Reading Room: White Sox team health and award candidates besides Herm

<blockquoteThe back of the bullpen’s very strong too, with fire-breathing rookie Addison Reed poised to seize the closer job >

Of course he’s gonna get the closer job. You think Thornton’s going to fight with a fire-breather?

ESPN’s Cockcroft published his Kings of Command list which is:

“Kings of Command” baseline numbers
Innings pitched: 50 or more
Strikeout rate (K’s per nine): 6.00 or more
Walk rate (BBs per nine): 3.00 or less
Command rate (K’s per BB): 2.50 or more
Fly ball rate (FB percent of all balls in play): 45 percent or less

2011 had a total of 82 pitchers who met that criteria (starters and relievers)
The White Sox had 6, including the 4 remaining starters. 2 made his Top 10 list.

5. John Danks, Chicago White Sox: He might never get any fantasy love, because he has never managed an ERA beneath 3.30 or a WHIP under 1.20, calls homer-friendly U.S. Cellular Field his home and plays for a team waving a white flag over its stadium • and not simply because they’re the White Sox. Still, Danks has skills that are annually masked by his circumstances, and as he’ll play most of 2012 at 27 years old, in the prime of his career, who’s to say he can’t take a significant step forward? He has now boosted his K’s-per-nine ratio while lowering his walks per nine in each of the past two seasons, resulting in a personal-best 2.93 K’s-per-nine ratio in 2011. Plus, he’s reining in the fly balls; his 36.3 percent rate last season was a plus for a White Sox pitcher.

9. Jake Peavy, Chicago White Sox: Perhaps the most remarkable fact about Peavy is that he’s only 30 years old, whereas a pitcher who has endured the kind of injury ups and downs Peavy has the past four years might feel a heck of a lot older. In other words, he’s still in his prime, and while his fastball might have lost a couple of ticks, his improvement in terms of command helps make up for it. Peavy’s 1.93 walks-per-nine-innings ratio of 2011 was a career best, and it resulted in a 3.21 FIP that ranked 22nd among the 145 pitchers with 100-plus innings, and a 3.52 xFIP that ranked 28th. As a White Sox pitcher, he’ll be subject to U.S. Cellular’s homer-friendly risks, and suffer in terms of win potential. But after four consecutive seasons during which he made trips to the disabled list, Peavy’s fantasy stock has plummeted, making him a bargain for perhaps the first time in years. Don’t forget about him.

Gavin Floyd
Phil Humber
Wil Ohman
Zach Stewart

sale’s highest innings total is not 103. that’s his college junior year innings. he threw another 33.2 professional innings that year, which seems like a rather odd thing to not have noticed about sale. 103+33.2=136.2 IP. the prior year, he threw 144.1 innings between college and the cape cod league. it wouldn’t change his injury risk all that much but it’s not like sale hasn’t thrown significant innings before.