Who's in Right?
By Benjy Lipsman in News on Nov 12, 2004 12:13AM
This doesn't look good for the White Sox. Outfielder Joe Borchard, looking to get some off-season practice south of the border, was cut by the Mazatlan Deer of the Mexican League this week! WTF! The freaking Mexican League? And he was hitting .140 there? That's even worse than the anemic .174 he hit for the Sox this season.
Borchard, who turns 26 this month, has yet to justify the record $5.3 million signing bonus he received from the White Sox when he walked away from Stanford and their starting quarterback spot.
With only two short call-ups under his belt prior to 2004, Borchard spent much of the 2nd half of the season with the White Sox, playing right field with Maggs on the Disabled List. While showing his power with the longest homer ever in U.S. Cellular Field, he managed only 35 hits in 201 at bats while striking out 57 times.
The Sox were hoping he could work on hitting breaking balls in Mexico over the winter, in hopes that he'd be a possible candidate to fill the right field vacancy should Magglio Ordonez sign elsewhere as a free agent this winter. With that looking increasingly likely according to Sox GM Ken Williams, the Sox could be in trouble in right field.