Jeff Marquez' locker is cleared out at the White Sox spring training complex, making it all but official that Lastings Milledge and Brent Lillibridge will make the opening day roster.
It's not surprising that Milledge made the opening day 25-man roster, but it is surprising Lillibridge will join him. Milledge hit .315/.433/.556 with 11 walks, 12 strikeouts and three stolen bases—fully deserving of a roster spot despite the inherent small sample size of spring. But Lillibridge had a poor spring, posting a .239/.294/.413 with four walks and 10 strikeouts. And Marquez had a good showing in March, striking out 16 while walking two over 17.1 innings. Given all that information, it's quite surprising Lillibridge made the roster over Marquez, especially in the face of Philip Humber's impending status as the No. 5 starter.
What this means for the White Sox is...well, they'll have a deep bench. Between Milledge, Lillibridge, Mark Teahen, Omar Vizquel and Ramon Castro, the Sox won't have a shortage of players for spot starts and late-inning substitutions. Unfortunately, it also means the Sox bullpen could very well end up stretched. That's a worrisome scenario, as wearing out a bullpen early could have lasting effects for the rest of the season. But if the Sox didn't keep Lillibridge, he'd have to be placed on waivers—and it's obvious the organization didn't want to potentially lose his services. On the other hand, Marquez will be placed on waivers, so essentially the Sox valued Lillibridge over Marquez in context-neutral situation. The context of the situation seems to tell us Marquez would've been the better pick, but really, we're talking about the last player on the 25-man roster. That player won't have a serious impact anyway, so while Marquez would've seemed to make more sense, that the Sox went with Lillibridge hardly is a big deal.
Hey JJ,
glad to see you. nice blog you got here!
Posted by: The Wizard | 03/27/2011 at 03:41 PM
Thanks, Wizard!
Posted by: JJ -- White Sox Beerleaguer | 03/27/2011 at 04:07 PM
And as you say in a previous thread Marquez seems more valuable than Lilli to the Sox. I don't see what where they afraid they'll lose...
Posted by: The Wizard | 03/27/2011 at 04:14 PM
Exactly. And between Milledge, Vizquel, Castro and Teahen they have all eight positions covered on the bench. Lillibridge doesn't add anything else.
Posted by: JJ -- White Sox Beerleaguer | 03/27/2011 at 04:52 PM
The one movie that springs imdltiameey to mind is "In Bruges". A fine movie -- and not one I expected to like at all. A warning, though -- it is violent here and there, and the violence is shown without much remorse at all.It's been out a while but I didn't see it on your list, and a co-worker and I have been talking about the movie Hero quite a bit lately. If you haven't seen it, it would be worth making a point of doing so. I'm planning to re-watch it myself.I read your previous ratings, and I thought I'd caution you that the latest Futurama DVD feature was at least a peg lower than Bender's Big Score. Much as I love Futurama, the Beast with a Billion Backs was not great; I think I would have ranked Big Score around the same place as you did, too.
Posted by: Aryana | 08/30/2012 at 04:03 PM