It's late, so this is gonna be a quick one.
Aaron Poreda made his Chicago-area network debut Wednesday night. Sure, there were six innings of baseball before he took the mound -- Betemit and Konerko went deep, and some other stuff happend -- but the highlight for most Sox fans who frequent this site had to be Poreda's three innings of work to close out the game.
Poreda showed what he had, hitting an unreliable 97 on the WGN gun with his first pitch of the night. He would sit at 92-93 for most of the night. For perspective, John Danks was throwing between 90-95 in the first 3 innings of the game.
Poreda's fastball is as advertised, a plus pitch that can be downright nasty at times. He seemed to have good command of the pitch and showed a desire to attack the inner part of the plate, breaking 2 bats in the first 5 batters he faced. In fact, two of the hits he allowed were jam-shots on inside fastballs.
Unfortunately, that was about all Poreda showed us. He didn't strike anyone out, didn't induce many swing-and-misses, and most importantly, didn't show a second major league pitch. I honestly didn't see a breaking ball (although Larry commented about one in the gamethread), but his changeup left a lot to be desired. You could see him slow his motion on the pitch.
Poreda could probably pitch effectively out of the bullpen this year, and his ability to saw off right-handers might allow him him to be more than a LOOGY. But the lack of a secondary pitch should have him returning to the minors to continue his (lack of) development.
Who Makes up a Poreda-less Pitching Staff?
Right now it's Contreras, Colon, Marquez and Richard fighting for the two final spots in the rotation. If Poreda isn't on the team, Richard figures to be the teams second lefty and primary long-man. Which means that Marquez represents the Sox fall back option should Colon or Contreras be unable to make a speedy recovery.
In other words, go Jack Egbert! He'll need a lights out spring just to get in the conversation. But if he has a strong spring, the Sox have to give him a look... given the alternatives.