Super Stats Pack: Pitchers (Final 2019)

In a feature largely ignored this season, we’re trotting the Super Stats Pack out for a series of five year-end roundups.

The first, published yesterday, named Yoán Moncada as the Most Valuable Player on the White Sox in 2019.

Turns out, we didn’t even post a year-end Most Valuable Pitcher article last year, with the last pitching Super Stats Pack running through September 20. So, this piece will be a bit less thorough than the players’ stat pack, namely in not having last year’s leader listed along with this year’s top finishers.

So, using a generous qualifier (one batter faced per game as a minimum requirement for non-cumulative stats), just like last year, there are 13 players on the White Sox with at least 161 BFs.

After tallying how each player ranked in the 18 player categories, we crown a couple of somewhat obvious choices from the rotation and bullpen:

It was a runaway in both races, and this time last year, who woulda thunk it? Giolito’s rags-to-riches 2019 has been told and retold, but don’t sleep on Bummer’s ascendance. The powerful lefty couldn’t stay in the majors in 2018, and now sits as, by any measure, the most important reliever on the team.

The bullpen here impresses, with only Osich departing and with not-improbable bounce-backs from Fry and Herrera, and continued growth from newbie hurler Ruiz, there’s a decent corps on the South Side. The rotation? Well ... we could use some reinforcements.

Now let’s take a look at all 18 categories, with some news and notes tacked on.

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Generally speaking, how utterly terrible Covey was in 2019 is glaring. Hey, and look who’s tied for 13th among pitcher fWAR for the season ... noted fireballers A.J. Reed and José Rondón!

In category after category, Bummer outpaces even Giolito, which is an incredible tribute to just how unhittable the lefty was in 2019.

I am not a saber expert by any stretch, so let’s take a look at Reynaldo’s seeming contradiction: Best on the team as a clutch pitcher, but worst in situational wins. Methinks this indicates López was phenomenal when in trouble (sure, usually of his own doing, eh?) but the WPA/LI is a reflection of general lousiness.

And check out Bummer with four of the nine best out pitches on the White Sox in 2019. Even Giolito could only place one.

Cease’s strikeout rate — at a quarter of batters, in his first taste of the majors — is awfully encouraging.

Just one viewfinder here, but Colomé’s hideous soft contact percentage might be an indication that luck was his very best pal on the mound in 2019.

Because “saves” and “blown saves” are sort of a lousy measure of a reliever’s season, we use shutdowns and meltdowns. And suffice to say if a hurler has more meltdowns than shutdowns, he was pretty lousy.

And believe it or not, last year’s rotation had more better-than-average game score starters than the 2019 staff, which had Giolito and ... and injured Rodón.