posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 1:10 AM by Jim

Bobby Jenks

ESSENTIALS
2007 RECAP

A lot of people were thankful for Bobby Jenks last year.  He proved to be the only reliever able to hold leads all year long.  He was deserving as the Sox's lone All-Star, sparing the organizations Mark Redman-like criticism.  He gave Sox fans a performance to remember by retiring 41 consecutive hitters, tying a major-league record....

...and all this without the smoke that made him a rookie sensation in the second half of 2005!  Jenks rarely reached the high 90s on the radar gun, he developed more than enough guile to compensate for the decreased heat.

Jenks showed up to spring training in far better shape than he had in 2006, but the results didn't show immediately.  Guns clocked his fastball in the low 90s, and as a result, he looked shaky in the first month.  The most memorable lowlight was the game against Oakland April 10, which ended with a flyball off Scott Podsednik's head.

He came off the All-Star break in a similarly slow fashion, getting roughed up by the Orioles and Indians in consecutive series.  While he stumbled out of the gates, however, he followed each rough break with monster performances in the following month.

After the lackluster April, he held opponents scoreless in May, earning six saves and a win in eight outings.  He topped that in August, when he pitched 10 scoreless innings, allowing only one hit.

Yes, that hit was the property of Joey Gathright, which snapped a record-tying streak of 41 consecutive batters retired.  From July 19 to Aug. 17, Jenks threw 13 scoreless outings in a row, using only 139 pitches -- 92 of them for strikes.  After Gathright's hit, he retired the next 14 he faced, making it a remarkable 55 of 56.

That streak ended when he walked Brandon Inge with two outs against the Tigers Sept. 4.  That would be the only batter Jenks walked in the entire second half of the season.

GOOD SIGNS

No. 1: Walk rate.  He averaged 4.01 walks per nine innings in 2006.  He cut that to 1.80 in 2007.  Yowza.

No. 2:  Weight.  Jenks' conditioning paid massive dividends, as he cut his WHIP in half after the All-Star break.  He moved from Seattle to Chicago to provide more motivation to exercise this offseason.

No. 3:  Home runs allowed.  Jenks only served up two gopher balls in 65 innings, down from five over 69 2/3 innings in 2007.  That's remarkable, considering he pitched half his innings at U.S. Cellular Field.

BAD-ISH SIGNS

(None of these are truly "bad," just worth monitoring.)

No. 1: Strikeout rate.  Jenks finished the year with the fourth-best WHIP in the American League among relievers, but he had the worst strikeout rate of the top 13.  He traded Ks for extremely feeble contact, but with the Sox facing steep defensive downgrades at center field and third base among other positions, he may not be as lucky next year.

No. 2:  Lighter workload.  Because the White Sox were so incredibly awful, Ozzie Guillen didn't have to work Jenks particularly hard.  In August alone, he had one six-day break, and another that lasted eight days.  Any improvement means Jenks will have to pitch more in 2008, and we'll see if he's up to the task.

2008 OUTLOOK

It'll be a good season if...

...Jenks repeats his 2007.

OK, we can accept an extra homer or two, and he'll be hard-pressed to top a stretch of one walk over 30 innings.  But as long as he gives us another even season with no dramatic loss in effectiveness as the season wears on, nobody can complain.

PROJECTIONS

Bobby Jenks
 G
 W-L
 IP
 SV
 H
 HR BB K ERA
 WHIP
2008 ZiPS
 69
 5-2
 73
 n/a
 62 6 26 73 3.21 1.21
2008 BJH
 59
 4-2 62 33 54
 3
 22
 66
 3.19
 1.23
2008 JCM
 67
 4-1
 66.2
 41 62 4
 20 60 3.23 1.23

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