Columbus @ Charlotte, 2:15pm EDT, Rob Bell gets another start

 

B-Ham is off

 

Salem @ Winston-Salem, 2:00pm EDT, no starter announced yet

 

Hickory @ Kanny, 5:05pm EDT, Shirek starting for Kannapolis

 

charlotte won 6-5...Fields was 2-4, but with another 2 Ks...still hitting .353 so far

 

owens was 0-4...stay in charlotte jerry

 

wasserman with save number 5 already

 

Wasserman needs to be up with the big club... not so much because MacDougal and Masset are terrible, but because how good of a pitcher Wasserman may actually be. I know he's seen as a gimmick pitcher who probably isn't that good, but damn -- and I'm aware there's severe sample size issues at play -- he held righties to a .430 OPS last year. There's a non-terrible chance that Wasserman is our best non-Jenks reliever against right-handed batters.

Wasserman needs to be up with the big club... not so much because MacDougal and Masset are terrible, but because how good of a pitcher Wasserman may actually be. I know he's seen as a gimmick pitcher who probably isn't that good, but damn -- and I'm aware there's severe sample size issues at play -- he held righties to a .430 OPS last year. There's a non-terrible chance that Wasserman is our best non-Jenks reliever against right-handed batters.

 

I would say there's a damn good chance Wasserman would be the best non-Jenks reliever period.

Wasserman needs to be up with the big club... not so much because MacDougal and Masset are terrible, but because how good of a pitcher Wasserman may actually be. I know he's seen as a gimmick pitcher who probably isn't that good, but damn -- and I'm aware there's severe sample size issues at play -- he held righties to a .430 OPS last year. There's a non-terrible chance that Wasserman is our best non-Jenks reliever against right-handed batters.

Take a look at his GO/AO last year (one of the best among relivers with 20+ IP in all of baseball), not to mention WHIP. The guy is more than gimmick - he gets it done. And the way it looks in ST and now AAA, I think he may have improved a lot against lefties as well, which was his biggest weakness.

 

 

I know we're doing well, but there is on excuse for us to have Wassermann in AAA instead of MacDougal or Masset. Having 2 relievers on your MLB roster that aren't as good as your best guy in the minors goes against the "win and win now" attitude KW supposedly has. I can understand the Fields thing right now since at least we have legit ballers at 1B/3B/DH, but our already strong bullpen could be even better if we had the right person as the last guy in it.

Edited April 14, 200818 yr by whitesoxfan101

Until Mac basically forces the Sox to send him down, I can't see Ehren up with the big club.

 

And the bullpen as a whole has been pretty good for us so far, so I can see why they really don't want to make any changes yet or anything.

Another great outing by Charlie Shirek today.

 

6 1/3 innings; 4 hits; 1 unearned run; 5 strikeouts; no walks.

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...hicafx_kanafx_1

 

Glad to see Kanny came back late in the game so he didn't get tagged with a loss.

 

On the season so far (3 starts), Shirek has a 0.54 ERA... given up 1 earned run in 16 2/3 innings.

Edited April 14, 200818 yr by scenario

And the bullpen as a whole has been pretty good for us so far, so I can see why they really don't want to make any changes yet or anything.

 

I know what your saying, but we've got a guy in AAA that is definitely better than two of our major league pitchers and that isn't right, especially with MacDougal having an option left (and I know he has a 3 ERA, but he's allowed 6 hits and 4 walks in 6 innings so that won't last at this rate).

 

And on topic, good to see Shirek off to a good start, a lot of people were high on him as a steal pick.

Edited April 14, 200818 yr by whitesoxfan101

I've been more critical of MacDougal than anybody, but the guy has a 3.00 ERA so far, so he deserves to be up still.

 

Massett is needed as the longman, and has only had 1 bad outing out of 3 so far. He's pitched more innings than Buehrle so far and the same as Danks, so it shows how much the Sox need a longman.

 

Realistically, until Mac implodes, Ehren is stuck (and I know that's not right, but it is what it is).

 

 

I know what your saying, but we've got a guy in AAA that is definitely better than two of our major league pitchers and that isn't right, especially with MacDougal having an option left (and I know he has a 3 ERA, but he's allowed 6 hits and 4 walks in 6 innings so that won't last at this rate).

 

And on topic, good to see Shirek off to a good start, a lot of people were high on him as a steal pick.

Well ehren doesn't compete for a spot with masset so that's pretty much irrelevant. He could displace mac but that would hinge on a complete blow up by mike before that would happen. Ehren has plenty of time and options to help the big club eventually, and the bullpen isn't really an issue at this point.

Another point on Ehren/MMac...so far, in the first 2+ weeks of the season, I've counted basically 1 game where I said "you know, this is a point where Ehren would be real useful", about 2 weekends ago against Detroit where Linebrink, Dotel, and Jenks had all pitched the 2 days beforehand and could probably have used the day off, so one more trusted righty reliever would have been useful

 

But, thankfully, Liney et al. came in and did their job, and a rain out, a couple grand slams, and a long relief job by Masset have kept us from hitting that point again, and we won't reach it again tonight or tomorrow because they didn't pitch last night.

 

In other words, only once in the first 14 games will it have mattered at all which guy we had up. Otherwise, it's entirely been a question of which guy we'd throw in for a junk inning or two in a game where one of the two teams has taken over. And even in that game, it didn't matter because the guys we have did their jobs anyway.

 

Maybe Ehren would be a better pitcher right now than MMac. But with the way our team is running right now, it hasn't made one bit of difference.

Another point on Ehren/MMac...so far, in the first 2+ weeks of the season, I've counted basically 1 game where I said "you know, this is a point where Ehren would be real useful", about 2 weekends ago against Detroit where Linebrink, Dotel, and Jenks had all pitched the 2 days beforehand and could probably have used the day off, so one more trusted righty reliever would have been useful

 

But, thankfully, Liney et al. came in and did their job, and a rain out, a couple grand slams, and a long relief job by Masset have kept us from hitting that point again, and we won't reach it again tonight or tomorrow because they didn't pitch last night.

 

In other words, only once in the first 14 games will it have mattered at all which guy we had up. Otherwise, it's entirely been a question of which guy we'd throw in for a junk inning or two in a game where one of the two teams has taken over. And even in that game, it didn't matter because the guys we have did their jobs anyway.

 

Maybe Ehren would be a better pitcher right now than MMac. But with the way our team is running right now, it hasn't made one bit of difference.

 

The thing is McDougal hasn't looked good, like last night for instance. A nice quick inning would've helped yet the umpire jobbed him in his mind. If you are nowhere near the strike zone, the umpire is not going to give you the benefit of the doubt. See Jose Contrearas.