Jake Peavy to the disabled list begat Hector Santiago to the starting rotation

Something that does become more interesting when a team is duking it out with the Royals to stay out of the AL Central cellar is finding out whether Hector Santiago can continue to strike out a batter per inning, while curbing the practices of walking a batter every other inning or allowing a home run every start. It’s worth the time to find out if he can stick in a rotation, and the White Sox have got nothing but time. Their world is just beginning.

Brian Omogrosso optioned because…reasons?

Captain Omo has certainly struggled this season, gotten tagged for hits, been annihilated by left-handers to a truly hysterical degree and walked more batters than is typically desired, but his peripherals are similar to last season–he has the exact same unremarkable 2.0 K/BB ratio.

He looks the same, which is to say he looks underwhelming and not like a strong candidate for a larger role. He is certainly the type of guy who you’d expect to shuffle back and forth between the 25-man roster and Charlotte, but he hasn’t had a “GET HIM THE HELL OUTTA HERE’ performance recently.

Actually, Omogrosso just put together three-straight scoreless appearances and really had his slider working when he struck out three over 2.1 innings on Tuesday. If anything, I imagine those three appearances are the culprit, since Omogrosso has now thrown four innings in three appearances in three days. Might as well option him with instruction to give him a couple days off and bring in some depth in his stead. He won’t be offended.

Brian Omogrosso and Hector Santiago leaving the bullpen begat Ramon Troncoso and Deunte Heath getting called up

How do we expect Deunte Heath to get used to throwing strikes in major league games if he keeps receiving the negative reinforcement of having his pitches in the zone blasted to Alpha Centauri? All of Heath’s career stats are bad, but the 37 batters that have faced him having a .321 ISO stood out. Hitters have absolutely been killing the ball off him.

Certainly there’s more to Heath than the drastically erratic tomato can he’s been in 7.2 innings of big league action–he was a dominant Triple-A reliever last season– but there’s a level of concern in him being completely shelled in four of the seven times he’s strode out to a major league mound. Leyson Septimo had more flashes of brilliance early on than this.

Ramon Troncoso has been succeeding in Triple-A to the tune of 2.19 ERA in a bunch of ways that don’t seem like they’ll translate in Chicago: stranding runners, limiting damage, avoiding walks and not overpowering anyone.

Maybe it’s a velo fascination contracted from too much time spent watching the White Sox, but give me an unrefined converted shortstop who throws 101 mph over any of these guys.

This is all negative, but it’s also the last two slots of the bullpen, you’re not allowed to get too worked up one way or the other. Just sit there and try to have a good weekend. You deserve it! Yes, you!

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In ending their losing streak, the White Sox showed no indication at having resolved any of their issues. Unless you count Nate Jones, who has looked awesome over his last two appearances. Way to go, Nate.

The massive eight-game losing streak that anyone might reasonably assert has eliminated any still-lingering notion that the White Sox could compete for a playoff spot actually only cost them two games in the AL Central standings, but scoreboard watching has never been the point with this group. The Detroit Tigers are not as big of an issue as another week going by without the White Sox establishing another credible offensive threat beyond Alex Rios, who actually really needed his four-hit performance on Wednesday to snap out of a slump. He’s the only above-average hitter in the White Sox lineup, so it’d be nice if he could stay good enough to be the fourth-best bat in the Tigers’ lineup.

It’s this still-unresolved situation that the Jake Peavy injury is lopped on top of. Four-to-six weeks without Peavy due to a non-displaced rib fracture deals the double blow of putting more stress on a starting rotation already missing Gavin Floyd, dealing with the new John Danks, hoping Dylan Axelrod keeps surviving and now, witnessing Hector Santiago’s growing pains as a starter again, but also takes away the main point of interest for a trade deadline sell-off, just as the Sox have hit the skids in a manner undeniable enough that even a front office as resolute in their ambition as this one has historically been, has considered retreat.

I was a bit surprised by unanimity from everyone I listen to on the White Sox about Jake Peavy’s trade value being destroyed, since it’s not an injury he’s had before or specifically an arm issue that would explicitly merit concern about any pitcher’s ability to continue their career after recovering. However, even an idealized recovery scenario where Peavy leaps back into the rotation after six weeks and reels off three great starts depends on the prescribed timeline staying accurate and no complications arising from overeager attempts to return.

