clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Reading Room: Rick Hahn on the White Sox draft, Carlos Rodon

Plus: Hector Noesi and Jose Abreu keep hanging tough, and that whole thing with Manny Machado was weird

By Jim Margalus
Jonathan Daniel

The White Sox returned to Chicago on Monday, which meant that Rick Hahn and the White Sox media were in the same place for the first time since the draft.

As you might expect, Hahn 1) praised Doug Laumann for a successful draft, and 2) downplayed any concerns over negotiating with Scott Boras to sign Carlos Rodon.

"Look, in reality, we have a history with Scott, a positive history with Scott," Hahn said. "He had Joe Crede, he's got [Dayan] Viciedo, [and] we had Andruw Jones here. A fair amount of this concern, or discussion on how this could be difficult, I think is unnecessary and really not significant to us determining what's going to happen here.

"This will be the last time I discuss any negotiations until we get to the point where Carlos is ready to sign and start his professional career or has elected to go down a different path. But as we enter into this, we intend to be aggressive, be fair and make an offer that, hopefully, convinces him it's time to begin his professional career."

The Sox did clear some other business out of the way, signing second-round pick Spencer Adams for the recommended slot value ($1,282,700). With Adams in the fold, the most intriguing non-Rodon negotiation may be fourth-round pick Brett Austin, as he was Rodon's catcher at North Carolina State. There may be no connection between the two when it comes to timetables, but it's not stupid to think they may share impressions between them.

Steve's stalking the hell out of the signing news here, so keep tabs on that post if you haven't already.

Christian Marrero Reading Room

Hector Noesi suddenly Knows How To Win, even when he doesn't pitch all that well. He gave up three homers over 5⅔ innings against Detroit on Monday, but he limited the damage by limiting his walks, and that allowed him to outpitch Rick Porcello.

Dan Hayes relays Robin Ventura calling Noesi's iffy changeup a "work in progress," which adds another wrinkle to his survival with the Sox. Between stretching out as a starter in front of a live studio audience and practicing a lesser secondary pitch, he's basically applying a Triple-A ethic to big league hitters, and it's not a disaster somehow.

Andre Rienzo, on the other hand, has allowed 21 baserunners over his last seven innings (two starts). Robin Ventura is giving Rienzo every opportunity to save himself, because with Scott Carroll and Charlie Leesman as the only other options, the fifth starter candidates all look like deck chairs.

My first live look at Jose Abreu was his golden sombrero on Saturday, the centerpiece of an ugly 1-for-12 series against the Angels. Then he opened the homestand on Monday a homer and a double against Detroit. While he's battled an ankle injury, he says that the rest and equipment and working wonders, so he's probably just see-sawing between awesome and awful like he did throughout the first month and a half.

Since we last checked in on Joe Nathan, his season took yet another small step in the wrong (for him) direction. Like Ventura with Rienzo, however, Brad Ausmus doesn't want to make a change, even if his closer has a 7.04 ERA.

Bo Porter actually adhered to the rules for an unusual pitching substitution, putting lefty reliever Tony Sipp in right field for a batter, then bringing him back in to face another lefty. I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often, but the Astros have the kind of environment where it could catch on somewhat.

The non-Sox story I'm most fascinated by is the aftermath of Manny Machado's reputation-wrecking weekend, especially since he might've dragged Buck Showalter down with him.

More From South Side Sox