Spring Training Journal – Day 6

On the way in to Camelback today I learned that the Sox had finalized their 25 man active roster. In addition to making official the inclusion of Eduardo Escobar, Nate Jones and Hector Santiago earned the nods to round the list out. Jones is the surprise inclusion, a righty with a live arm and some control issues, Ventura has stated that he’ll likely get stretched out along with Zach Stewart to be the long men in the pen. With the official roster set, there is nothing left to do but play out the string, keep everybody healthy and sharp. Saturday the Sox played the first of their last 3 games in which they attempt to basically not get anybody hurt before heading off to Minute Maid Park for an exhibition pair against the Astros.

The Rockies sent lefty Drew Pomeranz to the bump and the Sox had trouble figuring him out. Some hits were thrown in but none were hit very hard and Pomeranz cruised through 6 innings. John Danks went out for his final tune-up before kicking the season off on Thursday and was nearly as sharp allowing only one run in his 6 innings.

Brent Lillibridge got the start at SS and came up short on a couple of plays that I’m fairly sure Alexei would have been able to convert. Not that it’s a huge issue, as with Escobar on the roster Lillibridge won’t get too many looks at short anyway, but I thought it was worth nothing that Alexei’s presence is always appreciated. We’ve got a great shortstop and things are just better when he’s out there.

Plus: Adam Dunn launched an opposite field homerun in the 9th inning…against a lefty. I don’t think I have to spend much time going into how great it is to see Dunn do anything off of left handed pitching, much less send balls over the fence.

Minus: Alex Rios continues to pound balls into the ground and look pretty crappy at the plate. I’m much too used to seeing the look on his face as he takes his helmet off and sends it back to the dugout after putting the end to another White Sox half inning.

The comings and goings to the park were bookended with roster news. As we left the park I was informed that the White Sox signed Conor Jackson to a minor league contract. I’m not sure when Kenny had time for all this. I saw him walking out the gates just a few feet in front of me. I called his name and he broke into a short jog. I’m going to go ahead and think that he was either in a hurry to go make another roster move and not actually frightened by the sound of my voice and moving himself as far away as he could, as quickly as possible.