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Jered Weaver seems to be questionable these days. All tests are negative but Scioscia is “taking things slowly” with the sophomore pitcher.

He is not expected to throw off a mound for a while – perhaps about two weeks.
But Weaver downplayed any talk about the injury Saturday. He had an MRI exam a few weeks ago. “Everything came out negative,” Weaver said. “It’s just a matter of working it out.”

Hmm.. rumor is Weaver was going to go high in our rookie draft. Now? I’m not so sure. I’m sure we’ll give him a closer look. I’m always a little more wary about drafting pitchers high anyway.

(H/T Baseball Musings)

David Price – Vanderbilt

Joe Savery – Rice

Just got these great shots of the Houston College Classic from my friend Jim Pierce. Jim is a freelance baseball photographer who does some work for Baseball America. Thanks Jim!

In case you’re not familiar with the two lefthanders pictured above, you will be. They are two of the top starting pitchers in college baseball. Both David Price & Joe Savery pitched for 2005’s Team USA. Price was 5-1 with a 0.20 ERA, 61 strikeouts and only seven walks, in 44 innings, helping Team USA achieve the Gold Medal. In addition to Savery being a quality pitcher, 5-1 with a 2.76 ERA for the Owls in 2006, he is also an outstanding hitter, named tournament MVP, hitting .400 (6 for 15), with a HR, five RBIs, four walks, & seven runs scored.

The Houston College Classic was held in Houston over the February 9th weekend. In addition to Vanderbilt & Rice, other teams that competed in the Classic were Texas A&M, ASU, Baylor, & Houston.

Friday’s results
Arizona St. 5, Texas A&M 4
Houston 4, Baylor 2
Vanderbilt 7, Rice 3

Saturday’s results
Vanderbilt 7, Arizona St. 6 (11)
Texas A&M 3, Houston 2
Rice 7, Baylor 0

Sunday’s results
Arizona St. 11, Houston 1
Vanderbilt 7, Baylor 4
Texas A&M 4, Rice 2

My Dad took me (age 9) to my first Major League game on this date. Pirates – Cubs at Wrigley. A little over 8,000 in attendance. The Upper Deck was closed during the week in those days.

Pirates won 8-2. Hank Foiles took Marcelino Solis deep for the only home run. When the ball was hit, my Dad quietly observed, “There it goes.” I don’t know whether he meant the ball or the game.

George Witt got the win and Vern Law pitched the final 3 innings for one of his few career saves.

A couple of days and 37 years ago Paul Edmondson & his girlfriend were killed in an auto accident in Santa Barbara. Edmondson was driving on highway 101 on his way to spring training, when his car skidded into oncoming traffic on a rain soaked road. Paul was just 27 years old, had all the promise of a very talented righthander, with hopes springing eternal.

This 6’5″ Kansas City born pitcher had just celebrated his 27th birthday February 12th, the day before he was killed. Even though Edmondson had a 1-6 record as a rookie, it was very misleading. The White Sox scored only five runs in his six losses. He got his first win in his first big league start against the California Angels, a two hitter. Paul was penciled into the starting rotation. It’s always sad to think about, what might have been.

For all you lovers out there, Happy Valentine’s Day! If you’re not so lucky, buy some cheap flowers and hand them out one by one to people you know. You might make a friend… or be accused of being a stalker.

Here in east central Illinois, we’ve been covered by a thick layer of snow thanks to a snowstorm we had the last couple days. The University of Illinois has actually closed for the last two days. I could be wrong but last time the University had closed was when I was when I was in college in 1984. Let it be known that I trudged through the snow for 12 blocks to get to work.

Now, the sun is shining, the roads (and sidewalks) are slowly being cleared and all the other people are making their way out of their abodes.

Enjoy the day.

 

 

 

A lawsuit claiming that a Mother’s Day giveaway was biased against men and those under 18 was thrown out of court. The case stems from a promo by the Angels last year when they gave tote bags to all mothers on Mother’s Day (good for the Angels, I say. Mothers deserve it.)

The suit claimed that all men (and those under 18) were each entitled $4000 in damages. You gotta love the American sense of entitlement.

I’m not surprised it got thrown out. I am surprised it took 9 months to do it.

