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player ready...Manager Jeff Torborg doesn`t want to tell the White Sox front office what to do this winter, but he`d like to see the club go after a starting pitcher. That could mean an expensive deal with a free agent.
”The free-agent market is where you would naturally help yourself,” he said. ”Nobody will trade you one of those guys.
”If you`ve got a guy who could help put us over the top, so to speak, that would really help,” he said. ”Of course, they`re at such a different level. But if they`re available, you`ve got to take a shot at them.”
By the looks of it, four members of this year`s rotation will be back in 1991-Jack McDowell, Alex Fernandez, Eric King and Greg Hibbard. Inconsistent Melido Perez remains a question mark.
GM situation update: Board chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said he probably will not name a new general manager by the end of the season. And he deflected questions about whether he`ll interview fired San Diego GM Jack McKeon.
”I don`t think it`s right to say who is a candidate and who isn`t,”
Reinsdorf said.
Reinsdorf has said he`ll look outside and inside the organization before making his decision.
”There`s no rush to do it by the end of the season,” he said. ”We`re functioning fine.”
Arbitration-shy: Ivan Calderon wants to avoid going to salary arbitration for the second time in as many years. Last year Calderon demanded $1.25 million, $300,000 more than the Sox were offering. He lost his case, though he still picked up a raise of close to $300,000 on his 1988 salary.
”I was kind of mad at the time, but there was nothing I could do,”
Calderon said. ”My agent said, `You lost. This is what they will pay you,`
and that was all there was to it. I`d prefer to sign this year.”
Calderon will come at a steep price. He`s hitting .280 with 14 home runs, 42 doubles, a team-high 73 runs batted in and 32 steals.
Ambitious rookie: It`s unusual for a rookie to host his own baseball camp, but Alex Fernandez is an unusual rookie. The Sox`s 20-year-old right-hander said he hopes to hold a camp in Miami, his hometown, this fall or winter.
”It would be for Little League-aged kids,” said Fernandez, who hopes to learn soon about potential sponsors. ”I would teach them about pitching and hitting and the fundamentals.”
He`d like to have the camps over Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations.
Nice change: Steve Rosenberg has noticed a big change in the Sox in the year that he`s been away: defense.
”It`s night and day,” said Rosenberg, who picked up his first big-league win on Saturday night with the help of big plays by Robin Ventura and Lance Johnson. ”Pitching is a lot easier with that kind of defense.”
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A telling stat that backs him up: A year ago, Sox pitchers gave up 82 unearned runs, or 1 in 9. This year, they`ve allowed 50, or 1 in 12.