Levine: Chris Sale To Make First Spring Start March 19
By Bruce Levine--
GLENDALE, Ariz. (CBS) -- You won't see White Sox ace Chris Sale pitch in spring training if you make the trip to Arizona before March 19. Under the careful eye of pitching coach Don Cooper, Sale will be getting his work done in private or in a series of minor league and B games this until then.
The reason for this clandestine approach is really quite simple. The organization found out that in the case of Sale, less is more when working toward a 200-inning regular season workload. As an example, Sale was hurt early in spring 2015, and he didn't pitch in Cactus League play. Despite that, Sale still got ready in three weeks and took the ball on April 12 as the team's fifth starter to open the season.
Sale went on to start 31 games and pitch 208 2/3 innings without incident. He was skipped just one time in the rotation, as a precautionary rest tactic. This method proved so positive that Cooper and manager Robin Ventura decided to slow play the 27-year-old Sale's workload this spring.
"This is more of a control thing," Ventura said of the Sale plan. "This is not that big of a deal considering what happened to him last year. We will control it a little bit more. He will be in Cactus League games in the middle, but early on we want to control it a little bit more."
Sale had a fine season in 2015 in setting an all-time franchise record with 274 strikeouts and going 13-11 with a 3.41 ERA. At the tail end of the season, it appeared he had hit the wall with his stuff.
A new approach of trying to get hitters out earlier in counts will be the manner Sale focuses on this season. Cooper asked Sale to think about using the sinker-slider and get hitters to chase early in the count for more ground ball outs. The hope with this philosophy would be to get hitters out without the wear and tear of long at-bats and higher pitch counts.
Under Cooper's watch, the White Sox have hidden their pitchers from American League opponents in spring training as much as possible. This idea formulated over the past 15 seasons under Cooper makes sure opponents don't get an early look at what Chicago's pitchers are featuring in the new campaign.
"You look at Coop and what he has done under that plan, it's been proven out," Ventura said. "Over time, we have done well with the pitchers doing that. With Coop and his plan for the pitchers, it doesn't always look smooth the way he throws it out there for people. It has proven to be a good plan."
The White Sox will be cautious with second-year starter Carlos Rodon as well.
"We are going to see how Carlos does when is out there," Ventura said. "Last year was a pretty quick 'Get him in and see how he is going to do.' This (spring) will be a little more controlled. When he is going to be in, who is he going to face, when is he going to face them. We face a lot of the same people we see all the time, here in our division. You just don't necessarily want them seeing him right out of the gate. That is especially true if they have come up with something new."
Chicago faces two Cactus League opponents in the first seven games of the regular season, playing Oakland four times and Cleveland three times.
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.