In what seems to me to be a bizarre caveat, the White Sox have indicated that Brandon McCarthy will only get another start should one of the top two starters falter down the stretch.
Pitching coach Don Cooper has informed Buehrle and Garland that McCarthy's fate is tied to theirs. If the two White Sox starters stay in the Cy Young Award hunt, McCarthy will have to watch from the bullpen.
I would think that McCarthy's fate should be tied to the performance of the back end of the rotation. If El Duque or El Conde should falter, he would be the obvious choice to step up.
There was also a quote that I found interesting in that article.
"You kind of pay attention," Buehrle admitted of the Cy Young chase. "You know the top four or five guys. Bartolo has an outstanding chance right now. [The Twins' Johan] Santana again, the way he's pitching of late, his numbers have been better. Me and Garland.
Taken by itself this seems to be a rather innocuous sound byte.
"There are guys who are out there. I don't pay too much attention to it, but I look at it."
But when you pair it with Konerko's comments from the same paper...
"There are not really any offensive guys on this team that I can think of that are having career years, myself included," Konerko said. "So it's not like we're going after anything. We're putting all of that aside and we're just worried about winning. It's a good thing to have because when you're playing the string out and you're out of it, it's not a good atmosphere."
They seem to contradict each other. -- I know Konerko was only talking about the offense, but the 'we're not going after anything' and 'just worried about winning' quotes seem to contradict the message that the White Sox are sending their two top starters.