The Chicago White Sox have acquired 26-year old righty starting pitcher Edwin Jackson from the Arizona Diamondbacks for 23-year old righty starter Daniel Hudson and 19-year old lefty starting pitcher David Holmberg. Jackson pitched in 21 games (all starts) for the D-Backs this year and he was 6-10 with a 5.16 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP. He has now pitched in 160 games (131 starts) in his major league career and he is 44-49 with a 4.74 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP. Daniel Hudson came into this season as the White Sox’ #3 prospect heading into this year. Hudson has pitched in 3 games (all starts) for the White Sox this year and he was 1-1 with a 6.32 ERA and a 1.79 WHIP. He pitched in 9 games (5 starts) in his two years with the Pale Hose and he was 2-2 with a 4.72 ERA and a 1.54 WHIP. David Holmberg was the White Sox’ #8 prospect heading into this season according to Baseball America. Holmberg pitched in 22 games (15 starts) in his two years with the Pale Hose in the minors and he was 3-3 with a 4.59 ERA and a 1.48 WHIP. It will be interesting to see if the White Sox keep Jackson and use him in Jake Peavy’s old spot in the rotation or if they will flip Jackson for a big bat. The Washington Nationals covet Jackson and the White Sox like Adam Dunn….so stay tuned.

The White Sox have signed 32-year old righty reliever Jon Adkins to a minor league deal. Adkins pitched in 34 games (0 starts) in AAA-ball for the Reds this year and he was 1-4 with 10 saves, a 5.46 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP. He last pitched in the majors in 2008 with the Reds. Adkins has now pitched in 119 games (0 starts) in his six years in the majors and he is 5-5 with a 4.54 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP. It never hurts adding a pitcher to a AAA pitching staff with Adkins’ resume’.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has seen enough of Bobby Jenks blowing leads so he will mix and match late in games with lefty Matt Thornton and righties J.J. Putz and Sergio Santos to close out games. Jenks has pitched in 39 games for the White Sox this year and he is 1-3 with 20 saves, a 5.09 ERA and a 1.59 WHIP. He will likely start pitching much earlier in games as Guillen has lost his faith in Jenks. Matt Thornton has pitched in 40 games (0 starts) for the White Sox and he is 2-3 with 5 saves, a 2.58 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP. Thornton has only given up 27 hits in 38 1/3 innings with 51 whiffs showing just how dominating he has been. Thornton can handle righty and lefty hitters so he could get a lot of save opportunities going forward for the Pale Hose. J.J. Putz is pitching some of the best baseball of his major league career right now and he has quite a lot of experience of closing out ballgames. Putz has pitched in 36 games (0 starts) for the White Sox this year and he is 5-2 with 2 saves, a 1.50 ERA and a 0.78 WHIP. He only has given up 22 hits while whiffing 42 batters in only 36 innings this season. Putz is also showing outstanding control this season only walking six batters this year. Sergio Santos has pitched in 35 games (0 starts) for the White Sox this year and he is 0-0 with a 1.80 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP. He has walked 17 batters while whiffing 32 in 30 innings this year. With Santos relatively new to pitching I think Guillen will use Putz and Thornton in most of the save situations. This was a smart move for Guillen as he can’t sit around and watch his team lose games late.

UPDATE: (7/30/2010) - The White Sox have re-installed Jenks as the closer for now.

I think a lot like White Sox’ GM Kenny Williams. I also love the line from the AC/DC song “Have a Drink On Me” when singer Brian Johnson howls “Don’t worry about tomorrow, take it today!” With that in mind I would start pushing chips to the middle of the table. The White Sox need a big bat so with that in mind I would trade 3B/1B Dayan Viciedo, righty starting pitcher Carlos Torres and outfielder Jose Martinez to the Brewers for Corey Hart. Hart would then become the full time RF for the White Sox opening up DH for Carlos Quentin. I wouldn’t stop there though as I would call up the Orioles and offer them outfielders Jordan Danks and John Shelby & righty starting pitcher Jeff Marquez to them for righty starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie. He has been very effective this season despite his numbers and getting out of Baltimore would help his confidence. I would then set my sites on lefty reliever Scott Downs of the Blue Jays. Starting pitcher Jhonny Nunez and OF/1B Christian Marrero would likely be enough to seal the deal. If the White Sox could add Corey Hart, Jeremy Guthrie and Scott Downs to the team they would be incredibly hard to beat.

The White Sox considered trading A.J. Pierzynski before both he and the White Sox got hot. They figured that 24-year old righty swinging catcher Tyler Flowers was ready for the show as he was playing well at the time. But he has not played well lately. Flowers has played in 73 games in AAA-ball this year and he is 59 of 257 (.230 avg, .812 OPS) with 36 runs scored, 16 homers and 48 RBIs. He has also whiffed 97 times this season which is way too many. With the White Sox back in the hunt don’t look for Flowers to get a chance at the show until September when rosters expand if A.J. Pierzynski and Ramon Castro stay healthy. Flowers could even turn into prime trade bait as White Sox’ GM Kenny Williams is never scared of trading top prospects when he is in a pennant race.