Today’s ‘B’ game lineup:
Mitchell lf; Danks cf; Flowers c; Viciedo 1b; Kroeger dh; Nix 2b; Lillibridge ss; Morel 3b; De Aza rf; Floyd p
Besides G. Floyd, D. Cabrera, C. Torres and D. Hudson are scheduled to pitch.
BTW, Jim says pay attention to the walk and strikeout numbers.
Manager Ozzie Guillen said on Sunday that he is torn between letting Hudson pitch out of the bullpen and occasionally have a spot start as opposed to pitching every five days at Triple-A.
I asked Guillen for an assessment of Hudson at this point.
“I love him,” Guillen said. “Right now if he doesn’t make the ballclub, it’s better to get his innings because we never know what is going to happen with the five starters.” …
Decisions will have to be made about what to do with rookie Daniel Hudson, who is competing for the long-relief spot. Manager Ozzie Guillen indicated on Sunday that Hudson might be better served getting his regular work in the Minors, as opposed to being used sporadically by the White Sox.
Freddy Dolsi, Lucas Harrell, Sergio Santos, Carlos Torres and Daniel Cabrera all are in contention for that long-relief job, while Guillen said Randy Williams has the upper hand for the left-handed specialist spot but is no roster lock. That assessment is good news for non-roster invite Erick Threets, the hard-throwing southpaw who has impressed during the first week of camp.
The second left-handed relief spot is Randy Williams’ job to lose, but Erick Threets has been given an extended look and has impressed the coaching staff so far. Look for Threets to challenge Williams.
All it would take is one brief look at a sheet of paper located in the coaches’ office at Camelback Ranch for Don Cooper to lay out the full Cactus League work schedule for his starting five.
The group of Mark Buehrle, Jake Peavy, Gavin Floyd, John Danks and Freddy Garcia is so crucial to the team’s success that they will stay as close to on schedule as humanly possible.
“I really could tell you the whole Spring Training, if nobody gets hurt,” said Cooper, sitting in his golf cart and watching workouts on Thursday. “We have some split-squad games, and we might have some ‘B’ games. You never know. Maybe Charlie Leesman or [Daniel] Hudson or [Carlos] Torres or [Daniel] Cabrera will get a start there, in those situations.
“Otherwise, our starting pitchers will be doing all the starting.” …
from Merkin’s latest mailbag:
In deciding the original layout of the rotation, manager Ozzie Guillen and pitching coach Don Cooper will take a number of factors into consideration. They will look at the opponents over the first few weeks, which features home games against Cleveland and Minnesota and road games in Toronto and Cleveland, and they probably won’t put left-handers Buehrle and Danks back-to-back in the rotation.
Neither Buehrle nor Peavy are the type of pitcher to make a big deal over who gets that first start or campaign for the nod, but it would serve as an important milestone for Buehrle. With an Opening Day start on April 5 at home against Cleveland, assuming there isn’t 10 inches of snow still on the ground in Chicago, the lefty will break Billy Pierce’s franchise record for most Opening Day starts at eight.
With that deciding factor in mind, I look for a starting rotation of Buehrle, Peavy, Danks, Gavin Floyd and Freddy Garcia. It’s a solid unit, regardless of the way you stack it at the top.
Merkin also says that Carlos Torres is behind Daniel Hudson on the Sox pitching rotation depth chart but Torres has a better shot than Hudson on filling the long reliever spot. Hudson will go to Spring Training as a starter but may end up starting in Charlotte so he gets regular work. Merkin also says, Greg Walker went to California a few months ago and had “rave reviews” after seeing Carlos Quentin and Quentin should be closer to the 2008 Quentin in 2010.
Mayo:
The 2008 fifth-round pick out of Old Dominion began the year with the White Sox’s lowest full-season affiliate, the Kannapolis Intimidators, in the South Atlantic League. It would be the first of five stops for the right-hander, who finished the season in Chicago. It’s for that reason — as well as the success he had every step of the way — that he was the obvious choice for the 2009 MiLBY as Overall Starting Pitcher of the Year. …
Hudson was Mayo’s 2009 MiLB Pitcher of the Year on October 7. Here are some videos of Hudson.
Carlos Torres won the Triple-A Starting Pitcher of the Year MiLBY.
