White Sox Don't Need Cliff Lee: Replacement For Peavy Is in House

Flash back to July 31st 2009. The trading deadline. Jake Peavy agrees to come to the White Sox.

The pretty girl at the dance who had already snubbed the White Sox, has now changed her mind and has agreed to leave sunny San Diego and come north to the south side of Chicago.

White Sox fans, myself included, have never been happier to trade for an injured pitcher. Sure he won't be able to pitch in a meaningful game this season, but when he's added to the rotation next season—watch out.

Flash forward to July 6th, 2010. Jake Peavy goes down for the year.

When Peavy took a hop, skip, and a jump off the mound and immediately walked toward the dugout we all knew he was done. I am able to place a band-aid directly over a cut so that the adhesive part doesn't hurt when I take the band-aid off. That is the extent of my medical expertise. But even I knew immediately that Peavy was going to be out for some time.

That brings us to where we are right now. No Peavy, eight games over .500, and only a half game out of first place in the AL Central.

So where do the Sox go from here?

Easy. They turn to Daniel Hudson.

Going into the season, I wrote that we'd see Hudson sooner rather than later, likely because of a Freddy Garcia injury or release.

Hudson had a 3.38 ERA in 18 innings for the big club last season, and it's reasonable to expect more of the same from his this year.

Taking a look at his minor league numbers, two things jump out—his great command and unfortunately number of home runs allowed.

It's never a good thing to have a potential ace go down. Especially one that had been pitching so well recently. But while this injury closes the door on Jake Peavy this season it opens the window for Daniel Hudson to establish himself in the White Sox rotation.