Donnie Veal: Another New Guy

Pedro Hernandez didn’t have a major league debut that he’d like to recount to his grandchildren. 8 runs allowed in 4 innings with 3 HR allowed. No, Hernandez won’t be sticking around as part of the starting rotation roulette plan this time around. Hernandez has been sent back down to Charlotte, as the team claims was the plan all along, regardless of game performance. This may well be the case, but Robin Ventura alluded to an attempt to catch lightning in the bottle with Hernandez as they had with Jose Quintana. Sounds like there was hope that he’d be able to stick around.

Nevertheless, Hernandez is out and Donnie Veal comes in. Veal, who was signed by the White Sox during the off-season will at some point be making his first major league appearance since 2009, when he appeared in 19 games for the Pirates with results that would cause somebody to not appear in the majors for a few years. So far this year while pitching for AAA Charlotte, Veal has been much more impressive, striking out well over a batter an inning and posting a 2.08 ERA in 43 innings pitched.

Though I don’t think that Veal is technically a rookie, having spent a good chunk of time as part of the Pirates’ roster, he is still another inexperienced addition to the White Sox bullpen. At least I can go back to annoying all those around me by shouting, “Way to go, Donnie!” at every opportunity.