1) Dan Hudson, RHP, Grade B [changed to B+]
2) Jared Mitchell, OF, Grade B
3) Tyler Flowers, C, Grade B
4) Brent Morel, 3B, Grade B-
5) Jordan Danks, OF, Grade C+
6) Dayan Viciedo, 3B, Grade C+ …
Go to the link for descriptions and the entire list.
When D.J. Carrasco reports to Spring Training with the White Sox sometime in mid-February, 2010, the right-hander is hoping for a chance to compete for the final spot in the team’s starting rotation.
Carrasco thought there might be an early opportunity to make his case for that job on Monday, as Ozzie Guillen announced before Saturday’s 13-3 victory over the Royals that Carrasco would be replacing Gavin Floyd and his sore left hip for this spot start. But there was Carrasco, pitching two scoreless innings of relief on Saturday, helping protect Jake Peavy’s first American League win in his first American League start.
Despite Carrasco throwing only 20 pitches, Guillen said after the game that he will not start against the Twins. That job now will now fall to one of two rookies: Daniel Hudson or Carlos Torres.
“I told the coaches, ‘I don’t care about Monday if we don’t win today,’” said Guillen as to why he turned to Carrasco to pitch the seventh and eighth innings with a four-run lead. …
from today’s Prospect Hotsheet:
Triple-A Charlotte RHP Carlos Torres (White Sox) didn’t exactly have an easy route to the big leagues, but once the 27-year-old got there, he made the most of the opportunity. After turning in five scoreless innings for the Knights last Friday, Torres earned another callup to the show. Pitching in an interleague make-up game against the Cubs, Torres pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing five hits while striking out six. The righty sits in the low 90s, throws a sharp, mid-80s cutter and mixes in a 76-78 mph curveball
Relieve Matt Thornton. While Ozzie Guillen and the players aren’t quitting (according to him), his GM certainly did once that reported memo went out telling fellow GMs that a list of veteran Sox players were available. That said, it’s not time to put on a show and more a time to give Thornton a rest. Between pitching in the World Baseball Classic and throwing 59.2 pressure-packed innings (throwing in the high 90′s throughout), Thornton call it a season. He’s too valuable of a 2010 piece – especially with the current state of the pen – to waste further energy and risk injury pitching in meaningless September games. You can say this about anyone I’m sure, but relievers unreliable health from year-to-year makes this too obvious of a choice. …
FutureSox is hearing that Dan Hudson was pulled from his start due to an impeding promotion to Chicago, still waiting for confirmation.
BTW, Carlos Torres gets the start on Thursday.
UPDATE: The Newport News, VA Daily Press says so too:
The 22-year-old pitcher, who starred at Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach and at Old Dominion University, came back as a member of the Charlotte Knights and pitched three shutout innings against the Norfolk Tides. After the third inning, pitching coach Richard Dotson pulled Hudson out of the game and told him he was being called up to the majors by the Chicago White Sox. “It couldn’t have happened in a better place,” Hudson said between games of a doubleheader. “To get the news here, at this park with all of my friends and family here, it’s crazy to think about.” Hudson said the news caught him by surprise, since he was not among several Charlotte players promoted the day before as major-league rosters expand for September.
Guillen said he and general manager Ken Williams discussed call-up candidates Friday. ”He named a couple of players,” Guillen said. ”He named [catcher Tyler] Flowers. He named Getz, and I think [Josh] Fields should be here. He named Fields, Getz [and] pitcher Carlos Torres. I don’t know after that. We mentioned that we need a lefty for the bullpen.”
“We have D.J. [Carrasco] a possibility again, but we could go with the kid Torres again or go with Wes Whistler. Those are the names. … Freddy won’t be ready for that. Freddy probably needs at least three more [starts] for us to start saying, ‘OK, let’s see where he is right now.’ He’s still getting his feet and legs underneath him. Freddy is up to five innings, 60 pitches, and his velocity was 87-88 mph average. We know that Freddy is hard balls and smarts, and we know his curveball, slider, changeup will be there, because they’re always there, he can throw them on Christmas morning. It’s a little more game stuff for him, making sure legs are under him and arm is strong. He’s further along than where Jake is, but Jake didn’t have an arm injury, Freddy did. Getting to Jake, he’s going to have a side day [Wednesday] in San Diego and take two days off. Then he’ll do something with us on Saturday.”
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