Ozzie Guillen on Gordon Beckham’s defense

whitesox.com:

Beckham committed two errors at third base in the first-half finale at the Metrodome, giving him nine for the season. Guillen knows Beckham’s defense has to continue to improve for the White Sox to contend, part of the overall expected strong defensive play for the team, but Guillen also knows Beckham is learning on the job. “This kid made a lot of big plays for us,” Guillen said. “In the meanwhile, we’re asking him to be a big league third baseman when he didn’t play many games in the Minor Leagues. He’s doing a good job. He’s going to make errors. We have be patient with him. He’ll continue to work. We’ll continue to support him. At some time, you learn from mistakes.”

Tyler Flowers Futures Game interview (video)

Here: http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=5565195

Flowers’ saying he got promoted to AAA methinks. FutureSox agrees.

BTW, Tyler Flowers was 1-2 with a K, and Dayan Viciedo was 1-2 with an RBI-double at the Futures Game.

Steven Upchurch scouting report

FutureSox:

He has a very good changeup that will keep him as a starter. His breaking stuff has been inconsistent, but can be very good at times.

Nathan Jones scouting report

FutureSox:

Jones is a big stuff, no control guy. He had a mid 90s fastball and a devastating curveball.

Carlos Quentin update

He’s hitting .333/.440/.381/.821 (21 AB).

Mark Gonzales reminds us that he’s “on track to be activated Friday,” and that his next 3 games will be at Class-A Kannapolis.

Norris Hopper Q & A

Paul Schenkel:

Q: Would you like to play for a lot longer?

A: “Yeah, I’m going to do this until they run me off. I would never just give up. They’ll have to run me off unless my body couldn’t take it anymore.”

Josh Phegley scouting report

FutureSox:

His level swing results in a lot of line drives, but is part of the reason why scouts haven’t projected him to have much power. There are also minor concerns about his bat speed. …

Gordon Beckham adjusting to the big leagues

AJC:

“I made some adjustments, loosening up my hands so I wouldn’t put as much stress on my shoulders. It was all a mind thing. If you don’t have a strong mind or will, this game will bury you pretty quick.”

White Sox hitting coach Greg Walker said those adjustments were not “technical” in nature, but related to how he was expending himself.

“He was playing college ball at this time last year, and he came up here in the middle of some of the most intense games we’ll probably play all year,” Walker said. “We just told him to relax more because he was too tight, and the effort level was too high. Nobody was panicking, and we weren’t about to change anything because we had plenty of confidence in him. …

Kenny Williams looking into Roy Halladay?

From Nick Cafardo’s Halladay column (H/T MLBTR):

Kenny Williams, GM, White Sox – There’s a good chance Williams is looking into Halladay, though in an e-mail he wrote, “I don’t kiss and tell.’’ Williams recently traded for Arizona reliever Tony Pena, and it might be he can trim payroll by dealing closer Bobby Jenks, who makes $5.6 million and appears to be in demand. Williams made a deal for Jake Peavy, who nixed it, and gave up power-hitting prospect Brandon Allen for Pena. So, with Pena, Scott Linebrink, Matt Thornton, Octavio Dotel, D.J. Carrasco, and rookie lefthander Aaron Poreda in place, Jenks could bring a lot in return. The White Sox simply haven’t drawn as well as expected.

No Gordon Beckham mention. Nice!

Aaron Poreda won’t be inserted in the starting rotation

Poreda will stay in the bullpen:

And then there’s Poreda, the hard-throwing left-hander who was the team’s top pick in the 2007 First-Year Player Draft. He has become an instant bullpen presence with a 0.90 ERA over eight games, but don’t look for him to be stepping back into the role he held so well to the tune of a 2.38 ERA over 11 starts at Double-A Birmingham at the outset of the 2009 campaign.

“Poreda is a reliever right now, and it’s unfair to him for me to start him,” said White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper. “He’s long since been stretched out. He’s getting over the hump and showing he’s a quality left-handed reliever. We don’t want to pull the plug on that.”

Kevin Goldstein on Tyler Flowers

Kevin Goldstein:

Tyler Flowers, White Sox (US): A behemoth who has the bat that plays at any position in a lineup, which is a good thing, as his catching is suspect.

Eddie Collins

#10 on the All-Time Position Player WAR list

a comment from Tango though:

Since I’m not a fan of merging lists that are just loosely related, and then presenting them as something seemingly unified, I’ll refer to these Wins Above Replacement (WAR) lists as WApR (Wins Above peer-Replacements).

Matt Long and his cutter

The Newark Advocate:

He now relies on a cutter — the same pitch Long thought led to an arm injury as a sophomore at Miami University — and a curveball, and he’s racked up 11 strikeouts in 17 2/3 innings. … Working with Birmingham pitching coach J.R. Perdew, Long quickly found a comfort level. After figuring out his front side was a little flat, he worked with Perdew to create deception by throwing his glove through the arm slot where the ball will come. To get comfortable with that — something Long said was difficult to do at first — Long was put in the outfield during batting practice, going through a series of drills to get rid of the ball as quickly as he could when he caught it. ….

San Francisco Giants would like to pry away Jermaine Dye

Troy Renck (H/T MLBTR):

While the Giants are lukewarm on Matt Holliday, they would like to pry away the White Sox’s Jermaine Dye.

I don’t think Kenny Williams can sell Jermaine Dye now…

Sweet tea, barbecue and hunting

I’ll take Things Gordon Beckham likes for $400 Alex:

A self-described Southern boy who loves sweet tea, barbecue and hunting, Beckham grew up in the Buckhead section of Atlanta and still calls the area home. His parents, mom Sully and dad Gordon, met in college at South Carolina, where he played quarterback and she was a cheerleader. He has two sisters: Gwen, 20, a junior at Georgia, and Grace, 17, a high school junior. The family came to Chicago when Beckham first was called up and plans another trip later in the season. In the meantime, they all will meet up in Hilton Head, S.C., during the All-Star break.