The White Sox have placed 30-year old righty reliever Jesse Crain on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to April 21st, due to a right oblique strain. Crain has pitched in 6 games (0 starts) for the White Sox so far this year and he is 0-0 with a 2.57 ERA and a 0.86 WHIP. The White Sox have called up 26-year old righty starter/reliever Dylan Axelrod to replace Crain in the bullpen. Axelrod pitched in 4 games (all starts) in AAA-ball so far this year and he is 2-1 with a 1.08 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP. He pitched in 4 games (3 starts) in his first taste of the majors with the White Sox last year and and he was 1-0 with a 2.89 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP. I think Axelrod is going to do a solid job for the White Sox, but they are still going to miss Crain as he has been really sharp so far this year.

23-year old righty starting pitcher Andre Rienzo has been suspended for 50 games for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. Rienzo has pitched in 4 games (all starts) in A-ball for the White Sox so far this year and he is 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA and a 0.96 WHIP. He has now pitched in 77 games (63 starts) in his first six years in the minors and he is 25-17 with a 3.37 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP. Rienzo came into this season as the White Sox’ #17 prospect according to Baseball America, but the team has to be very disappointed in him right now.

23-year old righty swinging Dayan Viciedo was pretty much handed the starting LF job this spring, and he has been pretty awful so far this year. He has played in 15 games for the White Sox so far his year and he is 9 for 52 (.173 avg, .516 OPS) with 3 runs scored, 2 homers and 2 RBIs. Viciedo is still showing an utter lack of discipline as he has walked only 1 time so far this year while whiffing 14 times. He has now played in 82 games in his first three years with the White Sox and he is 67 of 258 (.260 avg, .697 OPS) with 31 runs scored, 8 homers, 21 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. The White Sox aren’t likely to give Viciedo a long leash if he doesn’t start to turn things around soon.

Lefty starting pitched Britt Burns burst onto the scene in 1980 for the White Sox. He pitched in 34 games (32 starts) for the White Sox in 1980 and he was 15-13 with a 2.84 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP. Burns completed 11 games and he had 1 shutout in 1980 as he finished 5th in the voting for the A.L. Rookie of the Year Award. Burns pitched in 193 games (161 starts) in his 8 years with the White Sox and he was 70-60 with 3 saves, a 3.66 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP. He threw 39 complete games and 11 of them were shutouts in his 8 years with the Pale Hose. Burns pitched in 36 games (34 starts) for the White Sox in 1985 and he was 18-11 with a 3.96 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP. The White Sox dealt Burns to the Yankees on December 12th, 1985 for catcher Ron Hassey and righty pitcher Joe Cowley. Burns never pitched for the Yankees or ever again in the majors due to a degenerative hip condition.

23-year old lefty Chris Sale burst onto the scene as a reliever for the White Sox in 2010. He pitched in 79 games (0 starts) in his first two years with the White Sox and he was 4-3 with 12 saves, a 2.58 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP. Sale was dominating as a reliever as he only gave up 67 hits and whiffed 111 batters in his first 94 1/3 innings in the majors (2010+2011), which was flat out awesome. The White Sox felt that they were wasting Sale as a set-up man, so they stretched him out this spring with the idea of using him in the rotation in 2012. So far, so good for Sale and the White Sox. Sale has started 3 games for the White Sox so far this year and he is 2-1 with a 3.50 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP. He has whiffed 21 batters and he has given up only 15 hits in his first 18 innings this year. Chris Sale is going to win a lot of games for the White Sox this year as long as his arm can handle the heavy workload.

29-year old righty starting pitcher Philip Humber was perfect last night in Seattle against the Mariners. The White Sox won the game 4-0, as Humber was backup up by 1B Paul Konerko who was 2 for 4 with 1 run scored, a homer and 2 RBIs. Humber threw 96 pitches, of which 67 were strikes (69.8%) as he was in command all night long. He whiffed 9 batters last night as he was on his mark. Humber has now started 2 games for the White Sox so far this year and he is 1-0 with a 0.63 ERA and a 0.63 WHIP. Humber’s perfecto tonight against the hapless Seattle Mariners was the Pale Hose’ 3rd of all time. Mark Buehrle (2009) and Charlie Robertson (1922) are the other members of the White Sox’ perfect game club.

30-year old righty starting pitcher Jake Peavy is off to a hot start for the Chicago White Sox in 2012. Peavy has started 3 games for the White Sox so far this year and he is 2-0 with a 2.75 ERA and a 0.81 WHIP. He has only given up 14 hits and walked 2 batters in his first 19 2/3 innings this year while whiffing 21 batters and those are some impressive numbers. Peavy has now pitched in 42 games (41 starts) in his first four years with the White Sox and he is 19-13 with a 4.35 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP. Peavy’s career high in starts for the White Sox is 18, and they hope he can almost double that in 2012.

32-year old lefty swinging 1B Dan Johnson is off to a good start in AAA-ball. Johnson has played in 11 games in AAA-ball so far this year and he is 10 for 30 (.333 avg, 1.045 OPS) with 4 runs scored, 0 homers and 9 RBIs. Johnson has played in 399 games in his first six years in the majors and he is 305 of 1,298 (.235 avg, .739 OPS) with 162 runs scored, 53 homers, 188 RBIs and 1 stolen base. If Johnson keeps ripping the ball in AAA, he will likely get a shot with the White Sox at some point in 2012.

28-year old lefty swinging CF Alejandro De Aza really played well in the second half for the White Sox last year. He played in 54 games for the White Sox last year and he was 50 for 152 (.329 avg, .920 OPS) with 29 runs scored, 4 homers, 23 RBIs and 12 stolen bases. De Aza’s success last year came out of nowhere, but he has eased the minds of the people in charge of the Pale Hose so far this year. De Aza has played in 7 games for the White Sox so far this year and he is 8 for 29 (.276 avg, .955 OPS) with 7 runs scored, 1 double, 2 triples, 2 homers, 4 RBIs and 1 stolen base. He looks like a classic late bloomer.

35-year old lefty swinging catcher A.J. Pierzynski is off to a hot start with the bat for the Pale Hose. He has played in 4 games for the White Sox so far this year and he is 5 for 16 (.313 avg, .982 OPS) with 2 runs scored, 2 homers and 6 RBIs. The power Pierzynski has shown so far this year is impressive as his homers were both no doubt bombs. He has not hit more than 10 homers in a season since 2009 when he hit 13 for the White Sox. The Pale Hose hopes he continues to rake to make up for his lack of a throwing arm.