Chicago White Sox-Team Preview

2008 Team Record 89-79

Projected Lineup

C-AJ Pierzynski 13-60-281

1B-Paul Konerko 22-62-240

2B-Chris Getz 0-1-286

SS-Alexei Ramirez 21-77-290

3B-Josh Fields 0-2-156

LF-Carlos Quentin 36-100-288

CF-Brian Anderson 8-26-232

RF-Jermaine Dye 34-96-292

DH-Jim Thome 34-90-245

Projected Rotation

Mark Buerhle 15-12-3.79

John Danks 12-9-3.32

Gavin Floyd 17-8-3.84

Bartolo Colon 4-2-3.92

Clayton Richard 2-5-6.04

Bullpen

Bobby Jenks 3-1-2.63 30

Scott Linebrink 2-2-3.69 1

Matt Thornton 5-3-2.67 1

Whats To Like
1.How do you spell Relief-The bullpen is by far the best part of this team. Along with the three I mentioned above they also have Octavio Dotel. The Sox should be able to shorten games for a very questionable starting staff.
2.Carlos Quentin-Sure the 36 dingers and 100 RBIs are nice but any player who breaks a bone in anger is my kind of guy.

Whats Not To Like
1.No Direction Home-Since the White Sox were eliminated by the Rays in the playoffs almost everything they have done this off season is questionable at best. I understand about not wanted to get old but Kenny Williams took a playoff team and turned them into a team that will be very lucky to win 75 games.
2.Lets get THIS started-If Bartolo Colon is penciled in for my 4th starter I know my rotation has issues. The Sox are hoping Jose Contreras can help. If the White Sox are rebuilding having Contreras and Colon is not the way to go.

Fantasy Focus
Gavin Floyd-Fact or Fiction???? If you look very closely at Floyd's numbers he gives indications he is either ready to take the next step to be a big winner or he is about to prove 2008 was a mirage. Very few players have numbers going in both directions like Floyd. For example Floyd averaged only 6.3 Ks per 9 innings past season. While walking over 3 per 9. That a very questionable K/BB ratio of just 2/1. Floyd was lucky in the respect he had fantastic run support. On the positive side he is still only 26 and has shown growth throughtout his brief MLB career. If he can just cut down on the HRs yielded which for the past years was either 12-13% of fly balls he should be able to sustain success. As of now I'm a bit on the skeptical side. The White Sox are not going to be a good team so I don't believe he is worth drafting but he is worth keeping an eye on.

Fun Fact
Anyone who has read this blog since I've started doing this should know by now I'm very partial to strikeout pitchers versus contact pitchers. Mark Buerhle is amazing every day he gives up tons of base runners but always has a good record and a much better ERA than you'd expect. So how does he do it? He is three stats. 1.Buerhle gave up the most hits of any MLB pitcher 240. 2.He induced the most DPs of any pitcher in MLB with 39 3.He only gave up 5 Stolen Bases all year old in 12 attempts while picking off 6 runners. By the way Gavin Floyd gave up 37 Stolen Bases by far the most in MLB.

Outlook
Its not easy to go from first to worst but thats what I'm predicting for the White Sox. This was the division champs last year. I don't believe Kenny Williams had a tear apart this team. Especially in this year of free agent bargains. If the Sox just resigned their players and added a piece to the rotation they would have an excellent chance to repeat. Also whats puzzleling to me is if the White Sox had a prospects in the minors ready to take over I'd be able to understand their moves but its not the case. The only highly thought of prospects in the minors are SS Gordan Beckham and C Tyler Flowers and neither should contribute this season. 2 other predictions for this team are 1.They will be out of it by the trading deadline and will try to move Jermaine Dye 2.Ozzie Guillen will be fired by the All Star break.