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Nobody’s more impactful than combo of Sale-Quintana
- Updated: May 24, 2016
CHICAGO — Who you got as the best 1-2 combination of starting pitchers in baseball?
There’s no one answer, so go ahead and argue the point.
You couldn’t go wrong with the Cubs’ Jake Arrieta and Jon Lester, the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto or the Nationals’ Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg. Ditto the White Sox’s Chris Sale and Jose Quintana. Maybe even the Indians’ Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco when they’re at the top of their games.
If we switch the question to make it the most effective 1-2 combination thus far in 2016, you have to go with either Arrieta and Jason Hammel (not Lester) or Sale and Quintana. No one else can stake a claim.
Sale and Quintana, who sit back-to-back in Robin Ventura’s rotation, will go into starts against the Indians on Tuesday and Wednesday a combined 14-3 with a 1.77 ERA in 18 starts. They have worked a little more than seven innings per start. Arrieta and Hammel are 13-1 with a 1.72 ERA, but have averaged slightly more than 6 1/3 innings, with a big difference between the Cubs’ ace and No. 4 starter.
But now consider this question: Which is the most impactful 1-2 combination?
That has to be Sale and Quintana. There can be no argument.
After all, if the White Sox didn’t have them, they could be in a rebuilding mode, not leading the American League Central.
White Sox general manager Rick Hahn confirmed on Monday that the presence of Sale and Quintana, both signed to long-term extensions, persuaded management not to cut the payroll and go young after a 99-loss season in 2013.
“When we look back to 2013, the team lost 99 games and didn’t have a farm system that was well respected, and had a roster with some aging players and big contracts on it. We looked at all our alternatives and one of them was certainly doing an extended rebuild, a five-year look toward the future to get ourselves back toward our championship way,” Hahn said. “One of the main arguments against doing that was we had Sale, Quintana under control. That was an awfully good starting point toward getting back …
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