Caleb Thielbar Has a New Arsenal

I don't know if it is his curve or the sweeper but that pitch has so much movement no one could touch it last night (I think it was the curve). The fastball was another story.  He was throwing it higher in the zone to try and get popups and it worked for the most part but a shallow popup by Grossman fell in so it wasn't completely affective. Hem ight want to keep the fastball out of the zone a bit more and let the other pitches play for strikes as it looked like the White Sox could do much with those pitches.

I think one of the things that adds to Thielbar's effectiveness is the contrast with the flamethrowers around him.  Between Jax, Stewart and (eventually) Duran throwing fire, he's a little bit mentally hard to deal with for the batter.  It works a little the other direction as well, keeping the hitter off balance.  I also am curious to see just how long he can keep up his effectiveness, but he's earned a pretty substantial leash over the past few years. 

1 hour ago, Taildragger8791 said:

Plenty of pitchers have stretches of regular season success being a change of pace guy, or bringing a different look, or having some deception, and that's valuable to get through the season. That stuff doesn't play as well come playoffs or against great lineups in general though. Hopefully his curve keeps playing, but the lack of speed leads me to believe good hitters will eventually just time him up.

You are probably correct in that things can get different come playoff time, but his ability to be a "pitcher" rather than a "thrower" will also serve him well there.  I'm glad to have him around.  From some of the posts on this topic, however, it seems like some already want to turn him into this year's version of Pagan et al who we dread seeing come into the game.  That COULD happen, but I'm pretty sure we're not there yet.  The SSS problem of relievers is killing him right now, but throw out his first appearance this season, and things look just fine. 

4 hours ago, CRF said:

You can't spell arsenal without "arse"...which is where I think the managers head is sometimes, when it comes to handling the bullpen. I'm sure glad Duran is back. 

In the seventh, the right-handed Stewart got 6-7-8, R-L-R. The fourth batter would have been another righty.

In the eighth, the right-handed Jax started with 9-1-2, R-L-R. When two guys got on, he also got the Nos. 3 and 4. That was L-R, but using Jax in the eighth was setting him up to be the guy facing the meat of the order if guys get on base.

And in the ninth, as it played out, Thielbar was scheduled to get 5-6-7, L-R-L, except that Chicago used a pinch hitter for No. 7 and No. 8.

What would have been your proposed order?

In your thinking, consider that Sands had thrown 35 pitches on Sunday, Okert threw 29 on Sunday and Funderburk threw 38 on Saturday. That leaves Jackson (4.52 FIP) and Bowman (5.64 FIP and now DFAed) as the other fully-rested options. Also keep in mind that Jax threw 6 pitches on Sunday, so they were very unlikely to use him for more than inning, particularly after he threw 22 pitches in the eighth. Finally, consider Stewart has only thrown more than an inning once, and needed 15 pitches to get through the seventh.