Sergio Santos throws 3 fastballs and then turns to a slider-only pitcher

First 3 pitches: three 95mph 4-seam fastballs. After: eight 84-85mph sliders.

Boxscore:

Chi White Sox	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Buehrle	7.0	7	2	2	2	4	2	3.65
Thornton	0.1	1	0	0	1	0	0	3.68
Bruney(W, 1-0)	0.2	0	0	0	1	0	0	3.60
Santos(S, 16)	1.0	0	0	0	0	2	0	3.08
Totals	9.0	8	2	2	4	6	2	3.84

Pitch F/X:

Pitch Statistics
Pitch Type	Avg Speed	Max Speed	Avg H-Break	Avg V-Break	Count	Strikes / %	Swinging Strikes / %	Linear Weights	Time to Plate
FF (FourSeam Fastball)	95.00	95.3	-0.73	8.75	3	2 / 66.67%	0 / 0.00%	-0.2914	0.390
SL (Slider)	84.41	85.1	4.60	-0.02	8	7 / 87.50%	2 / 25.00%	-0.5710	0.439
Pitch classifications provided by the Gameday Algorithm and may be inaccurate.Pitch Type LWTS correspond to how many runs were likely to score on a particular pitch based on average run expectancy when each pitch was thrown and what happened as a result. Negative scores indicate more effective pitches.Time to Plate is the time, in seconds, that it takes an average pitch of this type to reach the plate. This is strongly correlated with velocity, but also factors in movement.

Inning-by-Inning Pitch Totals
Inning	Pitches in Inning	Strikes in Inning	Strike% in Inning	Cumulative Total Pitches	Pitch LWTS in Inning
9	11	9	81.82	11	-0.862

RE24: Paul Konerko 2.15, Alexei Ramirez -1.71, Alex Rios -1.40.

Thankfully Seth Smith’s throw bounced and Ianetta didn’t throw didn’t stop Carlos Quentin from scoring. Coxie must’ve realized there were 2 outs. And Alex Rios had a couple nice catches tonight. Maybe yesterday’s benching woke him up.

Other White Sox links: J.J. says the Sox won’t trading for a centerfielderer this year, James looks back on yesterday’s game and the season to this point, Paul Konerko is 2011′s worst base-runner (Fangraphs)., and soxman thinks Adam Dunn should change his at-bat song.

And a non-White Sox link: John Sickels gives us his thoughts on drug policy. Good stuff.

Sergio Santos goes slider crazy again [UPDATE]

Sergio threw 11 pitches tonight. 8 of those 11 were sliders. Of those 8 sliders, 7 were strikes (87.50%) with 4 [of the 8] being swinging strikes (50.00%). Coop’s lessons must be working!

Pitch F/X on Sergio:

Pitch Statistics
Pitch Type	Avg Speed	Max Speed	Avg H-Break	Avg V-Break	Count	Strikes / %	Swinging Strikes / %	Linear Weights	Time to Plate
FF (FourSeam Fastball)	96.00	96.1	-1.99	10.26	2	2 / 100.00%	1 / 50.00%	-0.1055	0.391
CH (Changeup)	89.80	89.8	-6.64	0.07	1	0 / 0.00%	0 / 0.00%	0.0421	0.415
SL (Slider)	85.14	86.5	5.53	-2.26	8	7 / 87.50%	4 / 50.00%	-0.7990	0.443
Pitch classifications provided by the Gameday Algorithm and may be inaccurate. Pitch Type LWTS correspond to how many runs were likely to score on a particular pitch based on average run expectancy when each pitch was thrown and what happened as a result. Negative scores indicate more effective pitches. Time to Plate is the time, in seconds, that it takes an average pitch of this type to reach the plate. This is strongly correlated with velocity, but also factors in movement.

Inning-by-Inning Pitch Totals
Inning	Pitches in Inning	Strikes in Inning	Strike% in Inning	Cumulative Total Pitches	Pitch LWTS in Inning
9	11	9	81.82	11	-0.862

UPDATE: James looks at the entire bullpen’s performance in yesterday’s game.

