Pregame notes: Jonathan Cannon scratched with back tightness

An immaculate run of control (eight walks in 171 batters faced) has spurred a nice collection of numbers for Jonathan Cannon over his last seven outings. He's recorded a 3.07 ERA (with a 3.32 FIP) over 41 innings in the span, allowing just three home runs.

That's where his numbers will stay for a few days, as he was scratched from his start Saturday with lower back tightness.

"I kind of feel like an old man right now," Cannon said. "It bothered me a little bit yesterday kind of after playing catch a little bit. I was still confident I was going to be able to throw today and woke up this morning and it was really tight.We decided to just see how it goes. Hopefully make a start in the next couple of days."

The White Sox are calling it a day-to-day issue, down to the part where it's undetermined if Cannon would take his next turn in the rotation, possibly pitch sooner, or wait longer. Mostly, it sounds like Cannon is just hoping he can avoid the injured list. The team is wary of how many young starters they have trying to complete their first full major league season and could easily see this as an opportunity to be cautious.

"We’ve already been doing treatment all morning," Cannon said. "It’s doing a lot better. Hopefully play some catch and maybe the next day get off the mound a little bit and make a start in the next few days."

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Bryse Wilson is returning to the rotation in Cannon's stead. He hasn't actually pitched since his last start in Cincinnati nine days prior, but was warming up in the bullpen Friday night. Being ready for any situation has been his modus operandi for a few years running, but Wilson took the boot from the rotation that he received to make way for Adrian Houser the way any starter would.

"A kick in the ass," Wilson said. "Mechanics got a little lazy, just trying to be a little too precise as a starter. Where I probably should have just been super-aggressive just really letting it go, go for as long as I can that way. But looking forward to getting back out there."

Wilson has been working on moving to the third base side of the rubber, which with his lower arm slot, should give him a funky crossfire angle that should play up against righties. Pitching coach Ethan Katz also had some information from White Sox biomechanist Aaron Trunt that they were working to incorporate with Wilson.

"The last game against the Reds, he had the lowest momentum down the mound, he was 12 percent below where he was at," Katz said. "We're shooting for 30 percent more energy going down the mound. We're not overhauling anything, but we want to create much more energy so we can show more velo. Today when he goes out there, I think you'll see higher velo, higher intent."

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As an outlet, we have been slow to acknowledge the cromulence of Joshua Palacios, but he does have a hit in each of his last four games and is hitting .261/.306/.413 over his last 15 contests.

The 29-year-old lefty swinger has credited working with hitting coaches Marcus Thames and Joel McKeithan on the direction of his swing for his recent results, helping him fight off the urge to pull off the ball, tempting as it may be.

"You definitely want to pop homers, it's one of the most fun things to do, but you can't do that if you're constantly ripping off the ball," Palacios said. "Guys stay through the ball and home runs are happy accidents. You can hit them to left, you can hit them to center, you can hit them to right, it's about hitting them where it's pitched. You just follow through with the direction that it's pitched."

Palacios said his cue is literally just to think about keeping his barrel in the strike zone for as long as he possibly can. While it's curious from an organizational standpoint that a 29-year-old who was released by the Pirates earlier this year has caught on for a run of action already exceeding 100 plate appearances on a young, rebuilding team. It must be conceded that Palacios is a very friendly and engaging presence who seems willing to take on any assignment and responsive to coaching.

If only his beloved New York Knicks weren't submitting him to such heartbreak.

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