30 Teams In 30 Days

Chicago White Sox:  The Young And The Old Collide

(Over the next 30 days, BERNing on Sports will be previewing every team in the majors, yes, even the Royals.  Only one a day, every day, so try not to get too hooked.)

Identity Crisis

Over the last few years, the White Sox success has been predicated on good veteran pitching and a balanced lineup of 30-somethings.  Now, thanks to aggressive and crafty GM Kenny Williams there's been an injection of youth on the south side.   Young guns John Danks and Gavin Floyd figure to anchor a rotation that ends with Sox lifer Mark Buehrle, Jose Contreras and Bartolo Colon.  Both Contreras and Colon are older and coming off injuries, so who knows how much they'll be able to produce.  Yet the White Sox are banking on them to visit the fountain of youth in 2009.  Same thing goes for Chicago's lineup.  You've got mainstays like Paul Konerko, Jim Thome and Jermaine Dye, who all good hitters, but are getting older, and are starting to decline.  Now the Sox will be counting on young guys too, like last year's American League Rookie of the Year runner-up Alexei Ramirez, Carlos Quentin (who probably would have been the MVP of the American League had he not been injured last August), Jerry Owens in the leadoff spot, and Chris Getz at 2nd base.  How good this makes the White Sox?  It's hard to say.  The move could have them moving towards a second consecutive AL Central crown, although experts seem to think this will be a rebuilding year.

Is Gavin Floyd Really That Good?

The White Sox would like to think that answer is yes, but it's hard to know.  When the Sox traded for John Danks, they knew what they were getting.  At the time they traded their top prospect pitcher Brandon McCarthy for the Rangers best arm in their system.  So Danks' success last year wasn't all that surprising.  Floyd's success on the other hand was astonishing.  He won 17 games a season ago, after his first four seasons only yielded him eight combined wins.  Now he didn't start more than eleven games in any of those previous years, so you could say that the twenty-six year old is now coming into his own.  But this season will really be the litmus test to see how good he truly is.  If he and and Danks can produce like they did last year, the Sox could win the division again.  If they're not good, then you're hoping that Contreras and Colon are going to produce.  And that thought will have Ozzie Guillen swearing uncontrollably for six straight months.

What about Carlos Quentin?

Just as prevalent as the question of what the White Sox will get from Gavin Floyd is the question of how much the Sox will get from Carlos Quentin.  The former Diamondbacks top prospect was picked up in an unheralded move last off-season, but like I mentioned in the first graph, this guy would have won the AL MVP had he not gotten hurt.  So Dustin Pedroia should be thanking Quentin every time he admires that trophy on his mantle.  Quentin hit .288 while ripping 36 homers and driving in 100 runs, and he did all this in just 130 games.  Imagine how those numbers might look had he finished the season.  But like Floyd, this was a break out year for Quentin, as his previous career high was 9 home runs in rookie campaign of 2006.  His production will be critical to the Sox offense, because their back-up option in left would be Brian Anderson, who has a hole in his bat.

Ozzie Guillen Is Great

Whether you're a White Sox fan or not, you have to love skipper Ozzie Guillen.  Ozzie happens to be a fantastic manager, but the entertainment value he brings to the ballpark day in and day out is really great to watch.  Unless you follow the team, you can't really understand him when he speaks, except you know that he's speaking quickly and his dialect is filled with four letter words.  Furthermore, he is not afraid to say what he thinks, which might be he best quality of all.  There's no BS when it comes to Guillen, and he has the respect of his clubhouse because he's not going to sugar coat things in the press.  The Sox will always contend with this guy as the skipper, and hey, he brought the Sox their first world series in 88 years back in 2005, so he knows what he's doing.  People like to rip Guillen for his inflammatory remarks, but he's the best thing the White Sox have going because in a city where his team plays second fiddle he keeps them relevant whether they're winning or not.

Bold Predictions

1. The White Sox will stay competitive in a middling AL Central this year, and if the breaks mentioned above go their way, they'll win the division again.  If any of their guys don't produce like their being expected to, however, they could be the team that finishes ahead of the Royals (fourth) in the division as well.  
2. Jerry Owens will last less than a month in the leadoff spot.  This guy stinks, and when they realize he can't hit, DeWayne Wise and Chris Getz will platoon there the rest of the season.  
3. Jermaine Dye was the subject of trade rumors all off-season but Williams never pulled the trigger on a trade.  He will before the trading deadline July 31st.

Up Next...Saturday, Pirates