Mark Buehrle "was on" in today's minor league game. He allowed one run on four hits in 6 1/3 innings. He threw 85 pitches (60 for strikes) while working in the 84-88 mph range with his fastball. Here's Coop:
"The bottom line is this: pitch total? Yes. Results good? Yes. Quality pitches up? Yes. A lot of people will say he threw good, yes, but he threw good in a minor league game. I don't look at it that way. I'm looking at the quality of the pitches and a quality pitch is a quality pitch no matter where you throw it, be it rookie ball and the major leagues. He threw a lot of quality pitches, located the ball and it couldn't have been a better day, really."
"Nothing can or should be read into that, because the last time Gavin started. Now, we're going to give Danks that start. The reason we're doing that is to be as fair as possible and letting a guy start in his natural element -- they've always been starters. So let's give them that preparation, come out early, get ready for the game, start the game and give each guy that opportunity."
Coop says Floyd can make up Tuesday's rough outing:
"Every day it seems like, it's kind of like a horse race or something. It looks like right now -- with no decisions being made -- that Johnny Danks has been climbing and maybe pulled ahead by a nose. But, that can change in five days and that's the way it's going to be. Let's face it. If you're just watching that game [Tuesday], Gavin had a tough one and Danks had another good one. That's the bottom line. If Johnny Danks continues doing what he's doing, he's going to put himself in a real good spot to be picked as that guy. But if Gavin picks himself up after a tough outing that we read nothing into and say, 'Hey, that's a tough outing, let it go by and get ready for the next,' then the race continues."