Pregame Notes: Prelander Berroa and Brad Keller tasked with aiding a taxed bullpen
Pedro Grifol made it clear Saturday night that the White Sox would need another bullpen arm after a taxing week and a 10-inning victory.
So Prelander Berroa getting called up Sunday morning amid a run of seven scoreless appearances with Charlotte and improved scouting reports, while Jonathan Cannon went back to Triple-A made…well, maybe not all the sense in the world, but prompted few follow-up questions beyond “so when will Brad Keller be called up for his first start?”
That the Sox immediately called up Keller and designated the promising but erratic Deivi García–who got the win Saturday night with his usual mix of raw talent and raw command–would require more of a walk-through for their thinking.
“It was a really tough call,” Grifol said of García. “I really love the kid. And I love his makeup and his arm. He’s got a good arm, and he’s willing to pitch every day, willing to do whatever it takes for this team. It’s unfortunate. I’m hoping it works out for him, and if it doesn’t I’m hoping he’s able to come back here because like I said, he’s a good pitcher.”
If it were me, I might ponder whether aggressively slandering a player’s makeup would help him clear waivers in the short-term, but then again maybe there’s a reason all my OOTP teams had clubhouse issues. Moving on, Grifol clarified that Keller,who was originally scheduled to start for the Knights on Sunday, is available for multi-inning relief as needed for the next couple of days, which would still allow him to start in St. Louis this coming weekend.
“I’m really happy with how my body felt, how everything has come along as far as recovery and how my arm has been able to hold up after everything with the rehab and the surgery,” said Keller, who underwent surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome over the offseason, and feels his command has bounced back. “Especially in games now, battle counts, I feel like I can stay in there. I feel like my arm has been able to hold up. Command has been good down there. Just kind of continue with that process up here.”
– Your latest Oscar Colás update is that he was the person who informed Berroa that he was getting recalled to the majors, because Knights manager Justin Jirschele was having trouble getting in contact with the right-hander at the team hotel. Early season reports on Berroa as he was getting mauled for 11 runs in his first four appearances on the season were that his slider had lost its snap, which is problematic for someone who throws it the majority of the time, despite upper-90s heat.
Berroa described the issue as simply leaving the pitch up.
“I try to attack hitters with my slider down in the zone, fastball low in the zone,” Berroa said via interpreter. “I was leaving the pitch in the strike zone a lot, and hitters were taking advantage of that. We made adjustments and I’m trying to be sharper, execute the pitch, and the results have been better.”
– Jason Bourgeois also wishes he just had three Luis Robert Jr.’s to direct around the outfield.
“That’d be great!” said the Sox first base coach. “We could have everybody who runs like [Byron] Buxton out there, three gazelles, that’s the ultimate outfield. You witness all the time now that the athletes, the outfielders are getting faster all the time. But at the same time, we are who we are and we go after the margins by preparing.”
But Bourgeois praised Tommy Pham’s experience and route-running as he fills in at center, and Saturday night’s swirling winds backed up the importance he’s placing on trying to acquaint his newest charge with the surroundings, which he could be spotted doing through batting practice on Saturday.
“Making sure he’s checking the flags, but at the same time dialing in on his positioning and have some flexibility on that as well.”
Bourgeois said the flags in the right field corner can be deceiving and not reflective of what’s going on in center field, and he tries not to rely on them as much as the others. He did not go so far as to call the flags liars, but I will. Those flags are liars.
First Pitch
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Lineups:
| Rays | White Sox | |
|---|---|---|
| Yandy Díaz, 1B | 1 | Nicky Lopez,. 2B |
| Richie Palacios, RF | 2 | Tommy Pham, CF |
| Amed Rosario, SS | 3 | Gavin Sheets, 1B |
| Isaac Paredes, 3B | 4 | Eloy Jiménez, DH |
| Harold Ramírez, LF | 5 | Andrew Benintendi, LF |
| Austin Shenton, DH | 6 | Robbie Grossman, RF |
| Curtis Mead, 2B | 7 | Danny Mendick, 3B |
| Jose Siri, CF | 8 | Korey Lee, C |
| René Pinto, C | 9 | Braden Shewmake, SS |
| Zack Littell | SP | Erick Fedde, SP |
DFA’ing another promising youngster for washed up veterans. What a waste.
The hunt for 41 wins, baby!
Berroa (turned 24 two weeks ago) is your new youngest player on the team, and the only member of the roster born after 1/1/2000
The Sox roster management seems atrocious.
Not sure how to up to date it is, but ESPN has the Sox as the ninth oldest team in baseball. Somebody tell Getz you can have an old roster or a bad roster, but not both.
I think three questions about roster age, developing players at the big league level, finding out what they have long-term at the last presser got the point across.
He’s basically trying to build trade assets in the first half and then play the kids afterward
I think I could have lived with that plan if he had actually acquired players that anyone would want. I don’t know what makes him think that anyone is going to trade for guys like Paul DeJong and Brad Keller when no one wanted them in the first place. Best case is that a couple of them get hot and you can trade them for a DSL guy, but then he’ll just have to DFA the majority of them. Seems like a waste of time when you could have been developing some of the young guys (Sosa, Colas) at the MLB level and giving them valuable experience.
I see no difference between Sosa and a garbage vet.
Well, you see, with a garbage vet there is no chance that they will be good. With someone like Sosa or Colas, who has performed well at every level except the major league level, and who is still young, there is a chance that they could improve and become good.
I don’t see major trade assets coming from guys teams passed on signing for free.
The Phillies went to 2 World Series with a team that was the oldest in the league…by a lot.
