Blackt.net

With Opening Day approaching quickly, it’s about time to take a good look at the 2006 defending World Series Champion Chicago White Sox. What can we expect? We should we expect? Is Boone Logan a real person? Will Joe Crede have sideburns or not? Will Jermaine Dye be seen around the DePaul University campus with young ladies? I will try to answer some of these questions for you.

Starting Pitchers

SP Mark Buehrle - He throws strikes, works fast, wins games, and was a certifiable All-Star last year.  Buehrle is still relatively young (27) and has been on of baseball’s most successful left handers over the past five years.  He probably won’t have the 3.12 ERA he had last year, but he’ll continue to be effective.  He walked a career low 40 batters last season in 236.7 IP, while striking out 149.  I can’t imagine Mark being much worse than he has been and he might be a 20-win candidate for the first time ever.  There’s not much else to say, he’s pretty damn good, and seems like he’ll continue to be.

SP Jose Contreras - Midway through last season, I would avoid attending Sox games in which Jose was pitching.  Then, suddenly, he become the touted Cuban All-Star he was supposed to be in New York — in Auguest and September combined he went 9-1 posting a 2.06 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP.  He took this momentum into the post-season with him and was virtually unhittable, and I’ve never witnessed as nasty of a forkball in person as the one he struckout David Ortiz on in ALDS Game 1 where he made him look like a bush-leaguer.  The big downside to Jose is that he’s old (35) and he looks even older (45).  I’d be more than willing to bet that Jose’s second half wasn’t a fluke, and that he’s actually going to be good this year before I’d bet on Garland’s future.  Speaking of which…

SP “Big” Jon Garland - Huge improvement from his previous years.  I was almost certain Kenny Williams would deal him in the off season, but KW somehow managed to keep the “All-Star” rotation in tact while adding the necessary hitters.  So Garland will start 2006 coming off his best year, although its status as a “breakout” or “fluke” is yet to be determined.  At times last year Garland was brilliant, looking like a completely different pitcher (one with confidence), and other times he looked like the confused 24 year old he was getting rocked a few years back.  Who knows.  Maybe Don Cooper is that good, maybe Jon Garland is that good.  Only time will tell.  If he doesn’t live up to expectations though, I wouldn’t be surprised if Garland or Contreras get traded away, considering ace-prospect Brandon McCarthy will be biting on their heels from the bullpen this year.  Look for Garland to have his classic soul-patch, and wear his hat literally on-top of his head in the dugout.

SP Freddy Garcia - I know what you’re thinking: “Freddy’s face is in the shape of a rectangle, and he has really bad facial hair”.  These things are true, and so are some other things.  The former Seattle ace had a pretty good season last year, as did most of the Sox pitchers.  Freddy pitches his best when he’s “settled in”, which can be a terribly bad thing — most of his earned runs were given up in the first inning or two.  If Freddy can get over this hump he could be the pitcher who finished 3rd in Cy Young voting in 2001.  If not, he’ll still give the Sox a ton of innings (200+ IP in the last 5 years) and pitch pretty decent.

SP Javier Vazquez - I haven’t seen Vazquez pitch much, but I know a few things — he strikes out a shit ton of dudes and doesn’t walk a whole lot either.  He was Montreal’s ace in ‘01/’02/’03 until he was traded to the Yankees and started to suck.  Ok, well, “suck” is a pretty bad term, but he wasn’t that good.  The Sox paid a high price for the acquisition of Vazquez in departing CF prospect Chris Young, but the departures of Luis Viscaino and Orlando Hernandez don’t hurt my feelings at all.  Vazquez is a great pitcher, although he’s been a bit of an underachiever — and his wins, losses, and ERA are generally misleading.  In simple terms, Vazquez has really good “stuff”.  If he can put it together, then he should serve the Sox well.