Tremendous Upside Potential

Despite only having a .500 record, Ozzie Guillen has to like what he’s seeing from his Chicago White Sox so far this season. While the middle of the lineup has gotten off to a slow start, the starting pitching has picked up the load, showing signs that a poor 2006 may have been an aberration.

Every starter has now pitched twice and they have all thrown the ball better in their second start. The rotation’s biggest surprise thus far has to be Javier Vazquez. Vazquez was inconsistent last season as he struggled to get out of the fifth inning, but this year he has pitched better than any Sox starter. Leading the rotation with a 1.50 ERA, Vazquez is keeping himself out of trouble because he is striking guys out. In his two games he has pitched 12 innings and has 12 strikeouts. If that ratio holds throughout the season, the extension he recently signed, 3 years for more than 30 million dollars, will be viewed as a bargain.

Jose Contreas had a horrible opening day against the Indians but pitched great in his second start in Oakland. Though he had trouble getting his split finger over the plate for strikes, Contreras still went six innings and allowed only one run against a pesky A’s lineup. No one expects him to pitch as well as he did through the middle of last season, winning 17 straight decisions at one point, but he will have to steady for the White Sox to keep pace in the AL Central. Even though he was the opening day starter the Sox really don’t need him to be a true ace. If he can eat up innings and keep his walks down, Contreras should have a good 2007.

He was viewed as a question mark coming into the season, but John Danks has pitched better than anyone expected through his first two major league starts. The only runs he has given up this season have come off home runs and Danks hasn’t let the dingers rattle him. He’s shown tremendous poise on the mound for such a young pitcher and is living up to his lofty billing so far. Danks pitched well on Saturday against the Indians, going 5 1/3, allowing 7 hits, but only two runs.

The Sox other two starters, Jon Garland and Mark Buehrle, have been predictably solid to open the season. Buehrle had an awful second half in 2006 which seemed to lower expectations for him this year. People seem to forget that he has only had two bad halves his entire career and is showing that he will return to form this season. Pitching seven strong innings and giving up three runs against the A’s on Friday, Buehrle proved that a wrist injury he suffered in his first start had no lingering effect. While the game Buehrle pitched on Wednesday was good, Jon Garland was dominate the day before. Garland allowed just three hits in his second start on Tuesday against the A’s, going seven innings and not allowing an earned run. Winning 18 games each of the last two seasons, Garland was second in AL in victories in 2006, only behind Johan Santana.

If Garland can pitch the way he has the past two seasons, and if Buehrle can keep from going into a prolonged slump, the two should carry the White Sox rotation. Vazquez hasn’t pitched this good since he was in Montréal, and his performance this season could decide who wins the AL Central. Contreras just has to keep the offense in the game and anything the Sox get from Danks this season has to be considered gravy. The middle of the lineup will start hitting eventually and Scott Podsednik and Juan Uribe, two players who struggled mightily in 2006, have been spectacular so far. Though the season is only ten games old, the White Sox are already showing they should compete in 2007.

If there is one thing White Sox fans know about Ozzie Guillen, it’s that he plays favorites with the guys on his roster. Get on his good side, and you’ll see plenty of at bats. Get on his bad side, and you’ll be riding the bench, or as Brandon McCarthy and Sean Tracy will tell you, shipped out of town.

For whatever reason, Brian Anderson has been unable to reach Guillen’s good side since he began last season as the club’s opening day center fielder. One reason could be because he was playing the shadow of Aaron Rowand. One of the most popular players from the White Sox championship team in 2005, Rowand was dealt to the Phillies in exchange for Jim Thome shortly after the tickertape stopped raining down. Guillen loved Rowand as much as anyone, and maybe any young player thrust into centerfield in his place would have been doomed from the start. Anderson didn’t help himself either by hitting about .180 through the first half of the season. It seemed like no matter how good he was after the all star break, Brian Anderson had already dug himself a pretty deep hole with his manager.

But after the all star game was when Anderson really started to come into his own. He was able to finish the year with a .225 batting average, pretty impressive when you consider how horrible he was the first two months of the season, and emerged as one of the American League’s premier defensive centerfielders. Even as Anderson was cranking out doubles in August and September and providing the club with defense that was at least 90% as good as what Rowand did a year before, Ozzie continued to split his at bats with Rob Mackowiack.

Mackowiack was god awful in center, as he was primarily third basemen for most of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but he was one of Ozzie’s guys so it really didn’t matter. The platoon was especially curious when you consider the last thing the White Sox needed was more offense. They had four guys jack 30 or more home runs last season, so you would think that the offense would be able to withstand Anderson hitting eighth or ninth. The Sox main problem in 2006 was their pitching, a department where Anderson’s stellar defense could have helped by saving some more runs late in the season.

The only move the White Sox made in the offseason was signing veteran Darren Erstad who was supposed to be Anderson’s competition for the centerfield spot in spring training. It must never have really been a competition, however, as Erstad was handed the starting job despite being outperformed in spring by Anderson.

After only getting seven at bats through the first 11 games of this season, now is the time for Anderson to start playing more. Erstad has been anything but spectacular so far, only hitting .189, and while his defense is better then Mackowiack’s was last season, it still isn’t what Anderson brings to the table.

I know Ozzie likes Erstad because he’s a gritty veteran and because it allows him to hit Iguchi deeper in the lineup, but Brian Anderson deserves another shot. Looking at the situation objectively, playing Anderson would be far better for the future of the ball club. Anderson’s only 24 and Sox should see what they really have in him. They already traded away one centerfield who looks like he’s going to be a future star, Chris Young in Arizona, so the organization owes it to themselves to see what Anderson can give them. Unless your name is Delmon Young, young players always have trouble adjusting to major league pitching, and Anderson showed solid improvement offensively in last year’s second half. He already brings great defense, and if the kid gets regular at bats, who knows, he might even start to hit consistently.

But the way Guillen is using Anderson so far this season is pretty much the worst way possible. It would be better for him to playing everyday in Triple-A Charlotte then to be rotting on the bench in the majors. If the Sox don’t start to give Anderson a shot at more playing time soon, then they may never know how good he could have been.