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Carlos Rodon looking like Roger Clemens for Chicago White Sox

By Josh Sippie

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Carlos Rodon is having a bit of an up and down first season with the Chicago White Sox. After giving up 16 runs in his first four starts across 19.2 innings including a seven run stomping in his first start of the year, he delivered his first professional shut out, pitching six innings of two-hit ball for the Chicago White Sox against the cross-town rival Chicago Cubs en route to a 1-0 win. 

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However, Rodon returned from that to get shelled by the St. Louis Cardinals, giving up seven earned runs in just four innings.

In the spirit of diversity, the lefty then shut out the Cleveland Indians in 6.2 innings, surrendering just five hits and striking out a career-high nine guys. That shutout then lead to another stomping, as the New York Yankees touched up Rodon and the Chicago White Sox for eight earned runs in three innings of work.

Two starts later, we have what Rodon accomplished on Tuesday, a masterful shutdown of the Los Angeles Angels where he topped his career high in strikeouts, fanning 11 and surrendering only four hits and one walk.

If you are a fan of predicting the future, bet on Rodon giving up 10-12 runs in his next start.

In all seriousness though, the Chicago White Sox have no reason to be concerned about this inconsistency. Carlos Rodon is only 22 years of age and in these sporadic shut outs he looks absolutely superb. Granted it would be nice to see them happen a bit more frequently than every three to four games, he is not the first 22 year old to suffer through brilliance offset with facepalming.

In fact, Roger Clemens had a similar run of form when he was 22. After giving up 16 runs across his first four starts in the 1984 season, Clemens did not recover with a brilliant shut out. Instead, he went two more games giving up six runs in each game. In the next two games, he gave up a combined two runs and struck out 16.

Clemens then gave up 14 runs in three starts before unleashing two shut outs in a row, striking out 11 in the second of those shut outs.

From there, the inconsistency slowly turned into consistency and he worked his way to becoming one of the best pitchers we have ever seen.

I am not saying that Carlos Rodon is going to be the next Roger Clemens for the Chicago White Sox. He does not even throw with the same arm. All I am saying is that Rodon’s rookie season is actually going really well and it is just a matter of time before he turns these bouts of brilliance into a string of good starts.

One of the key positive signs is the walk rates. Other than a few blips on the radar, Rodon never walks over three guys in games. The same was true of Clemens. Rodon has good control over his arsenal of pitches, it is just a matter of getting to know the opposition and settling in at the big league level.

Chicago White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers indicated that Rodon’s successful start had everything to do with confidence, as he “took off” after striking out Mike Trout and Albert Pujols. If that confidence can be more based off a belief in his abilities and less off of good runs of form, Rodon will start to iron out the wrinkles and become a bonafide, brilliant starting pitcher.

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