Starting Rotation

As I clicked on the depth chart for the White Sox, as of November 15th, I saw what I was aiming to look at: our starting staff. It still lists Javier Vazquez as one of our pitchers, which is inaccurate as he filed for free agency and is now on the market. Clayton Richard, in my mind, is more suitable out of the bullpen -- so that opens up a free spot to fill with whomever we want.

There are some prospects in the system we could look at, such as Lance Broadway, Wes Whisler and possibly the glorious return of one knuckle balling Charlie Haeger. These are all great options to be analyzed further, but that isn't the purpose of this particular post.

It could be; but it isn't.

No, this post is going to mainly focus on the current free agent market. With names out there such as Ben Sheets, Derek Lowe, Jake Peavy, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, there are about twenty possibilities I can conjure up. Burnett isn't really the big, enforcing name out there but he will get the job done. The man was 18-10 last season with an impressive 231 strike outs! His ERA was at 4.01, which is horrific considering the great run support Toronto gives (end sarcasm), but under Cooper I believe that could easily be bumped down to a 2.20.

Sheets and Lowe will probably demand a pretty penny for their service, no matter the longevity of their contract obligations. My only worry with Sheets is his attraction to the disabled list. He pitched 198.1 innings last year, going 13-10 with a 3.09 ERA! If I had a vote, I'd give him comback player of the National League Central division, specific to the Brewers. But Lowe avoids Sheets' main problem as he can stay healthy for an entire year without people affiliating him with a season-ending injury. At 14-11, his record is not impressive. Though it is the same as Sheets', just a game up on either end!

Peavy and Sabathia seem to be the fantasies of my post, but they're featured as a wish-list desire to almost any blog that can be typed into a URL. Sabathia is a work hog that can go long periods of time without losing. Look at his beginning with Milwaukee! Eight straight wins, three of which happened to be complete game efforts. That's the kind of guy you want! Just like Doug Melvin said, on every fifth day, you wouldn't need a bullpen!

Jake Peavy quite in Peavy form during the 2008 season, going 10-11 yet maintaining a 2.85 ERA, something that show's how bad the Padres' offense was last year. If your ace can keep his ERA fifteen ticks below an even three, but is under a .500 winning percentage for a year, you know something is wrong with your offense. Say San Diego helped him out; he could've easily been 15-6 with the same, if not better, earned run average.

Like I said, Peavy and Sabathia seem out of reach for the team I'm blogging about, but I couldn't just leave them out of consideration.

I'll just sit back, watch and write!