Evaluation Time: Bullpen

Time to really dig into the achilles heel of the the Chicago White Sox. For a team who is barely above .500, sub-par pitching is what has led them almost the same number of losses as wins.

All year, the hitting has been in the top half of the league in runs, hits, home runs, etc. Bright spot.

But….the pitching is the black eye of the Sox. It is the reason for 75 percent of their struggles. Game after game, they continue to walk batters and give up hits. Opposing batters are walking into the box knowing they can win the battle with whatever pitcher is standing 60 feet from them.

White Sox Pitching Stats (source: ESPN.COM)

Lets examine the starters. The ace, Chris Sale currently stands at 4-0 on the year. He has played in six games. His earned run average is 1.73 with 43 strikeouts. His eight walks are the lowest of the Sox regular starters. Which means that he is putting the Sox in good situations to win. His strikeouts are top three on the team. Majority of the other starters have played nearly two to four more games than he did.

Looking at Jose Quintana, he is the leader in sending batters back to the dugout, either swinging or looking. He has more than ten more strikeouts than Sale, not saying a lot, Quintana has played five more games. Quintana with a ERA closed to four, it explains why the Sox are in the top of the league when it comes to its opposition scoring runs.

Other starters like Scott Carroll and John Danks are not upholding their end of the bargain. Combined they have given up over 50 runs in 17 games. It’s a reason why they have more losses than wins. These two guys will have to pull weight if the Sox want their pitching not, to be the topic of conversation.

When your teams’ save leader has less than 1o with over a third of the season played, this points to the lack of sufficient pitching from the starters. In addition, the Sox are sixth in the majors in blown saves with eight. Thats one higher than the league average.  They are also on bottom third of the league when it comes to converting saves with 58 percent (below the 67 percent league average) and creating possible save opportunities with 19 (two below the league average).

Saves in baseball represent a team’s ability to win a game early and put them away so that one last pitcher is needed to come close it out. The Sox are struggling from the get go, so there is no comfortability where you can normally send the closer out to the mound.

With a teetering record, the pitching is what is holding the team from reaching its full potential. Great teams or even championship teams have good to great pitching. In this sport, defense actually wins championships and it starts with the starting pitcher of the game.

Three Innings Down, Lets See How We Stack Up

White Sox celebrate (Photo by Creative Commons)

With the a third of the season in the books, the Chicago White Sox are currently on track to have an…okay… year. Currently they are holding still with a 28-27 record.

Sox are on a three game winning streak. After splitting a four game series with the New York Yankees, the Sox made a push from fourth to second in the division standings by taking care of the Cleveland Indians in a three game home stand.

In retrospect, the Indians are not the top tier team in the American League Central, prior to their series with the Southsiders. They were at the bottom floor of the division, behind the Detroit Tigers by a handful of games. This central division is tight and a few losses or wins, here and there will shake it all up.

Yankees, who represent the A.L. East were a better team to measure the Sox. The Yanks sit second in their division. They are always looking to contend, not only for the division, but for the World Series. This is the type of team you want to beat in a four game series.

Tying the series is not good enough. The Sox needs to tighten up the the loose ends. The pitching has to greatly improve in order to catch the Tigers and surpass them.

Sox lead the league in walking opposing batters,  allowing earned runs, and pitches thrown. This means the Sox are throwing more pitches than other team and putting the more batters on base than any other team. This type of play puts a team in tough situations to gain wins. Their defense get the the most runs scored on them. This is a recipe for disaster.

They are they only team in the majors to have zero shutouts from their pitching and defense. This is a no-no! In order  to win…win consistently, you have to make the game easy.

So far the Sox have been edging out teams here in the first third of the season. But, the next two-thirds will be harder. The ball may be rolling fair for the Sox now, but over the next four months, those same balls will roll foul. This means the lucky wins that the Sox have came out on top of, will be those same games they lose by a run or two.

The absence of ace Chris Sale and rookie slugging sensation Jose Abreu was a big mental setback for the team. Sale is the only pitcher on staff that’s undefeated. Abreu, even on the disabled list, still is top in the league in homers. Thats a blow to both offense and defense. Along with the poor execution at times, the Sox will not win the division at this rate.

A one-game lead over .500 should not be the goal. It should not be the peak of the Sox’ success this year. Sox need to have a New York mindset and push to win the the division. They need to tighten the number of errors the defense makes. They have to strikeout more batters than before. The offense needs to produce more hits and production on offense in order for the Sox to take it to another level.

That level is division champions.