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.