24-year old lefty starting pitcher Chris Sale threw a masterpiece last night against the Angels in their 3-0 win on ESPN last night.  Sale only gave up 1 hit and he didn’t walk anyone while whiffing 7 batters in a complete game shutout last night.  Sale has pitched in 8 games (all starts) for the White Sox so far this year and he is 4-2 with a 2.88 ERA and a 0.94 WHIP.  He has only given up 41 hits and walked 12 batters while whiffing 49 of them in his first 56 1/3 innings pitched.  Sale has now pitched in 117 games (37 starts) in his first four years in the majors and he is 25-13 with 12 saves, a 2.89 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP.  Sale could make a serious run at the A.L. Cy Young Award in 2013, if he can just stay healthy.

The White Sox are getting outstanding work from the back end of the starting rotation so far in 2013.  24-year old lefty Jose Quintana has been electric so far this year.  He has started 4 games for the Pale Hose so far this year and he is 2-0 with a 2.78 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP.  He has only given up 18 hits and 6 walks while whiffing 20 batters in his first 22 2/3 innings so far this year, which is very impressive.  27-year old righty Dylan Axelrod has done a solid job of filling in for lefty John Danks (who is injured).  He has started 4 games for the White Sox so far this year and he is 0-1 with a 3.80 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP.  He has given up 20 hits and 9 walks while whiffing 13 batters in his first 21 1/3 innings this year for the White Sox.  The White Sox hope that Quintana and Axelrod can keep up the good work.

33-year old righty reliever Matt Lindstrom and 25-year old lefty reliever Hector Santiago have been nails out of the pen so far this year for the Pale Hose.  Lindstrom has pitched in 6 games (0 starts) for the White Sox so far this year and he is 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA and a 0.41 WHIP.  He has only given up 3 hits and he has yet to walk a batter in 7 1/3 innings while whiffing 6 batters.  Santiago has pitched in 4 games (0 starts) for the White Sox so far this year and he is 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA and a 0.50 WHIP.  He has only given up 1 hit and 3 walks while whiffing 6 batters in his first 8 innings for the White Sox so far this year.  Lindstrom and Santiago have been giving the White Sox excellent work out of the pen so far and they have nasty enough stuff to keep it up for a while.

24-year old righty closer Addison Reed is off to a good start for the White Sox in 2013.  He has pitched in 4 games (0 starts) for the White Sox so far this year and he is 1-0 with 3 saves, a 0.00 ERA and a 0.75 WHIP.  Reed has only given up 1 hit and 2 walks so far this year while whiffing 4 batters in 4 innings, as he is looking sharp this year.  Reed pitched in 62 games (0 starts) for the White Sox last year and he was 3-2 with 29 saves, a 4.75 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP.  Reed getting off to a fast start is a good sign for the White Sox as they hope he pitches a lot better than he did in 2012.

The White Sox won 2 out of three games against the Royals in Chicago despite only scoring 7 runs in three games!  The pitching staff was incredible in this series as they were a combined 2-1 with a 1.00 ERA and a 0.85 WHIP.  The starting rotation was utterly amazing as Chris Sale, Jake Peavy and Gavin Floyd combined to go 2-1 with a 1.37 ERA and a 0.86 WHIP.  The trio of White Sox’ starting pitchers worked 19 2/3 innings allowing only 15 hits and 2 walks while whiffing 18 batters, which is very, very impressive.  The White Sox hope that they keep getting outstanding pitching moving forward.

The White Sox almost put 23-year old lefty Chris Sale in the bullpen in the middle of the year, but he talked them out of it and the results have been good. Sale has pitched in 28 games (27 starts) for the Pale Hose so far this year and he is 17-7 with a 2.82 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP. He has only given up 150 hits while walking 46 batters in his first 181 2/3 innings while whiffing 181 batters, which is pretty darn impressive. Sale has now pitched in 107 games (27 starts) in his first three years in the majors and he is 21-10 with 12 saves, a 2.74 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP. Sale is going to be a huge building block in the starting rotation for the Pale Hose for a long, long time.

24-year old lefty reliever Hector Santiago is going to get a start against the Twins tonight in an effort to stop the bleeding after the Tigers swept them over the weekend. Santiago has pitched in 36 games (0 starts) for the White Sox so far this year and he is 2-1 with 4 saves, a 3.91 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP. He has only given up 39 hits while whiffing 51 batters in his first 48 1/3 innings this year, which is impressive. But, he has also given up 9 homers and he has walked 26 batters….so he has been far from perfect. This will likely be his only start, as Dylan Axelrod will likely be called back up when this spot in the rotation comes up again. That being said, the White Sox need Santiago to step up against the Twins tonight.

23-year old righty rookie reliever Addison Reed was not the first or even second choice to close for the Pale Hose coming out of spring training. But, he pitched well and earned a shot and he hasn’t looked back since. Reed has pitched in 44 games (0 starts) for the White Sox so far this year and he is 2-1 with 20 saves, a 3.83 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP. He has only given up 36 hits and 14 walks while whiffing 39 batters in only 40 innings this year, which is pretty impressive. The White Sox traded for Brett Myers, who was the closer for the Astros earlier this year, but he has been no threat to Reed and he won’t be…..as long as Reed keeps pitching well.

23-year old righty rookie reliever Addison Reed took over as the Pale Hose’ closer early this year, and he hasn’t looked too bad. He has pitched in 42 games (0 starts) for the White Sox so far this year and he is 2-1 with 18 saves, a 4.03 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP. Reed has given up 35 hits and he has walked 13 batters in 38 innings so far this year while whiffing 37 batters. The White Sox will roll with Reed at closer as long as he keeps pitching well. They have a fallback option in Brett Myers if he starts struggling at some point the rest of this year.

31-year old righty starting pitcher Jake Peavy should be on the All-Star Team this year. He has pitched in 16 games (all starts) for the White Sox so far this year and he is 6-5 with a 2.96 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP. Peavy has only given up 88 hits and 24 walks in his first 112 2/3 innings this year while whiffing 101 batters….and those are impressive numbers. Peavy also has four complete games and 1 shutout as he has been a workhorse for the Pale Hose so far this year. Peavy has now pitched in 55 games (54 starts) in his first four years with the White Sox and he is 23-18 with a 4.00 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. The White Sox are glad that Peavy is finally healthy as he is justifying the deal they made for him on July 31, 2009. The White Sox dealt Dexter Carter, Aaron Poreda, Adam Russell and Clayton Richard for him. But, only Richard has helped the Padres out of that quartet of pitchers.

UPDATE: (7/9/2012) - Jake Peavy has been added to the A.L. All-Star team as an injury replacement for C.J. Wilson of the Angels.