With John Danks set to return Friday, I keep seeing a Santiago vs. Axelrod discussion pop-up, so I would like to take this opportunity to point out how stupid such a discussion is. Santiago is an extremely talented starting pitcher and certainly one of the most valuable pieces on the White Sox roster. To this point in his career, he has been very much misused by the White Sox organization. To continue that trend at this point would just be absurd. Axelrod on the other hand, is very limited, but has pitched pretty well for us this season. Just not on the level that Santiago has been on (and has the potential to be on). Let's recap here:
Axelrod's pitching stats
Career as a starter: 4-5, 4.32 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 6.2 K/9
This season: 2-3, 4.13 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 4.8 K/9, Average of 5 2/3 IP per start
Santiago's pitching stats
Career as a starter: 3-1, 2.43 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 10.6 K/9
This season: 1-1, 2.95 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 9.3 K/9, Average of 5 1/3 IP per start
The data is of course somewhat limited this early on in the season (and their respective careers), but as you can see this discussion is quite lopsided. Santiago is the much better pitcher and is the one with the greater potential to carry on continued success.
But...But Buehrle>Wood! Santiago would be much more valuable as a lefty in our bullpen!
No! Just no. While true Santiago is a very dominant reliever and we could probably use another lefty in our bullpen, Hector is not the solution. He is completely misused by the White Sox there. There is no reason to have one of your most talented players on the roster serve as a long-man. Long-men are supposed to be nothing more than talentless inning eaters. Santiago's game log shows just how much he was wasted there. In his first four appearances out of the pen this year, Hector pitched 8 innings with an ERA of 0.00, and yet the White Sox lost every one of those games.
It's sad, but I think the White Sox will actually have this discussion. It shows just how clueless this organization can be sometimes. The more appropriate discussion would be John Danks vs. Axelrod. Hopefully Q doesn't drag himself into the discussion tonight.