Right now, it is nothing but optimism and hope, with a slight track record on which to base it.
The White Sox have assembled a rotation that could be among the best in baseball and rival the team’s playoff starters of 1983 and 1993.
“There are some comparisons,” says Roland Hemond, the architect of the 1983 team.
For the first time since perhaps that unit, the Sox have five bona fide starters at the beginning of spring training in Mark Buehrle, Freddy Garcia, Jose Contreras, Orlando Hernandez and Jon Garland.
“I go back a couple of years and we were looking for that third starter, then we were looking for a fourth starter, last year we were looking for a fifth starter,” pitching coach Don Cooper says. “Well, we have five now and all have experience.”
Four of the five reached double figures in victories last season and Hernandez was 8-2 in just 15 starts after missing the first half of the season recovering from shoulder surgery.
“We have a chance for the first time — if we stay healthy — to go out every day and keep the team in the ballgame,” Cooper says.
While each of the five starters has experience, they also are different in their styles and what they feature.
“You look at [Hernandez] throwing sidearm,” Buehrle says. “Garland is a sinkerball pitcher. I’m left-handed and Contreras and Garcia just throw gas and splitters. You don’t have back to back guys all the same, so each team is going to get something different.”
This group will have to do something special to match the ’83 team and perhaps even the ’93 group led by Jack McDowell.
In 1983, LaMarr Hoyt won the Cy Young Award with a 24-10 record and Richard Dotson posted a 22-7 mark. Floyd Bannister, a free-agent signing from Seattle, caught fire in midseason after a 3-9 start and finished 16-10. Britt Burns was the only starter below .500 at 10-11, and Jerry Koosman, a savvy veteran, was 11-7.
Hemond says Koosman’s presence and experience was the key that season and says Hernandez could play the same role this season.
“[Koosman] had been through it all and he had a sense of passing on some wisdom and not to be overwhelmed,” Hemond says. “El Duque has been through it; he has been in the postseason.”
One big reason the Sox pursued Hernandez was his 9-3 postseason record.
Like Hernandez, Contreras has pitched in big games in the postseason with the Yankees, and Buehrle quickly is establishing himself as one of the game’s premier left-handed starters. What may set the Sox rotation apart from the others is the No. 5 spot.
That role, long a black hole, has been taken by Jon Garland. “Everybody criticizes Garland for not doing well, but he goes out there and wins 12-14 games,” Buehrle says.
As of now, the rotation this season looks like it at least can match the ’93 rotation of McDowell, Alex Fernandez, Wilson Alvarez and Jason Bere among the top four with Tim Belcher and Kirk McCaskill splitting the fifth spot.
McDowell won 22 games and Fernandez 18. Alvarez added 15 and Bere, a rookie, went 12-5.
That staff didn’t have the kind of experience this unit does.
“I like the names we have on paper,” Cooper says. “I like the experience, I like the stuff. I like the competitiveness.”
Garcia likes the way this year’s rotation looks now but isn’t ready to say it’s the best rotation he has been in.
Garcia won 18 games in 2001 for a Seattle team that won 116 games overall and had five pitchers with at least 10 victories–led by Jamie Moyer’s 20.
“I was in Seattle for almost six years, and a couple of years we had a good rotation,” Garcia says. “We have a good one this year.”
Each of the five this season has the ability to throw 200 innings–although Hernandez hasn’t passed the 200 mark since 1999. Add that to what is expected to be a strong bullpen, and it gives manager Ozzie Guillen and Cooper plenty of options.
“If the starters are doing their job, they’re going to be on the mound,” Guillen says. “They’re not going to go five innings and leave. They’re going to tell me how far they’re going to go.”
That said, Cooper and Guillen want to make sure that, come October, they have a rested and fresh staff for possible postseason action.
“We have five guys who could give us 200 innings,” Cooper says. “Buehrle picking up 240 innings last year, I don’t think we need that. Our goal is the playoffs. If we can get to the playoffs, we don’t want to fall across the finish line.”
But October is still far away.
“We have to get it done on the field,” Cooper says. “It’s up to us to get it done on the field. I see no reason why that can’t happen.”
The starting 5s
A look at the starting rotations of the last three White Sox playoff teams and this year’s projected rotation:
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1983 W-L ERA
1. LaMarr Hoyt 24-10 3.66
2. Richard Dotson 22-7 3.22
3. Floyd Bannister 16-10 3.35
4. Britt Burns 10-11 3.58
5. Jerry Koosman 11-7 4.77
1993 W-L ERA
1. Jack McDowell 22-10 3.37
2. Alex Fernandez 18-9 3.13
3. Wilson Alvarez 15-8 2.95
4. Jason Bere 12-5 3.47
5. Tim Belcher 3-5 4.40
Kirk McCaskill 4-8 5.23
2000 W-L ERA
1. Mike Sirotka 15-10 3.79
2. James Baldwin 14-7 4.65
3. Cal Eldred 10-2 4.58
4. Jim Parque 13-6 4.28
5. Jon Garland 4-4 6.46
Kip Wells 6-9 6.02
2005-a W-L ERA
1. Mark Buehrle 16-10 3.89
2. Freddy Garcia 13-11 3.81
3. Jose Contreras 13-9 5.50
4. Orlando Hernandez 8-2 3.30
5. Garland 15-14 4.89
a: 2004 statistics
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