When the Chicago White Sox jettisoned Javier Vazquez off to the Atlanta Braves for prospects Tyler Flowers and Brent Lillibridge, Kenny Williams may have found his catcher of the future, but it left a bit of a hole in the team's starting rotation. Sure, there were questions about Vazquez's ability in big games but those 15 wins and 200+ innings every year aren't easy to replace.
Which is why some thought that Williams had an ace up his sleeve and was planning on making a move for a free agent pitcher like Derek Lowe to fill the gap. He didn't, but he did make sure that he found a big man to fill that large gap in Bartolo Colon. Oh, and the oft-injured Colon had just finished having surgery on his right elbow which will keep him from being available at the start of spring training. Neat!
General manager Ken Williams revealed Wednesday that Colon underwent surgery in the fall to remove bone chips from his right elbow, a procedure that will keep the big right-hander off the mound when the Sox open spring training Feb. 15 in Glendale, Ariz.
''We'll bring him along in the second half of spring training,'' Williams said.
So just to be clear, not only did Williams decide to bring in Colon to be the team's possible fourth starter, but he brought him in knowing that he'd just had surgery a few months before. Well that's just terrific. No wonder Kenny is more confident in this team than he's ever been before.
Now if you don't mind me, I'm going to take this hammer and hit myself in the forehead until I wake up and find out all of this was just a wonderful dream.
Bartolo Colon Is Off to a Great Start originally appeared on MLB FanHouse on Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:33:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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