Call me a fan of the trade that
sent Javier Lopez to Boston for David Riske. It was obvious that Lopez didn’t have a spot here, since he was
lights-out in Triple-A and still didn’t get a shot.
Lefties, we have; righties, not so much. Also,
Lopez hasn’t proven he can get big leaguers out. He could very well turn out like Jeff Bajenaru, who put up great numbers in Charlotte and an 8.00 ERA in Chicago. It’s a nice deal for Kenny in that he ships a reliever he picked off the scrap heap for somebody who might regain his form.
Riske had previously been a guy who could strike out a batter an inning, so if he can rebound from his back injury, he should be a helpful addition. The worst case scenario is that he doesn’t pan out. It’s not like cost the Sox anything.
At any rate, Sox fans should give him a warm welcome. He was the Indians pitcher who served up the “
JOE! CREDE!” homer last September.
There’s only one problem with this move: It was 12 hours too late.
If Ozzie Guillen yanks Sean Tracey out of the game after he failed to hit Hank Blalock, acts like nothing’s the matter in the dugout, then saves his tirade for the confines of the clubhouse, he has a built-in excuse as to why Tracey was being sent down.
Tracey’s a project, and with Agustin Montero also on the team, the mop-up spot is filled. Riske, if healthy, is a bona fide major-league reliever. Maybe not an ace reliever, but he can get out of jams once in awhile. So if Ozzie says, “I’m sending Tracey down because Riske’s on the way,” nobody can argue with that. The lady/gentleman known as “A source close to the team” may later say Ozzie let Tracey have it, but at least there’s no video evidence.
Instead, Ozzie blows up and is forced to give a rambling non-answer answer about Tracey, something about Montero not being warm and Tracey having to go out there, even though they were both warming at the same time. Why warm two relievers if your only intent is to use one for the rest of the game? One could poke holes in his excuse all day long.
I appreciate that Ozzie wants his guys to support each other, and I know he’ll occasionally go too far. It’d be nice if he would at least treat everybody equally, but he seems to favor veterans over rookies. When Carlos Lee didn’t slide hard into second base after Torii Hunter knocked the everloving crap out of Jamie Burke, we didn’t hear about Ozzie’s discontent with El Caballo until when he was traded.
This time around, it was Javier Vazquez’s duty to stand up for A.J. Pierzynski if he knew (like
he said he did) that Vicente Padilla’s first plunking was intentional. Instead, he let enough time pass so Padilla could hit A.J. again, triggering the warning and forcing Ozzie to use what is in effect a “goon” for retribution.
Meanwhile, Vazquez left the stadium unscathed – aside from the pounding by Rangers hitters – and he’ll live to pitch another day. Tracey won’t be seen in a White Sox uniform again, and just gave up a
game-breaking homer tonight in his first game back in Charlotte tonight. That doesn’t seem fair.