White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has seen enough of Bobby Jenks blowing leads so he will mix and match late in games with lefty Matt Thornton and righties J.J. Putz and Sergio Santos to close out games. Jenks has pitched in 39 games for the White Sox this year and he is 1-3 with 20 saves, a 5.09 ERA and a 1.59 WHIP. He will likely start pitching much earlier in games as Guillen has lost his faith in Jenks. Matt Thornton has pitched in 40 games (0 starts) for the White Sox and he is 2-3 with 5 saves, a 2.58 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP. Thornton has only given up 27 hits in 38 1/3 innings with 51 whiffs showing just how dominating he has been. Thornton can handle righty and lefty hitters so he could get a lot of save opportunities going forward for the Pale Hose. J.J. Putz is pitching some of the best baseball of his major league career right now and he has quite a lot of experience of closing out ballgames. Putz has pitched in 36 games (0 starts) for the White Sox this year and he is 5-2 with 2 saves, a 1.50 ERA and a 0.78 WHIP. He only has given up 22 hits while whiffing 42 batters in only 36 innings this season. Putz is also showing outstanding control this season only walking six batters this year. Sergio Santos has pitched in 35 games (0 starts) for the White Sox this year and he is 0-0 with a 1.80 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP. He has walked 17 batters while whiffing 32 in 30 innings this year. With Santos relatively new to pitching I think Guillen will use Putz and Thornton in most of the save situations. This was a smart move for Guillen as he can’t sit around and watch his team lose games late.

UPDATE: (7/30/2010) - The White Sox have re-installed Jenks as the closer for now.

27-year old righty starting pitcher Gavin Floyd is starting to get the reputation of being a very slow starter but a strong finisher. Well he’s living up to the first half of his reputation as the White Sox wait for him to get going. Floyd has started 12 games for the Pale Hose this year and he is 2-6 with a 6.18 ERA and a 1.63 WHIP. He has allowed 84 hits (7 homers) while walking 25 batters in only 67 innings this season for the White Sox. The White Sox need Floyd to get it together soon or they are going to continue to falter in the A.L. Central.

The White Sox would love to move Jose Contreras in a deal in the coming weeks because he makes a lot of cash and he just isn’t that good anymore.  He’s 5-10 with a 5.19 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP so far this season.  The lefties in the bullpen (Matt Thornton and Boone Logan) have both been pretty bad this season.  Thornton had a breakthrough season in 2006 but he’s been pretty bad this season.  Thornton is 2-3 with a save, a 5.22 ERA and a 1.60 WHIP this season.  Logan has also been pretty bad as he is 1-0 with 5.63 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP this season.  Mike MacDougal was expected to be the set up man for the White Sox but he’s been awful this season as he is 1-3 with a 6.23 ERA and a 2.17 WHIP.  Nick Masset has also been pretty bad for the White Sox this year as he is 2-3 with a 7.34 ERA and a 2.00 WHIP.  Look for the White Sox to try to improve the bullpen in their impending firesale.

The White Sox had to shake up their bullpen because the set-up crew was getting ripped this season.  So the Sox sent Mike MacDougal and David Aardsma to AAA and recalled Ryan Bukvich and Bret Prinz from the minors to replace them.  MacDougal was very wild and that hurt him this season.   In 27 games this year, MacDougal was 1-3 with a 7.13 ERA and a 2.21 WHIP.  MacDougal walked an amazing 17 batters in 17.2 innings and it was driving Ozzie Guillen crazy so at least with him in AAA Ozzie should get some sleep at night.  David Aardsma’s problem was that he was trying to strike everyone out and that doesn’t work to often in the major leagues.  Instead of pitching he just kept trying to throw the ball harder and the one thing that almost all major league hitters can handle is a fastball.  In 22 games for the Pale Hose, Aardsma was 2-1 with a 6.18 ERA and a 1.59 WHIP.  He did whiff 32 batters for the White Sox in 27.2 innings so he has good stuff he just needs to go down to AAA and relearn how to pitch.

Ryan Bukvich and Bret Prinz both have major league experience and could fit in nicely in the White Sox bullpen.  29 year old righty Ryan Bukvich was the closer at AAA for the Sox.  In 23 games there, he was 1-3 with 9 saves, a 2.89 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP.  He also exhibited good control in the minors as he whiffed 32 batters while only walking 9 in 28 innings.  Bret Prinz is also a 29-year old righty.  He pitched in 15 AAA games for the Sox and he was 0-1 with 1 save, a 0.56 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP.  Look for Guillen to throw both of these guys right into the fire soon to see if they can handle the heat.

The White Sox have demoted Andrew Sisco to the minor leagues and he deserved it based on how he pitched.  In 19 games this season, Sisco is 0-1 with a 8.36 ERA and a 2.14 WHIP.  In 14 innings with the Pale Hose, Sisco allowed 19 hits, walked 11 batters and whiffed 13.  Hopefully Sisco will work on his control in the minors because he has great stuff but it won’t matter if he can’t throw strikes.