I think that goes to prove his point.
Maybe he’ll stick around.
Some of the ideas are better than others. Like, I think rolling the dice on Dejong and Lopez instead of Sosa is a good idea. The trade that still annoys me is Matt Thompson for Bailey Horn.
I’m not sure they needed both Dejong and Lopez, especially Lopez at his salary (it’s $4M right?)
Again it probably doesn’t matter but it feels like there a pattern of wasteful suboptimal decisions (like jettisoning fringey prospects for basically no reason) that doesn’t seem great from a resource starved organization that has to get a lot of decisions right to compete.
Terrible read by Grossman on that Rosario single
He prepares every night to kick your @ss. Unfortunately, it’s a day game.
For a second I thought Gavin was playing both first base and right field
I’m seeing double here … four Gavins!
At least we know that if anything fun starts to happen this season, Keller will be there to put a stop to it post haste.
I hope Timmy hits a bomb off him and the entire dugout conga’s around the bases with him.
I really hoped that TA would have a bounce back season this year, but unfortunately he’s off to a bad start. Seems like all of those leg injuries just totally sapped his power.
Bad start or a continuation of a new norm in his career? He has been awful for close to 2vyears now.
His profile was always weird and unlikely to age super well.
You cannot fix a clubhouse by drafting Drake LaRoche, James.
Great at bat by Grossman
What a dumb play by Lee sliding to first. Takes all his momentum down, just run
Yep. You’re a major league player, this should common knowledge…don’t slide into 1b. Ever.
Sliding feet first into first, ha.
Sliding into first unless you’re avoiding a tag or a collision is always wrong. That’s something that should be ingrained in every player before they graduate Little League.
But haven’t you seen how all those Olympic sprinters slide across the finish line?
Now I am imagining that, and I am laughing
Hilarious! See my comment below.
My daughter has Down Syndrome. Yesterday at Special Olympics she knew to run through the finish line, not to the finish line.
Ooof that popup had Beckham written all over it.
I no longer feel like once the opposite team scores 3 runs, the game is over. Maybe I am optimistic
The persistence of hope
The cycle of Eloy. Pulls muscle and I’m done with him. Starts hitting…ok offseason plan…exercise that option. Hard to quit the big guy
Wait, there’s a shower on the outfield concourse? Who knew that?
it’s been there for several years
who knew
Invisible sarcasm font. Sorry.
oh I gave up listening to the broadcast 10 minutes in. so if that was the point, my bad
Haven’t the Sox had concourse showers since the days of Veeck?
It was moved over in fact, ha.
Fedde going right handed Buehrle here. Just getting it and throwing it
man those are some suckass jerseys
So, will Fedde be a Cy Young finalist? Or will he merely get votes?
This is obviously cool as hell but Fedde should definitely not be allowed to face Paredes again
It works with a generous strike zone
That’s the kind of strike three call you get when you show up the umpire on strike one.
The (no) defense of Tampa Bay this weekend…woof!
3 hits for Sheets playing 1B. When facing a righty, this is the right approach. Vaughn should only play when facing a LHP. Grifol should do this until that approach doesn’t work.
The Rays stink.
I think Schriffen actually just said “they’re going to pitch to him” with the bases loaded. If I heard right, and I don’t agree with all of the criticism, that’s really a lack of awareness.
I think he meant that Rodriguez was going to pitch to him, instead of Cash coming out to bring in Cleavinger.
I’m no Schriffen defender, but they meant they were letting Rodriguez pitch to him instead of going to the lefty warming in the pen
Yeah, Stone said something about being surprised if they keep Rodriguez in to pitch to Benintendi. And, you heard right, Schriffen said that. He misspoke. He should have said, “They’re going to let him pitch to Benintendi.”
EXTEND BENINTENDI 3 MORE YEARS
My dream is that he gets really hot, is the Sox AS representative, and some team desperate for a LF bat takes him off our hands.
whatever works, I’ll take it
that ball was 6 inches outside. idc about “consistency” in that case
Whatever Andrew Benintendi had for breakfast yesterday needs to stay on the menu.
didn’t need to see him throw 110 or see another guy after giving up the first hit
Break out the brooms!
Schriffen has to be messing with us. This cannot be a real human
He didn’t say ‘haters’. Improvement
uh oh, it’s learning
Sweeping an AL East team? Never thought this was on the cards. Pham is 3 for 3
schriffen is officially painful to listen to on wins
he calls each one like it might be the last one
…it might though
Is the “South Side, Stand Up!” thing set in stone? Is it up for negotiation? Every time Schriffen says it I think of Louie on the State saying “I wanna dip my balls in it!”
I prefer SOUTH SIDE STOMP SKULLS
The more I think about it, the more I wish he would actually just use “I wanna dip my balls in it!”
“Who’s got a bowl of something?”
I’m still working on deciphering everything that he screamed during the walkoff yesterday. Having some trouble…
You must be a hater.
Since the Bears drafted Caleb Williams, the White Sox are 3-0.
Did Ryan Poles somehow accidentally fix the White Sox
Sox sweeping another team? Is this allowed?
Can you imagine the angst in St. Pete right now?
First they would have to actually have fans to have the angst.
We will see Cannon and Nastrini again and maybe Garcia. My guess is that Getz hopes that Keller and Clevinger pitch so well that they are traded for more prospects. That seems to be his MO given that JR won’t let him spend anything: build the roster of prospects top to bottom. I hope he scouts the Dogs, too. Chicago Dogs. And Thunderbolts. Managed by Bobby Jenks.
Thanks for calling it like you see it, James. To hell with those flags.