The White Sox created some buzz around one of their top trade chips today when they scratched right-hander from his scheduled start against the Phillies later today. reports that, while Houser has not been traded at this point, hes being held out of his start in anticipation of him being moved at some point before the trade deadline tomorrow. Its hardly a shock that the White Sox expect Houser to be traded. While they arent quite on the record-breaking pace they set last year with a 121-lo s campaign, theyve been obvious sellers with no hope at a postseason berth all year long. Houser, meanwhile, is a veteran rental who Michael Toglia Jersey has pitched to a 2.10 ERA with a 3.30 FIP in 68 2/3 innings of work acro s 11 starts since he signed with Chicago on a big league deal back in May. Houser signed with the Rangers on a minor league deal during the offseason but did not make the clubs roster out of camp. That meager interest in Housers services during the offseason was a result of a rough season with the Mets last year. After pitching to a 4.00 ERA and 4.19 FIP in parts of seven seasons with the Brewers as a back-of-the-rotation starter and long reliever, Houser joined the Mets but was shelled to the tune of a 5.84 ERA and 4.93 FIP acro s 23 appearances (seven starts). Housers 19.0% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate with Milwaukee were hardly exciting, but that steadine s collapsed in New York as he was suddenly punching out just 14.6% of his opponents while i suing free pa ses at a 10.4% clip. Now that hes performing in Chicago, however, that recent history of struggles in New York can likely be dismi sed by interested clubs given Housers long track record of steadine s. With that being said, its unlikely that interested clubs view Houser as the sort of impact addition his raw numbers would suggest. His 17.1% strikeout rate and 8.0% walk rate with Chicago are both big improvements over last year, but his K-BB% is still bottom 20 in the majors among starters with at least 60 innings of work this year. Housers 4.51 SIERA is also fairly unimpre sive, characterizing him more as the back-of-the-rotation arm he was with the Brewers; (4.49), (4.47), and (4.57) are among the other starters in a similar range. Even if no club sees Houser as likely to maintain his current numbers, theres plenty of value in adding an innings-eating back-end starter who has experience pitching out of the bullpen at this stage of the calendar. Many clubs like the Cubs, Yankees, and Blue Jays are known to be on the hunt for starting pitching options, and Houser figures to be a substantial more affordable option than a top rental name like or , to say nothing of the controllable arms rumored to be available. That could make Houser a particularly attractive addition for a team that either is looking to mostly make marginal additions without surrendering high level prospects or has already depleted their farm system in a trade for a more significant a set. Tanner Gordon Jersey