Results tagged ‘ Aaron Poreda ’

Eight-man rotation? Not likely

I have to give credit to Mark Gonzales, my esteemed White Sox beat writing colleague and friend from the Chicago Tribune, for coming up with a funny image following Sunday’s 5-1 White Sox victory over Detroit.

Gonzales was talking about the picture from the 2005 White Sox World Series championship run that had all the starting pitchers holding baseballs with their arm outstretched in a group shot. He suggested if the White Sox took that same picture at this point this year, there might be eight guys in the picture.

Let’s see, there’s Mark Buehrle, John Danks, Gavin Floyd and Jose Contreras. Then, there’s Bartolo Colon and Clayton Richard, and don’t forget Freddy Garcia getting back into pitching form with Class A Kannapolis, and Carlos Torres looking pretty solid in his one start for the White Sox. Even Aaron Poreda started for Charlotte after being optioned down, so his time can’t be too far away.

Has any Major League team ever gone to an eight or nine-man rotation? With the way Ozzie Guillen likes to match up out of the bullpen, there’s no way the White Sox will go one short in relief and even have a six-man starting staff.

But with two straight strong outings under his belt, I don’t see how Richard can be moved back to the bullpen. Some would argue how Richard has been great for two starts, but where was he the eight prior to that one? He could be just as helpful as the second southpaw in relief. In this sort of tight division race, though, you have to ride the hot hand.

So, who becomes the expendable piece? I would say Colon, with all due respect to the highly successful veteran right-hander. He looked sharp on Friday, but I think you can get what he provides from Richard or even Garcia down the line. The problem for Colon is he can’t work in relief, and I’m not sure if the White Sox are ready to cut ties with him.

It should be an interesting call to make. Then again, Richard’s trade value probably never will be as high as it is right now.

Having too many quality starters certainly is a good problem to have.

Poreda to be called up

For the second time in the last six days, the White Sox are turning to a top recent draft pick to infuse a little life into their struggling team.

Aaron Poreda, the White Sox top pick in the 2007 First-Year Player Draft, will be added to the team’s 25-man-roster prior to Tuesday’s contest with the Tigers, officially called up from Double-A Birmingham. The hard-throwing left-hander talked about the promotion on the Waddle and Silvy Show on ESPN 1000 in Chicago Tuesday morning.

“I’d say I’m more excited than nervous,” Poreda said. “I’m excited to be in any kind of situation. Just being here is enough for me.

“I want to be doing what I’ve been doing all year long. Try to throw strikes, pound the zone. Use the secondary stuff, my slider and change up I’ve been developing. Really just go after hitters.”

Poreda, 22, figures to join the White Sox starting rotation, although he did pitch in relief during the Arizona Fall League and during Spring Training in Glendale. The addition of Poreda leaves a glut at the back end of the rotation, behind Mark Buehrle, Gavin Floyd and John Danks.

Jose Contreras made a triumphant return in the nightcap of Monday’s split doubleheader with Detroit, allowing one hit over eight scoreless innings, and Clayton Richard has impressed the White Sox during his six-start stint–despite control issues in his last two starts. Bartolo Colon has lost five of his last six decisions and received criticism from manager Ozzie Guillen on Sunday for not using an effective secondary pitch behind his fastball with a velocity in the high 80s.

Poreda had a 5-4 record with a 2.38 ERA in 11 starts for the Barons, last throwing six scoreless innings against Montgomery on Friday, June 5.

His promotion follows Gordon Beckham, the team’s top selection in the 2009 First-Year Player Draft, to the Majors. Beckham, who was the eighth pick overall last year, was called up by the White Sox last Thursday and is 0-for-13 since his arrival, although he did reach base on Monday via a walk.

Ken Williams, unplugged

The White Sox general manager talked for 17 minutes prior to Friday’s game, with the focus falling primarily on the Jake Peavy situation. But here’s a few other tidbits that didn’t find their way into the main story on the trade that never was or the story to come centered on Williams’ optimism for the team to shake off the doldrums from the slow start.

On Bartolo Colon:

“Well, Bartolo, you know, you can’t get away with fastballs all the time. He’s going to have to mix in some more breaking balls. He’s got some of the best movement on his fastball in the game, but unless you’re mixing it up, then you’re not going to have any success.

And he knows that. To a great degree, that reality has to kind of set in that he doesn’t have 96, 97 mph anymore where he can go out and throw 90 percent fastballs and get an out. He’s just got to mix it up more, and that’s just the bottom line. If he doesn’t mix it up, he’s going to get it handed to him.”

On the inconsistent 2009 mound work from young starters such as Gavin Floyd and John Danks:

“Here’s what I’ll tell you. There are a number of clubs that are trying to get ahold of our guys in the rotation, particularly our young guys in the rotation, and get me to move them now thinking that we might have soured on them because they’ve had a little bit of a tough stretch. It’s not happening. We’ve got faith in John Danks and Gavin Floyd. I’m not too worried about how they’re going to rebound this year.”

