Chris Young's major league debut tonight in San Diego had me searching through the South Side Sox archives. -- I could have sworn I went on a "Don't trade Chris Young" rant just before the '05 trade deadline. It must be buried in the comments somewhere because I couldn't find anything I would classify as a rant in any of the main page stories, but I did find an interesting, more topical, quote from a post where I implored Kenny Williams to hold onto Young.
The Twins throw the most strikes in baseball, and it's not even close. They've allowed 50 fewer walks than the next best team -- Cleveland. The White Sox are the third stingiest team in baseball, which might be part of the reason that Detroit doesn't walk much as a team. They have to play those three teams 50+ times. -- Minnesota also strikes out fewer than any other AL team, good enough for the second fewest in baseball.
The Twins have won 4 straight, and 6 of the last 8, against the White Sox not just because of the pitching match ups. -- We all know Santana is essentially an automatic 'L' -- They're not a good match-up philosophically. Conversely, the Tigers are a favorable match up for the Sox. They don't walk, and strikeout a bunch, which benefits the strike-throwing, put-the-ball-in-play White Sox staff.
As for the game itself, it was another painful Fifth Starter Freddy outing. He wasn't terrible, but he continues to pitch like he's got money on the other team, surrendering runs in bunches whenever the Sox offense has him ahead or even.
Garcia supposedly debuted a new pitch, a split-finger fastball, or forkball, or another off-speed pitch that breaks out of the zone and needs to be hung for it to be called a strike. It doesn't really matter what you call it. If it's not topping 93MPH, it's not gonna make much difference.
I didn't see any of his teammates hang their heads when Freddy gave the Twins the lead, not once, not twice, but three times. Yet there was Freddy, having a mini-hissy-fit in the Sox dugout as Brian Anderson misplayed a ball that cost Garcia a run. Jon Garland used to take a lot of heat from Sox fans for being California cool, and appearing to disinterested when things went awry. Garcia is just the opposite; he shows emotion, but only when calmer heads should prevail. It's almost as if he's never seen a mirror that didn't have a teammate's reflection in it.
Since his May 15th trimph over a much different looking Twins team, Garcia has 1 win in 13 starts against American League clubs. That's not a pretty reflection, in any light.
Update [2006-8-19 1:16:14 by The Cheat]: Nathaniel Whalen gives us the juicy quote:
Apparently, there was a pre-game spat between AJ and Sandy. Scott Merkin and the Tribune tried to play it off as no big deal, but Nathaniel Whalen seems to think there was something more going on.
Honestly, I couldn't care less.