White Sox need to fix bullpen before next week

September 16, 1:47 PMChicago White Sox ExaminerJJ Stankevitz

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Octavio Dotel has been part of the problem.

When you look at it, the problems facing the White Sox over the course of this season have come in two-month blocks. First, it was the offense in April and May. Then, it was the starting pitching in June and July. Now, it's the bullpen here in August and September. And that doesn't bode well for the White Sox in the final 12 games of the season.

As of their game Tuesday against the Yankees, the only pitcher who can be counted on out of the White Sox bullpen is Matt Thornton, who has only allowed one earned run in the month of September. There isn't anybody else, even Bobby Jenks, who's thrown the ball well with consistency this month.

Jenks has seen his ERA jump nearly a run since the start of the month, allowing six earned runs in 5.2 innings so far in September. While he's still getting the job done, his recent performance can't possibly instill any confidence in Ozzie Guillen.

Octavio Dotel has been worse. His ERA on August 13 was 3.19. Since that point, it's jumped to 4.03, and he's allowed a staggering eight home runs in his last 14 innings, including a game-tying grand slam to Marcus Thames in Sunday night's game against Detroit. His strikeout numbers have plummeted lately, going from 33 in June and July to just 15 through August and half of September.

The White Sox desperately need Dotel to get back on track, as he was such a major part of the bullpen success enjoyed by the Sox earlier in the year.

Then there's Scott Linebrink, who was maybe the best setup man in baseball until being moved to the closer role in early July, injuring his shoulder, and not pitching for most of July and all of August. If Linebrink can return to that early-season form here in late September, that could be what tips the scale in favor of the White Sox in the AL Central. However, that seems unlikely and unfair to Linebrink, who again, has only thrown 4.0 innings since July 8.

The back of the White Sox bullpen isn't very impressive. Horacio Ramirez, Ehren Wassermann, Boone Logan, Adam Russell, and DJ Carrasco just aren't pitchers who should be counted on to hold leads or ties in a pennant race.

The only September call-up who may be worthy of getting some innings in big spots is, surprisingly, Mike MacDougal. Remember him? He struggled in 2007 but began 2008 with the White Sox before being sent to Triple-A Charlotte early in the year. He had success in the minors and actually hasn't been awful in his innings in September. It looks like MacDougal has a more refined delivery, which will give him better control—and his control was why he was sent down in the first place.

MacDougal has more experience than any of the other back-end pitchers in the White Sox bullpen, and it seems like he'd be a better option than any of them in a late-inning situation.

Regardless, if you had told me in April that the White Sox' playoff chances would rest on MacDougal, Ramirez, Wassermann, a struggling Logan, Russell, and Carrasco, I probably would have predicted that the Sox would miss the playoffs.

That may be the case if Dotel, Linebrink, and Jenks can't get their acts together here in these last two weeks. And, consequently, the White Sox missing the playoffs may be the case.

The Sox cannot continue to rely on Minnesota losing to keep their lead in the AL Central. They need to extend it by winning and now worrying about what the Twins do in their games.