Avisail of the Century

The AL is weird this year, man.

All three divisions just have, like, a ton of teams either trying to compete or not even trying, leaving just one team out, that's either way out in first or heavily behind in last. There's really not a middle ground.

The AL Central has one team that's completely out of the race, no real shot, and that's the Royals. The rest of the league is made up of teams that are lucky and holding court, like the Tigers and White Sox, teams that really should be heading to first, like the Indians, and teams that are just lucky to be winning this many games to begin with, like the Twins. It's all a weird, elaborate mess.

By this weird logic, the White Sox, formerly the worst team in the AL Central, are currently tied for second with the Indians...you know, those guys who almost won the World Series last year. Yeah. Them. What the hell kind of season is this?

I mean, the White Sox aren't doing too badly, as the pitching staff, even WITHOUT Chris Sale, is doing well- Miguel Gonzalez, James Shields and Derek Holland are doing a pretty nice job, and Jose Quintana may have to do a bit more work to get his ERA down. Avisail Garcia, usually the strikeout king, is sporting a HUGE batting average and playing better than ever, and even people like Tyler Saladino and Leury Garcia are doing pretty well.

Now, it's gonna take longer to get the rest of the lineup up to speed. I mean, Cody Asche, the DH, has a .057 Batting Average. There is a REASON the Phillies let go of him. It's a flawed team, but as long as they're doing well enough to stay out of last, it won't be too problematic. I'm not seeing the Sox making a serious October run, but it's looking like they'll be better than last year.

Coming Tomorrow- Hard-hitting outfielder for a team that's gone back down to earth since early April.