Writing was on wall for four-pack of pitchers

While Jake Peavy won’t begin his rehab stint for another couple of weeks, Clayton Richard made an immediate impact for the San Diego Padres.  He allowed just one run (a solo homer) over 5 2/3 innings, allowing more walks (three) than hits (two).
He seemed to lose effectiveness his second and third time through — certainly nothing new, but hopefully the strong first run helps Padres fans warm up to him.  As far as I can tell, so far, so good.
It didn’t exactly come as a surprise that Kenny Williams dealt Richard, although Richard said he was blindsided by the news. I think a lot of people on the other end were sad to see him go. For instance, Williams wished him a warmer farewell than he did to, say, Brandon McCarthy:

“Clayton Richard, we believe, especially going to the National League and in San Diego’s ballpark … I told him, you are about to be a very successful and rich man. You are going to do well over there.”

Richard was nearly impossible to dislike, mainly because he was like Mark Buehrle’s awkward, larger younger brother; the Robert Barone to Buehrle’s Raymond. He rose from obscurity like Buehrle, worked as fast as Buehrle, and somehow avoided balks like Buehrle.  One could say we saw far too much of his teeth, but it’s partially because he doesn’t sulk — even though he took some pretty thorough beatings, and Ozzie Guillen shifted him between the rotation and the bullpen.
If you don’t hold Richard up to Buehrle’s standard of consistency, the only other difference is that Richard can’t field his position worth a damn. Not for a lack of effort, though.
Add up those factors, along with having seen him throw a nice start on his way to the big leagues, and I was hoping to see Richard develop into that rich man in a Sox uniform. For a rookie, he acted like a pro’s pro. Alas, since Williams had already traded him once, the second time’s not much of a surprise.
The same can be said for the other arms included in the deal.
Aaron Poreda headlined the first Peavy trade with Richard, so it’s probably unlikely that any events that occurred between the trades made an impact on his future with the Sox.
Still, now that he’s been dealt, it does cast a different light on the way he was handled.
Let’s say Poreda hadn’t been dealt, and now spent time in Charlotte’s starting rotation. The story would be as follows:

  1. Poreda dominates Double-A with a fastball and little else.
  2. Sox need another lefty — maybe he could turn into another Thornton.
  3. Nope, he’s not quite there yet.
  4. And there aren’t many appropriate-leverage situations for him.
  5. Get him back to Charlotte to get more work.

The whole process was a little awkward, because Ozzie Guillen never had much of a reason to use him, as luck would have it. Had he gotten into the groove in Charlotte, the somewhat clumsy turn of events would be forgotten.
But, since he’s been traded, it could easily be construed as, “Don Cooper got a look at his off-speed stuff and concluded that he wasn’t going to have a third pitch.” Had Poreda not been in the deal the first time around, this might be the prevalent train of thought. And who knows — maybe that played a part, too.
(Not to mention “Ozzie Guillen didn’t like seeing Poreda cry” would’ve been a fun one, too.)
Of course, neither Richard nor Poreda can hold a candle to Dexter Carter when it comes to a lack of shock, as his inclusion in the package was unusually predictable.
HOW PREDICTABLE WAS IT?

It was so predictable, that even I saw it coming. Honestly, it might be the first time Williams validated one of my hunches. At the end of June, I wrote:

[Carter’s lack of a promotion] reminds me of the second time the Sox traded Gio Gonzalez.  Though he appeared to have mastered Double-A despite spending the entire previous season at that level, the Sox refrained from testing him in Charlotte.  Then they dealt him in the package for Swisher, and given his struggles in the majors with Oakland, the Sox did indeed appear to trade him at his peak value.
Using seat-of-the-pants analysis, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Sox are waiting until the deadline before giving Carter more difficult competition.  They’d rather have his adjustment period take place in August than July, if you get my drift.

