Pitching Staff in April

Newsflash. The White Sox hitting is killing them. Whether its because we found out Dunn (Samson) had his hair cut or worse appendix removed, Rios continuing his descent in Dante's hell or Beckham's allergies to fastballs, consistently scoring 3 runs or less makes it pretty damn hard to win. So what about the pitching?

Staff:

ERA 4.51 (10th in AL)

FIP 3.79 (6th in AL)

xFIP 3.69 (2nd in AL)

It would be easy to say the starter performance wasn't great in April. Nothing sexy or exceptional about a 4.5ish ERA. But a closer look at the numbers at least predicts that the team's foundation of pitching is likely headed in the right direction. 25-5 or 20 -7 runs are not common, but when they do happen it's normally involving exceptional pitching. Hopefully the teams kryptonite of slow rollers, popups and pitches that don't reach a catchers mitt are history in May.

Starters:
.................ERA..  FIP.....xFIP ..... K/9 .... BB/9
Danks....... 3.92...  3.79    3.37... 8.31... 2.54
Floyd ........3.60.... 3.80.. 2.92 .... 8.49... 2.06
Buerhle.... 5.12 .... 3.82 ... 4.44.... 4.19.. 2.33
Jackson.....  5.86.... 3.71... 3.71.... 8.15... 4.33
Humber...... 2.67.... 3.33.... 3.88.... 6.23 .. 2.08

Danks: Besides the joke about he just doesn't know how to win, it's painful watching this bulldog lose game after game. Increased his K rate this year and decreased his walks. About the only negative is the occasional dinger but Danksy just needs to put his head down and continue what he's doing.

Floyd: Can it be? Has Gavin really learned the focus and consistency we all hope for in the early months? Like Danks K's up and walks down. He's enjoyed a lot more run support so his blemish of an elevated hr rate hasn't really hurt him. Floyd could be primed for a huge year.

Buerhle: Others have correctly pointed to Mark's diminishing strikeouts as a source of worry but the crafty veteran has managed 5ks in his last 3 starts. Whew. Maybe. Buerhle has to have good defense behind him and limit the walks because he's going to give up a ton of hits. 3ks in the first 3 games, 15 in the last 3. The situation bears watching. 

Jackson: Dude. STOP WALKING PEOPLE! Yes everyone loves your stuff. Yes you have Don Cooper but patient teams will rule you if you can't get over the plate consistently. My dreams of glory are fading fast.

Humber: I could nitpick this guy and predict expected doom for his line but why? Humber has done all that and more early and actually appears to be improving. He hasn't given up a lot of line drives but those fly balls could turn into home runs this summer. Alas it doesn't matter because he won't be starting later anyway. Right? Right? Well done Philip.

Relevant Bullpen:

.................ERA.... FIP.....xFIP ..... K/9 .... BB/9.......LOB%

Thornton..8.64...5.85..3.72......10.80....6.48......33%

Santos.....0.00...1.86...2.77....10.80....3.86......100%

Crain.......1.50....3.30...3.80.....9.00....3.75........46.5%

Sale.........5.91...4.28.....3.18....10.13..3.38......70.4%

We know about the blown saves and early year trouble. The bullpen has actually pitched better lately but the lack of winnable games makes it difficult to actually judge whether or not it's true. There is a lot of talent at the back end. Four heat throwers with a  k rate over 9 is a good thing. However those same four with walk rates over 3 is not. Even worse Matty is over a whopping 6 per 9. Tack on a clumsy defense and there's your April bullpen debacle.

Thornton: Once we get past the nonsense of mental makeup we can look strictly at Thornton's numbers and see his problems. Walks up. .400 BABIP. K's down. Any good news? Yes. The K's are going up. His velocity seems fine. BABIP normalizes. He appears to have lost the closer role but will probably get some more opportunities.

Santos: His vast closing experience makes him the right guy to "handle the pressure". That was a joke. In all seriousness Sergio has been great this year. He has the stuff to be a capable closer all the time or in a committee.

Crain: His BABIP is .143. Yikes. That won't continue. I'm more worried about the 57% FB rate on a hot Chicago day. Don't get me wrong. There is a lot to like about Jesse just be careful. Allowing half your base runners to score isn't one of them.

Sale:  His usage has puzzled me at times this year. The lanky left hander's stuff still looks electric but he's still young.

The bullpen ERA in April was 5.05.

FIP? 4.00

xFIP? 3.76

The bullpen is likely to calm down and be fine.