Placing Bartolo Colon on the disabled list led to the White Sox calling up pitching prospect Aaron Poreda. Although it wasn't on the mound, he did announce his presence with authority. On Poreda's Facebook page came the following status update shortly after he heard the news.
"This is the biggest day of my life... I'm goin to Chicago, the big leagues, and I ain't never goin back!!!!!"Those were big words. So big, it may have prompted this conversation between he and White Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen.
"I talked to him and made it real clear, 'If you don't pitch well, you're going to have O'Hare Airport next to you pretty soon,' '' Guillen explained. "I said, 'Did you arrive at Midway or O'Hare?' He said, 'O'Hare.' I said, ''Well, on the way back, Midway is closer.'Whether this was Guillen's way of scaring the young hurler straight or just his normal pep talk, the truth is that Poreda might not have long to prove his worth.
When Poreda gets his chance to prove he's major league ready, he's going to have to do it from the bullpen. That's where Guillen has him slated to pitch. For that reason alone, Poreda isn't really fantasy worthy except in deep, deep AL-only leagues. He's not going to get enough opportunities to win games. His only true value will be in his strikeout potential (he had more than a strikeout per inning at Double-A this season).
However, with his great strikeout potential comes a big risk too. While Poreda has 63 strikeouts in 58 1/3 innings, he also has walked 32 batters. At a rate of 4.94 walks per nine innings Poreda's ERA will likely be too high for his strikeout totals to mean anything to your fantasy roster. He'll also quickly get that ticket out of Chicago (at Midway) if he walks batters like he did in the minors.
So, while Poreda tries to solve his walk rate issues in the bullpen, you should leave him on your waiver wire. If he proves he can earn a promotion to the rotation by pitching well, then you can go ahead and grab him. Until then there are just too many other viable options to choose from.
