| Kyle Trompeter. 6th September, 2005 - 7:48 pm
 Jordan and Pippen. Stockton and Malone. Bagwell and Biggio. Young and Rice.
Buehrle and Garland?
It’s become increasingly rare to find a starting rotation in baseball that has two dominant starting pitchers. That is why the Chicago White Sox’s Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland are somewhat of a revelation of sorts. Two guys on the same team that are right in the middle of the AL Cy Young race.
Coming into this season, Buehrle, unlike Garland, already had established a good pitching resume. This year has been no exception, with the southpaw racking up a 15-7 record with a 3.00 ERA.
Garland has been the surprise of the season in baseball. Sitting right now at 17-8 with a 3.28 ERA, the South Side right-hander has made leaps and bounds from his previous four plus seasons, where he was .500 pitcher with around a 4.5 ERA.
Coming into play Tuesday, the White Sox sport an 85-51 record, the best record in the American League. You can attribute the record to the pitching, specifically Buehrle and Garland, who have been undoubtedly the best one-two punch in the American League this year.
Even some of the best teams in the league don’t have two “Aces” so to speak.
Take Boston, for example. Matt Clement and David Wells are having solid years, but with ERA’s in the 4’s, they are by no means world beaters.
How about the Yankees? Randy Johnson has been pedestrian at best this year, and Mike Mussina is a hit parade waiting to happen. They are not scary anymore.
Maybe the Angels? They have half a dynamic duo. Bartolo Colon is having a season to remember for the Halos. John Lackey has put up good numbers, but only has 11 wins. He isn’t exactly a Robin to his Batman. Colon and Lackey is more like Batman being paired with Inspector Gadget.
It just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Johan Santana is a one man wrecking crew for the Twins. His partner in crime: Carlos Silva with only nine wins.
The Athletics have a bevy of starters with sub 4.00 ERA’s, but none of them have more than 12 wins. The Fantastic Four? Try the Fine Four.
The Indians are puzzling. Their pitcher with the best ERA (Kevin Millwood at 3.15) is under .500 (7-11) while their pitcher with the most wins (Cliff Lee with 14) has an ERA around 4.00. Now that’s just backwards if you ask me.
The scary thing about this White Sox team is what they could be if they had any consistent hitting outside of Scott Podsednik to go with the great starting pitching. Their 85 wins could already upwards of 95 if they had the lumber.
Try to imagine that total wins in early September without feeling a little delusional. It’s hard, let me tell you that.
As far as the Cy Young goes, the award should go to one of the two White Sox Ace’s. It seems as if the MVP selection has gone the way of giving it to the best player on the best team, so why wouldn’t it be the same with the Cy? If that is the logic, then either Buehrle or Garland would be a better choice than say Colon or Santana.
My choice would be Garland, a man who has caused baseball people around the country to ask themselves, “Who is Jon Garland? When did he learn how to pitch? And why didn’t we try to get him?” |
