CLEVELAND — The Chicago White Sox have decided that four is greater than five and will go with a quartet of starting pitchers for as long as they can manage in the month of April.

It’s not as daunting as it might sound since an off-day Monday will allow the White Sox to use four starters until April 9. That’s when Phil Humber is expected to temporarily take over the No. 5 spot in the rotation for the injured Jake Peavy.

It will then be another 10 days, or April 19, before the fifth spot is needed again, thanks to an off-day on April 14.

“[Humber] will be a long reliever because we have a day off, and [Mark] Buehrle’s normal spot will be [in Kansas City],” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “He will be on normal rest, unless something happens here in the next couple of days. That’s what we’ll try to do.”

Buehrle starts the opener in Cleveland Friday, followed by Edwin Jackson and John Danks, with Gavin Floyd starting in Kansas City.

The proposed rotation ends Buehrle’s chance at starting both the season opener and home opener. If five different pitchers went to the mound in each of the five games on the season-opening road trip, Buehrle would have been in line to start April 7 at U.S. Cellular Field against the Rays. Now he will get two road starts before the team even plays a home game.

“They kind of asked if I minded or whatever,” Buehrle said. “I said ‘Look, you guys are the coaches.’ Yeah, it would be nice to start Opening Day at home but whenever. I’ll take the ball every five days and if we have off-days to skip Humber then I’ll do it.”

The left-hander, who is potentially in his final season with the White Sox, then joked that he could be risking a showering of boos when he’s introduced at the home opener if he doesn’t get off to a very good start.

As for how many spot starts Humber gets, it will all depend on Peavy’s recovery from both his latissimus dorsi reattachment surgery last July and rotator cuff tendinitis that developed this spring.

Peavy is scheduled to throw in a game at extended spring training on Sunday and then pitch at either Double-A Birmingham or Triple-A Charlotte on April 8. Another minor league start on April 13 could get him up to 90 pitches.

With an extra day of rest he could end up making his season debut April 19 which would mean that Humber only has to cover for one start. Or the White Sox can make Peavy wait until April 24 before he returns to the big leagues.

Doug Padilla covers the White Sox for ESPNChicago.com.

The American League Central division looks like it could be a three team race between the Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers.

Last season it was the Twins who pulled away from the White Sox down the stretch, but this season it could very well be the White Sox in the driver’s seat.

“It’s a really wide open group with those three,” Ken Rosenthal, of FOX Sports, said on the Mully and Hanley Show. “I picked the White Sox, I just like they’re overall balance. They have no apparent weakness. And if [Jake] Peavy comes back, even at a modest level…they should be OK.”

LISTEN: Ken Rosenthal On The Mully And Hanley Show

For the rest of this interview and other 670 The Score interviews click here.

The Chicago White Sox are calling their decision go for it in the AL Central “All In” and they spent the offseason, well, spending.

Now it’s time to see if a payroll beefed up to perhaps around $125 million produces a winner for general manager Ken Williams, who has patched up his sometimes-rocky relationship with manager Ozzie Guillen.

“We have a good ballclub. We are paying a lot of money to this ballclub,” Guillen said. “We showed the fans we are for real. We want to win this thing. It shows Kenny and (chairman) Jerry (Reinsdorf) have pulled this thing together and showed the people how much we want to win it.”

Chicago landed slugger Adam Dunn with a four-year, $56 million contract and re-signed captain Paul Konerko to a three-year, $37.5 million deal. Also returning is veteran catcher A.J. Pierzynski. New faces in the bullpen are Jesse Crain and Will Ohman.

Dunn hit 38 home runs with 103 RBIs for Washington last season, when he also whiffed 199 times. A career National Leaguer, he’ll have to adjust to hitting and sitting as a designated hitter, a move that some players struggle with initially.

If he does get his swing going — he struggled most of this spring — the White Sox are counting on his powerful, left-handed bat to constantly send balls over the cozy fences at U.S. Cellular Field.
Konerko batted .312 with 39 homers and 111 RBIs a year ago.

With him and Dunn in a lineup that also includes right fielder Carlos Quentin, center fielder Alex Rios and shortstop Alexei Ramirez — who got a new deal this offseason — the White Sox should have some pop.

So where does that leave them after all their offseason maneuvering? As the favorite? Konerko said Minnesota is still the team to dethrone.

“The Twins deserve the respect. They earned it last year,” Konerko said. “Until someone knocks them off, they are the team.”

Veteran Juan Pierre was a steady leadoff hitter in his first season with the White Sox, batting .275 with 68 stolen bases. And at the top of the order, the White Sox will need No. 2 hitter and second baseman Gordon Beckham to emerge from a tough second season and play like he did as a standout rookie in 2009.

Brent Morel, a late-season call up last year, won the third base job because of his steady fielding, beating out veteran Mark Teahen, whose first season in Chicago was limited to 77 games by a broken finger.

Omar Vizquel, who filled in mostly at third last season and batted .276 in 108 games, will be a backup infielder. The 11-time Gold Glove winner turns 44 in April.

The story of the White Sox’s spring has been the return of Jake Peavy from a rare surgery to repair a detached muscle in the back of his pitching shoulder. Peavy made great strides but then had a setback not related to the surgery when he developed tendinitis in his rotator cuff that will keep him in Arizona after the White Sox break camp.

Without Peavy, who has made only 20 starts for the White Sox since being acquired from the Padres at the trade deadline in 2009, Phil Humber could be the fill-in No. 5 starter.

Mark Buehrle, who has pitched more than 200 innings in every season since 2001, will start opening day in Cleveland on Friday. With a no-hitter and a perfect game in his career, the left-hander can also give up plenty of hits, as he did when he surrendered 246 last season when he was 13-13.

