Competition for the final rotation spot on the White Sox continues. This was a quite unexpected competition between Gavin Floyd and John Danks. So far the competition appears to be leaning in Danks favor, at least say the South Side Sox.
The White Sox got Floyd in December in the trade to Philadelphia giving up Freddy Garcia. Floyd has been expected to be immediately helpful to the White Sox bullpen at least but really the hope was for him to fill the missing rotation slot left by Garcia’s departure. This spring hasn’t been the greatest for him however with a 8.38 ERA giving up 16 hits, 9 earned runs over 9.2 innings of work.
John Danks on the other hand has been the surprise this off season. He was a non-roster invitee to this years spring training. Below is a bit about him from from a Jan 22nd article:
Danks, 21, came over to the White Sox in a Dec. 23, 2006, trade sending Brandon McCarthy to Texas. The left-hander was the crown jewel of the deal for the White Sox, finishing 9-9 in 2006 with 154 strikeouts in 140 innings during 2006 stints with Double-A Frisco and Triple-A Oklahoma. Some pundits believe Danks might need more Minor League seasoning, but he certainly will be given every chance to earn one of the final roster spots.
This spring he’s put up pretty impressive stats with a 2.00 ERA giving up only 7 hits over 9 innings of work with a single walk to six strikeouts. Since real tight races for big slots aren’t happening in the Detroit camp this is a good one to follow.