White Sox Need To Get Into Arms Race

The Chicago White Sox won Friday night, 9-5, over the Texas Rangers to re-establish a 1.5 game lead over the Detroit Tigers. That's the good news.

The bad news is, Chris Sale was roughed up a bit for five runs in 6.1 innings. The runs, and the fact that he only gave up six hits isn't THAT bad itself. The problem is, Sale also didn't hit 90 with his fastball for most of the night. For young pitchers, especially ones that have been used as much as Sale has this year, that means that he is probably hitting a wall.

That Sale got six strikeouts last night speaks well for the fact that his slider is still an effective pitch to get batters out. But if the rest of the league is ready for the slider, knowing he can't throw the fastball past anyone, then he is going to start to get hit. Hard.

The issue is that Sale's arm hasn't experienced this kind of work load yet. In 2010, between college, the minors, and the majors, 138 innings. Last year, as a reliever for the Sox, he threw 71 innings. He has thrown 124 so far this season.

The other issue is that Jake Peavy is currently fifth in the league in innings pitched. He has already put in 140 innings this season. That last time he threw that many innings over an entire season? 2008. While innings pitched isn't always a great indicator of work load, it's hard to believe that Peavy can keep it up for the rest of the season when he is putting up the following pitch counts by game: 121, 122, 120, 115, 109, 109, 125. Those are his pitches during his last seven starts.

It's not hard to see that the White Sox are putting too much pressure on a player that has had arm trouble in the past. Three starts ago, he gave up 6 earned runs and 12 hits in seven innings versus the Royals. Two starts ago, he gave up 4 runs on eight hits against the Tigers. His last start, he gave up one earned run against the Twins, who aren't really a baseball team but a punching bag at this point.

The White Sox OTHER problem is Philip Humber, who is one of the worst starting pitchers in Major League Baseball this year. He has a WAR of -0.8, which means he is actually worse than the worst pitcher on an average baseball team. It means that the random guy you bring up from the minors, or player you get off the screap heap to spot start, they would be a 0.0 WAR. Humber is worse than that.

The upside is, Kenny Williams has shown a reckless disregard for his farm system in the past and surely is willing to make a trade again. The Sox needs pitchers. Any pitchers.

For the Sox to make a playoff run, they need to do the following things: Rest Chris Sale, skip every other one of his starts in August to give his arm a break, and then see about amping him back up in September. They need to put some kind of pitch count on Jake Peavy before his surgically reconstructed arm falls off. And they need to tie Philip Humber to a rocket and shoot him towards the sun, where he can no longer do damage to their team.

And who to replace them with? There are three days to act until the Trade Deadline. The Tigers have already made a move to shore up their two weakest holes, back of the rotation pitcher and second baseman.

The Indians are desperately trying to make moves, any moves, to get back in the race.

It's time for Kenny Wiliams to put on his mad genius general manager hat and do something. Here are the pitchers he should be looking at, and bare in mind, the Sox were never going to get Zach Greinke in the first place. The White Sox have, by all professional accounts, one of the worst farm systems in baseball.

In fact, the reason that Major League Baseball changed their draft setup in the latest collective bargaining agreement (cap on amount you can spend in a draft, threatening to take away draft picks if you go over that amount) is because Bud Selig was getting sick of Jerry Reinsdorf (a notorious cheap skate when it came to the draft) standing out front of his house at night with a boombox over his head.

Here are the guys Williams should look at:

Josh Johnson, Marlins. This is obviously wishful thinking. Johnson has some of the best stuff in the game, but if Williams is ready to pillage the minors, a deal of Nestor Molina, Jared Mitchell, Trayce Thompson and Addison Reed should be close to getting the job done. Then again, it might not be. Moving on...

Ryan Dempster, Cubs. It couldn't hurt to give a call to Jed Hoyer in Chicago. The issue is, there was already a deal on the table with Atlanta to send over Randall Delgado, who Baseball America had ranked as the 46th best prospect in baseball going into the season.

The Cubs are looking for big time prospects, and that isn't something the White Sox have. Addison Reed was their highest ranking player in the top 100. In fact, ,he was the only South Sider on the list, coming in at 66. He's also a relief pitcher who projects as a relief pitcher, and isn't a commodity. The price is probably still too high here.

Josh Beckett, Red Sox. He has 10/5 rights so he can veto any trade. But, after the last couple seasons in Boston, he might be looking for a change of pace, and the Red Sox have already proven once to be willing trade partners. If the Sox were to trade Jake Petricka and some filler, and the Red Sox were willing to eat some salary, this could work.

Glen Perkins, Twins. He ... he has not been great this year. But there are some decent numbers to look at. He strikes out 10.5 batters per nine innings against walking only 2.7 over nine. The bigger question is whether Perkins, a former starter, can get his arm stretched out to start for the Sox during the final two months.

Ricky Nolasco, Marlins. The Marlins are in fire sale mode (I'm not gonna lie, I miss Marlins fire sales. So exciting) and Nolasco is on the trading block, a step below Johnson. His numbers don't jump out at you, but he can be an innings eater and is, of course, better than Humber.

Felix Hernandez, Mariners. Just kidding.

Francisco Liriano, Twins. Sources say he is nearly 100 percent likely to be traded by the deadline. One of the teams interested in him, Anaheim, solved their issue by trading for Zach Greinke, so there may be room to work. Liriano is a maddening player. He is an incredible mix of talent and lack of focus.

When he is on, he's lights out. When he's off, turn the lights out. It's going to take more than nothing to get him. Addison Reed, Trayce Thompson and Jeff Soptic have to be in play, along with potentially another close-to-the-majors prospect.

Bartolo Colon, Athletics. Yes, we've been down this road before. Interesting fact, by WAR, Colon's best season was in 2003 for the White Sox. The Athletics seem interested in moving him with Brett Anderson coming off the disabled list soon. The Athletics also love prospects. Colon hasn't been a prospect since Bob Dole ran for president.

Colon isn't going to overwelm anyone, but at the same time, you have a pretty good idea of what you are going to get out of him. He's going to give you 6-7 innings every start. He might also give up 4 home runs every game in US Cellular. He has shown good control, only walking 1.4 batters per nine innings.

Wade Davis, Rays. It couldn't hurt to make a phone call and find out about him. He could end up being the steal of the trade deadline if someone can get him out of Tampa for the right price. He's been pitching out of the bullpen all season, but in the prior two seasons, he started 58 games while playing the AL East, one of the toughest divisions in baseball.

If I were a general manager, he'd be the person i'd be looking at. His numbers weren't great last year, but he WAS pitching in the AL East. Could probably be had for a late top 10 prospect.

But then again, what do I know? The Sox will probably end up with Carlos Zambrano.