On young players such as Aaron Poreda and Clatyon Richard hearing their names in the Peavy trade rumor:

“I have a standing policy that no one in that locker room has to guess what’s on my mind, on any of the coaches’ mind. All they have to do is ask the question, and we’ll give them a straight answer. To this point, I have not been asked by anyone to expound. But I’ve given them all that right. The difficult part is when you are, when things come out, and it may not necessarily be as accurate as you’d like it to be, but you don’t want to expound on it because you don’t want to give any legs to it.”

On sending a message to the White Sox fan base that the team needs to improve:

“I’m very careful about saying, ‘We’re going to improve on this, we’re going to make the moves necessary,’ because you can have as many great ideas as you want. You can have as much aggressiveness or desire as you want. But if the players aren’t available or if the matchups don’t fit with other clubs, there’s some things that are just out of your control. The guys with the gloves and the bats and the balls have the control around here. The rest of us, we’re just along for the ride.”

On finding the money to pay for Peavy, if he agreed to the trade:

“We were going to figure that out along the way. That’s not too much of a stretch.”

On making more of a personal pitch to Peavy to join the White Sox:

“Well, I made the offer. I had a flight scheduled to go out a couple of days before you guys even knew about it, or at least a day and a half before you guys even knew about it. So I was certainly willing to do so.

But it was very quickly articulated to me that this was not about his respect for the White Sox, the city, Ozzie as a manager, what we’re about, our aggressiveness in trying to field a competitive team every year. This wasn’t about any of that.

When you get a guy that has a no-trade clause in his contract, do you know what that means? It means he’s earned it. And when you earn that right, just like any of us would like, when you earn those certain rights, you’d like to be able to dictate and plot your own course. There’s nothing wrong, I don’t begrudge him or anyone else.

Years ago, I forget who it was, [Carlos Delgado]. Yeah, who expressed some of the same things, as well. It is what it is. You move forward. You find another way.”

On Plan B after Peavy:

“Usually I have a Plan B. At this stage, this pretty much was a Plan A kind of thing. I didn’t have anything really backing this one up right now. We’ll work on it.”

Roster Moves

The tandem of Gordon Beckham and Aaron Poreda figure to be frontline players on a White Sox division winner in the near future.

 

For that matter, Beckham, the team’s top pick in the 2008 First-Year Player Draft, and Poreda, the White Sox No. 1 selection in the 2007 First-Year Player Draft, could contribute to the 2009 cause before all is said and done. But they both will start the season in the Minor Leagues.

 

Beckham and Poreda were two of four players reassigned to Minor League camp on Wednesday morning, joining veteran first baseman Ben Broussard and infielder Eider Torres. Right-handed relievers Adam Russell and Ehren Wassermann were optioned to Triple-A Charlotte, bringing the total to 33 players still in camp for the White Sox.

 

That total breaks down to 16 pitchers, three catchers, eight infielders and six outfielders. Catchers Corky Miller and Donny Lucy, left-handed reliever Randy Williams, right-handed reliever Mike MacDougal and outfielder Josh Kroeger remain in contention for a roster spot as non-roster invitees to Spring Training.

 

This and that

–DeWayne Wise tripled and homered in four at-bats, while Chris Stewart and Sergio Santos both went deep during the Dodgers’ 6-4 victory over the White Sox in Monday’s ‘B’ Game. The White Sox did not bat in the bottom of the ninth because Los Angeles ran out of pitchers. Franklyn German hurled two scorless innings, while Lance Broadway gave up one unearned run and fanned three in two innings.

–Jeff Marquez is scheduled to throw during Tuesday’s day off, probably working against Minor League hitters on one of the White Sox back fields at Camelback Ranch.

–Aaron Poreda worked four innings in relief on Monday, giving up one run and striking out three. This effort follows a strong three-inning stint last Wednesday in Las Vegas against the Cubs.

The big left-hander remains in play for that final spot out of the White Sox bullpen.

“(White sox pitching coach Don Cooper) is going to continue to work with him,” said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen of Poreda, the team’s top pick in the 2007 First-Year Player Draft. “Hopefully, we get the best out of him and see what happens at the end of Spring Training.”

–Brent Lillibridge returned from a bout with the flu and played shortstop in the game against Cleveland, with Chris Getz playing second. Jayson Nix remains out of action with a sore right quad.

Getz’s three-run, inside-the-park home run hit in the second showed me he’s get a second gear speed-wise that I didn’t really get a chance to see last year. Getz shows good patience at the plate, and although Guillen does not want to add more pressure to what he already has, could Getz be a leadoff hitter? I think he could.

–Is this something–the White Sox are 0-5 against American League teams and 6-2 against the National League during 2009 Cactus League action.

–My original pick was Teya to win Rock of Love: Charm School Bus or whatever it’s called. I think Mindy is closing fast.

 

 

 

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