I'm just going to get straight to the notes. There's a WPA report and Graph after the fold.
- During his last outing, I called for El Duque to be taken out after about 90 pitches. In his last 4 outings he's thrown 111, 118, 116, and 105 pitches. That hardly sounds like the pitch count of a 39(?) year old pitcher with a recent history of arm trouble.
I think we may have seen the results today. Much like Freddy Garcia did during his last outing, El Duque used almost exclusively off-speed stuff to try and get hitters out. Just before they went to the nothing-but-junk approach, we read that Ozzie was going to have them on a shorter leash. -- Tin Foil Hat Area: Proceed with Caution -- Were both of these starters aware of arm problems last week, and told the skip that their arms were sore? Why did Ozzie single out Garcia and not El Conde, Buerhle, or Garland? What happened to attacking hitters, and throwing fastballs?
- I'm not as crazy as that, but hey, we've seen the Cubs do nothing but lie about the health of their respective arms. I've got a reason to question what I see.
- The Sox have an off day on Thursday, so it's possible that they could skip El Duque's next start an give him a rest. Ozzie has stated that he's not going to rearrange the rotation for the Cubs series, so that's doubtful. Either way, we should get a rested El Duque next time out. He only threw 70 pitches last night, and he's got a full 5 days off before he's scheduled to go on Sunday.
- Ross Gload must be near death for him not to be off the DL at this point, and sparing us the sight of watching Paul Konerko do his best Rob Deer impersonation on a nightly basis. This was the same thing that Jose Valentin got run out of town for.
- Kevin Mench has the biggest head this side of the Stay Puft™ Marsmallow man. Seriously, put Mench in a little sailors outfit, and they'd be twins.
- The only thing more painful than watching Carl Everett ground into a double play with 1 out and runners at the corners, is watching Timo Perez try again(unsucessfully) for another 2 out bunt hit. At what point does he finally give up?
- With the six walks in Monday's game, the Sox now have issued 47 free passes in the month of May. -- The Twins have issued 53 walks the entire season. If you want one reason to worry about the Twins, that's it. They're not going anywhere. Terry Ryan has built himself a staff full of arms that know where the strike zone is, and refuse to give up the base on balls.
- Where's my funnel cake?
It's been awhile since I've done one of these. Here are some resources to help explain.
Iguchi has his biggest hit in a White Sox uniform, only to have it wasted by poor control from Damaso Marte.