An Optimistic View on Gavin Floyd

Going in to last night, ‘White Sox Nation’ was ready to run Gavin Floyd out of town. Through his previous six starts, he had amassed an ERA north of 10.00, only winning one game in which the Sox put up double digits against the Indians.
I have talks about the team with GSB! editor Luke Stanczyk pretty much every day, and we don’t disagree on any aspect of the ball club more than we do over Gavin Floyd. I am confident in him, and Luke is not, to say the least. But as you can see from this post’s title, I’ve got an optimistic view on the veteran right-hander, and I feel I’ve got plenty of reasons to feel that way.
Don’t Stop Believin’
Gavin had early-season struggles in 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011, only to bounce back and pitch well down the stretch in each of those years. Simply put, this is nothing new. He knows how to push aside the criticism and step up strong for a ball club throughout the summer months of the season.

Gavin is a pitcher that aims for strikeouts and weak contact through utilizing his nasty stuff, and it’s hard for him to do that without warm weather. Since a lot of Floyd’s problems have always been mental, you have to assume that it’s hard for him to automatically flip the switch when it does get warm out, but that he has to adjust and really settle in to his role that given season.
Now I don’t want to shy away from how awfully bad he’s been of late, though. In pretty much all of his starts he has not given us a very good chance of winning, something a contender can’t afford from anyone in their rotation. But after Floyd’s impressive start agains the Cubs last night, maybe he is settling in to this 2012 campaign and becoming more comfortable once again.
We know he still has the ability; he did it through his first seven starts this year when he had an ERA close to 2.00. If he can hit his spots and minimize his mistakes like he did last night in helping the Sox avoid the sweep by the North Siders, Gavin will be fine, just like he has been year after year.
I know that if there’s any offense in the MLB to turn it around against, it’s the Cubs. They’re anemically bad, but that shouldn’t take away from Gavin’s gutsy performance. If the team was swept by the lowly Cubs, it would’ve been full-on panic mode throughout the White Sox fan base. While the team still lost the series, I think Floyd leading his team to a victory on Wednesday was pretty big.
Now who knows, he may come out in his next start and stink it up. But if I were a gambling man, I’d bet that Floyd either turned the corner with the start or is very close to doing so.
And for those of you who are still sitting there saying “Well, you haven’t given us anything concrete…why should we believe he’s going to be able to do it?” I ask you the question: do you believe that Alexei Ramirez will turn it around? He’s the hitting version of Floyd: terribly bad through April and May, but very valuable in the next four months.
Well, it’s June 21 and Alexei is still hitting without authority and in the .230’s, so what’s the difference?

You tell me. Seriously, though. What are the things you see in Floyd that make you think he can/cannot turn it around? Comment below or tweet at @Grab_Some_Bench to let us know!

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This post by @zach_gropper, Founder and Managing Editor of Grab Some Bench! Go, Go White Sox!