Tagged: Mitchell Boggs

White Sox Shut Out in Spring Opener

Chris Sale and the White Sox opened the spring training part of their schedule today against their in house neighbor, the Los Angeles Dodgers at Camelback Ranch in Arizona.

Sale’s fastball looked great in his season debut. It was so good that he started out throwing fastballs on the first 8 pitches of the game with good command. He ended up with 42 pitches thrown in the game when he left with two outs in the third inning. His stat line had four strike outs and only one hit given up against the everyday line-up of the Dodgers.

Adam Eaton’s White Sox debut went well as he went one for one with a single and a walk. He seemed very patient and willing to take pitches which will be important if he stays in the lead-off spot throughout the season.

Both Jose Abreu and Dayan Viciedo looked like they just wanted to crush the ball in their first appearance of the season. Abreu swung through a pitch so hard he fell off balance and ended up in the opposite batter’s box, while Viciedo spun around in one of his at-bats. Abreu went hitless with a fly out and a ground out.  Viciedo managed to take a fastball to the opposite field for a single, and reached for a pitch which he drove to deep right for an out.

A double down the left field line and a check swing dribbler back to the pitcher are how Matt Davidson celebrated his White Sox debut.

In the first game of his retirement campaign, Paul Konerko went hitless and didn’t look comfortable in the batter’s box. The Dodgers, in both at-bats jammed Konerko inside with fastballs and he wasn’t able to do much with them. He ended the day after the 4th inning with a first pitch ground out to third and a fly out to the first baseman in foul territory.

Donnie Veal, Mitchell Boggs, and Charlie Leesman looked decent in the spring debuts. The three relievers combined to give up one hit in three innings of work with two strike outs by Leesman. It wasn’t until Jake Petricka and Omar Poveda came into the game that the Dodgers started scoring.

All in all some players had their good day today and others didn’t. That’s what spring training is for though is working on your fundamentals and getting the kinks out.

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Nate Jones Down on First Day of Camp

Injury news on the first day of camp is never a good thing obviously. The fact he’s the player who many thought would step into the closer’s role with the departure of Addison Reed this off season, is even worse.

Nate Jones was the choice of most experts to have an edge on becoming the next closer for the White Sox heading into spring training at Camelback Ranch. The strained glute muscle he suffered on Saturday will no doubt delay his crowning, and also gives players such as rookie Daniel Webb, Matt Lindstrom, and maybe Mitchell Boggs if he can return to form and forget the struggles he experienced in 2013.

Jones had a weird season in 2013. With just over six more innings pitched than his rookie season, Jones’ managed to keep most stats similar while giving up several more runs. He actually gave up almost 20 more earned runs than the previous season. That big of an increase in runs surrendered seems large, yet his hits only increased by two, home runs by one, walks actually went down while his strike outs jumped from 65 in 2012 to 89 in 2013.

So how worried is the staff of the Sox about Jones’. According to whitesox.com, Robin Ventura said of the injury, “It’s a minor thing.” He went on to say that they were just being cautious and just wanted him to rest and heal.

The White Sox seem to have a good amount of faith in Jones’. He led the relievers in innings pitches last season, including the aforementioned Reed. At 27 years old, going into his prime, the Sox just want to make sure that he is 100% and can stay healthy for the future since they still have three years of arbitration ahead with him.

According to General Manager Rick Hahn via Doug Padilla of ESPN Chicago, “Nate said it started giving him an issue about 7-10 days ago.” The plan will most likely be to keep him out at least a few days and check him over before they decide to have him resume normal activities.

We will keep this story updated as more news arises.

White Sox Sign Former Closer Mitchell Boggs

On Friday, the White Sox signed right handed, relief pitcher Mitchell Boggs off the free agent market to a 1 year, 1.1 million dollar contract.

The Cardinals fifth round pick in 2005, came up in ’08 and has been had his ERA drop every year until last season. The former closer was picked up by the Colorado Rockies midseason and then shipped to their Triple A club after a bad two games with the team. The Rockies would later recall Boggs in September and in 8.2 innings had three earned runs in seven hits.

The signing adds another veteran arm to a bullpen full of younger pitchers. He brings with him a career 4.12 ERA in 316.2 innings. The White Sox also hope that with his signing, he’ll bring experience in three championship series and a world series with him. They also are putting faith in Pitching Coach Don Cooper to work his magic again with Boggs to get him back to the 2.21 ERA pitcher he was in 2012.