 

Funny, just last night on Baseball Zealot Radio during our discussion of steriods, drugs and whatnot, we were talking about how “greenies” were common during the ’50s and 60s. Then we all reminded ourselves that they were still probably prevalent today.

Leave it to Barry to prove that to us.

Bonds has just failed an amphetamine test. Not only that, he says it was probably something he took out of a bottle from teammate Mark Sweeney’s locker.

“When first informed of the positive test, Bonds attributed it to a substance he had taken from teammate Mark Sweeney’s locker, the New York City newspaper said, citing several unnamed sources.”

I don’t know why Bonds is taking pills out of lockers that aren’t his. Nor do I know why he his bringing up Sweeney’s name in the media. If he needs to talk about it, talk to Sweeney or the manager.

Excuses, excuses.

My last post was a bit of a rant. Here’s a story that will help restore your faith in humanity.

After a 20 year-old suffered a seizure in a NY subway tunnel and fell in the path of an oncoming subway train, a stranger jumped off the platform leaving his two small children to rescue the young man.

The only way to save the man (and himself) was to curl both of them between the tracks so the train would go over them. The train braked but the first two cars did go over them.

Both escaped with minor injuries.

In this day of sports “heroes”, it’s good to reminded of the true heroes that are out there.

Nick Masset

First off I’m a Sox fan! I know my baseball and believe in GM Kenny Williams’ ability to evaluate talent and build a ballclub. He’s the guy who put together a championship team a couple of years ago and a 90 win team one last season.

So I’m not going to go into panic mode just because we traded Freddy Garcia, Neal Cotts, Ross Gload, & Brandon McCarthy. The White Sox strength from their championship ballclub was the starting rotation, which consisted of quality arms from one to five. Last year the arms were there, but the results were shakey. Although Garcia had a solid year, his velocity wasn’t there. So he was dealt for Gavin Floyd & Gio Gonzalez, I have no problem with that. Then we sent Cotts to the Northside of town in exchange for hardthrowing Dave Aardsma, Neal lost his confidence with the Sox and was resembling departed lefty Damaso Marte, Aardsma throws smoke & looks to be the righthanded compliment of Matt Thornton. Then you add the 6’10” lefty Andrew Sisco stolen from the Royals for Ross Gload. But Kenny wasn’t done there, sending Brandon McCarthy to the Rangers for pitching prospects John Danks, Nick Masset, & Jacob Rasner. Williams likened Masset to closer Bobby Jenks in velocity, which isn’t a bad thing. Not sure where all these arms are going to fit in, but it’s a nice problem to have. Not to mention 22 year old knuckleballer Charlie Haeger appears to be ready. It looks like the 2007 bullpen will be a strength rather than a problem.

I also like that Toby Hall will backup AJ Pierzynski behind the plate. Now all we have to do is get centerfield figured out, we’ll have to see what Kenny has up his sleeve.

Sox and the City is a book I picked up for my friend CLuke’s 50th birthday, but being a good Sox fan, he already had it. So I had to keep it for myself. It’s a quick read, written by Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times and Ebert & Roeper, nothing against Roeper, but I miss Siskel. Gene Siskel used to sit by me from time to time at the Bulls games, he was a great guy! I’d highly recommend this book as a Christmas present for any White Sox fan you might have on your shopping list.

The book brought me back to the old Comiskey Park. I could almost smell the place (a strange combination of stale beer & whatever else that lingered in the bowels of the ballpark) as I leafed through the pages. Many of the memories that stuck in Roeper’s mind were not his alone, in fact he struck common ground when he said, he remembered some of those games in his childhood better than the 2005 World Series.

My mind drifted to days gone by when Ken Berry roamed centerfield, Wilbur Wood was on the mound everyday as a starting pitcher (or so it seemed), Dick Allen hit two inside the park homers against Minnesota (Bobby Darwin was the Twins centerfielder), and the beloved South Side Hitmen of 1977. And I’ll never forget Sox announcer Bob Waller criticizing lack of hustle after a particularly long season. Nor can I forget the Sox short pants uniforms! Oh and those rabbit ears, trying to fine tune UHF and rid Comiskey of snow on my black & white TV set. I’d write more, but I wanna get back to reading this delightful book.