White Sox 2009: DJ Carrasco

No different than Scott Podsednik and Freddy Garcia, Carrasco was one of those pre-season players many fans hoped would be far away from the White Sox; something along the lines of, "if [insert player name] is our [insert role], we're in trouble."

They were right, however not because of what Carrasco did but the mess he had to regularly clean up. Back in August Sox Machine summed up perfectly the importance of Carrasco, and really only needed the picture to do so.

Carrasco was a fire extinguisher, used as a long-man for starters, a safety net for relievers, and gave hope for an offense that couldn't keep themselves in games on their own. With an array of deliveries, release points and pitches (cutters, curves, sliders..etc.), Carrasco pitched 93.1 innings, which was fourth highest among relievers and tops among pitchers with less than two starts.

Statistically, Carrasco was sub-par with his 3.76 ERA, 1.41 WHIP and .281 BAA, but to expect a reliever to rack up innings and also put up good numbers ... those pitchers are called starters.

Going Forward

There's no telling what Carrasco will do next year. 2009 was clearly his best season and the quantity of both innings and high-stress situations can take its toll. Then again, Carrasco's new approach and low number of appearences suggests he'll remain a valuable, if not noticed, part of the pen.

His ability to pitch over the top on one pitch and side-arm the next, with a 10-15 MPH range between pitches, enabled Carrasco to sneak out of tough spots. Carrasco, who is up for arbitration, wants to start again, but it's unlikely and best for both sides if he didn't. Ozzie Guillen passed up Carrasco a few times for spots because of how valuable he was for them coming out of the pen. That won't change and Carrasco should be fine with it, because after six years in the bigs, he may have found a role that fits.