Preview: Righties in the Bullpen

Throughout the very early stages of the 2012 White Sox season, pitching has definitely been the team’s strong point. We all listen to Ken “Hawk” Harrelson talk about how important the bullpen is in today’s game during every television broadcast, and the fact of the matter is, he’s right. Think back to when the Sox won the World Series in ’05…the likes of Shingo Takatsu, Dustin Hermanson, Bobby Jenks, Cliff Politte, and Neal Cotts were dominant forces from April through October. In 2006, the White Sox offense was great, but their bullpen took major steps backwards, and the club did not make the playoffs. That’s just one example, but it holds true in nearly every case in baseball’s recent past. So let’s say the offense is solid and the starting pitching for your White Sox does its job for most of the year…the success of the team would hang in the ballads of the fireballers deemed responsible for nailing down the games in the later innings. So, let’s go one by one and take a look at the righties in the 2012 White Sox bullpen.

First we have Zach Stewart, expected to be the long relief pitcher, will come in earlier on in ball games when the starter does not fare well and needs someone to come in and eat up innings. This youngster was able to get a decent amount of major league experience with the Sox last season, but was unable to prove that he is ready to be a consistent part of a big league rotation. Stewart appeared in 10 games including 8 starts, carrying a 2-5 record with an ERA north of 6.00. At times his live arm looked good and his stat line showed it, but he had problems putting together good performances for more than just a few innings at a time. This year, I look for Stewart to pitch well in what is probably the least pressure-packed spot on the 25-man roster. Most of the time, he’ll be coming in because we’re out of a ball game, to eat up innings, or some combination of the two. However, I look for him to have a season filled with many positives, since being moved from the team’s 6th starter (of sorts) to being the long reliever is definitely a move that will take a load off of his shoulders. He’s in a position in which he could either step up and pitch well to prove he deserves another shot at a spot in the rotation, or end up having Kenny shop him as a nice young trade piece. For those reasons, I look for Stewart to have a pretty solid year.

Next we’ll move on to another young gun, hard-throwing rookie Nate Jones. In his 2 appearances so far this year, Jones has struggled with his command early on, only to come back and finish the inning in impressive fashion. On Sunday against the Tigers, he had the bases loaded with nobody out, and was able to pick up 3 straight outs to help keep the Sox in the game. While this great deal of resolve has to impress you at least a bit, I’m not completely sold on Jones just yet. He has very good “stuff” and throws quite hard, but I think it will be very beneficial for the White Sox to have another veteran arm added to the ‘pen if they are in the thick of the division race for a while, and Nate Jones would be the odd man out. I was very surprised when I learned that Robin Ventura chose him as the final arm in the bullpen. I thought it would be veteran Brian Bruney getting the nod. The vet’ was very impressive in Spring Training and has dealt with pressure before, having pitched for the Yankees earlier in his career. I think all it will take is Nate Jones stringing together a few bad performances, and RV will make the switch and call up Bruney to take his spot. Now of course, Jones does have the raw ability to prove me wrong, and I sure hope he does.

Now getting into the back end of the bullpen with the set-up men, we have Addison Reed and Jesse Crain. While Reed is a youngster in his first full season and Crain is a heavily seasoned veteran, I actually think we have two similar pitchers here. Reed throws hard, has good control of his fastball and mixes in a pretty impressive slider, as does Crain. They both are very reliable pitchers who are pretty confident in their abilities. While it’s much easier to say all of this about Crain than it is about Reed, I have very high hopes for the rookie and think he will live up to all the hype he has gotten while coming up in the Sox organization. He has been tagged the “future closer,” so if RV choosing Hector “Screwgie” Santiago as his closer, it’s a shock primarily because we figured he’d go with Reed if the decision was to go with a youngster. Nonetheless, this gives Addison time to grow and settle into the ever-so important set up role. Jesse Crain was “straight cash homey” in his first year on the South Side in 2011, and I expect to see an equally impressive year from him in 2012, and much of the same from Addison Reed. Maybe those expectations are a bit lofty to be put on a rookie, but I think this kid is the real deal and is ready to have his name heard.
The White Sox bullpen is bound to have hiccups from time to time because of their youth, but overall, I think this could be a borderline-elite unit in 2012. If the White Sox are unable to make the playoffs, I do not predict that we will be blaming the relievers.