Face it, Jon Rauch isn’t ever going to blend into a crowd. You lose that luxury when you have to duck just to go through doorways.
There was a time not that long ago, however, when the 6-foot-11-inch Rauch was a lot more than just a curiosity. He was going to be the centerpiece of the White Sox’s impressive collection of young starting pitchers. Now he just mostly takes up more than his share of space in the spring training clubhouse.
Like Dan Wright, Rauch is a reminder of how dangerous it is to build pitching plans around guys without track records. But it’s too early to write off either of them.
In fact, while Sox pitching coach Don Cooper says Billy Koch is the key to his 2004 staff, I would argue that Wright and Rauch are every bit as important.
For the moment, they join Neal Cotts, Felix Diaz, Josh Stewart and Jason Grilli in the battle for the fifth starter’s spot. But if both Wright and Rauch pitch well this spring, they might be able to push left-hander Scott Schoeneweis back to the bullpen, giving manager Ozzie Guillen an enviable trio of lefty relievers.
Given Schoeneweis’ career earned-run average of 5.28 as a starting pitcher, as well as the need for Cotts and long shot Enemencio Pacheco to get experience in Triple A, that probably would be the best arrangement for the back of the rotation.
It’s time to find out about Rauch.
“What I’m happy about is he’s physically fine,” Cooper said last week in Tucson, Ariz., as spring training was just getting under way. “We can see what he can do. I remember in 2002, coming up at the end of the year and beating Minnesota twice. The first time they had just clinched [the division], and they weren’t playing their big guys. The next time they were getting ready for the playoffs and had their `A’ team in there. He [dominated] them pretty good.”
Rauch, who was 7-1 with a 4.11 ERA last season at Charlotte, has a .660 winning percentage over the last four seasons. But the right-hander has gotten sidetracked in trying to establish himself in the big leagues, partly because of a torn labrum in 2001 and partly because of horrible mishandling by the White Sox.
When Rauch was just trying to get his feet under him after the surgery, general manager Ken Williams gave him the fifth starter’s job coming out of spring training in 2002. Then Jerry Manuel seemed to forget he was on the staff, using him for only 1 1/3 innings the first 15 days of the season. It led to a wasted year and maybe a lack of confidence.
Rauch was prepared much better for the big leagues in 2003 but didn’t even get promoted in September. When Manuel decided to pull the plug on Wright as his fifth starter, Rauch was injured, so Cotts got the call from Double-A Birmingham.
“I had ups and downs,” said Rauch, who had a 2.17 ERA in six August starts. “It was an average season, I would suppose.”
There’s a social awkwardness to Rauch that suggests he has a chip on his shoulder as big as the oversized wrap Bartolo Colon wears after extended outings. But Rauch has no desire to return to Charlotte for a fourth consecutive season, this time at 25, so he’s not going to hurt his chances to win a job by criticizing the Sox.
For Guillen to succeed where Manuel failed, he needs to improve the production at the rear of the rotation. Mike Porzio, Stewart, Wright and Cotts combined to go 3-11 with a 6.75 ERA in 27 starts from the No. 5 spot a year ago.
The distance from the top to the bottom of the rotation was just as great in 2002, when Todd Ritchie and four others, including Rauch, went 16-27 with a 6.00 ERA in 62 starts from the fourth and fifth spots.
More than anything else, these are the numbers that left the Sox four games behind Minnesota last season and 13 1/2 back two years ago.
Here’s an unsolicited suggestion: Pick five starters and stick with all of them, at least until September. Stop skipping the fifth starter’s spot when the schedule allows.
It sends a bad message to everyone, especially the fifth starter, who is left shuttling between the bullpen and the rotation. It also adds an unnecessary complication to a manager’s job, the best example of that being the loss in New York last August when Manuel was hammered by everyone from Hawk Harrelson to veteran players for not skipping Cotts to allow Mark Buehrle to go for a sweep.
In the end, the shortsighted approach gains little. The top three guys in the Sox’s rotation made 103 starts last year. They would have made 99 if Manuel had kept them in order.
Is that difference really worth messing with the heads of the other starters?
Cooper isn’t sure.
“It seemed like there were two or three times last year [No. 5 starters] had 10 days between starts,” he said. “That’s a difficult thing to ask, especially when it’s young guys. You can throw in the bullpen, but I think pitchers need to face hitters. That’s where they get their feedback.”
For the White Sox to end up better this season, they have to find a way to do better at the end of their rotation.
