Sox Flying Under the Radar. Just two seasons removed from winning the World Series the White Sox have seemingly become lost in the shuffle in the hyper-competitive American League Central. They still have the same spirited manager who lead them to that World Series, and a lot of the talent that got them there, as well as some new additions.

Bats. The White Sox seem to have a productive middle of the lineup set up for this coming year with Paul Konerko, Jim Thome and Nick Swisher and Jermaine Dye. The first three will probably combine to hit for somewhere around a .265 average, but will provide enough pop to put a scare into most teams. Swisher will be good for about 25-30 home runs and Konerko and Thome should both be good for about 30-35, which gives the White Sox very good depth in the middle of their order. Throw in the Jermaine Dye for another .250 batter and 30 home runs and you have four players who will guarantee endless frustration in terms of failure to get on base, but provide enough of a long ball threat to make up for that. The problem of getting on base for the White Sox doesn’t simply end with their power hitters, they have only one projected starter who managed to hit over .300 last season, and that is newly acquired shortstop Orlando Cabrera who posted a .301 average last year. If A.J. Pierzynski isn’t too busy being a security guard on Jerry Springer, fighting Cubs players, or appearing on TNA Wrestling, he will be able to provide even more inconsistency for this team. The hitting for the White Sox will be defined by one word: inconsistent. If there is a team most likely to be no hit this season, it will be the White Sox. This team probably doesn’t even know what small ball is, they are built for power, and that will make for some very interesting games.

Pitching. The White Sox actually have a decent chance of throwing out a pretty good starting rotation this year. Mark Buehrle is the ace of this staff and as long as he can stay healthy I think it is safe to assume he will have another productive year. His 2006 campaign wasn’t pretty, but the two years before that, as well as his 2007 season have him ranked as one of the better pitchers in the league. He is followed up by Javier Vazquez who really came into his own last year posting an ERA that was half a point lower than his career average and striking out 213 batters along the way. It is after these first two that things start to get shaky for the Sox. Jose Contreras is a model of inconsistency from year to year, and if he can regain his 2005, or even 2006 form then he will be a good 3rd pitcher, however if he comes out and posts a 5.57 ERA like he did last year, then the Sox are in trouble. Their four and five slots are up for grabs but it seems like the young John Danks will take the 4th spot. In 26 games last year he posted a 5.50 ERA, a number which the White Sox hope he will be able to lower in his second year as a stater. The bullpen has a few question marks in it in Octavio Dotel and Scott Linebrink both of whom were at one point shut down set-up men, but may have been overworked, or in general have been figured out by opposing batters. However if these two can regain their form and Bobby Jenks can continue to be fat effective in the closers role then the White Sox will have managed to shorten the game to 7 innings.

Prediction. I feel like there are too many”ifs” with this team. The bats are too inconsistent and the pitching isn’t quite solid enough for me to give them enough respect to say that they will be able to compete for the top spot in their division. With that said, they are going to be a tough team to play and could easily play spoiler down the stretch and will make the Tigers and Indians really work for the wins they need to win the AL Central. I expect them to finish in fourth, with an outside chance to pass the Twins and take 3rd, and an outside chance to fall behind the Royals and capture last place.