Can someone with an ESPN Insider account...
skrezyna23
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do me a favor? I was hoping someone can copy and paste it here..
Why White Sox should trade Chris Sale now..
Why White Sox should trade Chris Sale now..
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Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
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Buster Olney, Senior Writer, ESPN The Magazine
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Watching Chris Sale’s season play out is excruciating, because he appears to be building one of the great performances of his time and the White Sox just keep on losing. He allowed two hits to Texas over eight innings Friday, striking out 14 – you can see it here -- yet the White Sox lost. Again.
The numbers speak for themselves. From the Elias Sports Bureau: Chris Sale is the third pitcher in modern baseball history (since 1900) with 12 or more strikeouts in five consecutive starts (Pedro Martinez in 1999, Randy Johnson in 1998).
Another one: Chris Sale is just the third pitcher in the last 10 seasons to strike out at least 14 while walking none in a game that he didn't win (2013 Yu Darvish: no decision; 2012 James Shields: lost).
There’s nobody else in baseball quite like Sale, with his elbowed and kneed delivery, with his mid-90s fastball. Not only is his stuff excellent, but hitters will also tell you that the difficulty in facing Sale is that there are no repetitions to draw on between the moments you’re in the box against him. There are no other lefties with his arm angle, his height and the funkiness in his delivery.
Sometimes, hitters will call friends on other teams and ask for tips about a particular starting pitcher and about the experience of batting against them, and like college friends studying a language, one hitter can educate the other based on some commonality in the interpretation, to make sense of the information.
But this can’t really happen with Sale, who is more like a Rosetta Stone – someone who has an interpretation all his own.
Really, he is the closest thing we’ve seen to Randy Johnson since the Big Unit retired.
Sale has 110 strikeouts and 20 walks in 88 2/3 innings, he turned 26 in March, and he is in the midst of what appears to be of the great team-friendly deals of all time.
Sale is making $6 million this year, and will earn $9.15 million next season, and $12 million in 2018. Additionally – and here’s the real topper – his deal contains a $12.5 million team option for 2019, and a $13.5 million option for 2020.
Sale’s mechanics have always scared evaluators, because he looks like an elbow injury waiting to happen, with the unusual angle and torque built into his delivery. But his contract inoculates his employer from risk, because his production so far outweighs his salary that even if he broke down, the team would benefit, given the parachutes provided by the team options.
You could make an argument that right now, Sale might be the most valuable asset with more than three years of service time; the Rays’ Chris Archer, who has a similarly structured deal, could be another candidate.
This is why the White Sox should at least explore the idea of trading Sale before the July 31 deadline.
They almost certainly wouldn’t find a deal to their liking, and even if the front office received a really interesting overture, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf might dismiss it out of hand because of how fans might view the implication of the deal. This would be like the Seattle Mariners trading Felix Hernandez early in his career.
But at a time when the 31-year-old Cole Hamels appears to be a one-of-a-kind item in the trade market with high value because he’s a proven pitcher with an existing contract that has as many as four years remaining for about $100 million, can you imagine how much more value the 26-year-old Sale – guaranteed only about $25 million – might extract?
The White Sox could call franchises like the Dodgers, the Rangers, the Red Sox, the Yankees and essentially ask for a seven-course meal of prospects.
The value of Sale and his contract is so high that he might be impossible to deal, in the end, because of the difficulty in structuring a trade that would reflect what he’s worth.
But it’s a conversation worth having, just in case somebody comes forward with something so irresistible that the White Sox are tempted … before saying no, in all likelihood.
From ESPN Stats & Information, how Sale dominated the Rangers:
A. Continued dominance with slider: Opponents were 0-6 with 5 K's against Chris Sale's slider on Friday. Since May 12, opponents are 6-39 with 29 K's against the pitch. Twenty-nine of the last 33 outs Sale has recorded with his slider have been strikeouts.
Sale in elite company
Struck out 10 batters in 6 straight starts - single season in modern era (since 1900)
PITCHER SEASON(S)
Chris Sale 2015
Randy Johnson 1998-2002
Pedro Martinez 1997, 1999 (2)
Nolan Ryan 1977
>>Elias Sports Bureau
B. The whole arsenal was working: Sale had his entire repertoire working against the Rangers on Friday.
C. Kept the ball down: Sale threw 65 percent of his pitches in the lower half of the strike zone or lower on Friday. Opponents were 1-for-11 with 6 strikeouts in at-bats to end on a pitch in the lower half of the zone or lower. In his previous start, they were 1-12 with 6 strikeouts.
Chris Sale by Pitch
Friday vs. Rangers
PITCH H-AB K
Fastball 1-10 5
Changeup 1-10 4
Slider 0-6 5
Another from Elias on Sale: Chris Sale has now struck out at least 10 batters in six straight starts. The only other players to accomplish that in the modern era are Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and Nolan Ryan.
One more Elias note on Sale, because all of these numbers really do speak for themselves: Including Chris Sale on Friday, there have now been 34 scoreless starts with 14 or more strikeouts and no walks in modern MLB history.
Sale is only the second one whose team lost, joining Randy Johnson in 2004.
Sale refuses to quit on the White Sox, writes Doug Padilla.