Sergio Santos goes slider crazy

Sergio threw 15 pitches tonight. 13 of those 15 were sliders. Of those 13 sliders, 12 were strikes (92.31%) with 5 of the 13 being swinging strikes (38.46%).

Pitch F/X on Sergio:

Pitch Statistics
Pitch Type	Avg Speed	Max Speed	Avg H-Break	Avg V-Break	Count	Strikes / %	Swinging Strikes / %	Linear Weights	Time to Plate
FF (FourSeam Fastball)	95.30	95.3	-3.75	8.74	1	1 / 100.00%	1 / 100.00%	-0.0431	0.398
CH (Changeup)	88.60	88.6	-8.49	1.96	1	1 / 100.00%	0 / 0.00%	-0.0431	0.426
SL (Slider)	83.42	85.5	4.38	-2.24	13	12 / 92.31%	5 / 38.46%	-1.0685	0.453
Pitch classifications provided by the Gameday Algorithm and may be inaccurate. Pitch Type LWTS correspond to how many runs were likely to score on a particular pitch based on average run expectancy when each pitch was thrown and what happened as a result. Negative scores indicate more effective pitches. Time to Plate is the time, in seconds, that it takes an average pitch of this type to reach the plate. This is strongly correlated with velocity, but also factors in movement.

Inning-by-Inning Pitch Totals
Inning	Pitches in Inning	Strikes in Inning	Strike% in Inning	Cumulative Total Pitches	Pitch LWTS in Inning
8	3	3	100.00	3	-0.292
9	12	11	91.67	15	-0.862

Other White Sox links: Chuck Garfien tells us the story of Gloria DeSucre who traveled 2,500 miles to meet Omar Vizquel. Gloria is 80 years old. I must say she looks absolutely amazing for her age. My first reaction upon seeing Garfein’s story was ‘this lady is 80 years old? Wow!’ Like I said the other day, the ladies love Omar!

Sergio Santos [UPDATE]

How was Sergio’s slider today? In his blown save against Oakland (June 10), Sergio threw 38 pitches in the 9th, 3 of which were sliders. 1 of the 3 sliders was a strike; it also was a swinging strike.

Today, Sergio threw 15 pitches in the 9th, 7 of which were sliders. 3 of the 7 sliders were strikes (42.86%). 2 of the 7 were swinging strikes (28.57%).

Strike-zone pictures for today’s outing from MLB Gameday. 1st batter:

#3 was a slider. Result was a fly out on pitch #4 (fastball).

2nd batter:

#4, and #5 (swinging strike) are sliders. Result was a strike out on pitch #5.

3rd batter:

#2 (behind #4), #3, #4, and #6 (swinging strike) were sliders. Result was a strike out on pitch #6.

Steve Stone said in the beginning of the 9th that in Sergio’s blown save against Oakland the release point of his slider wasn’t the same with the release point of his fastball and batters could determine when a slider was coming and not swing at the slider, but wait for a fastball. Pitch F/X has graphs for both outings.

June 10 against Oakland:

June 19 (today) against Arizona:

That’s better.

UPDATE: J.J. takes a Pitch-F/X look at today’s Phil Humber.

Another W for Humber. 7/2 K/BB too.

Seems Crisp beat Morel’s throw to 1st for the 3rd out in the 9th. Could Morel have tagged third base before the runner got there instead of throwing at 1st? Look at the video and judge for yourself. Seems very close to me. In any case, as J.J. says, Sergio must get his breaking stuff in the strikezone.

Boxscore:

Chi White Sox	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Humber(W, 6-3)	7.0	4	3	3	2	7	1	2.95
Thornton(H, 8 )	1.0	0	0	0	1	0	0	4.63
Santos(S, 12)	1.0	2	1	1	1	1	0	3.41
Totals	9.0	6	4	4	4	8	1	4.10

RE24: Adam Dunn 1.92, Carlos Quentin 1.12 Alex Rios -1.44, Alexei Ramirez -1.32.

