Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Sox with two new signees

The Sox have signed Rice reliever Bryce Cox and Stephen F. Austin pitcher Brian Steinocher. Of the two, the Cox signing is significantly more significant, as my great uncle Chim-Chim used to say. Cox has been assigned to Lowell, but general speculation is that he will not remain there.

Cox has been described as a "success story for guys who have the yips" by John Manuel, in that at one point in time last season he simply could not find the strike zone, a la Ebby Calvin 'Nuke' LaLoosh. After his pitching coach adjusted his arm angle he became silly dominant, but due to the poor overall stats on the season, or a fear that the yips would return, he fell to the Sox in the third round, and may turn out to be one of the steals of the draft.

ESPN mentions him here and says "This year, there are a number of players who have the potential to make an immediate impact in the big leagues. Of players drafted this year, North Carolina ace Andrew Miller and Rice's Bryce Cox appear ready to make the jump. Miller, the sixth overall choice, has been a favorite of the scouts all season. Cox, who pitched 2.2 innings of relief against Miami today and came into the game throwing 97 mph, was selected in the third round by the Boston Red Sox."

Cox pitched for Rice in College World Series last year, and made three appearances. Here are the lines from those games:

Game One: 2 2/3 IP, 0 BB, 1K, 0R
Game Two: 2 2/3 IP, 0BB, 2K, 0R
Game Three: 4 2/3IP, 0BB, 6K, 0R

In the biggest games of his career he was lights out. That's a lot of usage for a young kid over the span of a week, so the Sox may be seeing how his arm is feeling by sending him to short-season ball, and they'll definitely coddle him a bit, but as long as the Anti-Christ Brothers are on the roster I think he will be one to watch.

Steinocher was a kid who basically threw a ton of innings at SFAU, put up an ERA of just over four and got no run support. It's hard to know these things but at this point one assumes he's filler, but at least he's living the dream.

Manny Being Meniscus?

The current dialogue is around Manny missing the ASG because (maybe) of a meniscus tear in his balky knee. If this is the case, or even if the knee feels like it's the case, people should cut the shit with Manny. Having been the recipient of a torn meniscus I can say that under no circumstances would I go play for a bunch of fucking Suits with no interest in baseball (the only people who actually get tickets to the game) so I could have the pleasure of waking the next day with my knee locked up. If Manny doesn't improve my guess is they'll get him an MRI then DL him when the Super Genius comes back. The surgery would only keep him out for a month or so and he'd be fresh for the stretch run.

In other injury news, David Wells remains hopelessly obese, and Matt Clement remains mysteriously broken. Both are expected to move quietly to the suburbs and golf.

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