Saturday, March 29, 2008

A Preview A Day Keeps the Winter Away, #29

For the month of March I will be doing a season preview, with a new team each day, going in alphabetical order by team so I can save the Yankees for last, because I am, in fact, that devious.

As this is a Yankees' blog, the previews for AL East teams will be more detailed than those of AL Central and AL West teams, and any AL team previews will be more detailed than NL team previews, save maybe for the Mets. Each preview will involve consideration of how much 'threat' a team is to the Yankees, for fairly obvious reasons.

Up today: The Chicago White Sox

It's hard to believe this team won the World Series in 2005; last year they had to fight off the Kansas City Royals just to stay out of the AL Central basement. In one series in July, the Yankees had a game in which they hit a barrage of home runs, and, in another game, when the White Sox had an eight run top-of-the-second, the Yankees repeated the feat in the bottom of the inning.

There's no denying that manager Ozzie Guillen is a colorful character, but that alone does not a playoff team make.

They've got some pitching talent in Javier Vazquez and Mark Buerhle, but when you still have Jose Contreras in your rotation, you know something is very, very lacking.

Paul Konerko at first base is an underrated player. I end up with him on my fantasy team every year, so I'm partial.

Bobby Jenks is great when the team needs him, but when you have a season like the White Sox did last year, being the closer is probably not too much fun.

Threat to the Yankees: Green, proceed normally.

The White Sox don't instill a whole lot of confidence. That said, some of the bats can do some big damage, but in a division with the Indians and the Tigers, they aren't likely to be much of a threat.




All right, just one more left--I'll bring you all a Season Preview of the Yankees tomorrow!

2 comments:

  1. The Chicago White Sox have done little to improve. Their rotation is suspect and I would not expect them to be in contention in the AL Central when all is said and done.

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