posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2007 10:48 PM by Jim

Catching up: Pitchers

Revisiting the weekend on the mound:

Mark Buehrle:  After being sabotaged on many occasions this year by both the offense and the bullpen, it was nice to see Buehrle get bailed out by those two parties during an otherwise unremarkable start.  The 10th win ensures his sixth straight with double digits, and also gets him back over .500 for the season.  If Don Cooper does shut him down for the season, it'll be his fifth winning season in seven as a starter.

It surprised me to find out when looking at his splits that Buehrle owns a 5.08 ERA since the start of August, not all that better than his ERA over the last two months of his abysmal second half last year.  To me, it doesn't seem like he pitched that poorly -- he was only truly roughed up in two starts, and managed quality starts in more than half his outings (five of nine).

Then you look at the lines:
  • 2006: .336/.376/.580 -- 5.35 ERA
  • 2007: .284/.337/.441 -- 5.08 ERA
So in terms of runs allowed, either Buehrle was unlucky in August and September this year, very lucky last year, or both.  What I do know is that I'd take this year every year from Buehrle, especially in the wake of such a scary decline.

Javier Vazquez:  With 11 strikeouts in his start against Minnesota Saturday, Vazquez topped 200 for the season.  I covered this a couple months ago, but I think it's worth updating that piece to show how rare this feat is for a White Sox starter.

Javy has one more start on the season, and if Ozzie Guillen doesn't limit his workload, he'll have a chance to set the modern-day (read: not-Ed-Walsh) franchise strikeout record.  The list:
  1. 269 -- Ed Walsh, 1908, 464 IP
  2. 258 -- Ed Walsh, 1910, 369.2 IP
  3. 255 -- Ed Walsh, 1911, 368.2 IP
  4. 254 -- Ed Walsh, 1912, 393 IP
  5. 215 -- Gary Peters, 1967, 260 IP
  6. 210 -- Wilbur Wood, 1971, 334 IP
  7. 209 -- Tom Bradley, 1972, 260 IP
  8. 207 -- Esteban Loaiza, 2003, 226.1 IP
  9. 206 -- Tom Bradley, 1971, 285.2 IP
  10. 206 -- Ed Walsh, 1907, 422.1 IP
  11. 205 -- Gary Peters, 1964, 273.2 IP
  12. 204 -- Javier Vazquez, 2007, 209 IP
  13. 200 -- Alex Fernandez, 1996, 258 IP
So Javy needs 12 strikeouts in order to top the list.  That's certainly possible, since Javy struck out 13 Royals Sept. 17.  It won't be easy, since he's scheduled to face the Detroit Tigers this time around.  If the Sox were serious, they'd bump him up a day to take what was Buehrle's start (now Lance Broadway's) in the finale of this series against Kansas City, since Monday's off day would still provide for him regular rest.

At the very least, even if Vazquez can't rack up a dozen whiffs, he can console himself with the franchise single-season record for strikeouts per nine innings.  Right now, he stands at 8.79 K/9 IP, just a notch above Juan Pizarro's franchise-best rate of 8.69, which he achieved back in 1961.

Mike Myers:  Since joining the team on Aug. 21, Myers has pitched in 15 games.  That's good enough for a share of the team lead with Ehren Wassermann.  Unlike Wassermann, Myers isn't exactly making the most of it. 

G
IP
H
R
ER
HR
BB
SO
ERA
WHIP
15
13
17
15
13
3
6
5
9.00
1.61

This is downright frightening, because it seems to me that they're giving Myers every opportunity to make next year's team, even though his utility is extremely limited.  They may overlook the horrible outings because he threw four straight hitless outings -- over which he pitched three innings -- before getting shelled again Sunday. 

Unfortunately, Boone Logan has been just as bad as Myers over that stretch, because a halfway-decent Logan would probably give the Sox no real reason to keep Myers around (aside from provenness).  Still,  considering he's 15 years younger and throws 15 m.p.h. harder than Myers, I'd bank on Logan outperforming the elder LOOGY in 2008.

And "bank" is a key word, because Myers' option is worth $1.1 million next year.  Logan would still be making the league minimum, so that's around a $700,000 difference.

Keep that $700,000 in mind, because the Sox PR crew is already rolling out the "next year's draft pick might cost too much!" line, which the Chicago Tribune has picked up on as well.  Basically, they're laying the groundwork to bitch about the possibility of paying above slot -- meaning $2 to $3.5 million -- for a top 10 draft pick next June.  Myers' potential salary pretty much makes up the differential.

Like every other organization, the Sox find a way to burn that amount of money each year.  Even on the fiscally brilliant 2005 team, Timo Perez sopped up $1 million for sub-replacement level production.  Kenny Williams doesn't even need to pick up Myers' option for this to happen, because they still have to pay Pablo Ozuna $1.2 million coming off a broken leg (although a healthy Ozuna has his uses).

That said, the Sox shouldn't be sweating an extra million for a top-flight draft pick who they'll desperately need to deliver.  The Sox's lower-minor system is practically barren, outside of Chris Carter and maybe John Shelby.  They had no position players worth talking about in Winston-Salem this year after trading Aaron Cunningham.

In other words, they really can't afford to let $500,000 to $1.5 million sway them from signing a draft pick they believe in.  I could go on, but the Cheat hammered on this scheme earlier today.

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