2009 White Sox player review: Jake Peavy

October 8, 10:34 AMChicago White Sox ExaminerJJ Stankevitz

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Jake Peavy only made three starts with the Sox, but they were impressive. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

May 22 was a whirlwind day for the White Sox. It started early in the morning when the first whispers of a possible Jake Peavy-to-the-Sox trade surfaced from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Throughout the morning, more and more sources began to confirm that the White Sox in fact had a deal in place for the 2007 N.L. Cy Young winner, and all he had to do was approve a move to Chicago to finalize the trade.

But that didn't happen. The Padres were winning and Peavy's interest in moving to a smaller, American League ballpark seemed pretty low. And when the Sox lost 20-1 to Minnesota that afternoon, it came as even less of a surprise when Peavy invoked his no-trade clause and turned down the deal.

Two months and nine days later, Kenny Williams once again tried to trade for Peavy. Things were different this time around—the Sox were very much in contention, the Padres were well out of the playoff race, and Peavy was on the disabled list. And, with seconds until the trade deadline, Peavy accepted the trade to the White Sox.

It took Peavy a long time to get to the majors, but he was able to pitch a few games for the Sox this year. Here's a look at his stats with his new team:

Key stats (with White Sox)
GS: 3
IP: 20
W: 3
L: 0
ERA: 1.35
ERA+: 347
FIP: 2.85
BB: 6
BB/9: 2.70
SO: 18
K/9: 8.10
K/BB: 3.00
HR/9: 0.45
WHIP: 0.85
OPS: .436
GB/FB: 1.28
BABIP: 2.07
WAR: 0.7

Okay, so we're working with a small sample size—but Jake Peavy was really good in his three starts with the White Sox in 2009.

His first start back was a little shaky (5 IP, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5K), but he hadn't pitched in the majors since June so nobody was going to hold that against him.

It was Peavy's next two starts that'll leave a great impression in the minds of Sox fans over the winter. His final two starts of the year—home and away against Detroit—were vintage, dominant Peavy. The combined total of those starts: 15 IP, 0 ER, 4 BB, 13 K.

For the most part, Peavy stuck to his fastball/slider combo in his three starts with the White Sox, but to varying degrees. When his slider had good movement, he threw it more often (27 times Sept. 25), but when it didn't, he stuck to his fastball (19 times Oct. 2). That's nothing new—Peavy has thrown that combination of pitches 77.2 percent of the time over his career, and he's thrown it with a lot of success.

So in three starts, we got a glimpse of how good Peavy can be. His fastball had great life on it and his slider looked very good all while pitching like a "real bulldog." And all of this was done at, by Peavy's admission, less than 100 percent health.

Three starts isn't enough to determine whether Peavy can have sustained success pitching half his games in U.S. Cellular Field instead of Petco Park, but judging how he threw the ball, there's a good chance he can have that success. His FIP was higher than his ERA, but at 2.85, that's really nothing with which to be concerned. That .207 BABIP would rise if Peavy was to make some more starts, but it likely wouldn't hurt Peavy's success to the point where he wouldn't be a top-of-the-rotation starter.

Remember, all this analysis is based on three starts. In the end, the best thing to come out of those three starts was that Peavy will have some good film of him pitching in a White Sox uniform to look at in the offseason. His first start as an American League pitcher won't come in 2010, so when next April rolls around, he won't be completely new to the league.

I don't think anyone would have faulted Peavy had he thrown the ball poorly with the White Sox this year. Would we be any less excited had Peavy allowed, say, eight runs over the 20 innings he threw? Probably not. But the fact that Peavy did threw well in those 20 innings may have upped the excitement level for 2010. So while Peavy will have something positive to look at in the offseason, so will Sox fans. And the prospect of seeing Peavy pitch with the White Sox in 2010 is enough to get everyone through the long, cold, baseball-less winter.

Some links on this rainy gameday in Columbia:

• Jim—who, ahem, went to Missouri—takes a look back at his top 10 prospects over at Sox Machine.
• Bruce Levine of ESPN Chicago discusses next year's payroll (h/t SouthSideSox).
• Andrew at 35th Street Review recaps the season.