30-year old righty reliever Jesse Crain has been outstanding this year, so not all of the White Sox’ free agent signings last winter have sucked! Crain has pitched in 61 games (0 starts) for the White Sox so far this year and he is 8-3 with 1 save, a 2.31 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP. He has only given up 46 hits while whiffing 66 batters in his first 62 1/3 innings for the Pale Hose this year and those are outstanding numbers. Crain has had issues with his control at times as he has walked 27 batters this year and that’s too many, but it’s also nitpicking. Crain has now pitched in 437 games (0 starts) in his first 8 years in the majors and he is 41-24 with 4 saves, a 3.26 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP.

26-year old righty starting pitcher Dylan Axelrod is getting a chance to show what he can do the last couple of weeks as he is replacing Jake Peavy in the rotation. He has pitched in 2 games (1 start) for the White Sox so far this year and he is 0-0 with a 2.25 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP. Axelrod also pitched in 26 games (24 starts) in AA+AAA-ball so far this year and he is 9-3 with a 2.69 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP. He has now pitched in 167 games (52 starts) in his first five years in the minors and he is 27-14 with 8 saves, a 2.80 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP.

22-year old lefty reliever Chris Sale got off to a slow start in 2011, but he has really been nails lately. Since June 1st, Sale is 0-1 with 4 saves, a 1.24 ERA and a 0.82 WHIP! This guy is just plain nasty. I can’t see the White Sox using him in the pen much longer unless he’s the stopper. There have been whispers about the Pale Hose wanting to make him a starter down the road. Sale has now pitched in 73 games (0 starts) in his first 2 years in the majors and he is 4-2 with 10 saves, a 2.37 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP. He has only given up 62 hits in his first 87 1/3 innings in the majors while whiffing a very impressive 103 batters. The sky is the limit for Sale.

32-year old lefty starting pitcher Mark Buehrle is turning in another very solid season for the White Sox. He has started 25 games for the White Sox so far this year and he is 10-6 with a 3.19 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP. This is Buehrle’s 11th straight season with double digit wins for the White Sox, which shows how consistently good he has been for them. Buehrle has now pitched in 384 games (359 starts) in his first 12 years with the White Sox and he is 158-116 with a 3.80 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP. He is currently is #7 in White Sox’ history in wins.

The Chicago White Sox really liked Sergio Santos’ throwing arm from shortstop but he was never going to make it to the show there because he wasn’t a good hitter. In his first seven years in the minors, he played in 799 games in which he was 712 for 2,867 (.248 avg, .699 OPS) with 380 runs scored, 72 homers, 373 RBIs and 27 stolen bases. The White Sox decided to convert Santos to pitching in 2009 and it didn’t go too well. Santos pitched in 26 games (0 starts) in A+AA+AAA-ball in 2009 and he was 0-3 with a 8.16 ERA and a 1.99 WHIP. The White Sox pressed on and Santos won a job in the Pale Hose’ bullpen in the spring on 2010 and the rest is history. Santos has pitched in 45 games (0 starts) for the White Sox so far this year and he is 3-3 with 22 saves, a 2.85 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP. He has only given up 27 hits while whiffing 61 batters in his first 47 1/3 innings so far this year as he is missing a lot of bats. He has now pitched in 101 games (0 starts) in his first two years with the White Sox and he is 5-5 with 23 saves, a 2.91 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP.