socks.

NateDPT12

I liked the 2000’s vests.  They should bring those back.  They also need to either bring back the tuxedo stripe on the pants of the road grays or get rid of it on the sleeve.  It’s bush league to have piping on the shirt that doesn’t match the pants.

Don’t even get me started on the diamond sock. ? 

burning-phoneix

If the problem is the elastic, surely it wouldn’t be an issue to get them to a tailor and modify them slightly, right?
Is that against MLB regulations or what?