The White Sox on Wednesday optioned outfielder Daniel Palka to Triple-A Charlotte, just hours after he broke an 0-for-32 slump with a broken-bat single in a 4-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals.
Of course, Palka also grounded into a double play with the bases loaded and one out in a tie game in the bottom of the eighth inning, and he also made the final out of the game in the bottom of the 10th -- making weak contact in both at-bats.
It was time to send him down. Past time, in fact.
Amid all the Tim Anderson controversy, it was almost forgotten that pitcher Lucas Giolito had to leave Wednesday's game in the third inning with left hamstring tightness. It was unfortunate, because Giolito had his good stuff working. He had not allowed a hit and struck out five through 2.2 innings.
These two roster moves allowed Ryan Cordell and Carson Fulmer to return from Charlotte for Thursday's game in Detroit, a 9-7 White Sox loss.
Cordell started in right field batting ninth, and went 3 for 4 with his second home run of the season, which briefly gave the Sox a 5-4 lead in the seventh inning. On this blog, we previously endorsed Cordell's recall from Charlotte, although I had suggested he replace Adam Engel, not Palka.
In any case, Cordell seems to be the best of the bad options in the Sox outfield right now. He's swinging the bat better than Palka, Engel or Nicky Delmonico, who is at Charlotte.
As we've stated before, Cordell should not be seen as a long-term solution to anything, and as a Sox fan, I long for the day when we aren't talking about shuffling through a bunch of never-will-be outfielders. But, this is the situation right now, and the Sox need to give the playing time to the man who is doing the best job.
At the moment, that's Cordell. Give it a week, and it might be someone else's turn.
As for Fulmer, he found himself on the mound in the eighth inning of a 7-7 game Thursday, and he gave up two runs and lost it on a single, two hit batters and two sacrifice flies. Fulmer continued his longstanding habit of giving things away by loading the bases with the two hit batsmen.
I didn't really like Fulmer being on the mound in that situation on his first day back in the bigs, but in fairness to Sox manager Rick Renteria, he lacks good options in the bullpen.
For me, Fulmer is a symbol of why the Sox rebuild has stagnated. The rebuild proponents want to the team to tank again for draft position this season, but the thing is, the Sox haven't done a good job with their first-round draft picks, of which Fulmer is one.
He's out of options, and this might be his last kick at the can with the Sox organization. Can a rebuild really work for an organization that a) doesn't draft well and b) doesn't want to spend in free agency?
It doesn't look good. The Sox (7-12) lost 100 games last season; they are on pace for 99 losses this season. As a friend texted me this afternoon, "This just keeps getting worse."
The Bull-pen vet pick-ups was good. THE REST OF THE BULL PEN IS BAD! Nat Jones needs to hide the ball out of his hand somehow, batters seem to track it right from his hand.
ReplyDeleteYes, no complaints about Colome or Herrera. Both men have been effective, but they can't pitch every day, or in every high-leverage situation. They need a few others to be reliable. I'm sure they expected Jones to be reliable, but his velocity is down. Injuries have taken their toll, and I'm not sure that he's going to change his delivery much in his age-33 season. He's probably pretty close to done, if he's not done now.
ReplyDeleteI was at the game on Wednesday and Burr looked ok out of the pen. Fulmer? He implodes on his own way too often.
ReplyDeleteRight. Fulmer gives too much away with walks, HBPs and wild pitches. Burr has been up and down so far, but he threw strikes during spring training and earned a chance.
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