This week:
- Tonight is the Futures Game, which will be televised on ESPN2 at 4pm central. The lone White Sox representative is SS/2B Carlos Sanchez, who is playing for the World Team but is not starting. The just turned 20 year old switch hitter has been very good for Winston-Salem this season: .320/.380/.398 with plenty of solid line drive hits.
- Well, that didn't take long. In what certainly looks like a curious move, particularly with the current lack of pitching at Charlotte, the White Sox released LHP Scott Olsen yesterday. I talked last week about how he signed a deal in the offseason that included a major league option for 2013 so something obviously changed. He only made three appearances totaling five innings and he didn't suck so who knows what happened there.
- The White Sox claimed LHP Daniel Moskos off of waivers from the Pirates. Moskos is just a mess and is the Exhibit A for why a team should not spend a top pick on a reliever. And I don't just mean someone who projects as a reliever but a guy who actually was a reliever in college. The thought process behind how the Pirates came to the decision to use a fourth overall pick and $2.475 million on this guy is something scholars will be studying for years to come. One hypothesis is a fixation on picking a college pitcher even when there were no available college pitchers worthy of being drafted anywhere near #4. Repeat after me: Best Player Available. Best Player Available. In any event, this isn't a Gavin Floyd or Phillip Humber reclamation project because Moskos can't hold those pitchers' jocks when it comes to talent. Maybe he can be a LOOGY.