That can seem like asking a lot.

And if it wasn’t ,the difference between Peavy fresh off the disabled list and Peavy steaming toward a second-straight 200+ inning campaign is still probably significant in trade valuations.

It’s still early for those, by the way, since prices are of small concern when no one is buying or selling yet. Everyone is still competing at full throat at the beginning of June or at least acting like it, especially if there’s no youth movement waiting behind the dying veteran core. It would be interesting what the product of the threatened accountability would be for struggling players, but with the White Sox running out substitute teachers until the weekend, they’ll likely be in stasis until then.

Given the past five years, it will be a familiar feeling, but hopefully it won’t last. I can hope that my complete inability to find an interesting way to wrap up this post is reflective of the current uninspiring state of the White Sox, the difficult future they face and the anxiety felt by all about their willingness and ability to do what’s necessary, and not me.

There’s a Chris Kamka tweet from a little while back that I’d blow up and put on my wall if I could find it about how finding something interesting about your favorite team no matter what the situation is, can be one of most rewarding challenges of fandom.

The first round of the draft is tonight and I’m going to try to familiarize myself with the entire field after not reading anything about it for weeks due to grad school obligations. Jose Quintana is starting and I always love to see how his development is going. Maybe Dayan will stop breaking my heart with every plate appearance.

There needs to be something to focus on, because if the eight-game losing streak did anything, it took away what we could ignore.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan

May 30, 2013; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Travis Wood (right) is greeted by second baseman Darwin Barney (15), catcher Welington Castillo (53) and third baseman Luis Valbuena (24) after hitting a grand slam home run against the Chicago White Sox during the fourth inning at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

It’s not cruel enough for the White Sox to simply be the worst offense in the American League; they have to inject comical misfortune into otherwise nondescript, run-deprived losses to below-average teams.

Rather than be remembered for failing to improve upon their dismal 3.6 runs per game average, the headlines of the White Sox 8-3 loss Wednesday at Wrigley Field will focus on little things like no one catching an infield pop-up to the pitchers’ mound, more outfield foibles for Dayan Viciedo, or perhaps Cubs’ starter Travis Wood hitting a grand slam.

Fresh off a day on the pine, Paul Konerko was the only Sox hitter who could fend off Wood’s relentless attack on the inner half of the plate against right-handers. Right after Alex Rios was jammed high-and-inside for a double play ball in the third inning, Konerko salvaged the inning by pulling an RBI single to left-center on a similarly placed offering. He again turned on a ball to left for an RBI double with no outs in the sixth inning, only to be stranded there once more.

Wood got through six quality innings with only 88 pitches of work and those two marks against him, a garbage-time run with two outs in the ninth accounted for the only other White Sox tally and a once-piping hot Dayan Viciedo and Conor Gillaspie combined for an 0-8, five strikeout day. It was a really awful offensive performance, but the hijinks were more distracting.

Four-straight two-out hits in the second inning built the Cubs a quick 2-0 lead they would never come to the point of relinquishing, but that was borderline conventional compared to the way things disintegrated in the fourth.

A harmless infield pop-up by Welington Castillo apparently got pitched around by the huge gusts of wind that whipped through the city all day, which is a limited excuse for why it was allowed to drop behind the pitcher’s mound with only Conor Gillaspie in the general vicinity. After another single, Peavy loaded the bases by plunking Darwin Barney, leading to possibly the worst moment of the season.

Travis Wood has been hitting very well this season (which constitutes 26 plate appearances) and Jake Peavy has been a reliable starter this season, but good luck focusing on either one for the next week without reliving the shame of Peavy floating a cutter to a darn pitcher and watching it be golfed into the left field bleachers for a grand slam.

With no reason to try to squeeze anymore quality innings out of him for a lost cause, Robin Ventura pinch-hit for Jake in the next inning, giving way to his corps of relievers he uses when the game is lost.

Nate Schierholtz and Luis Valbuena added solo home runs for the Cubs, who won the season series outright for the first time since 2007.

Team Record: 24-27

Box Score

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