The White Sox

[JaysGM - (Mat)]

With Detroit's salary woes and Cleveland's dealing of the majority of their front-end talent (KC remains KC), the Central has really become a 2 horse race between Minnesota and Chicago.

At the end of last season the White Sox made 2 acquisitions that changed their team in a major way. They added Alex Rios for nothing but money, and Jake Peavy for very little in terms of team impact players. Now, they've just added Juan Pierre to be their CF and lead off player!! Kenny Williams, you rock.

Going into 2010, here is their lineup (backup in brackets):

CF- Juan Pierre
SS- Alexei Ramirez (Omar Vizquel / Gordon Beckham)
2B- Gordon Beckham (Jayson Nix)
LF- Carlos Quentin / Mark Kotsay / Anduw Jones
1B- Paul Konerko (Dayan Viciedo)
RF- Alex Rios (Jordan Danks)
3B- Mark Teahen (Jayson Nix / Gordon Beckham / Dayan Viciedo)
C- AJ Pierzynski (Tyler Flowers)
DH- Andruw Jones / Tyler Flowers / Mark Kotsay

They are strong all the way through and should be favorites in the Central. But their strength will be in their pitching in 2010, with:

1 - Jake Peavy
2 - Mark Buehrle
3 - John Danks
4 - Gavin Floyd
5 - Dan Hudson (Carlos Torres)(may become Freddy Garcia)

Relief
CL - Bobby Jenks (could be traded)
SU - JJ Putz
SU - Scott Linebrink / Matt Thornton
R - Octavio Dotel
R - Tony Pena
R - DJ Carrasco

Is this a better team than Minnesota....I'm not sure, but the rotation is certainly more sound than that of the Twins, while their relievers are also excellent. The key may become health (as usual) and whether Beckham suffers through a softmore slump or not.

I like them to take the division in 2010, barring a bad string of injuries.