General Sports Water Cooler

I'm curious as to what the plan is with Hammel, and how soon they think he might be able to pitch again. I wonder if they might try and get him on a mound this week with a chance to start one of the 2 games next Monday.

As it stands, because of the off-day Thursday, Chen and Saunders could both pitch the DH vs. Toronto on regular (or more) rest. I could see Steve Johnson getting another start.

The bottom line is I don't think ANY pitcher will get more than 3 starts the rest of the way. So whatever we have to do to cobble together some good outings, hopefully we can do it.

Huge White Sox fans this afternoon at 2:10pm.

Pretty much huge White Sox fans the rest of the way. 3 game series in LA this weekend. 4 game home series vs. TB next week.

And obviously huge Texas fans as well. 6 more with Los Angeles, 7 more with Oakland.

Didn't see this posted anywhere.

“I’m having a blast going out there every day and having an opportunity to pitch and just taking advantage of the opportunities and throwing strikes,” Matusz said. “So far it has been a lot of fun. And it’s even more fun when you come away with wins like that.”

Yeah, that's the feeling I got after hearing that as well.

Since it was brought up, game story on page 11 of the sports section in The Sun.

There's nothing wrong with Hammel. Take some pain killers and suck it up for Christ sake. It's a pennant race.

Until Dr. DeClue chimes in I'm not going to assume one way or the other what is wrong with Hammel.

It is becoming less and less likely that Matt Wieters will become the next “Mickey Mantle meets Josh Gibson meets Yogi Berra meets Chuck Norris.” I mean, the player Wieters HAS become is plenty good … a Gold Glove catcher and a switch-hitter with power. But he has not lived up to the insane hype that led people to start the “Matt Wieters Facts” concept* before he even reached the big leagues.

*My two favorite Matt Wieters facts: Keith Law’s “Sliced bread is actually the best thing since Matt Wieters,” and a guy named Bob’s “Matt Wieters is the reason I comes before E except after C.”

That said, there are games like Sunday’s when you just watch Wieters and find yourself in awe. Obviously he had a particularly good game -- he hit two homers, walked twice (once intentionally), handled the game pretty flawlessly and so on. But it’s the way he does it that leaves you shaking your head. His swing, especially from the left side, is absolutely beautiful. I mean it’s BEAUTIFUL -- it’s Griffey beautiful, Strawberry beautiful, Billy Williams beautiful, Will Clark beautiful. Even when he strikes out, which he did in his fifth plate appearance, it’s like art.

But it’s more than just the look of his swing. Wieters has the sort of easy power that makes his fly balls carry longer than you would expect. Both of his home runs looked gone off the bat, but both just soared.

He has such a good arm, it’s fun to just watch him throw down to second between innings. He has been in the league for four seasons now, and he’s hitting .259/.328/.416 for his career, and he has made a couple of All-Star teams, and his throwing has been a bit off this year (he leads the league with 10 errors) and it all adds up to a good player. But I can see why the scouts and everyone else drooled when thinking about the possibilities. You watch him, even now, and can’t help but consider the possibility that tomorrow, all of a sudden, he will be the best thing since sliced bread, or vice versa.

I can't find anything from Buck or Hammel indicating it is "unlikely" he pitches again.

Palmer did say he was throwing in the outfield but as others have stated, Thorne and Palmer did not sound optimistic about Hammel's return. Sounds like the team doesn't really know much about what's going on with Hammel.

Matt Wieters -

In the last 7 days - 1.636 OPS
In the last 14 days - 1.140 OPS
In the last 28 days - .865

Endy Chavez -

Before DFA - .503 OPS
After DFA - 1.252 OPS