White Sox pitchers generally grading out poorly thus far

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The White Sox currently sit at 14-15.  Their decent start is based primarily on the hot start by some of their hitters.  Their pitchers have, by and large, been dismal.  There is a lot of room for improvement, and in some cases things are trending in the right direction.  Still, I wish the Sox would have done more to pick up some starting pitching.  The signing of Ervin Santana didn’t pan out.  Dallas Keuchel would be a nice addition.  Here’s a look at some of the guys still with the White Sox.

Carlos Rodon: C.  I really didn’t know what grade to give him.  He’s on the IL now and Tommy John surgery hasn’t been ruled out.  At times I’ve thought he had ace potential.  I’m afraid he’ll never reach his potential.

Reynaldo Lopez: D+.  Lopez is coming off the most dominant start of his career, so there’s cause for hope.  Is overall numbers, however aren’t impressive, aside from his strikeout totals.  Reynaldo record is 2-3 with an ERA of 6.03.  His WHIP is 1.1691.  He’s also allowed 2.0 home runs per nine innings.  There’s lots of ugly stuff here.  If the Sox are going to turn it around, Lopez will have to follow up on Sunday’s performance.

Ivan Nova: D-.   Somewhere James Shields is laughing.  Nova is at 0-3 with an ERA of 8.33.  He’s allowed 13.8 hits per nine innings.  If there is cause for hope, it’s the fact is FIP is 5.01.  That’s merely bad.  I really don’t think this Nova has completely burnt out, but we’ll see.  If he hadn’t had a couple of better starts early on hid grade would have been F.

Lucas Giolito: D+.  About twice a month Lucas will pitch a good game and I’ll think he’s turn the corner, and then he reverts back to being the guy with no command.  His record is 2-1 but his ERA is 5.32.  He’s still walking a lot of guys.  Currently his walk rate is 4.per nine innings.  His strikeout rate is elevated at 11.4 per nine innings.  Last season is strikeout rate was 6.5, so there’s that for Sox fans to hang their hat on.

Manny Banueleos: B.  The Sox are in desperate need of starting pitching and may have found something here. In admittedly little action, Manny has been impressive. Banuelos is 2-0 with an ERA of 2.70.  He’s walked 11 guys in 20 innings while striking out 19, which is not terribly impressive.  Still, I’ll take what good news I can find when it come to White Sox pitching.

Alex Colome: A.  Alex is 6-6 in save situations.  In 12.2 innings he’s struck out 12 and walked four.  The Sox have a bona fide closer.  It would be refreshing if that don’t trade him off at the trade deadline.

Kelvin Herrera: B.  Kelvin was signed to be the Sox eighth inning guy.  He’s done well in that assignment.  Kelvin has struck out 15 in 15.1 innings and has an ERA of 2.93.  His peripherals are good too.   Like Colome, I want the White Sox to hang on to Herrera and have a good back of the bullpen.

Jace Fry: D+.  Jace has some ugly numbers but a lot of them were piled up early in the season.  He currently has an ERA of 6.17 and a WHIP of 1.543.  There are some positives, however.  Jace is striking out hitters at a rate of 12.3 per nine innings.  Going forward Fry should be a useful piece in the Sox bullpen. 

Nate Jones:  C.  I’m generally pretty hard on Nate.  To me it seems like he’s either blowing a save for Reynaldo Lopes or injured.  Currently he’s injured.  I have no idea of what to expect going forward.

A Cast of Thousands: D+.   The Sox have had a lot of guys pitch a few innings with varying results.  Dylan Covey, Carson Fulmer, Ryan Burr and Evan Marshall fall into this great.  Hopefully some of these guys will emerge as helpful.