Time for Sox to scrap six-man rotation

So the White Sox are 16 games into their dalliance with the six-man rotation — the latest result being Friday's 4-2 loss at Toronto.

Does this new relationship have legs? Or should the Sox walk away and return to the conventional five-man plan after their off-day on June 2?

It says here the Sox won't get the most out of their best (and most expensive) pitchers by sticking with six starters.

As always, we'll allow the numbers to guide us to a conclusion.

But first, let's introduce pitching coach Don Cooper's view on the topic, courtesy of Comcast SportsNet.

“Right now we're in a six-man rotation and everyone is throwing well,” Cooper said before Friday's game when Mark Buehrle allowed 3 runs in 7 innings and took the loss.

“If they continue to throw the ball well, it's working right now, so why would we change anything? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And right now, it ain't broke.”

While I'll agree the Sox rotation ain't broke right now (the starters own a 3.33 ERA and a 6-5 record in the last 16 games), the six-man experiment hasn't made it noticeably better.

Let's run the numbers:

In the 37 games before Jake Peavy's insertion into the rotation, the Sox starters averaged 6.5 innings and 100.2 pitches per start.

In the 16 games with the six-man rotation, the starters are averaging 6.4 innings and 101.4 pitches per start.

Therefore, the Sox starters aren't going any deeper into games even though, theoretically, they should be capable of more work with an extra day of rest.

Moreover, Ozzie Guillen's bullpen remains one man short if you keep the six-man rotation.

And if that's not enough, let's say the Sox maintain six starters the rest of the way.

There are 109 games to go. With six starters, each guy gets roughly 18 more starts. With five starters, each guy gets roughly 22 more starts.

Considering your starting pitchers are supposed to be your best and most expensive guys, why do the Sox want them pitching roughly 27 fewer innings apiece the rest of the way?

You know who has to soak up many of those extra innings? Middle relievers such as Tony Pena (6.20 ERA) and Will Ohman (5.40 ERA).

I realize it's not easy to tell either Edwin Jackson or Phil Humber to join the bullpen, but one starter's inconvenience benefits the other five starters as well as the team.

Isn't the team the point of the whole thing?

After all, Ozzie Guillen dropped Adam Dunn to seventh in the lineup Friday night for the good of the team.

Dunn hadn't batted in the 7-slot since May 17, 2008, but he reacted the right way.

Not only did Dunn take extra batting practice, he walked in all four plate appearances 24 hours after whiffing in all four at-bats.

For Dunn, it was just the second time in his 1,494-game career that he drew 4 unintentional walks in one game.

Gordon Beckham missed most of Dunn's solid night after leaving the game in the third inning with a massive welt under his left eye.

Toronto's Juan Rivera blasted a Buehrle pitch off the left-center wall. Alex Rios retrieved it quickly and fired a one-hop strike toward second, but it took a strange bounce and smashed into Beckham's left cheek.

He went down immediately and, as trainer Herm Schneider accompanied him off the field, Beckham tried to cover the wound with his cap.

“He look like he fight (Manny) Pacquiao,” Guillen said.

The White Sox sent Beckham for X-rays on his orbital bone, but results weren't available after the game.

“I think he should be fine,” Guillen said. “I hope there's nothing broke. If something's broke, we'll have to do something about it.”