Chicago White Sox's starting rotation shaping up as 'super nasty'
Lucas Giolito, Dallas Keuchel and Lance Lynn are as good of a 1-2-3 punch as you're going to find among major-league starting rotations.
In American League Cy Young voting last season, Keuchel (6-2, 1.99 ERA) finished fifth, Lynn (6-3, 3.32 ERA) was sixth pitching for Texas, and Giolito (4-3, 3.48, no-hitter) placed seventh.
"Our rotation, I think we're super nasty," Giolito said Wednesday after allowing 2 runs over 3⅔ innings in the White Sox's 4-3 Cactus League loss to the Dodgers.
Center fielder Luis Robert returned to the Sox's lineup after missing two games with a lower abdominal strain and was 0-for-3 with 2 strikeouts.
There's no doubt the rotation is strong at the top, but the White Sox entered spring training with big questions in the No. 4 and 5 slots.
It's never wise to put too much weight on exhibition games, good or bad, but the Sox are understandably encouraged after seeing Dylan Cease and Carlos Rodon make their first spring starts this week.
Cease, the likely No. 4, looked very good Monday while pitching 3 scoreless innings against the Cubs. Needing to show new manager Tony La Russa and the White Sox he can consistently throw strikes, Cease did not issue a walk and had 2 strikeouts in the outing.
"Wow," La Russa said. "The quality of the pitches, especially the command. We've talked about it here before, command is the difference here in the big leagues. Unless you've got the kind of stuff where your movement is so much that you don't have to locate it, few guys have that. He had a good assortment going and great composure, which I think is very important. Plus-plus performance."
Rodon, who had to wait until Feb. 1 before signing back with the Sox for one year and $3 million, made his first Cactus League start Tuesday. The injury-prone lefty had 4 strikeouts over 3 scoreless innings vs. the Padres.
If he can make it all the way back from shoulder and elbow surgeries, Rodon can be an asset out of the No. 5 spot.
"The No. 1 thing that always impresses me is command, and if you add stuff, then you've got something that's more special," La Russa said. "(Rodon) made a lot of good pitches, pitched to the target. I thought it was very, very impressive. I know he's excited and now it's about his next time out there. So far, so good."
The same can be said about the White Sox's rotation, top to bottom.
"I think it's going to be characterized the best at the end of the year when we do what we're capable of and go out every fifth day and feed off each other and compete with each other," Lynn said. "That's what it's all about.
"We've got to make sure we're all keeping each other accountable and keep going. And we all kind of have different ways of going about it, too, so that makes it fun. When you go in and face a team, they can't sit there and work off of one way to get attacks. We've got multiple ways to go after everybody, and that's going to be exciting."