Sox-O-Meter: Buehrle, Floyd, Danks... Then Who?

While I still am holding on to the thought that the White Sox will surprise us all and announce a major pitching acquisition before the start of Spring Training, this undying faith took a major blow Wednesday afternoon when Scott Merkin over at whitesox.com published this nugget of negativity.

Cooper is left to work with a starting five of Mark Buehrle, John Danks and Floyd, rounded out by an inexperienced duo picked from the group of right-handers Jeff Marquez and Lance Broadway and southpaws Clayton Richard and Aaron Poreda.

Fucking great. I'm sure somehow, some way, the Sox will bring in at least 1-2 more guys for the open audition, becuase there's no way any sane person could look at this list of names and really think they could hand 64 starts over to them and not suffer an ill consequences, regardless if that violates the new Sox manifesto of getting younger, faster, etc. However, since those moves remain unseen, let's take these 4 through the S0x-O-Meter and determine who, today, would be the best choice to round out the final two spots in the rotation. As always, the scale is from 1-5, 5 meaning this guy's gold and 1 meaning I wouldn't guarantee him a spot in Birmingham's rotation just yet.

JEFF MARQUEZ
The 24-year-old righty was acquired by the Sox in the Nick Swisher deal earlier this off-season and appears to be the front-runner of the group to grab at least one spot in the 2009 rotation. He predominantly features a sinker and change-up (and now that he's here, probably a cutter, too) and has routinely been mentioned as a decent Yankee prospect for the last few years. However, he never cracked the big league roster in New York, which is minor cause for concern considering how mediocre the Yankees starting rotation has been the last few years.

In 2007 and 2008, the Yankees gave starts to the following worthless pieces of shit: Darrell Rasner (26), Philip Hughes (21), Sidney Ponson (15), Kei Igawa (13), Ian Kennedy (12), Carl Pavano (9), Tyler Clippard (6), Matt DeSalvo (6), Alfredo Aveces (4), Dan Giese (3), Jeff Karstens (3), Chase Wright (2), Brian Bruney (1), and Sean Henn (1). Are you telling me that the Pinstripes wasted 122 combined starts on these 14 guys and never once thought that Marquez couldn't possibly be any worse? You don't even want me to go over the list of guys that just made an appearance in the Bronx (it's horrific like a car crash).

Don't be mad at me when I look at Jeff's slow progression through the minors and his unpleasant K/IP rate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (0.41 K/IP) coupled with the apparent lack of urgency the Yankees had at promoting him ahead of trainwrecks like Kei Igawa and you can see why I'm not rushing out to get my customized Jeff Marquez jersey. That said, as a sinkerballer, his pitching style would translate best to Sox Park and with over 560 innings logged in the minors he's the most experienced of the 4.





Unfortunately, it looks like Marquez might be the best bet of this foursome. Blegh.

CLAYTON RICHARD
You all know the Clayton Richard story by now... Former backup quarterback at Michigan, gave up football for baseball, drafted by the Sox in the 8th round of the 2005 draft, mediocre prospect who rocketed up the organizational ladder in 2008, started the 2008 Futures Game for Team USA, almost went to Beijing for the Olympics, and would have started Game 5 of the ALDS against Tampa Bay had the series lasted that long.

Talk about a whirlwind. After Clayton's somewhat dominating performance out of the bullpen in ALDS Game 1, a lot of people got on the Clayton Richard for 5th Starter Bandwagon. You're going to have to mind with me while I play spoiler...

1. As good as Tampa's offense was last season, they had the 2nd lowest batting average against lefties in the American League. I'm sorry, but it may have just been the case of a guy taking advantage of a really good matchup.
2. Though the last 3.1 innings of his season were great, I don't see how that suddenly negates the previous 47.2 innings he tossed during the regular season. I mean, he was never particularly good... Aside from the six shutout innings he threw against Seattle on August 19, what is there that really says "this guy is built for the Major Leagues?" Perhaps now I should mention that the Mariners had the 2nd least potent offense in the American League, averaging 4.15 R/G?

It's not that I don't like Clayton Richard, because that wouldn't be true. It's that I don't like him in the starting rotation. I just don't look at Richard and see a guy that will give you 6+ innings of quality work every 5th day on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, the Sox are in a situation right now that Richard will likely have to start because, quite frankly, the other options are far, far worse.





An arm that's better suited to the bullpen will be forced into the rotation. Hopefully this doesn't ruin him.

LANCE BROADWAY
After a fiery start at the end of the 2007 season against Kansas City, it looked like maybe Broadway, the Sox's #1 pick in the 2005 Draft had arrived. Unfortunately, it looks like Lance need to be limited to just games against the Royals. In 11.1 IP against Kansas City, he has allowed just 2 earned runs in 2 starts and netted 2 wins. Against the rest of the Majors? 11 earned runs in 13 innings... 7.62 ERA. Even at the minor league level, Lance has never put up eye-popping numbers. Even in 2006 for the Barons, when he had an sub-3 ERA over 154 innings, his peripherals weren't outstanding (111 K in 154 innings, for example). Broadway will be 26 years old at the end of this season, so it's nearing time to shit or get off the pot with him. If his audition toward the end of 2008 was any indication, I don't know if he'll ever be ready to be a consistent starter in the Majors, and unlike Richard I don't see much potential value for him out of the bullpen. While I'd give him the chance to win a starting spot this Spring, I'd be willing to believe that some other team out there will be desperate enough for starting pitching that they'd take a flyer on Broadway. I'm not anticipating a major haul for him, but there is a logjam of crappy starters in our system right now.






AARON POREDA
I don't know what to think of Aaron Poreda. On the one hand, you have a guy who was a high draft pick of the Sox during a time when they were notorious for selecting "safer, low ceiling" guys that for the most part, have failed to pan out at the Major League level. But, oh, that fastball. And he's a lefty! It's not like I don't know why the Sox are so infatuated with Poreda. That said, the kid's never pitched above the AA-level and of these four, he's easily the youngest at just 22. There's plenty of time for him to continue his development, and by all accounts, aside from that plus-fastball, he still features very little Major League quality stuff. I'm not going to get too deep into it, because a) this blog has been going on for some time and b) I have no interest in seeing Aaron Poreda at the Major League level next year, barring some dire emergency.





The million dollar question for the White Sox Player Development team continues to be if they can teach Poreda enough of an arsenal to become a dominant starting pitcher, but if not he can still be groomed to be a reliable lefty out of the bullpen. I certainly hope the Sox don't mortgage his promising future for short-sighted goals.