White Sox pitching has been pretty good by most accounts this past decade.  As I mentioned in my article on the starting rotation, many thanks for to Don Cooper for being able to take on any pitching project and turn him into an asset for the team.  He does it consistently with the rotation, and the same holds true for the bullpen.  And in 2011, though the campaign started out a bit shaky, the White Sox bullpen turned into one of the most potent on all of baseball.

So, though it may sound a bit repetitious, the bullpen – and the pitching at large – is not to blame for the Sox’ failed season.   The unit has been dominant with the exception of the first few weeks of the season, and has come together to form one very intimidating late-inning group.

The group is led by closer Sergio Santos.  Santos was not the original closer (more on that in a minute), as that distinction was held by Matt Thornton.  But Thornton struggled early, as did Chris Sale, and Santos was made de facto closer, and has performed admirably.  The Sox have found their closer for the next few years in Santos. 

After his “demotion,” Thornton returned to his eighth inning role and found his magic.  He and Chris Sale both bounced back significantly to form a sold one-two late-inning, lefty punch.  Toss Will Ohman in the mix, and the Sox have three very effective south paws. 

As for the right handers, Jesse Crain has been Jesse Crain and has been a solid, if not great, right-handed setup man.  Added later in the season was Jason Frasor, who has made a living in the seventh and eighth innings.

These five: Santos, Thornton, Sale, Crain, and Frasor effectively end games in the seventh inning.  They are arguably the most dominant late-inning crew in baseball.  Frasor’s numbers are a bit skewed as he has only pitched ten innings for the Sox thus far.  But the numbers show just how dominant these guys have been.

It wasn’t like that in April.  With the closer issue, and Tony Pena being hurt and just overall ineffectiveness at times, the bullpen was, indeed, a liability for the first three weeks.  The argument could be made that the bullpen caused the offense to become mired in its extended slump.  The reasoning is that the hitters knew that no lead was safe, so they began to press.  They then pressed so much that they went into a collective slump for two months. 

I could see this being the case if the offense only slumped for a few weeks.  But they slumped for all of April and into half of May, and then plateaued until recently.  That plateau was a marginal improvement from their output in the beginning months of the year.  By the end of April, the bullpen was back on track and was becoming the best part of the team.  The offense would have relaxed knowing the pitching was in order.  That did not happen, so the offensive calamity cannot be blamed on the pen.

Certainly, the five I have focused on have still given up runs, and sometimes when they have it has cost the team because the offense wasn’t doing its part.  But by and large, the bullpen is one of the best.  And with those five returning, it should have no problem being on top again in 2012.