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Personally I hope he does and I hope hes good enough to stick around when peavy comes back so we wont have to watch jose struggle anymore.

CHICAGO -- A fifth starter won't be needed by the White Sox again until Aug. 18, at home against the Royals.

 

But when that time comes around, don't look for D.J. Carrasco to move over from his valuable middle-relief role or rookie Carlos Torres to make his third start this season. Instead, the White Sox might go back to the future and turn to Freddy Garcia, although Ozzie Guillen certainly wasn't committing to anything during the manager's Sunday pregame chat with the media.

 

"Freddy's on the way up, I'll be honest with you. I'm not going to hide anything from you guys," said Guillen of his close friend and basically family member, working his way back through Minor League starts. "He's throwing real well.

 

"I'm not saying Freddy's going to be the next guy, he's not. But the way he's pitching right now, we like that. I think Freddy needs a couple more starts in the Minor Leagues still."

 

Garcia, who turns 33 on Oct. 6, has made one start for Class A Kannapolis and two for Bristol's rookie team since re-joining the White Sox. The crafty right-hander has allowed two runs on nine hits and just one walk over 14 innings pitched combined, striking out 10.

 

In his last start on Aug. 6, Garcia fanned five over a rehab assignment-high six innings, as he continued to build up arm strength. Guillen said everything is better across the board with Freddy, with his velocity topping out at 91 mph, but still is keeping the possibility of his return at a low-key level of enthusiasm.

 

"As long as Freddy is healthy, Freddy can go out there and survive," Guillen said. "But I'm not very optimistic about it. I'm just saying Freddy got better."

 

Discussions concerning Garcia have taken place between Guillen and pitching coach Don Cooper, but they haven't talked yet with general manager Ken Williams about the situation. Guillen also hasn't talked directly with his friend during this rehab assignment.

 

"No. Every time I talk to Freddy, he wants to pitch here," said Guillen with a laugh. "He's feeling very good. One thing about Freddy, he's not going to lie to this organization. I don't think Freddy is going to lie to me or Coop, because he knows how much we appreciate him, how much we like him."

 

Fine by me.

Couldn't be worse than Torres was last night. But if people are expecting anything better than a 4.50-5.00 ERA, they will be disappointed.

I'd give him the start, unless Hudson's dominates in his next AAA performance. Ozzie needs to know that Fat Freddie is not a long-term option at this point. If this is made clear, i'm fine with him rejoining the team.

I am ready for Freddie. He is a battler and gives it 100%

If he started today in the heat, could you imagine how sweaty he would have been? That would have been a sight to see.

I am ready for Freddie. He is a battler and gives it 100%

 

I'll give you that, but one thing I am concerned about. One thing that was a concern and discussed many times in the past was that if and when he pitches, and someone gets on base......it's an automatic double. They stole on him more easily than Contreras. And if Freddy is not in nearly top notch form as in '05, a lot more guys are going to get on 1st (Opps......I mean ) 2nd base a lot more often. When he pitched before, there were a lot more teams focused on the "power" orientation of hitting.

Now with the steroid era gone, more guys/kids are trying to tear up the basepaths more. Not good news for a pitcher when his release point to the plate is comparable to Konerko's speed on the basepaths. Guys will circle the basepaths faster than the big goons in the Bugs Bunny baseball cartoon.

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Personally I hope he does and I hope hes good enough to stick around when peavy comes back so we wont have to watch jose struggle anymore.

 

As they say in real estate..... velocity, velocity, velocity.

 

If Freddy is throwing 91+, he is welcome back.

 

If he is still throwing 86 soaking wet, no thanks.

Contreras just can't be counted on consistency-wise anymore. I'll give Freddie a shot, what the hell? It's a short term fix, just getting us through the 5 spot a handful of times is all we need and Jose just ain't cutting it.

Colon, Contreras and Garcia in a playoff bullpen for one inning each would be intriguing.

Colon, Contreras and Garcia in a playoff bullpen for one inning each would be intriguing.

 

Except neither jose or Freddy could get ready in a short time frame and no one would be able to even find Colon (insert Ponderosa buffet line joke variation HERE).

If Kenny honestly believes that Freddy might be able to pitch better than Count has recently, give him a shot.

 

I made the joke to KarkosThroatSkin awhile back... Bartolo and Jose both had a handful of awesome starts right after they were sent down, then they collapsed and needed to be sent down. I feel Freddie will be good for 3 starts and then blow. We just need to cycle them all through so that one of them is in the majors for 3 starts, send them down and bring up the next one. Problem solved, haha

Freddy K'd BA 3 times in a start. That's proof he's ready.

As they say in real estate..... velocity, velocity, velocity.

 

If Freddy is throwing 91+, he is welcome back.

 

If he is still throwing 86 soaking wet, no thanks.

I can't imagine someone throwing 86 striking out as many guys as Freddy did this past outing. Hopefully he's healthy. At 33 he's still young enough to succeed and we all know he's got plus breaking stuff. Its just a matter of having enough velocity to keep hitters honest.

The problem is that he's PROBABLY in that 87-90/91 MPH zone right now...iffy.

 

But that's still better than Torres and arguably better than Contreras...although Jose could much more easily get on a roll and throw three shutouts down the stretch (more likely than Garcia, who would certainly give up 3-5 runs per start), of that there's no doubt.

Edited August 12, 200916 yr by caulfield12

I can't imagine someone throwing 86 striking out as many guys as Freddy did this past outing. Hopefully he's healthy. At 33 he's still young enough to succeed and we all know he's got plus breaking stuff. Its just a matter of having enough velocity to keep hitters honest.

 

Freddy was considered done by many...and probably still should be. I'd be thrilled if he could make an impact on our big league ball club this year...but don't count on it.

 

I remember towards the end when his fastball sat at 85...completely ruining his off-speed pitches because they were at that same speed. Lets not forget that Fred is one of the worst pitchers we'll ever see at holding runners.

 

I hate to be critical of Fred as he's one of my all-time favorite players...was before he joined the WSox, but we have to be realistic with where Fred is in his career.

I have to say I really enjoyed watching power pitcher Freddy back when he hit 94 consistently and overpowered hitters. Junk ball Freddy, not so much.

I have to say I really enjoyed watching power pitcher Freddy back when he hit 94 consistently and overpowered hitters. Junk ball Freddy, not so much.

 

+1

I can't imagine someone throwing 86 striking out as many guys as Freddy did this past outing. Hopefully he's healthy. At 33 he's still young enough to succeed and we all know he's got plus breaking stuff. Its just a matter of having enough velocity to keep hitters honest.

Whatever they say he's throwing at in Charlotte, I'm subtracting 5 MPH. The only guy I can remember who threw as hard as we were led to believe when he was called up was Jenks.

Whatever they say he's throwing at in Charlotte, I'm subtracting 5 MPH. The only guy I can remember who threw as hard as we were led to believe when he was called up was Jenks.

 

I thought Poreda lived up to his velocity billing

Whatever they say he's throwing at in Charlotte, I'm subtracting 5 MPH. The only guy I can remember who threw as hard as we were led to believe when he was called up was Jenks.

Jenks was never in Charlotte.

At least Freddy can pitch 5 innings. That's something our back-end starters haven't been able to do lately.

Whatever they say he's throwing at in Charlotte, I'm subtracting 5 MPH. The only guy I can remember who threw as hard as we were led to believe when he was called up was Jenks.

 

Does Clayton Richard count? He actually went way above from what he was scouted to throw.