{"id":2528,"date":"2011-01-10T20:37:31","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T02:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/?p=2528"},"modified":"2011-01-10T20:43:24","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T02:43:24","slug":"white-sox-news-addition-of-ohman-could-define-sale%e2%80%99s-role-for-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2528","title":{"rendered":"White Sox News: addition of Ohman could define Sale\u2019s role for 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

\ufeff\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Chicago White Sox continued to add to their bullpen<\/a> on Saturday, signing left-hander Will Ohman<\/a><\/strong> to a two-year, $4 million contract.\u00a0At 33-years old, Ohman is coming off one of the best seasons in his 11-year career.\u00a0While splitting time between the Baltimore Orioles and Florida Marlins, Ohman was 0-2 with a 3.21 ERA.\u00a0He also notched 43 strikeouts and issued 23 walks in 42 innings.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Ohman has evolved into strictly a lefty specialist, primarily due to his ineffectiveness against right-handed hitters (.264\/.360\/.400 career).\u00a0However, his ability to retire left-handed hitters is true, as evidenced by his career line of .208\/.298\/.348.<\/p>\n

The White Sox have now signed two relief pitchers \u2013 Jesse Crain<\/a><\/strong> being the other \u2013 to multi-year deals headed in 2011.\u00a0If it were any other organization, this wouldn\u2019t concern me nearly as much (although I\u2019ll always have a problem supporting a decision to over-invest in relief pitching).\u00a0But with a track record that includes Scott Linebrink<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s undeserving and generally nauseating 4-year\/$19 million contract in 2007, I have no choice but to reserve all expectations.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Why are the White Sox offering Ohman the largest contract of his life<\/a> when they will presumably have lefties Chris Sale<\/a><\/strong> and Matt Thornton<\/a><\/strong> in the bullpen?\u00a0In 2010, both Sale and Thornton were bright spots in the \u2018pen, with Sale being especially impressive (4 saves, 1.93 ERA) as the team\u2019s closer.<\/p>\n

There is only one reason why the White Sox would seemingly go out of their way \u2013 and nearly outside of their budget \u2013 to secure to Ohman: it gives them the flexibility to insert Sale into the starting rotation.<\/p>\n

Ever since it was announced that Jake Peavy<\/a><\/strong> could miss a substantial portion of the 2011 season, one of the more popular topics amongst White Sox fans has been Sale\u2019s potential role(s) for the upcoming season.\u00a0Although Peavy\u2019s recovery from an unprecedented surgery to repair his torn lat seems to be on track, it’s unlikely that he will return until May (at the earliest).<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that Don Cooper has made his belief well known<\/a> that Sale is best suited for the bullpen, Kenny Williams appears to be in no rush to make a commitment on the issue.\u00a0While Sale\u2019s numbers obviously highlight his overall effectiveness, those who have watched him fully understand just how nasty he really is and support the pitching coach\u2019s contention.<\/p>\n

Still, Kenny Williams must have a bone to pick with Coop because the Ohman signing gives every indication that Sale will become the team\u2019s fifth starter.\u00a0It seems that there were two options for KW: sign a garden-variety fifth starter and keep Sale in the bullpen, or sign a left-handed reliever who can replace<\/em> him.<\/p>\n

By choosing the latter, it seems inevitable that Sale, who turns 22 in March, will start the 2010 season in the starting rotation.\u00a0I would be shocked if the White Sox chose to house all three southpaws in the ‘pen — a strategy that would negate the whole idea of the left-handed specialist as a novelty.\u00a0And while I absolutely believe that Sale can develop into a successful starting pitcher with time, the worst thing for him in the interim would be to bounce between the rotation and bullpen.<\/p>\n

Now that Ohman is on the payroll \u2013 a phrase that has traditionally been followed by a series of staggering winces \u2013 it is time for the White Sox to finally determine Chris Sale<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s role for the upcoming season.\u00a0Frankly, it\u2019s disconcerting that so much uncertainty still exists on the matter.\u00a0I guess that it\u2019s something we will all have to get used to considering that the White Sox clearly have no sense of urgency in making a decision.<\/p>\n

**This article was also published on 312Sports.com<\/a><\/em>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\ufeff The Chicago White Sox continued to add to their bullpen on Saturday, signing left-hander Will Ohman to a two-year, $4 million contract.\u00a0At 33-years old, Ohman is coming off one of the best seasons in his 11-year career.\u00a0While splitting time between the Baltimore Orioles and Florida Marlins, Ohman was 0-2 with a 3.21 ERA.\u00a0He also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1300,6,16,11,13,10,14],"tags":[624,264,700,1231,643,1230,1391,702,81,705,1659],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2528"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2532,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528\/revisions\/2532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}