In an interview on the score last year. Cooper had nothing but praise for Clayton. Clayton has had some success better than most. Oh, yes today he had some bad luck. He gave up some seeing eye grounders and some duck snorts. Cooper knows when he needs to come out. With some experience he will be an adequate #5. He also may be showcased for a possible trade for an established starter. He could be worthwile in a trade for a rental. I'm afraid if traded he'll do better than ok somewhere else.

It'd be a lot easier to be patient with CR if we weren't, you know, trying to win a division. Danks and Floyd took their lumps in a year in which we were never in it. That's a big difference. I'd give Clayton another start before the break and evaluate from there.

What do those who suggest pulling Clayton Richard for Poreda think is going to happen? Poreda is going to magically step in and start getting people out and help us win the division. It is absurd to think Poreda will step in and be a better filler in that 5th spot than Richard. Poreda has no experience in the big league level and needs time to develop. Richard has been around and is hitting a rough a patch right now, let him pitch out of it. I remember everyone else calling for Floyd's head when he hit a rough patch. For those who think Poreda will slip into that rotation and be better, take a look at David Price on the Rays, the #1 pitching prospect in all of baseball. Price got experience pitching in the ALCS and WS last year,and he is struggling big time right now as a starter, walking batters, getting hit hard, etc. For those who think Poreda won't be worse than Richard, you're mistaken. Right now Richard is a serviceable 5th starter, and putting a rookie in thereto get shelled will do anything but help us win the division.

Clayton is what he is right now, a young starter trying to find that consistency to become a permanent fixture in our rotation.

 

Looking at the numbers, Clayton's FIP has increased from 4.07 to 4.60, so that's a worry, and his LD% has decreased by 6% with his GB% remaining the same, so more balls are going in the air when he's pitching. One positive aspect is that he's K/G has increased by 1.4 though.

 

Going forward, is he a guy we can count on?

 

I still have questions on this, as throughout the minors he wasn't thought to be anything more than a reliever going forward because of his lack of upside, but his velocity has gradually increased over the past couple of seasons.

 

I think the Sox stick with him, see what they have, and make a decision in the off-season.

 

Yeah we're trying to win a division, but you may as well find out what you have in Richard going forward to decide whether he's a keeper in the Danks or Floyd mould or whether he's expendable in the right deal as Brandon McCarthy was.

People keep questioning poreda's secondary stuff, but it has looked decent from what i have seen so far. Of course we havent seen that much, but it has looked good to me.

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/media/vide...tent_id=5244805

The change he threw in the first strikeout looked pretty nasty. going from the 95 mph fastball to a 78 mph changeup, ill take that. The only thing im unsure about is how deep he can go into games. It seems like he averaged around 6 innings per game in the minors. hopefully he can go further than that.

 

I'm not too high on clayton "the mask" richard. I see him more as a long relief type pitcher.

People keep questioning poreda's secondary stuff, but it has looked decent from what i have seen so far. Of course we havent seen that much, but it has looked good to me.

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/media/vide...tent_id=5244805

The change he threw in the first strikeout looked pretty nasty. going from the 95 mph fastball to a 78 mph changeup, ill take that. The only thing im unsure about is how deep he can go into games. It seems like he averaged around 6 innings per game in the minors. hopefully he can go further than that.

 

I'm not too high on clayton "the mask" richard. I see him more as a long relief type pitcher.

 

Welcome to Soxtalk!

I have a lot of patience for Clayton, but being from Lafayette, IN, I have a lot more patience than say, another White Sox fan living in Chicago and not seeing Clayton grow up and win Mr. Baseball and Football.

It'd be a lot easier to be patient with CR if we weren't, you know, trying to win a division. Danks and Floyd took their lumps in a year in which we were never in it. That's a big difference. I'd give Clayton another start before the break and evaluate from there.

 

Right now we've got four pretty decent starters plus Clayton and we're still a .500 team.

Clayton isn't going to single handedly cost us the division.

I trust our pitching coach, manager and GM and you better believe they are assessing him and trying to figure out what is wrong or if he just doesn't have it right now.

I prefer Clayton over Freddy and Colon, unless Freddy is kicking major ass in the minors and looks like a sure bet. I don't wanna see Colon grace the mound again.

Once again, I ask the same question. Hopefully, today's outing combined with having the all star break at our disposal in a few days allows us to make the obvious change of getting Clayton out of the starting rotation.

Clayton really shouldn't be in the rotation anymore, that much should be obvious. Come on, he's averaged 4.25 innings per start since that solid KC outing and righties are now batting .332 off him.

 

When did his change become a "good" or "decent" pitch either? According to the ESPN scouting breakdown the BAA on his changup is .391. His slider gets a lot of swings and misses, but he barely throws it against righties. He'll need to do something to his approach against them, because he's getting rocked.

Richards should be taken out of the starting rotation. We have to have better pitchers some where.