Pitch F/X for Humber:

Pitch Statistics
Pitch Type	Avg Speed	Max Speed	Avg H-Break	Avg V-Break	Count	Strikes / %	Swinging Strikes / %	Linear Weights	Time to Plate
FF (FourSeam Fastball)	89.95	91.9	-5.97	7.73	44	32 / 72.73%	0 / 0.00%	-0.2030	0.419
CH (Changeup)	83.13	84.8	-5.75	5.01	12	8 / 66.67%	0 / 0.00%	-0.9588	0.453
SL (Slider)	83.85	85.4	0.92	2.83	10	4 / 40.00%	3 / 30.00%	0.0458	0.447
CU (Curveball)	79.58	81.5	5.51	-5.45	36	20 / 55.56%	8 / 22.22%	-0.7153	0.477
FT (TwoSeam Fastball)	88.90	88.9	-9.48	6.30	1	1 / 100.00%	0 / 0.00%	-0.2644	0.421
Pitch classifications provided by the Gameday Algorithm and may be inaccurate. Pitch Type LWTS correspond to how many runs were likely to score on a particular pitch based on average run expectancy when each pitch was thrown and what happened as a result. Negative scores indicate more effective pitches. Time to Plate is the time, in seconds, that it takes an average pitch of this type to reach the plate. This is strongly correlated with velocity, but also factors in movement.

Inning-by-Inning Pitch Totals
Inning	Pitches in Inning	Strikes in Inning	Strike% in Inning	Cumulative Total Pitches	Pitch LWTS in Inning
1	25	14	56.00	25	0.389
2	10	8	80.00	35	-0.862
3	7	5	71.43	42	-0.834
4	14	8	57.14	56	-0.848
5	14	9	64.29	70	-0.862
6	11	7	63.64	81	-0.004
7	22	14	63.64	103	0.926

and Santos:

Pitch Statistics
Pitch Type	Avg Speed	Max Speed	Avg H-Break	Avg V-Break	Count	Strikes / %	Swinging Strikes / %	Linear Weights	Time to Plate
FF (FourSeam Fastball)	94.89	96	-3.48	8.73	19	14 / 73.68%	0 / 0.00%	0.1315	0.396
CH (Changeup)	86.35	87.7	-9.14	3.14	4	2 / 50.00%	1 / 25.00%	0.0449	0.437
SL (Slider)	83.77	84.4	3.98	-1.42	3	1 / 33.33%	0 / 0.00%	0.1480	0.454
CU (Curveball)	83.90	85.9	3.77	-2.13	2	0 / 0.00%	0 / 0.00%	0.1399	0.455

Inning-by-Inning Pitch Totals
Inning	Pitches in Inning	Strikes in Inning	Strike% in Inning	Cumulative Total Pitches	Pitch LWTS in Inning
9	28	17	60.71	28	0.464

Sergio blows it

2 outs, nobody on, an 0-2 count and then Sergio loses the 2-run lead and the game.

Couldn’t Ozzie pull him after the walks? The more the time passes the more the A’s players could figure out ‘this guy has only his fastball tonight’ as Pitch-F/X shows:

Pitch Statistics
Pitch Type	Avg Speed	Max Speed	Avg H-Break	Avg V-Break	Count	Strikes / %	Swinging Strikes / %	Linear Weights	Time to Plate
FF (FourSeam Fastball)	95.14	96.9	-3.02	6.90	23	14 / 60.87%	1 / 4.35%	0.9191	0.399
CH (Changeup)	86.34	88.4	-5.83	-2.09	5	2 / 40.00%	1 / 20.00%	0.4028	0.438
SL (Slider)	84.20	85.2	3.97	-3.92	3	1 / 33.33%	0 / 0.00%	0.6632	0.452
CU (Curveball)	85.40	85.4	5.05	-3.13	3	1 / 33.33%	1 / 33.33%	-0.1119	0.449
FT (TwoSeam Fastball)	88.90	89.5	-8.75	-0.01	4	1 / 25.00%	0 / 0.00%	0.1776	0.425
Pitch classifications provided by the Gameday Algorithm and may be inaccurate. Pitch Type LWTS correspond to how many runs were likely to score on a particular pitch based on average run expectancy when each pitch was thrown and what happened as a result. Negative scores indicate more effective pitches. Time to Plate is the time, in seconds, that it takes an average pitch of this type to reach the plate. This is strongly correlated with velocity, but also factors in movement.

