Someday

Someday, when the White Sox get serious about their rebuild, they’ll start promoting pitchers from within their system and avoid games like yesterday, a 7-5 loss to the Royals. First off, Chris Getz has plenty of starters to choose from, which would eliminate the need for “openers” and “bullpen days.” Pitchers either start or relieve; they don’t, or shouldn’t, open. Mike Vasil should be coming in to relieve, not pitch three innings as the “opener.” Need a starter? Then consider Noah Schultz or Hagen Smith, both at Double-A Birmingham. Too valuable to have the clock start ticking on team control of either? In which case, Riley Gowens could be a sleeper, as evidenced by a 5-1 record starting for the Barons. Yesterday’s game was tied 2-2 going into the seventh, when manager New-Mickey Venable called on Jordan Leasure with a runner on second, one out. Not only did Leasure allowed the inherited runner to score, he added one of his own. That pushes his ERA to 4.56, bad but not as bad as Bryse Wilson’s, which climbed to 6.95 after he gave up three runs in the ninth. Once upon a time, the Sox used their young starters out of the pen, e.g., Mark Buehrle and Chris Sale. Why not do the same with Schultz and Smith? If not that, then why not call up one or some of the relievers dominating at Birmingham? Grant Taylor has a 1.01 ERA in fifteen appearances, nine of them in relief. Shane Murphy is 3-3 with a 1.75 ERA in seven appearances, five of them starts. Jake Palisch is 4-1 with a 0.77 ERA in fourteen games, six of them starts. Zach Franklin has a 1.90 ERA in eighteen relief appearances while Andrew Dalquist is 5-2 with a 0.94 ERA in nineteen relief appearances. Like I said, things could change, if and when the Sox decide they want them to.