ESPN

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Competition for the open three bullpen spots will officially begin this weekend, when the Chicago White Sox play some intrasquad games before opening their Cactus League schedule on Monday against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The fast-talking, straight-to-the-point Don Cooper, who has been with the team since 1988 and has served as pitching coach since 2002, is looking forward to seeing who’s ready to start the season in the bullpen.

“Listen, for the first time in a long time we’ve got three spots open and that’s going to be an interesting thing for the coaches and everybody else to watch and see how that goes,” Cooper said. “It’s also going to be interesting to see these new younger guys who probably won’t be on the team -- some of them -- but to see how they handle major league camp and to have an idea to plot out a course for them so maybe some time later in the year, as well as next year, they’re in Chicago helping us win.”

With so many youngsters to choose from, Cooper said the first nine days of spring training has been about working on each pitcher’s mechanics and pitch command. Come the weekend, the evaluation begins.

“Right now, there’s nobody ahead of anybody else,” Cooper said, “there’s nobody behind anybody else.”

(Read full post)

With spring training fast approaching, Doug Padilla previews the White Sox roster by position.

The White Sox considered the bullpen an area of strength so they shipped off right-handers Jason Frasor and Sergio Santos in offseason trades to save a little cash and strengthen the farm system.

But the Santos move leaves the White Sox with one of their biggest challenges of the spring: Finding a closer.

The Opening Day closer job appears to be down to Matt Thornton or Jesse Crain. The lefty Thornton looked uncomfortable in the role to start the 2011 season. The righty Crain, meanwhile, was solid in a setup role before running out of gas late in the season.

Young right-hander Addison Reed can’t fill two bullpen roles, but his emergence last season was part of the reason Frasor and Santos were dealt. When the season starts, Reed figures to be used like Frasor was when he came over at midseason in a trade with the Blue Jays. Eventually, though, he will be aimed for the closer role, whether it’s later in 2012 or beyond.

Veteran Will Ohman will be the only other lefty in the bullpen other than Thornton, unless Hector Santiago can earn his way onto the club with a solid spring. Dylan Axelrod and Zach Stewart are expected to duel for a long-man role, a spot not utilized much last season since a six-man rotation was used for a long stretch.

Brian Bruney will get a chance to earn a spot back on the roster after he was invited to camp on a minor-league deal. Even the deal that sent Ozzie Guillen to the Miami Marlins could pay dividends for the relief corps. Part of the compensation the White Sox received for Guillen, right-hander Jhan Marinez, has an outside chance at a bullpen spot.

BEST-CASE SCENARIO IN 2012: A spirited spring duel lands Crain with the closer job meaning the lefty Thornton and the righty Reed can set up. If Bruney is able to handle a sizeable workload in middle relief everybody can settle into their roles nicely, allowing Ohman to take on a lefty specialist job. A real assist could come from a minor leaguer like Gregory Infante, or future starters Nestor Molina or Simon Castro stepping up to land a relief role.

WORST-CASE SCENARIO IN 2012: The White Sox don’t appear to have as many options at closer as they did last season, so if Thornton or Crain aren’t up for the job it would spell trouble. Would the White Sox dare push Reed into the role with limited big-league experience? The White Sox need the Thornton/Crain closer battle to be epic and ultimately a tough decision since the pitcher that isn’t asked to close will still be needed in key late-inning spots as the setup man.

KID TO WATCH: Clearly this is Reed, but he is virtually guaranteed a roster spot so we’ll dig a little deeper here. Santiago was impressive every step of the way last season. He had 5 1/3 scoreless relief innings in the big leagues while still posting a 3.60 ERA in 23 starts at two separate minor-league levels. His chances of making the White Sox’s bullpen would seem to center around Thornton winning the closer role since using three lefties in relief to get to the closer, like the White Sox did last season, isn’t ideal.

The second coming of Jose Contreras is on the way. Or at least that’s what Chicago White Sox general manager Kenny Williams suggested Saturday.

Explaining the trade that sent Carlos Quentin to the San Diego Padres and yielded minor-league pitchers Simon Castro and Pedro Hernandez, Williams seemed to put most of his expectations on Castro.

“Castro, as I was looking at him on tape, Castro reminds me of Jose Contreras when we got him and there were things he was doing [mechanically] that were counter-productive,” Williams said. “There are a lot of similarities and hopefully we can get the most out of him.”

Does that mean when you squint really hard you are reminded of Contreras? Or can this guy really lead a starting rotation to an 11-1 run during the postseason?

Williams sounded annoyed that he had to reiterate his comparison.

“There are some similarities we see in him that remind us of Jose and some of the issues he has had this past year that he didn’t have before,” Williams said of Castro’s disappointing 7-8 season with a 5.63 ERA at both Double-A and Triple-A. “Sometimes guys get out of whack. This guy is 6-foot-5, throws 90-95 [mph], a lower three-quarter angle and gets around balls but can drop a hard split and he can locate, when he’s right.”

To Williams’ credit, the Contreras comparison isn’t completely off the wall. Castro was the Padres’ minor-league pitcher of the year in 2009 and that success continued a year later. In 2010 he was a midseason and postseason Texas League All-Star and pitched in the Futures Game that season.

Last season, though, on a deep staff at Double-A for the Padres, he had mechanical issues. Despite it he still got six starts at Triple-A, but posted an ERA over 10.

“He will be the first to admit that he didn’t distinguish himself among some of his peers,” Williams said. “We have to get him back there. Just one year ago you wouldn’t have been able to get this kind of guy.”

Consider it yet another reclamation project for pitching coach Don Cooper, who was there to help Contreras turn it around.

Nobody really expects Castro to take over the rotation and lead the White Sox to the World Series next season, but he and Hernandez could see time in the big leagues in 2012.

“Castro twice was a top-100 prospect even though he scuffled at times [last season],” Padres GM Josh Byrnes said. “He was still low to mid-90s [mph fastball], slider, change up and a great kid.”

That makes two big-league GMs with high praise for Castro, although Byrnes was the one who just traded away the right-hander.