Reflections on the 2010 White Sox: A Preview

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The 2010 season is less than a month away, and here on the South side of Chicago (read: the western Chicago suburbs), White Sox fans are mostly talking about five topics in regards to the team’s upcoming campaign.

The arms race: Say it with me, “Buehrle, Peavy, Danks, Floyd… Garcia”

If there’s a case to be made in this team’s chances to take the division, it starts and ends with the pitching. ESPN’s Buster Olney ranked the Sox’s staff as the No. 3 starting rotation in all of baseball. There’s enough quality where even if one guy has a dip in his projected numbers, there still might be enough from the others to keep this team competitive. Jake Peavy showed flashes in limited appearances with the Sox last year, and as of right now, he’s saying and doing all the right things to have fans believing he can be a real ace. Plus he claims he’ll be getting people to wear cowboy boots. Win-win.

Thome NOOOO!: Sox fans are pissed about the team letting DH Jim Thome walk (not to mention his signing with the division rival Minnesota Twins). It’d be one thing if it was the Tigers or Indians, but the Twins seem to burn the Sox a lot more than other rivals. Losing one of the team’s most productive hitters for such a cheap price ($1.5 million) has almost been better to forget than spend time thinking about.

Musical Chairs, or DH?: Thome’s departure creates a massive hole in the DH department, and as of right now, the Sox are still touting the extremely controversial “DH by comitee” idea. This concept features a revolving door of question marks including — but not limited to — guys like Omar Vizquel and Andruw Jones. This idea relies on a lot of long shots to pull through, and because of this, most people aren’t encouraged about its promise. I’m in the minority thinking the Sox should let Jermaine Dye take a crack at it, but those chances are extremely weak at best.

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Ozzie 2.0: Saying the White Sox are Ozzie Guillen is an example of a true cliche. This year, he’s joined Twitter, and we can’t get enough of it. Seriously. I’m going to go pull up one of his five most recent tweets to see if we get anything good. Ah, here we go:

[indented quote]”I wish I have my bike in this moment.”

Jackpot.

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Bacon: Not the food… it’s Ozzie’s butchering (pun?) of potential proverbial all-star Gordon Beckham‘s surname. The guy showed quality major league product-ivy in his rookie season, and White Sox fans are expecting more of the same in Year 2. He’d be on the short list with Peavy and Buehrle as most entertaining players on the team to watch. If his first year wasn’t an aberration, then this guy is the real deal.

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It’s not crazy to think this team will win the division. It’s also not crazy to think they’ll finish in third place. The bottom line is the table is set and the food has been served, the 2010 White Sox either need to eat up or excuse themselves.