Pregame notes: Opener, more relievers, short memory in play

A day after opting for handedness and pitching to Pete Crow-Armstrong with Hagen Smith versus walking him and choosing to go at Seiya Suzuki and watching the worst-case scenario unfold, Will Venable still sounds like he'll go no further than "agree to disagree" with White Sox fans who objected to the thought process.

"All these decisions are tough and certainly understand what PCA walks you off there and he's such a good player and such a good hitter, but I trust the information that we have, that's been part of our process this entire year," Venable told reporters this afternoon at Wrigley Field. "Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't.

"In the case of last night, first of all with Hagen being the guy, you go into that inning before, you expect to score a run and you have to make a decision then on who you're going to use and Hagen was the right guy. And then we don't score, and then you're in a tough spot and you're just trying to figure out, ‘All right, with information that I have, as I'm observing the game, where guys are at, Hagen and his skill set, what's the best path for us getting through this without scoring a run.’ And again, leaning on our information, we had Hagen as a significantly better matchup against PCA than Suzuki, and so you get to walk one of them and you’ve got to make a choice, and I chose to hopefully try and get PCA out, walk Suzuki and and then deal with Busch and Owen Miller. So that was the thought process behind the decision. And again, sometimes these things just don't work out, and I also understand, too, PCA is a really special player, does special things. Suzuki is, too, and I had a choice to make, and again I just leaned on my information to make the best choice possible, and it didn't work out."

Say what you will, but it's a more open-minded defense than the one Steve Stone issued.

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Bryan Hudson is opening for the White Sox tonight, and Venable says Erick Fedde will follow, although perhaps not at the length that he'd delivered behind openers earlier this season because he'd been used in shorter relief recently.

More of the bullpen should be available, and Venable went into some of what kept him from using Grant Taylor with the hopes of protecting a one-run lead in the ninth inning on Monday.

"There’s limitation with these guys and the way you can use them. Similar to our process for decision making, availability has it’s process too," Venable said.

"There’s objective information we look at it. You talk to our coaches and you talk to your players. These guys are going to get out here and throw and they are going to give us information beyond what we see on paper. Then we make our decision considering their health and their potential performance. A lot of times these guys will fight and want to be available and you say, ‘Hey, it’s really not a good time.’ Sometimes you have to push them to be available when they maybe aren’t feeling well and you don’t have any other chances.

"It’s one of our processes and it’s something every team deals with. You have guys who aren’t available and you have to find a way."

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