For those who don’t already know, I spent Opening Day weekend in Ohio with my buddy Clint from Diamond Hoggers, where we took in the Reds and White Sox opening day games.  As it turned out, both were two of the weekend’s most exciting games, as the Reds won with a dramatic Ramon Hernandez walk-off, and the White Sox hit the crap out of the ball and put up 15 runs.  Their bullpen implosion is a story I’ll save for another day, however.

When we arrived at Progressive Jacob’s Field, the White Sox were in the midst of batting practice.  Based upon how my boys were crushing the ball during BP, I should have known they were going to put up 15 runs.  Adam Dunn was effortlessly going 15-20 rows deep with each swing and even deposited one in the right field upper deck.  Clint was busy tweeting/texting and almost lost his life after a Dunn line drive skipped off the top of the wall and right past his melon. Alex Rios had the best ball flight of anyone on the team – his blasts were majestic and looked like they were still rising even after they cleared the fence.  I watched Edwin Jackson throw a knuckleball to an unsuspecting John Danks, who had the ball deflect off the palm of his glove and flush into his chest.  The best part: Danks was laughing harder than EJax after it happened.

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Shin-Soo Choo records golden sombrero against White Sox (4/2/2011)

Bottom 1: Choo walks against Edwin Jackson

Bottom 2: Choo strikes out swinging against Jackson

Bottom 5: Choo strikes out swinging against Jackson

Bottom 7: Choo strikes out swinging against Chris Sale

Bottom 9: Choo called out on strikes against Sergio Santos

It appears that the Chicago White Sox decision to convert 21-year old Chris Sale into a starting pitcher will be contingent on the health of veteran Jake Peavy entering Spring Training of the 2011 season.

If the decision were up to pitching coach Don Cooper, however, Sale would remain in the White Sox bullpen, where he is best suited to significantly help the team.

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Chad Qualls

It’s really a shame that the Diamondbacks’ season has gone the way that it has thus far because I actually enjoy watching them on tv and listening to Mark Grace’s drunken tangents.  Luckily I haven’t caught too many games over the past week, but based upon both the highlights I’ve seen and articles I’ve read, I’m sure that Gracie has been getting a little extra sauced.  I don’t blame him.  I know that I would be too if I were watching a bunch of asshole, “relief pitchers,” continue to blow leads.  Headed by the once-reliable-turned-atrocious Chad Qualls(4 BS, 8.46 ERA), the D’backs bullpen is currently leading the National League in appearances…appearances by assholes.  Entering Thursday, the bullpen had recorded only 13 saves while blowing 12– that’s right, they almost have as many blown saves as they do saves.  What assholes.

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