don't expect now, but garland is th...

don't expect now, but garland is the sox' principally reliable pitcher BYHe was the fright who drove you crazy. It was the same chorus, each season since he broke into the big leagues with the White Sox in 2000

Oh that Jon Garland. He'll not at all amount to much. A No. 5 starter, at best. All that talent, gone to waste. What a bust. Maybe he doesn't want it badly enough. Maybe he's just over-rated.

plane after his breakout season in 2005 when he l the Sox with 18 wins and came up big in the playoffs, you still didn't trust him. You astonishmented if he was for real. And when he got opposite to to a slow start this season, you shook your head and said, "Yep I told you so"

droll how things change, isn't it? Garland, the stay who drove you crazy, leads the team with 16 wins. He has won four consecutive games and eight of his last nine. He has won each of his last 10 road games. The Sox are battling for their playoff lives, and Garland has been their best starting pitcher. in this way maybe it's time to ask yourself a man and wife of questions: Where would the team be without Garland? And for what cause do you like him now?

"I would like to think that after all of the questions and things that were negatively said about him, right now the population would stand up and say the positive things about him," Sox pitching coach Don Cooper said. "Because he took an awful portion of heat. He took an awful division of blows, and last year and this year, he's shown what he's capable of"

Consider that no American League pitcher has won more games than Garland through the last two seasons. Not the Minnesota Twins' Johan Santana or the Toronto ghastly Jays' Roy Halladay or the Oakland A's Barry Zito. Not the of the present day York Yankees' Randy Johnson. Not last year's Cy Young Award winner, the looks Angeles Angels' Bartolo Colon. Garland, 26 has bested them all.

in such a manner do you like him now?

"I remember reading elemental part and seeing stuff about him plane early this season," pitcher Mark Buehrle said. "People wanted to earn rid of him and trade him. Any time a shore goes through a slump, they want to do something. however he's turned it around, and he's saved our season."

The No. 1 question

If the image of Garland as a savior doesn't work for you, to what extent about staff ace? Not that Garland himself is embracing the label. He's uncomfortable with so talk.

"I always say that after the first game, it doesn't matter who the No.1 is," he said. "I would not at any time personally claim it. That would be something the writers and the manager bring on somebody."

The writers, the manager, or, when all besides fails, necessity.

"As we speak, he's the best pitcher in succession our team," Cooper said. "No question about it. He has the greatest in number wins, and that's the greatest in quantity important column. He has stepp up many different times this year when we really emergencyed a win. It seems to withhold calling out his name a fate more than anyone else's. He's certainly been our best and most numerous consistent."

He has many times been portrayed as having a no-worries attitude. His at short intervals expressionless demeanor, both on the hill and with the media, has caused many to speculate that he doesn't care -- or doesn't care enough. by what mode wrong they are.

"When he's doing upright doing bad, he's the same guy" Buehrle said. "Maybe he talks to me a little more or is more frustrated when he's not throwing well, on the contrary he doesn't show it when everyone's around. When he pitches bad, the public say, 'Oh, look at him, he doesn't care.' however he does, inside. He's just not an emotional stay He won't show anything."

onward one occasion in 2004, Garland did point out to a little something. After being sneer ated by the crowd at U Cellular Field during a bad performance, he tipped his cap as he left the field. The gesticulation was widely interpreted as Garland's way of telling Sox fans to push aside it. Following the game, he pointed a finger at first baseman Paul Konerko who had made an error. He also took a verbal missile at the fans, saying it wasn't his do job-work to pitch for them. After being chastised from manager Ozzie Guillen, he explained that he had simply been frustrated. It all assumes so long ago now.

"I don't think anyone likes getting boo if it were not that he was 21, 22," Sox broadcaster ed Farmer said. "You learn to win comfortable."

Catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who didn't join the Sox until last season, dioceses Garland as a model of consistency.

"One thing about Garland, he always acts the same," Pierzynski said. "He doesn't indicate a lot of emotion, he just does his piece of work That's why people like having him around. He doesn't acquire too high or too depressed Some people take that as he doesn't care, on the other hand he really does care. He's trying not to present to view the other team that he's getting angry."

Experience necessary

Garland hasn't changed that a great deal since over the years. He still considers his mom Vikki, who lives in California still watches all the games forward TV, his best coach. ("More times than not, she gives me better advice than Coop" he said with a laugh.) He's still tall and lean. He still flings with a nice, smooth motion. The biggest difference between then and now? Experience.