Inning-by-Inning Pitch Totals
Inning	Pitches in Inning	Strikes in Inning	Strike% in Inning	Cumulative Total Pitches	Pitch LWTS in Inning
9	38	19	50.00	38	2.051

As Ballantini says:

#WhiteSox have lost five games when leading after 8–3 such losses in all of 2010. Also: 10-18 vs. sub-.500 clubs.—
Brett Ballantini (@CSNChi_Beatnik) June 11, 2011

Padilla @ ESPN:

It seems obvious that there is a problem with Santos’ slider. It’s not only that he can’t throw his best pitch for an effective strike, he doesn’t seem to be able to get a grip on it. He threw one to the backstop, appeared to hit Kurt Suzuki with another and a third went for Matsui’s RBI single.

“I just didn’t have a feel for it,” Santos said. “I did but I just couldn’t repeat it consistently. That ended up kind of messing me up because it’s usually my put-away pitch. I couldn’t do it to Willingham. I tried three times and nothing.”

Ohhh:

Jesse Crain was not used tonight because he had pitched in two straight and three of the last four.—
Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) June 11, 2011

Ozzie Guillen’s brilliant mound visit

Ozzie on what he told Santos on mound vs. Miggy: "Nothing. Let's fake it here so that [Cabrera] thinks we're doing something."—
Brett Ballantini (@CSNChi_Beatnik) June 04, 2011

Kenny Williams wants more pitching

Merkin @ CWS:

“If [White Sox chairman] Jerry [Reinsdorf] and Kenny had their way, it would always be pitching,” Laumann said. “I don’t necessarily disagree with that. You also need guys to catch and throw across the field and score some runs.” … “We will deal from the depth of the Draft, which looks like it’s in the college pitching, and that’s a good thing for us,” Laumann said. “Or if we feel like there’s one position player that stands out as an impact guy, we can possibly get him at 47 and feel confident about the next two or three college arms.”

Other White Sox links: James has fun with arbitrary dates, Sergio Santos hasn’t changed, A.J. Pierzynski is balancing his hands, Don Cooper says the 6-man rotation will stick around for a while, and Josh Phegley has good day at the plate and says he always goes after the first available fastball he sees.

Oh my, this is crazy

Crazy White Sox stat: They're 14-11 against teams .500 or above, 6-15 against teams below .500.—
Chuck Garfien (@ChuckGarfien) May 21, 2011

Other White Sox links: James looks at the end of Sergio Santos’ scoreless streak in yesterday’s loss, Cheryl looks at today’s win, FutureSox looks on Ryan Buch’s promotion to Class-A+ Winston-Salem (Buch: 3.69 ERA, 3.75 FIP, 1.14 WHIP, .266 BABIP, 46.1 IP, 46 K, 17 BB) and thatshortkid attends a Birmingham Barons game at Regions park and writes about it.

Pitching updates

A 6-man rotation means 1 less reliever. How will the Sox compensate?

In order to compensate for the loss of a middle reliever, one of the starters will be available in relief during the middle of their extended break. The exclusions to that possible role are Mark Buehrle and Gavin Floyd.

The six-man rotation will give the starters some relief since the Sox embark on a stretch of playing on 20 consecutive days without a scheduled day off starting Friday, and Guillen wants to ensure the health of Buehrle and Floyd through the entire season.

And if the 6-man rotation experiment goes well?