John Danks, 15-11 last season, Gavin Floyd and Edwin Jackson round out the rotation.

Among relievers, Crain had a 3.04 ERA in 71 appearances for the Twins last season. Along with Ohman, Tony Pena, Sergio Santos, Chris Sale and Matt Thornton, the White Sox could have one of the most effective bullpens they’ve had since winning the World Series in 2005.

Thornton is the new closer after the departure of Bobby Jenks.
 

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Austin Yount and Jose Martinez had RBI singles and three different pitchers combined to strikeout 10 Chicago White Sox as the Class-A Winston-Salem Dash beat Chicago 3-0 on Wednesday.

The White Sox had three hits and the starters played 4 1/2 innings.

“We’re only two days away from the season,” manager Ozzie Guillen said before the game. “We want to keep everyone healthy, but we also want to put on a great game for the crowd. Hopefully we can make everybody happy.”

The White Sox open the regular season Friday at Cleveland.

The Dash took advantage of the lineup changes, with Yount belting a two-out single in the bottom of the fifth off White Sox reliever Addison Reed for the game’s first run.

Martinez would then add another two-out RBI single off reliever Jim Ballinger during a two-run eighth inning.

Reed, a non-roster invitee, took the loss in relief for the White Sox. He struck out five.

 

 

WINSTON-SALEM, NC  - In front of a sell-out crowd of 6,597 at BB&T Ballpark, the Dash held its parent-club, the Chicago White Sox, scoreless and took home a 3-0 win.  The game marked the first visit to BB&T Ballpark by a major league team.

 

Offense was hard to come by in the early-going.  Both teams went scoreless through four innings, and Dash starter Hector Santiago allowed only one hit in his three frames of work.  White Sox leftfielder Juan Pierre managed the only hit against Santiago.

 

Chicago starter Jeff Gray didn’t allow any hits in three innings, but the Dash jumped on reliever Addison Reed in the fifth.  Ian Gac led off the inning with a single, and then stole second base on a failed hit and run.  After Reed struck a pair of Dash hitters, Austin Yount delivered an RBI single to plate the first run of the game for either team.

 

The White Sox threatened to tie the game in the eighth when the first t;wo hitters reached.  Chicago loaded the bases with one out, but Andre Rienzo induced a force-out at the plate on Ross Wilson’s grounder before striking out Ramon Castro to preserve the one-run lead.

 

In the bottom of the frame, Winston-Salem padded its advantage.  Jose Martinez had a two-out single to score Dan Wagner and Martinez scored when Ian Gac reached on an error.  The Dash held the Sox scoreless in the top of the ninth to complete the shutout.

 

Terry Doyle got the win after three scoreless innings on the mound, yielding just one base hit.  Andre Rienzo picked up the save with three scoreless innings of work, striking out six White Sox batters.  Addison Reed was tagged with the loss, allowing one run in two innings.

 

Adam Dunn walked and flied out in his two plate appearances, while fellow slugger Paul Konerko grounded out twice to third base. 

 

With a light mist accompanying temperatures in the low 40′s, the game’s atmosphere felt more like that of a late November football game than one of an early spring baseball contest.  But more than six thousand Winston-Salem fans braved the chilly weather to take in the White Sox’ first-ever visit to the Twin City.  The pre-game activities were highlighted by full-roster introductions with fireworks, an Ozzie Guillen autograph session, White Sox batting practice, and the release of doves following the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner. 

 

The first telecast of Dash baseball at BB&T Ballpark was also a success.  The game was broadcast live on WXII’s THIS Carolina channel.  Alex Vispoli was joined in the booth by a host of guests, including White Sox General Manager Ken Williams, Sox broadcaster Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, WXII Sports Anchor Kenny Beck, Dash Team President Geoff Lassiter, and Dash owners Billy Prim, Jimmy Strickland, and Bryan Andrews.

 

The Dash opens up the season on the road against Kinston on April 8 at 6:30 p.m.  Fans can hear all the action on the Dash Baseball Network at wsdash.com beginning at 6:15.  BB&T Ballpark welcomes regular season Carolina League action to Winston-Salem on April 15, also against Kinston at 7 p.m. 

WS Dash/WFMY News 2 Sports

The White Sox made their Opening Day roster official Wednesday with moves that included the placement of Jake Peavy on the 15-day disabled list.

As expected, both Lastings Milledge and Brent Lillibridge made the club as bench players, while the pitching staff will go with 11 arms to start the year instead of the 12 manager Ozzie Guillen had hoped to have.

Also going on the 15-day disabled list was infielder/outfielder Dayan Viciedo. Both DL moves were retroactive to March 22.

Jeff Marquez, who was expected to be the 12th pitcher until some late-spring struggles, cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Charlotte. In one last move, catcher Donny Lucy was reassigned to minor league camp.

The final roster is as follows:

•  Pitchers (11): Mark Buehrle, Edwin Jackson, John Danks, Gavin Floyd, Phil Humber, Matt Thornton, Sergio Santos, Jesse Crain, Chris Sale, Will Ohman and Tony Pena.

•  Catchers (2): A.J. Pierzynski, Ramon Castro.

•  Infielders (8): Paul Konerko, Gordon Beckham, Alexei Ramirez, Brent Morel, Mark Teahen, Omar Vizquel, Lillibridge and Adam Dunn.

•  Outfielders (4): Juan Pierre, Alex Rios, Carlos Quentin and Milledge.

The White Sox open the season Friday afternoon at Cleveland with Mark Buehrle on the mound.

Doug Padilla covers the White Sox for ESPNChicago.com.