Kevin Hickey, South Side native, former White Sox LOOGY and batting practice pitcher, lived an one-in-a-million life. That storybook closed after Hickey passed away on Wednesday, following weeks spent in a diabetic coma.

After news of his death spread, lots of stories followed. Some quotes from the above video are in Chuck Garfien's piece about Hickey, and there have been a number of other nice tributes that help fill out Hickey's life and legacy in the White Sox organization.

• Kevin Hickey, a long shot who fulfilled a neighborhood dream, dies at 56 - Chicago Sun-Times

Mark Konkol had talked to Hickey several times leading up to his coma, and the resulting article is a wonderful obituary. This is the setup:

Maybe you’ve heard about Hickey. He’s the street tough from Brighton Park, the stud at 16-inch softball who got laid off at Ryerson Steel and got signed by the White Sox, his favorite team, after throwing just few dozen fastballs at a open tryout at Old Comiskey Park.

And after a long, arduous journey — shoulder injuries, five years in the minors, a big league resurrection with the Orioles, more injuries, retirement, a movie role alongside Charlie Sheen, divorce, poverty, diabetes and eight long years selling used cars — Hickey made it back to the White Sox bench as a batting practice pitcher who was beloved by players.

Read the whole thing now. It's essential, and it's ultimately uplifting -- especially the part about the playoff share, which allowed him to purchase a glucose pump.

Continue reading this post »

After Jake Peavy's first bad start of the season, it was time for Gavin Floyd to regress to the mean. Unlike Peavy, he didn't lose a large lead. Instead, he lost a small lead, and then lost a lot of battles that turned into a large deficit.

The Sox gave Floyd a 2-1 lead in the third inning, and Floyd blew it over the course of three batters. He got ahead 0-2 on Mike Trout, who singled. Alberto Callaspo singled him to third. And after a first-pitch strike to Albert Pujols, he hung a slider that Pujols sent over the center field wall, giving Pujols his second homer of the year and an Angels a 4-2 lead.

Floyd let the Angels off the hook all night. He threw 67 of 97 pitches for strikes, and walked only one batter over his six innings. He also threw first-pitch strikes to 21 of 27 batters, which is great.

The problem was, some of those strikes were very hittable ones while ahead in the count (per 3E8, he allowed seven of his 10 hits with two strikes). Sometimes he couldn't get to two strikes. Vernon Wells, also struggling, sealed the deal in the sixth inning with a two-run homer on a first-pitch fastball. So while the Angels snapped out of their funk in their first game with a new hitting coach, Floyd helped them out with some poorly timed pitches. Then again, the Angels have to hit those mistakes.

The White Sox offense couldn't string together hits in the same way against Angels starter Jerome Williams. There were individual bright spots -- Dayan Viciedo hit a solo shot, part of a three-hit day. Paul Konerko also racked up three hits, all singles with a variety of swings. Gordon Beckham delivered a big two-out double that scored Alejandro De Aza from first and gave the Sox the briefest of leads.

But any momentum was stunted by holes in the lineup elsewhere. Adam Dunn, Alex Rios, Alexei Ramirez and Brent Morel all wore the collar. Morel looked especially lost, grounding into a double play and striking out twice. He ended the game with a backwards K.

Continue reading this post »

A brief look at an opponent we play in a very confusingly timed series.

Offense: Mike Trout-CF, Alberto Callaspo-3B, Albert Pujols-1B, Kendrys Morales-DH, Mark Trumbo-RF, Howie Kendrick-2B, Vernon Wells-LF, Erick Aybar-SS, Bobby Wilson-C. Bench: Maicer Izturis-INF, Peter Bourjos-OF, John Hester-C.

LAA R/G: 3.62. CHW R/G: 4.05.

In case you hadn't heard, the Angels finally got around to cutting one of their endless supply of veteran outfielders to call up Bryce Harper's competition for the title of "Young Outfield God of All He Surveys", or Mike Trout as the MSM like to call him. The only problem is that they cut the wrong guy. Sorry Bobby Abreu, but the Angels don't like to make sense. But back to Trout. He's faster than lightning, which makes playing center field quite a bit easier. His current homerun ceiling is around twenty homeruns, but that should go up seeing as he's currently too young to buy alcohol. If not for Albert Pujols, Trout would easily be the new face of the franchise. And then we have Alberto Callaspo. Alberto is the type of player the casual fan might not care much for and would call for to be replaced, which would be silly. Is he a world-beater? Nope. But he's a league-average bat that plays good defense at a key position. His plate discipline is a bit off so far this season, but should fix itself shortly.

Continue reading this post »

As painful as it was to witness, Jake Peavy was due for a bad start. We all knew he's not a sub-2.00 ERA pitcher, and his extreme flyballing tendencies, a power-hitting lineup and a lively park teamed up on Tuesday to put him in his place.

His place is still a nice place. He's 4-1 with a 2.65 ERA, and he's averaging better than five strikeouts per walk.

But now that Peavy gave up ground in the race for the hypothetical Cy Young Award If The Season Ended Today, it allows Gavin Floyd to grab some of the spotlight ... provided he can put out the fire from Peavy's five-and-dive bomb, of course.

Floyd is now the staff leader in ERA at 2.53, and he's snuck up on everybody after an unremarkable first three starts. But he's made up considerable ground over his last four starts by allowing four runs combined, and the other peripherals are handsome, too:

• Innings pitched: 28.2
• Hits: 17
• Walks: 5
• Strikeouts: 26
• Home runs: 0
• Opponents hitting: .165/.204/.194
  

Floyd is due for some regression himself, and that could happen against the Angels tonight. But we may as well highlight those numbers while they're there, and also use them to point out something else that's new, noteworthy, and has future implications: Robin Ventura rides Floyd hard.

