Bobby Jenks and Sergio Santos both contributed a scoreless inning tothe cause during theSox's 9-5 loss to Kansas City on Monday.
One of them left thefield pointing to the sky in celebration, and one might think that itwould've been the guy who wasn't even a pitcher at this point last year.
Butnope, it was Jenks. Granted, it was a self-deprecating gesture, asJenks has never been a great spring pitcher. Yetit's also an acknowledgment from the man himself about howhigh-maintenance he's become. His back hurts. His calf hurts. He's toofat. He's in great shape. His velocity will come around. He doesn'tneed velocity. He needs to wind up.
There's never one fix, onesolution, which is why 75 percent of Jenks-related discussion pertainsto getting him back to his old self, whatever that is right now. He's never a fun guy to talk about.
Through all the hand-wringing, he's become a great foil for Santos, who is just rocking and firing his way to great results -- similar to the way Jenks did in 2005.
I think we can get used to Santos being the seventh reliever. He walked one and struck out two over his inning of work. His fastball hit the high-90s, and his strikeouts -- one MikeAviles, one Wilson Betemit -- came on high-80s sliders. He has the liveliest stuff in the Sox bullpen, and he's too dynamic to hide from other teams.
It's remarkable, and also a little disconcerting. The Sox have pumped a lot of money into the bullpen, and they've also acquired some highly touted relief candidates from other teams' farm system, and yet it's a career position player who's lapping the field in terms of pure stuff.
That said, I'm not going to complain. Ever since the Great Bullpen Collapse of 2007, the Sox have lagged behind in finding league-minimum relievers. Outside of D.J. Carrasco, every one they've tried has had an obvious, fatal design flaw.
Santos' control might be his undoing, for all we know, but it's too early to tell. It's not premature to say he has a high-leverage repertoire, though, and that alone is encouraging. The Sox haven't graduated too many guys who have the pitches to get out of tight situations. Bobby Jenks was the last internal option; Matt Thornton was the last cheap one.
Fortunately, nobody needs to know that much about Santos at this moment. He doesn't need to be a high-leverage reliever -- he just can't be a disaster. Ozzie Guillen has experience in getting work for delicate bullpen cases without killing the team (see MacDougal, Mike), and Santos will probably be on that plan if he makes it on the Opening Day roster.
And if he does get that far, watching him in action should turn out to be one of the highlights of April, for better or for worse. It's not often Sox fans have looked forward to watching a relief pitcher, but Santos seems to be a different case in almost every way.
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Jake Peavy redefined the phrase "getting his work in" onMonday. The Royals rocked him for seven runs on 10 hits over threeinnings, but that's because 71 of 74 Peavy pitches were fastballs.
"I'll take my chances in the regular season," said Peavy,who followed his 74 in-game pitches with 21 in the bullpen. "That's agood team but obviously it will be a different story when you go outthere with a game plan for each hitter. I know it was hard for you guysto believe or see, but today was another step for me in the rightdirection.
"The bottom line is I'm trying to build up arm strength. I was 91 to94 [mph] today, building velocity and strength. It really went well. Ithrew three breaking balls and got outs on two and a take on one."
He's obviously hurt.
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Christian Marrero Reading Room:
*Oney Guillen should quit while he's behind. Even Ozzie Guillen agrees. But I love this Paul Konerko quote:
“As a rule of thumb, twice a month something is going tocome up. Sometimes it’s back-to-back in a week, sometimes every otherweek, but if you’re a White Sox player you just kind of prepare thatit’s not boring around here and things kind of pop up. That’s just theway it is. There’s always some controversies that pop up here that are alittle different than most teams, but that’s the way we roll here.’’
*The Birmingham Barons will be the Sox's Double-A team through 2014, at least.
*Scott Podsednik says he thinks there were misunderstandings between his camp and theWhite Sox during early offseason negotiations, but harbors no illwill.
*White Sox previews:
- SI.com's Tim Marchman loves the pitching. Keyquote:
Any team on which what's left of Andruw Jones, JuanPierre and Omar Vizquel have reasonably prominent roles could be adisaster. If any team won't be, though, it's this one.
- Baseball Digest Daily offers an in-depth look. Keyquote:
It’s not clear why Kenny Williams decided to acquire aplayer who hitslike Chris Getz and plays left field (Juan Pierre) andtrade the realChris Getz for the pricier Mark Teahen instead of justusing the moneygiven to both Teahen and Pierre and hiring a leftfielder who couldhit. But that’s what he did, and the fans will turnon these two fornot living up to their billings.
