The White Sox opened their new spring training facility with a bit of whimper Sunday. Thankfully, they made it interesting late.
It was great to be able to sit down and watch a Sox game for the first time in almost 5 months, but the Sox didn't provide much excitement early. Spring Training, from this fan's perspective, is about getting to see the Sox future, the unanswered questions, the possibilities. But the only player of any real interest to me in the Sox starting lineup Sunday was the young Cuban, Dayan Viciedo.
Viciedo didn't do whole lot. He didn't embarrass himself in the field or at the plate, but there was nothing he did that would have made you stop and take notice; unless you count his stature, which seemed even shorter than reported. He's more Uribe-like than El Caballo-like in his appearance.
On the mound, Mark Buehrle got the start -- Ho hum -- but Jack Egbert might have made the biggest statement. Egbert tossed 2 innings, facing 8 hitters (7 major leaguers), and yielded just one hit. He was charged with a run thanks to some brutal fielding from Wilson Betemit, but nary a Dodger was able to do anything but hit the ball on the ground against him. I could go on about Egbert's chances, but I've already got a pitching depth post in the queue. Look for that late tonight or early tomorrow.
The game continued into the 9th inning without an earned run scored, without one of the Sox top prospects sighted, until Gordon Beckham woke things up with a leadoff homer deep to left. It's tough to tell from one at-bat, but it appears he's cleaned up the hitch in his swing a bit (as reported).
The rest of the Sox minor leaguers tacked on a couple more runs on zero hits to give the Sox the victory.