Originally Posted by The Miz

El Duque went 17-9 with a 4.12 ERA in 1999 while winning ALCS MVP, he also had an ERA of 3.13 along with 12 wins in only 21 starts in 1998.

Who are these "people", btw?



Is this a joke?

You don't have "five legitamite 20 game winners". You have a 16, 14, 15, 18, 9 and an 11 game winner. You seriously do not have a chance to have more than 2.

Do you realize how hard winning 20 games is? 4 people did it last year, only 1 in the AL. Colon, Willis, Oswalt, and Carpenter are all each way better than your 2-5 starters.

Sure I can name a team that has a chance for five 20 game winners. Oakland A's. It won't happen, but that doesn't matter, the White Sox are highly unlikely to even have 2 anyway.

Barry Zito: 23-5 in 2002, one of most durable starters in MLB, has never missed a start.
Rich Harden: 10 wins in 19 starts in '05, dominated every time he was healthy, will have at least 1 Cy Young if he stays healthy
Dan Haren: won 14 games in his first year as a starter even after an awful first-half
Joe Blanton: easily AL's best rookie starter, 12 wins despite being in top 5 in worst run suport in AL.
Esteban Loaiza: 21-9 2001, consistenlt starts 30+ games

Out of this group, probably only Harden will do it, but out of yours, it will only be Buehrle. I am willing to bet my house that Vazquez, Contreras, Garcia, and Garland (he'll be traded anyway) will not win 20 games. Even if they did, so what? That would just be a tribute to Chicago's offense scoring alot of runs and their bullpen not fucking up. Do you dare to say all 5 starters will have ERA's under 4?

The pitching coach argument is stupid. A great pitching coach can't turn crap into not crap. Do you have a reason why every shitty starter Chicago had from 1988-2004 wasn't magically turned into Doc Gooden by Don Cooper? Vazquez was an above average NL pitcher and got raped in the AL. I don't want to judge him off one bad year in New York, but he had a 4.42 and a 1.25 WHIP in the NL and a pitcher's park. I guarantee you you will not see his Montreal lines again.

Chicago's pitching staff his great, no doubt. They have a 20-game win/Cy young caliber ace and 4 very solid starters. But, they're pitching staff is worse than 2005's (this may be too close to call, Garland is on the move) and they do not feature the AL's best rotation. They are not even close to an all-time top rotation.

Oakland starters > Chicago starters, in '06