2009 White Sox player review: D.J. Carrasco

October 11, 12:22 PMChicago White Sox ExaminerJJ Stankevitz

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D.J. Carrasco was one of the most underrated players on the Sox in '09. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

The White Sox have a recent history of bringing in castoffs of the Kansas City Royals bullpen, and most of them fail with the Sox (like they did with the Royals). Mike MacDougal, Jimmy Gobble, Horacio Ramriez, Ryan Bukvich, Andy Sisco, and D.J. Carrasco all saw time with the White Sox and Royals over the last few years, and all of them failed—with one exception.

That exception is Carrasco. In three years with the Royals (2003-05), Carrasco had a 4.81 ERA, 1.55 WHIP, and 1.21 K/BB. 2005 was the last year Carrasco was in the majors until he resurfaced with the Sox in 2008, and since then, he's been surprisingly solid. 

Key stats
G: 49
IP: 93.1
W: 5
L: 1
ERA: 3.76
FIP: 3.46
BB: 29
BB/9: 2.80
SO: 62
K/9: 5.98
K/BB: 2.14
HR/9: 0.48
WHIP: 1.41
OPS: .715
GB/FB: 1.43
BABIP: .328
WAR: 1.3

If the Sox found a way to make the playoffs in 2009, Carrasco would have been the unsung hero of that playoff run. As a reliever, Carrasco made 48 appearances, throwing 89.1 innings with a 3.43 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, and a 2.14 K/BB ratio. On top of that, his 1.3 WAR was second-highest amongst Sox relievers (not surprisingly, Matt Thornton led in that category with a 2.5 WAR).

Most of that success came when Carrasco was called upon to bridge the gap from a starter to a middle reliever. Of his 48 relief appearances, 34 were multi-inning outings. He entered 13 games during or before the fourth inning, and six of those came with the Sox down four or more runs. In fact, only nine of his relief appearances came with the Sox winning.

As the season went on, Carrasco became more than a mop-up man. When a starter had to leave a game early (usually Jose Contreras or Bartolo Colon), Carrasco could usually be counted on to provide some quality innings to keep the Sox in the game.

What's interesting is that Carrasco was able to prevent his stats from regressing with his BABIP. In 2008, Carrasco's BABIP was an unsustainable .262. That rose to .328 in 2009, but Carrasco's numbers actually improved. So, heading into 2010, maybe Carrasco could be even better than he was this year with a league-average BABIP of around .290-.300.

A big key to Carrasco's success was his fastball, which he threw harder than he ever had in his career this year. Its average velocity of 91.1 mph is a full mile per hour faster than his career average—but he threw it only 30.4 percent of the time. He relied heavily on his cutter, throwing that pitch 46.7 percent of the time. However, FanGraphs rates his fastball as an above-average pitch while his cutter as a slightly below-average pitch.

Carrasco's cutter is his best pitch, but there's a chance he overused it in 2009. Maybe if he mixes in more fastballs and curveballs (which also rated as an above-average pitch) next year, he'll have even more success.

But in the end, there's really not much to complain about regarding Carrasco's performance in '09. It'll be interesting to see what role Carrasco has in the 2010 bullpen, whether it's a long-relief or more of a middle relief role.That will likely depend on whether or not Carlos Torres or Daniel Hudson is on the MLB roster come opening day.