This week:
-
Dan Hudson likely made his final minor league appearance, at least for this season. Fangraphs does the math on his time at Charlotte and what to expect: "Logging 93.1 innings, he’s got 10.4 K/9, 3 BB/9, 1.3 HR/9 and a park-and-luck-adjusted FIP of 2.90. Hudson’s work with the Knights translates to a 4.51 big league FIP, with 8.7 K/9, 3.9 BB/9 and 1.2 HR/9. CHONE’s updated rest-of-season projection for Hudson is similar — a 4.60 neutralized ERA, with 7.9 K/9, 3.7 BB/9 and 1.4 HR/9." I think that strikeout rate is aggressive but he is certainly capable of providing league average output. He tends to get behind batters, though, which results in him throwing lots of pitches, so expect to see a lot of the bullpen in his starts. Hopefully whoever pitches the day before him - currently Gavin Floyd - can get deep into games so Ozzie doesn't have to be overly reliant on the back-end of Tony Linethreet.
-
Carlos Torres illustrates the role timing and luck can play in a marginal prospect's career. If Jake Peavy had gotten hurt the day before - or even if the White Sox were playing a day game - he probably would have gotten the call-up instead of the even more marginal Jeffrey Marquez. But Torres was pitching the same night and thus was unavailable to provide the interim long-man option Marquez could. Careers have been jump-started by fortuitous call-ups. Marquez blew his chance to impress with a weak 9th inning against the bottom of the Royals order - perhaps Torres wouldn't have done much better. At least Kenny Williams can now say all the players from the Swisher trade have made it to the majors.
-
Brent Morel: .282/.324/.382.
- The dearth of talent on the Barons is rather obvious, with one scout saying: "There’s nothing to see here on the field, no big leaguers among hitters." We also learned that one non-MLB hitter, C.J. Retherford, prior to his demotion, also had a dust-up with Charlotte's manager - which is not something you want to do when you're hitting like he has.
- Juan Silverio continues to confound. Pushed to Bristol in 2008 a year after signing, he was bad: .228/.265/.321. "Demoted" the following year to the White Sox' Dominican Summer League affiliate because an age discrepancy prevented him from getting a work visa, he raked against the inferior competition: .321/.366/.547. Visa issues resolved, the White Sox assigned him to Kannapolis to open this season, where he was atrocious - .128/.169/.218 - before getting the boot to extended spring training. Now he's with Great Falls and, once again, feasting on weak competition: .321/.365/.551. Because of Bell's comments, we can be sure that his listed birth date of April 19, 1991 is not correct. What we don't know is how off it is. Tack on another year and it probably doesn't affect his status (which isn't high to begin with even in this organization). But tack on two or more, and it's a problem.
- Chris Sale: 3 IP, 0 H, 1 BB, 3 K.