Another day,
another Mike North-fueled controversy. And to think that he was rumored to be Ed Farmer's partner before they hired Chris Singleton. Nevertheless, the article is worth reading if only because of the injury updates at the end. Breaking them apart:
Outfielder Scott Podsednik is expected to be activated in time for Tuesday's day-night doubleheader. Podsednik completed a minor-league rehabilitation assignment at Triple-A Charlotte and will be joined by Gavin Floyd, who will start the second game against Detroit's Virgil Vasquez.
So, who's going to be sent down? My guess would be Luis Terrero, who has had one at-bat since July 15 and might've hurt himself making a diving catch
during tonight's loss, and the other will be Dewon Day or Ehren Wassermann.
Terrero has been pretty much worthless at the plate, considering he's slugging .212 over the past month. Nevertheless, it creates a very likely -- and scary -- scenario that Podsednik will start alongside Jerry Owens.
The good news is that Owens has an eight-game hitting streak going. The bad news is that he's only hitting .263 over those eight games. The worst news is that Owens doesn't have one extra-base hit over his last 118 at-bats. Yep, since starting his season off with a double in each of his first two games,
it's been all singles. So, basically, if this what Owens looks like when he's "hot," we're in trouble.
Owens is basically a poor man's Podsednik, and considering Podsednik managed to make three outs on the basepaths during his rehab assignment, we could be looking at the two weakest outfielders in baseball playing next to each other, day after day. Enjoy going to the games!
Outfielder Darin Erstad, who is batting .231 (6-for-26) on a rehab assignment with the Knights, is still nagged by soreness in his left ankle, manager Ozzie Guillen said.
Just for the record, it's been 54 days since
Erstad dropped like a sack of potatoes after swinging a bat. I can't wait for the next time
somebody refers to him as "tough."That's not to say Erstad isn't doing all he can to return, but when I think of "tough," I think of Mike Matheny, who
played the day after breaking his rib in a collision at home plate once, and caught 10 innings after catching a pitch in the face during an at-bat another time. Erstad's just a hard worker who unfortunately happens to be extremely fragile.
Infielder Pablo Ozuna, who broke his right leg nearly two months ago, hopes to rejoin the Sox before the end of the season.
What's the rush?
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The White Sox honored Billy Pierce with
the unveiling his statue during a pre-game ceremony. Nice of Billy to show up.
Since only my immediate family would understand the above, allow me to explain. Back in 1996, my dad and I went to a book signing at a Barnes & Noble in Oak Brook. Bob Vanderburg, the Tribune writer who wrote the linked article above, and Pierce were supposed to sign copies of Vanderburg's book,
Minnie and the Mick. Vanderburg was there; Pierce wasn't. About 20 minutes in, they called Pierce, who just plum forgot about the signing entirely.
Fortunately, Vanderburg was a heckuva nice guy, and we sat there and talked Sox baseball with him for over a half an hour as a bunch of disappointed fans came and went. I haven't yet read the book, but I believe my dad enjoyed it quite a bit. So that's my minor, 10-and-a-half-year-old grudge involving Pierce.
Speaking of White Sox literature, a few books found their way onto my desk at work recently.
- White Sox Essential, by another Trib writer, Lew Freedman. The tag line says "Everything you need to know to be a real fan!" Also real fans: anybody who has paid to watch this team more than once.
- Dreaming Baseball by James T. Farrell. Farrell died in 1979, but he had various manuscripts of a novel about the 1919 White Sox lying around, and some editors worked them together and published the book this year.
- Sox and the City by Richard Roeper. It's probably the most popular book about the 2005 team, but I hadn't picked it up yet. A friend at another paper snagged me an advance reading copy, so I'll be trying to spot the errors.
I'll probably start with Roeper's, since 1) I've heard good things about it, and 2) it's the shortest.
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Minor league round-up:
- West Tenn 4, Birmingham 3
- Wes Whisler allowed two unearned runs over six innings, and Adam Russell struck out two in a perfect inning of work.
- Unfortunately, Fernando Hernandez blew the save and took the loss after allowing two runs in the eighth. He'd allowed only one run over 11 2/3 innings in July before tonight.
- Shawn Garrett went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI. Unfortunately, he's 28 and the Sox are his fifth organization in the last four years.
- Winston-Salem 2, Lynchburg 1
- Brian Omogrosso pitched six scoreless innings, allowing only three hits, walking two and striking out two.
- Clevelan Santeliz picked up the win with two scoreless innings to close out the game.
- Cole Armstrong went 3-for-4 with a double.
- Kannapolis 10, Columbus 9
- Sergio Miranda went 2-for-5 with three RBI out of the leadoff spot; Matt Sharp went 2-for-3 with a two-run homer and a walk.
- Matt Long was hit hard (4 IP, 7 ER), but Steven Spurgeon pitched 3 1/3 effective innings of relief for the win.
- Charlotte PPD