Mound Presence

In today's Sun Times Doug Padilla wrote a good article on the extraordinary pitching the Sox have had thus far this season. Coming into the season, all anyone was talking about (excluding the South Side faithful, of course) was how much power the homer-happy Sox lineup had lost with the loss of Maggs and the trade of Carlos. That argument could always be rebutted with the fact that the Sox still had six guys capable of hitting 20 homers in Crede, Uribe, Dye, Rowand, Everett and Konerko. Add in Big Frank for the stretch run if he gets his ankle healthy, and you've got a pretty solid line-up, and that's without the table setters in sPod and Iguchi, who have been solid at the plate and in the field so far this season. Now back to the pitching......How many "expert" prognosticators have you heard coming into the season credit a retooled White Sox pitching staff?? The only comments I can recall regarding it were doubts about their ability to stay healthy. To me, that argument is only valid concerning El Duque, whom they point out had to be shut down in September last year because of a tired arm. This guy is pitching in his first season since his surgery, and they wonder why his arm would tire. I think he was a risk worth taking on KW's part, especially if he can be of any help to Contreras.

So here's a rundown of how Sox pitchers have fared in the first month of the season:

Garland 4-0 1.80 ERA
After being pushed back to the 5th hole, Jon has dominated the opposition in the first month.With 4 wins in the 5th spot, he already is just one win short of equaling the win total from last year's black hole 5th starter role, which the Sox were 5-15 in.

El Duque 2-1 2.35ERA
Gamer. No other word can describe a pitcher who batters are hitting .298 against and have drawn 11 walks, yet he has only given up 9 runs.

Garcia 2-1 2.83 ERA
Freddy has been the pitcher he was advertised as when the Sox traded away highly touted prospect Jeremy Reed and C Miguel Olivo for him last summer. He's earned every dollar of the $27M bargain contract extension the Sox gave him. (bagrain especially after the off-season spike in pitchers contracts)

Buehrle 3-1 3.89 ERA
Buehrle's ERA had been 2.61 coming into his start vs. Oakland, but the 7 runs on 11 hits he surrendered to the A's made him jump over a full run. When Marks got the highest ERA out of the starters, and he's still under 4, you know things are going well.

Contreras 0-0 3.48ERA
Jose has been his same old inconsistent self, dominant one start and looking lost the next. In the latter half he has minimized the damage though, but still has given up 12 free passes in just 20 IP. A line of just 16H allowed, with 15K and an opponent avg. of .213 is impressive.

Starters combined ERA: 2.87

Bullpen
Without the 10 run meltdown vs. Cleveland in the third game of the season, the Sox pen would have a ERA of 2.45. The pen without the two guys who were mauled that day has a 2.08 ERA. Since that game the pen has a 2.47 ERA with 43K's in 17 games. Wow.

The most optimistic White Sox fan (if there is such a thing) might have envisioned this as a best case scenario, but who really believed that the Sox arms would start this well, not to mention perform like this collectively at any point during the season? I believed it was possible, but never dreamed I'd see it. I just knew we had 5 guys capable of winning every 5th day, which would have been delusional to say about our staff the last few years. Now, if only we could score some more runs so we don't have to throw shutouts and one run ballgames five times a week, maybe, just maybe, the Sox could run away with this thing.