MLB Season Preview: 2009 Chicago White Sox

The 44th president of the United States is a huge Chicago White Sox fan, and the team seems to honor him by making changes, and lots of them, they can believe in.

Last season, the out-of-the-thin-blue ChiSox battled with the equally surprising Minnesota Twins down to the wire, then past it to a one-game playoff, where it was Blackout for the Twins. However, Cinderella met Sleeping Beauty in the Divison Series, as the Tampa Bay Rays took them out in four.
This year, the word is "restructuring" (NOT "rebuilding" or "fire sale") with youth. Will this strategy get the job done this year?

OFFENSE: C

Mr. Quentin, Mr. Thome, and Mr. Dye, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find out how many sins the longball can cover.
The White Sox let former All-Star Orlando Cabrera and third base fixture Joe Crede walk away in favor of youth. To be fair, you might say they upgraded at shortstop with Alexei Ramirez (.290, 21 homers, 77 RBI), who was one Evan Longoria away from Rookie of the Year. Third base is now in the hands of Josh Fields, who will get his first real look, as will Chirs Getz at second base.

So it may fall even more heavily on MVP candidate LF Carlos Quentin (.288, 36, 100, but coming off a wrist injury), RF Jermaine Dye (.292, 34, 96) and DH Jim Thome (.245, 34, 90) to push an offense that may be low on octane.

PROJECTED LINEUP: 1 Anderson CF 2 Getz 2B 3 Quentin LF 4 Thome DH 5 Dye RF 6 Konerko 1B 7 Ramirez SS 8 Pierzynski C 9 Fields 3B

STARTING PITCHING: C

The rotation has three solid to start off, and two "ehhs" to end.
Mark Buehrle (15-12, 3.79 ERA) continues to be a fixture in black and white, and for good reason. Jon Danks (12-9, 3.32) continues to show the goods, and Gavin Floyd (17-8, 3.84) finally showed the promise of his draft pick. The real fun starts at four, where veteran Bartolo Colon (4-2, 3.92) figures to slot in, but he hasn't seen his Cy Young form-or many innings-in quite a while now. Then at five is Clayton Richard, who saw 47.2 innings last year and walked out with a 6.04 ERA, but may keep that spot by default regardless, considering what follows him(Lance Broadway only logged 14 innings last year, Jeffrey Marquez is a rookie, and Jose Contreras is coming back from a ruptured left Achilles tendon).

PROJECTED ROTATION: Buehrle, Danks, Floyd, Colon, Richard

BULLPEN: C-

Bobby Jenks is good for 30 saves almost automatically each year, and is pretty much lights out. Octavio Dotel (4-4, 3.76), Scott Linebrink (2-2, 3.69), and Matt Thornton (5-3, 2.67) all do very well in their roles to get the ball to him.

So, if the starters get the lead to the seventh, all could be well. That being a big if, though, should more help be needed, the ChiSox much rely on unproven arms such as D.J. Carrasco, Ehren Wasserman, Adam Russell, and others to bridge the gap.
The season could end up hinging on how well they build that bridge.

CONCLUSION

The Cleveland Indians had what most considered to be a letdown year and still finished .500.
The Kansas City Royals aren't world beaters yet, but they made solid moves to improve on a team that finished smoking hot last year.
The Detroit Tigers have the distinction of being the world's most dangerous fifth-place team.
And the Twins are looking to be the team to beat early on.
All this has happened, and the ChiSox have taken a few steps back, and a few steps is all that was needed to fall out of contention.

PREDICTION: 82-80, third in American League Central