Game #47 Preview: White Sox @ Blue Jays

The good ole' Chicago White Sox come to town to face off with the Blue Jays for three games, becoming the first non-AL West opponent of Toronto for quite some time. Sitting at 19-22, the South Siders find themselves in last place of the AL Central starting to fall way behind the likes of the Royals, Twins, and Tigers. On the offensive side of the ball, reigning AL ROY Jose Abreu has carried the lineup with our old friend Melky Cabrera hitting a meagre .239/.287/.270 with just a single home run. On the mound, the top three starters in Jeff Samardzija, Jose Quintana, and Chris Sale have all under-performed their FIP masking a pretty strong staff up to this point. Rookie phenom Carlos Rodon has been both good and bad in his first few starts flashing his nasty slider but lacking the control to really put strong outings together. In the bullpen, free agent acquisition David Robertson has earned his salary collecting nine of ten save opportunities and sitting at an ERA of 0.98.

What was originally going to be Rodon's start today has instead been given to Hector Noesi so the lefty rookie can get some rest, which is probably good news for the Jays hitters. Noesi was in the starting rotation before the aforementioned Rodon was promoted to the big leagues, which shifted Noesi to the bullpen. In his five seasons of major league work, the righty from the Dominican Republic just hasn't been very good at all. Originally signed as an amateur free agent by the Yankees, Noesi bounced around a few times after being involved in the Michael Pineda trade with the Mariners. He's always split time between the bullpen and rotation, never putting very solid numbers together in either role.

This season Noesi owns a 5.60 ERA and a 6.32 FIP with a 13.3% BB-rate so he's not exactly setting the world on fire. The righty throws a fastball in the low to mid 90's along with a changeup and cutter/hard slider, actually preferring the change as his secondary pitch which is weird for a righty. Part of the reason for this preference is that Noesi is willing to throw it against same-handed batters at a rate of 17%, while lefties see it 26% of the time. He gets a lot of whiffs on the changeup, but other than that Noesi isn't too impressive and the matchup against Drew Hutchison should give the Jays a good chance to win their second in a row today.

Hopeful Lineup

Noesi has reverse splits (thanks to the changeup) so the Blue Jays shouldn't be afraid to stack the lineup with righties.

1. Jose Reyes SS
2. Josh Donaldson 3B
3. Edwin Encarnacion DH
4. Russell Martin C
5. Chris Colabello RF
6. Justin Smoak 1B
7. Kevin Pillar CF
8. Danny Valencia LF
9. Ryan Goins 2B

Bullpen Usage

Looks like Roberto Osuna is in line for eight pitches with no outs recorded today.

Find The Link

Find the link between Hector Noesi and the skipper of the sixth-placed English Premier League team.

This is certainly winnable game for the Blue Jays tonight. Enjoy!