There you go. The Sox don’t seem to be enamored with their own curveball pitchers, whether we’re talking about Carter, Gonzalez or McCarthy. Considering the struggles from the latter two, perhaps Williams has good reason (though Gonzalez has put together a couple of decent starts after the Twins pounded him).
Throw in Adam Russell, who we discussed yesterday, and you have four guys who had been identified as trade bait or poor fits in one way or another. As far as Williams trades go, this was almost ho-hum, considering the players involved. Then again, Williams already provided the element of surprise by knocking on the same door twice.
Another wrinkle that I would’ve lost money on if I were a betting man — when we were talking about the fourth first-round draft pick Williams would show the door this year, did anybody figure that Poreda would be the one?
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Speaking of surprises, Jhonny Nunez received his call to the majors, replacing Brent Lillibridge on the 25-man roster.
Nunez had carried his solid strikeout-to-walk ratio to Charlotte from Birmingham; unfortunately, his flyball tendencies joined it. His presence is not a permanent one, though. He’ll probably be the one to go when the Sox need Carlos Torres or Bartolo Colon.
Still, if he only throws a scoreless inning for the Sox, he’ll have provided more value than Wilson Betemit and Jeff Marquez combined.
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I’m holding off on tackling the Yankees series until the conclusion of today’s game, because I still don’t know what to make of it.
Sure, we’ve seen the Sox beat Phil Hughes after losing a lead in the ninth inning. They’ve also survived a poor D.J. Carrasco spot start, and beat the stuffing out of A.J. Burnett. They’ve scored 24 runs over two games, needing only one homer in the process.  And that was a solo shot.
However, if Mark Buehrle beats C.C. Sabathia today — something that has never happened — I’ll readily admit that it’s been a weird four games.
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The return of the curse of the minor league roundup:

  • Charlotte 3, Louisville 2
    • Josh Fields went 2-for-3 with a solo homer in his first game down.
    • Tyler Flowers went 2-for-4 with a double, his second straight multi-hit game. He’s now at .277/.306/.447 in 47 Triple-A at-bats.
    • Carlos Torres pitched well, striking out seven batters in six innings. He allowed both runs on five hits and two walks, including a solo homer.
  • Winston-Salem 5, Potomac 0
    • Justin Edwards threw seven shutout innings, striking out as many batters (five) as baserunners allowed (three hits, two walks).
    • Nathan Jones walked a batter in his scoreless inning.
    • Tyler Kuhn went 2-for-3 with a sac fly, and is hitting .344/.380/.420 over 131 AB at Winston-Salem.
    • After hitting 12 doubles in the month of July, Brent Morel started off August with a two-bagger.
  • Lake County 5, Kannapolis 3
    • Jared Mitchell went 0-for-3 with a walk. He’s walked in five straight games, but is just 1-for-14 over that stretch, dropping his line to .286/.400/.429.
    • Josh Phegley has a three-game hit streak, doubling to raise his average to .172.
    • Kenneth Williams Jr. doubled; Eduardo Escobar hit a two-run homer.
    • Nevin Griffith struggled, allowing four runs on six hits and two walks over 4 1/3 innings. He struck out only one batter.
  • Bristol 1, Danville 0 (Game 1, 9 innings)
    • Freddy Garcia allowed just one hit over five innings. He struck out two.
    • Santos Rodriguez picked up the win by throwing the last two innings, striking out four to just one hit and one walk. He’s struck out 26 over 17 innings, though with 14 walks.
    • Ryan Lee went 2-for-4; Brady Shoemaker’s hitting streak ended at 28 games.
  • Danville 4, Bristol 1 (Game 2, 7 innings)
    • Shoemaker went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI to re-start a streak.
    • Steven Upchurch was hit around a little, allowing four runs on nine hits over five innings. He only struck out one.
    • Matthew Heidenreich (1 IP) and Goldy Simmons (2 IP) both went three-up, three-down.
  • Great Falls 3, Missoula 2
    • Zach Kayne went 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBI.
    • Back in rookie ball, Garrett Johnson allowed two runs over five innings.
  • Birmingham vs. Mobile PPD
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cushinglee

I was at Clayton Richard’s MLB debut. I was always rooting for him, since he’s an Indiana boy (although the fact that he went to Michigan knocks a couple points off). So far, all the young pitching that Kenny has traded away hasn’t come back to haunt him. I still don’t like giving up young pitchers.

fustercluck

So is it the return of the minor league or the return of the roundup? Please, everyone, we must know what it is we’re supposed to be afraid of. I’ll explain the reference for Beckham:
The Return of the Curse of the Creature’s Ghost is a sketch from the HBO comedy series Mr. Show with Bob [Odenkirk] and David [Cross]. It’s about a group of people in a 1950s-style horror movie being confused by the awkward naming of the titular curse. It’s funny and it features John Ennis in drag.