Breaking Down the White Sox Pitching Staff
The White sox have enormous depth in their rotation which is anchored by ace Mark Buhrle. He posted a 16-8 win loss record and had a solid ERA of 3.12 last year. He has a good fastball and changeup. He throws alot of strikes and gets ground ball outs. He is able to keep hitters off balance and is one of the best pitchers in the American League.
Next comes Freddy Garica. Garcia is young pitcher starting to enter his prime. Last year he had a good ERA under 4 and had 14 wins. He is only 29 years old and he has a very good fast ball in the low 90s and a wicked curve, He had a ton of strikeouts as well last year around 170 K’s. Garcia can also handle a huge workload and I expect to see his win total increase this year with more run support from his lineup.
3rd is Jose Contreras, an ex-Yankee who many thought would never be a productive pitcher. boy did he prove people wrong! In the playoffs he showed how good he really was against the Red Sox and Angels. He had 15 wins and a ERA around 3.5 which is still very good. His split finger fast ball is among the best in the major leagues. His fast ball is in the mid 90s and he had around 150 strikeouts last year. He is durable and threw more than 200 innings last year, a common theme for every pitcher on this terrific pitching staff. The only worry is that Contreras has had some problems in giving up too many home runs at times last year.
Next pitcher in line is Jon Garland. Garland is a very good young pitcher, 26 years old with a bright future ahead. He got off to a fast start last year, being the 1st pitcher to reach 11 wins first. He cooled off in the 2nd half of the season but still had 18 wins. His ERA was 3.5 and his sinker fastball keeps the ball on the ground for outs instead of in the air. However, he too has a problem giving up homers as he had the 4th most given up homers in the AL.
Finally comes newcomer Javiar Vasquez. He has pitched for the Yankees, and Diamondbacks and now via a trade he is on Chicago. The White Sox believe Vasquez can return to his dominating self. At flashes last year he showed brilliance but was inconsistent. He had an ERA of 4.42 and had a lot of walks. He had a bad win-loss record going 11-15 but many times his team didn’t score any runs for him. I expect him to reach at least 15 wins on this team. He had a ton of strikeouts last year posting 192 and having over 200 innings pitched. He will be a good addition to their staff, especially in the role of a 5th starter.
Adding depth to their rotation is rookie Brandon McCarthy who started a few games and has a very promising career ahead of him with this organization.
In the bullpen there are some question marks especially about closer. Dustin Hermanson did a great job of closer last year posting an ERA below 2 until he injured his back and rookie sensation Bobby Jenks took over. Jenks did a great job for the most part as closer and throws close to 100 mph. He will start the season as their closer and Hermanson will take over if he struggles. Another bullpen pitcher is Cliff Polite who provided consistency for them. While his stuff isn’t dominating, he gets hitters out and is a reliable set up man or relief man for the white sox out of the bullpen.
The white sox staff will only improve this upcoming year and will help carry this team deep into the playoffs.