Manager Ozzie Guillen said he sees no reason not to stay with a six-man rotation if it works past the 20-day experimentation period that began with Phil Humber’s start against the Athletics on Friday night.

“If we like what we see, of course we’ll keep it at six,’’ Guillen said when asked if he can envision it in place deep into the summer. “Yes. Because I don’t see no reason to change it.’’

Why isn’t Santos given the closer title?

Santos wasn’t used Sunday the way a closer would normally be handled. When on the road in extra innings, teams typically save closers in case they take the lead and need to shut down the victory in the bottom of the inning. …

“[If I did,] all of a sudden, I have to stick with him,” Guillen said. “All of a sudden you don’t see him in the ninth and it’s, ‘What happened here? You said he was going to be the closer.’ When you are there, close the game. I think it’s too early to say this is the guy we are going to use. We’re not save that many games. But every time he’s there, he does the job. I hope he just wait a little bit for what’s going on and then we do something or tell him.”

And from the Coop Pitching Education department:

Humber credited Cooper with helping him add a slider to his repertoire during spring training.

‘‘[Before] I was fastball, curve, change,’’ Humber said. ‘‘The slider takes a lot of pressure off my other breaking ball because it gives hitters something else to think about.’’

Humber has been using his slider early in counts and throwing the curve as his put-away pitch.

and

Right-hander Jesse Crain tinkered with a split-fingered grip on his changeup last year in Minnesota, refined it in spring training and has mastered it this season.

The pitch looks like a fastball, then sinks late.

‘‘It’s been good, something else to keeps hitters off balance,’’ said Crain, who also throws a good curve and plus-fastball. ‘‘It’s slower [around 83 mph], it kind of fades into a righty and fades away from a lefty. Got some jams from righties and swings and misses and rollovers from lefties.’’

Other White Sox links: James says Alexei is breaking out, J.J. looks at Alexei’s acting skills, Chuck Garfien interviews Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland, and Carl has his latest sketch.

The closer that shall not be named

Ozzie, on his Closer Who Must Not Be Named: "It’s obvious, he’s there every ninth inning when we've got the lead."—
Brett Ballantini (@CSNChi_Beatnik) May 09, 2011

More by Ballentini here.

Other White Sox links: J.J. takes a look on PK’s 5-5 day and more.

Gavin Floyd struck out 10 and walked 1 tonight

Boxscore:

Chi White Sox	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Floyd, G(W, 3-1)	8.0	4	2	2	1	10	2	3.60
Thornton(H, 1)	0.1	0	0	0	1	0	0	6.43
Santos(S, 2)	0.2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00
Totals	9.0	4	2	2	2	10	2	4.14

Floyd’s curveball was awesome tonight:

Pitch Statistics
Pitch Type	Avg Speed	Max Speed	Avg H-Break	Avg V-Break	Count	Strikes / %	Swinging Strikes / %	Linear Weights	Time to Plate
FF (FourSeam Fastball)	90.60	92.5	-5.03	9.16	35	22 / 62.86%	4 / 11.43%	-0.1221	0.415
CH (Changeup)	83.80	85.3	-6.57	8.60	7	2 / 28.57%	0 / 0.00%	0.1175	0.450
CU (Curveball)	77.60	79.4	9.01	-5.58	31	20 / 64.52%	5 / 16.13%	-1.9682	0.488
FC (Cutter)	84.44	86.9	0.37	4.71	25	20 / 80.00%	6 / 24.00%	-0.8447	0.444
FT (TwoSeam Fastball)	90.38	91.5	-9.50	8.12	4	2 / 50.00%	0 / 0.00%	-0.0197	0.414
Pitch classifications provided by the Gameday Algorithm and may be inaccurate. Pitch Type LWTS correspond to how many runs were likely to score on a particular pitch based on average run expectancy when each pitch was thrown and what happened as a result. Negative scores indicate more effective pitches. Time to Plate is the time, in seconds, that it takes an average pitch of this type to reach the plate. This is strongly correlated with velocity, but also factors in movement.

