The Chicago White Sox have settled on who will be their fifth starter. John Danks has beat out a number of players, most notably Gavin Floyd, to be in the starting rotation. At this point it’s not much of a surprise to most but wasn’t an expected outcome at the starting of Spring Training. Gavin Floyd was acquired back in December at the Winter Meetings in a trade with the Phillies where they gave up Freddy Garcia, a South Side favorite. White Sox GM, Kenny Williams, took much heat for this trade but was working towards filling the team with young pitchers:

Where we are in our ballclub now is we had to create room for what we think is a very special pitcher in Brandon McCarthy in moving forward,” Williams added. “If we are to have sustained success, we have to filter in young players, and we think we acquired two special ones.

Brandon McCarthy is now no longer with the White Sox and was traded to the Rangers for Danks in return. They gathered other players in the trade but John Danks was the key pitcher, realizing that there was now going to be much competition for the fifth starter spot.

Danks, 21, pitched for both Double-A Frisco and Triple-A Oklahoma during the 2006 campaign, finishing with a 9-9 record, 4.24 ERA and 154 strikeouts over 140 innings and 27 games (26 starts). The southpaw posted a 4-5 mark and 4.33 ERA in 13 starts for Oklahoma, finishing with 9.9 strikeouts per nine innings between the two stops. He was Texas’ first-round selection (ninth overall) in the 2003 First-Year Player Draft.

John Danks has done alot to impress this off season and pretty quickly staked his claim for a shot at the rotation, something we covered here a week ago. This has now set the lineup as:

1. Jose Contreras
2. Mark Buehrle
3. Jon Garland
4. Javier Vazquez
5. John Danks

This leaves the lineup a mix of tested veterans and untested Danks who has yet to see a Major League inning. Danks has preformed the best of the entire starting rotation this spring training.