Ozzie Guillen on Aaron Poreda

Scot Gregor:

Aaron Poreda still is one of the White Sox’ best young pitchers, and the 22-year-old lefty is likely to get a shot to start as early as next season. For now Poreda is pitching long relief, but he has issued 5 walks in 5 innings over his last 3 outings. Manager Ozzie Guillen puts up with plenty of flaws, but walks aren’t one of them. That’s why he didn’t call on Poreda to face the Orioles on Friday in a tight game.

“The perfect guy in that (sixth) inning last night was Poreda, but I didn’t feel comfortable putting that kid in that situation with the game on the line,” Guillen said. “I wish I had a little more confidence in Poreda, not because he’s bad, just because he’s a kid.”

Gordon Beckham: .296/.364/.440/.804

.804. Look out Ken!

Rick Morissey: Chicago White Sox need Roy Halladay

No, we don’t. He is 32 and his contract expires next year. Let another team wreck its farm for Mr. Halladay.

And what does he propose we trade? Alexei Ramirez AND John Danks. What a joke. I wouldn’t trade John Danks alone.

Charlie Shirek scouting report

FutureSox:

Shirek features a good sinker that is typically in the 91-93 range, but has flashed mid 90s. He also has a solid slider and throws a curveball and changeup.

Stephen Sauer scouting report

FutureSox:

He throws a sinker in the 90-92 range with a good curve and a slider. He locates all of his pitches well and gets a lot of ground balls with his sinker.

Do you know Gordon Beckham owns the MLB rights to ‘Your Love’ by ‘The Outfield’?

Deadspin:

Just ask other major leaguers. Kelly Johnson, on the Braves, recently switched to The Outfield after earning a blessing from Beckham, who, apparently, owns the MLB rights to the song. (If song-granting permission is anything like the art of swapping jersey numbers, Beckham could have earned some serious swag from Johnson. Like Outfield concert tickets, or something.) Rumor has it Eric Byrnes also uses “Your Love,” but he never talked with Rabbi Beckham, who assured reporters that “he was going to investigate.”

Tyler Flowers wants ‘Your Love’ too.

FirstInning on Tyler Flowers D

FI takes a look on the D of the catchers in their Top 100 prospects list:

The one guy who really surprises me still is Tyler Flowers. It seems most scouts can’t see him sticking at catcher yet his rates look fairly similar to other guys who are thought of well enough to stick at the position.

BTW, I managed to watch the Futures Game yesterday. I know it’s small sample size, but Tyler seemed OK behind the plate. I remember him blocking the one ball I saw. I’ll try to take another look today.

Seems the MLB bosses didn’t want Obama to wear a Sox jacket at the All-Star game (UPDATE)

Paul Sullivan (h/t David Caplan):

Axelrod said he had a long talk with Obama before the game because some Major League Baseball executives weren’t happy about the decision.

“There was a big controversy,” he said. “I think Major League Baseball wanted him to wear the All-Star jacket, and he was intent on wearing his White Sox jacket. He prevailed in that.

Go Sox!

BTW, here’s Ozzie’s reaction to Obama’s pitch: “He threw better than (Clayton) Richard’s last outing,” Guillen quipped.

UPDATE: Jerry Reinsdorf confirms it:

It sounded like Major League baseball officials were trying to get him to wear the All-Star jacket.

Yeah, there were people in St. Louis that weren’t real happy he was going to wear our jacket. Some baseball people wanted an All-Star type jacket or even a Cardinal jacket. He said, ‘I’m a White Sox fan. I’m going to wear my White Sox jacket.’

Bryan Morgado update

Let’s see what’s the Sox 3rd round pick (LHP) is doing at the Cape Cod League:

Bryan Morgado (Tennessee) picked up a no-decision for the Western Division-leading Braves (14-11-2), striking out eight over five innings. But he walked six batters and left after 101 pitches.

Boxscore:

Bourne Braves          IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
Bryan Morgado.......  5.0  1  0  0  6  8 14 21

Freddy Garcia update

Scot Gregor:

“Freddy continues to throw,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “He’s got to take stuff very easy. We want when Freddy gets in our eyes, to impress us. We’re going to take our time with him.”

Carlos Quentin and Bartolo Colon updates also at the link.