Inning-by-Inning Pitch Totals
Inning	Pitches in Inning	Strikes in Inning	Strike% in Inning	Cumulative Total Pitches	Pitch LWTS in Inning
1	14	8	57.14	14	-0.862
2	12	9	75.00	26	0.596
3	15	8	53.33	41	-0.547
4	12	7	58.33	53	-0.834
5	10	6	60.00	63	0.596
6	9	7	77.78	72	-0.575
7	17	10	58.82	89	-0.862
8	10	8	80.00	99	-0.848
9	3	3	100.00	102	0.498

Matt Thornton, and Sergio Santos inside:

Phil Humber!

Wow, I didn’t expect that:

Chi White Sox	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Humber(W, 2-2)	7.0	1	0	0	2	5	0	3.20
Sale(H, 1)	0.2	0	0	0	0	1	0	5.79
Santos(S, 1)	1.1	2	0	0	0	1	0	0.00
Totals	9.0	3	0	0	2	7	0	4.23

Pitch-F/X:

Pitch Statistics
Pitch Type	Avg Speed	Max Speed	Avg H-Break	Avg V-Break	Count	Strikes / %	Swinging Strikes / %	Linear Weights	Time to Plate
FF (FourSeam Fastball)	89.89	92.2	-5.59	9.13	37	23 / 62.16%	1 / 2.70%	-1.5581	0.419
SI (Sinker)	88.75	89.6	-7.76	5.57	4	4 / 100.00%	0 / 0.00%	-0.4706	0.426
CH (Changeup)	82.98	85.1	-0.30	4.36	30	16 / 53.33%	4 / 13.33%	-1.3148	0.451
CU (Curveball)	80.02	82.9	7.82	-4.47	29	23 / 79.31%	1 / 3.45%	-1.3135	0.472
Pitch classifications provided by the Gameday Algorithm and may be inaccurate. Pitch Type LWTS correspond to how many runs were likely to score on a particular pitch based on average run expectancy when each pitch was thrown and what happened as a result. Negative scores indicate more effective pitches. Time to Plate is the time, in seconds, that it takes an average pitch of this type to reach the plate. This is strongly correlated with velocity, but also factors in movement.

Inning-by-Inning Pitch Totals
Inning	Pitches in Inning	Strikes in Inning	Strike% in Inning	Cumulative Total Pitches	Pitch LWTS in Inning
1	20	14	70.00	20	-0.848
2	14	11	78.57	34	-0.848
3	14	8	57.14	48	-0.862
4	16	9	56.25	64	-0.518
5	6	3	50.00	70	-0.713
6	9	7	77.78	79	-0.834
7	21	14	66.67	100	-0.034

Chris Sale, and Sergio Santos inside:

Sergio Santos to close?

Garfien @ CSN:

Santos, who has yet to give up a run in the regular season (9 2/3 innings) and spring training (same number: 9 2/3 innings) received praise from manager Ozzie Guillen before Friday’s game, hinting that he might start handing the ball to the young pitcher in save situations.”

Now I have confidence in Santos,” Guillen said. “I don’t mind closing a game with Santos if three righties are at the plate. I don’t mind at all. You talk about (Miguel) Cabrera, Magglio (Ordonez) and (Austin) Jackson, you might see Santos in the ninth. That’s the way we’re going to go to right now when we start to set everything ready to go.”

Carlos Quentin: now OPSing 1.121 (video) [UPDATE]

Video: HR #1 (0:54), HR #2 (0:52). Dr. Fishbein is doing an awesome job!

BTW, here are some BABIPs from statcorner:

Gordon Beckham: .237
Adam Dunn: .250
Brent Morel: .250
A.J. Pierzynski: .250
Alexei Ramirez: .241
Alex Rios: .213

Edwin Jackson: .342
Jesse Crain: .200
Will Ohman: .348
Chris Sale: .346
Sergio Santos: .250
Matt Thornton: .400