Ostrowski: Grading the Sox pitchers
All-Star week is here, so it's time to give midterm grades to the pitchers after grading the position players last week. Remember, this grading scale includes expectations coming into the season.
#1 Starter - Chris Sale
The White Sox ace has made his fifth all-star team in five years as a starting pitcher. Sale leads MLB with 14 wins and is top four in innings pitched (125), complete games (3), strikeouts (123), and WHIP (1.04) in the American League. The "pitching to contact" narrative is backed up by numbers. His strikeout rate is down 7 percent and contact rate up 7 percent. Sale had a 1.58 ERA in his first nine starts, but has a 5.56 ERA in his last nine outings.
Grade: A-
#2 Starter - Jose Quintana
Quintana is always the forgotten man. He's even barely mentioned as an all-star snub because he wasn't part of the final vote involving position players. The Sox second ace makes the AL top six in innings pitched (177.2), ERA (3.21), and WHIP (1.11). The advanced stat wins above replacement says that Quintana is having a better year than Sale.
Grade: A+
#3 Starter - Carlos Rodon
Rodon's second season in the big leagues has been a mixed bag. The walks have decreased from 4.59 to 3.13 per nine innings. However, the home runs have skyrocketed, raising his ERA to 4.50. Rodon has allowed four more homers this year in 47 less innings of work. The amount of long balls per nine has doubled.
Grade: C-
#4 Starter - James Shields, Mat Latos
Shields is quietly pitching much better than after being traded here from San Diego. After a disastrous 21.81 ERA in his first three starts on the South Side, that number is all the way down to 3.06 in his last three games. Coincidently, 3.06 was his ERA after 10 starts with the Padres this year. Latos had a sub-2 ERA in April and then showed that he's still Latos.
Grade: D+
#5 Starter - Miguel Gonzalez, John Danks
Gonzalez's 4.39 ERA and 0.8 WAR numbers in 12 starts are better than Rodon's. He's given the bullpen a rest going seven innings in his last two outings. Sox brass moved on from Danks after only four games. When Danks was in the rotation, they were 16-3 on days he didn't pitch.
Grade: B-
Closer - David Robertson
Robertson's 3.22 ERA is slightly lower than last year, but there are many differences after digging deeper. On the positive side, his ground ball rate is up 12 percent and line drive rate down a whopping 17 percent. On the negative side, his walk rate has more than doubled and he has the highest ERA of the 18 closers with at least 18 saves. But Robertson is on pace for a career high 43 saves.
Grade: B-
Rest of the Bullpen
Nate Jones, Zach Duke, Dan Jennings, and Zach Putnam (on DL) all have a sub-3 ERA. Duke's 44 appearances is tied for the most in the AL. The pen has allowed only 15 home runs, eight less than any other team. The Sox would like to get Matt Albers back on track.
Grade: A-
• Joe Ostrowski is a co-host of the "Hit & Run" baseball show from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on WSCR 670-AM The Score with Barry Rozner. Follow him on Twitter @JoeO670.