Greg Walker says Gordon Beckham has messed up his swing

Schouwen @ CST:

Hitting coach Greg Walker said Beckham must simplify things at the plate.

“Looking back at Gordon’s 2009 tape, it was brilliant how simple it was,” Walker said. “When Gordon goes bad, his leg kick is bigger, his hand move is bigger and he ends up with bad posture and a loopier, longer swing. We need less of a leg kick, hand move — less of an effort level.”

As if we didn’t have enough things to worry about.

White Sox sign 12th round draft pick RHP Andrew Virgili

Daniels @ TBO:

Andrew Virgili, a 12th round draft pick of the Chicago White Sox during last week’s Major League Baseball draft has signed with the club.

Bats: R
Throws: R
Height: 6’02″
Weight: 205
Born: 1990-01-30
Class:  JR

He was assigned to Bristol.

Here are his College Stats:

Year	ERA	W-L	APP-GS	CG	SHO/CBO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	2B	3B	HR	AB	B/Avg	WP	HBP	BK	SFA	SHA
2011	2.35	7-5	14-14	0	0/0	0	95.2	86	32	25	25	94	17	4	3	350	.246	3	8	0	2	5

He was in Hillsborough Community College before that:

Year	GP	IP	R	ER	Hits	SO	BB	ERA	W	L	Save
2010	38	50.2	57	45	69	37	25	7.99	1	4	1
2009	35	39.2	53	41	66	25	19	9.30	2	1	1

He tried swinging the bat in those years:

Year	GP	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	Runs	RBI	BA	BB	HBP	SF	OBP	SB	SBA	SB%	PO	A	E	Fld%
2010	38	95	33	5	0	3	21	31	.347	20	0	1	.457	1	2	.000	180	52	10	.959
2009	35	75	22	4	1	3		20	.293	17	1	2	.421	1	1	.000	76	39	9	.927

Star Found Shooting Water “Bullets”

National Geographic: Stellar sprinklers may help irrigate cosmos, study suggests.

Seven hundred and fifty light-years from Earth, a young, sunlike star has been found with jets that blast epic quantities of water into interstellar space, shooting out droplets that move faster than a speeding bullet.

The discovery suggests that protostars may be seeding the universe with water. These stellar embryos shoot jets of material from their north and south poles as their growth is fed by infalling dust that circles the bodies in vast disks.

“If we picture these jets as giant hoses and the water droplets as bullets, the amount shooting out equals a hundred million times the water flowing through the Amazon River every second,” said Lars Kristensen, a postdoctoral astronomer at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

“We are talking about velocities reaching 200,000 kilometers [124,000 miles] per hour, which is about 80 times faster than bullets flying out of a machine gun,” said Kristensen, lead author of the new study detailing the discovery, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

(Related: “Dimmest Stars in Universe Spotted?”)

Wow, that’s absolutely amazing!