Continue reading this post »

The game started well enough for the White Sox. While Peavy had trouble with his command in the first inning, Alexei Ramirez and Gene Lamont helped to bail him out. A leadoff walk was erased by a generous double play turned by Peavy and Ramirez. After a Miguel Cabrera single, Prince Fielder doubled down the left field line. For some reason, Lamont decided to send Cabrera even though the relay had almost reached Ramirez by the time Cabrera made his turn home. The Cuban's arm is not one to test and he threw out Cabrera easily.

In the bottom half of the inning, Lamont was shown what good third base coaching looked like. With the bases loaded, A.J. Pierzynski hit a shallow single to left off of a shaky Max Scherzer. Alejandro De Aza scored easily and, after Don Kelly bobbled the ball, Joe McEwing sent Gordon Beckham. Kelly then bobbled the ball again and Beckham scored without a throw.

Peavy settled in after the first inning but Scherzer did not. The Tigers righty labored - and I mean excruciatingly, slowly labored - through four plus innings. Scherzer didn't have his good mechanics and he responded like a Yankees or Red Sox pitcher and decided to slow the pace to a near halt. It didn't help.

The White Sox added a Paul Konerko solo home run and a Dayan Viciedo RBI single in the 3rd. With his pitch count approaching 100, Scherzer couldn't retire either of the batters he faced in the fifth. Collin Balester relieved Scherzer. His first pitch to Pierzynksi was a wild pitch that advanced Adam Dunn to second and Konerko to third. His second pitch was a single to center that scored both runners. With Peavy cruising and a 6-0 lead, White Sox fans felt pretty good. And then the wheels fell off.

Continue reading this post »

Jesse Crain will be back on the 25-man roster at some point this week. Original speculation called Monday the day, but given that he was coming off an oblique strain and had thrown twice in three days, the Sox probably didn't think there was much point bringing him back when they wouldn't want him to pitch.

With Chris Sale back in the rotation, all signs point to Eric Stults as the most expendable Sox pitcher. If he's not asked to throw six innings, then he's just a guy.

But if the Sox were less interested in shifting organizational players and more interested in who would get the most out of a demotion, it certainly seems like Hector Santiago could use some further refinement.

Out of the 20 pitches Santiago threw in his scary scoreless inning on Monday, 19 were fastballs. The other pitch was a slider, and when you look at his release point and pitch plot, it neither started nor ended well.

Still, Santiago showed more diversity with his pitch selection compared to his previous outing against Kansas City, when all 12 pitches were fastballs. In his current form, he's ditched his supposed bread-and-butter pitch (the screwball) entirely, and he flashes the sweeping slider once every three batters or so. His inability to get ahead of hitters certainly hampers his confidence in getting creative.

As 3E8 put it in the gamethread, "Santiago is a pitching machine set to top speed that could use calibration." Somehow, he's strung together three scoreless outings despite the lack of variety, which is a testament to something -- the power of above-average heat from the left side, some semblance of resiliency, or just randomness.

In any case, it seems shortsighted to hope Santiago can get by riding a fastball for an inning. At least on this team, because they don't score enough (or give up enough runs) to create a lot of low-leverage learning environments. Robin Ventura isn't saving him for garbage time, either. In his 13 appearances, only once has Santiago entered a game with the Sox trailing. The margin? One run.

Continue reading this post »

The Tigers forced John Danks out of the ballgame two batters into the third inning. Trailing 5-2 against left-handed Drew Smyly at U.S. Cellular Field seemed like too much for the White Sox to overcome.

But the White Sox didn't count themselves out, and thanks to some timely hits with guys on base -- and a 2-0 home run advantage -- they have their most impressive victory of the season.

Zach Stewart picked up the victory in relief, and it's a relief win with teeth. He stranded the two runners he inherited from Danks and threw three scoreless innings for himself, giving the Sox bats enough time to seize control of the game.

Dayan Viciedo started the comeback with a two-run Tank blast to left in the fifth to make it a one-run game. Jim Leyland lifted Smyly in the sixth for Luke Putkonen, and the Sox "put" three more runs on the board (ha) with quite the sustained rally.

With one out, Alex Rios drilled a single back through the middle. Rios them teamed up with Pierzynski for a beautiful hit-and-run to put Sox on the corners, and a four-pitch walk to Alexei Ramirez loaded the bases for Viciedo. Viciedo bounced a single through the middle to drive in two more, and Brent Morel hung with a hanger and lined it over the head of a leaping Jhonny Peralta to make it a 7-5 game.

The Sox bullpen held firm for the rest of the game, although not without drama. Hector Santiago pitched a scoreless seventh despite only throwing a fastball, and despite falling behind 2-0 or worse to three batters (including one four-pitch walk). Matt Thornton endured some of his trademark misfortune by breaking Cabrera's bat for a bloop single, but he got Prince Fielder to bounce into a 6-4-3 double play.

Likewise, Addison Reed pitched around a one-out baserunner of his own, getting away with a hanger to Brennan Boesch for a flyout, then inducing a bouncer to first off the bat of Alex Avila. Paul Konerko made a nifty backhand pick, then tossed a fadeaway feed to Reed to end the game.

Continue reading this post »