Riske Business

Wednesday evening, the White Sox swung a deal with the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox are receiving left-handed reliever Javier Lopez while the White Sox are getting right-handed set-up man David Riske. This is a big pick-up for the White Sox. Riske is 0-1 with a 3.72 ERA this year, which is pretty good in its own right. However, he actually did not pitch real well early in the season before going on the DL because of a back injury. Since being reinacted from the DL, Riske's ERA is 2.08, which is awesome. Kudos to Kenny Williams for this one.

With this deal, the main weakness of the White Sox now looks like a strength. Cliff Politte is throwing better in side sessions and should be activated early next week. When Politte is activated, the White Sox will have a bullpen of Riske, Politte, Brandon McCarthy, Neal Cotts, Matt Thornton, and Bobby Jenks. Sean Tracey has been demoted to make room for Riske, and my projection assumes that Augustin Montero will be demoted to make room for Politte. If all goes according to plan, this is one heck of a bullpen.