Last year, Matt Davidson was one of the most strikeout-prone Designated Hitters in baseball. Last week, he hit three home runs in one game to start off the season. Something's happening.
The White Sox have had too many seasons lately where it's LOOKED like everything was going to come together for a winning record, or at least one that led to October, but eventually some outside factor that may or may not have been Robin Ventura just curtails the whole damned thing. This season...well, they definitely have the first half of the formula down. The lineup is cobbled together, but there's some success all around, from veterans like Jose Abreu to signings like Welington Castillo to younger stars like, well, Matt Davidson. For once, it seems like a great deal of this lineup is going together.
Two factors are going to make this tough. One is the rotation. They're banking on a lot of young arms to do some great things, and the only one that's made a definite impact so far is Reynaldo Lopez. Meanwhile, James Shields has lost his ability to strike people out, and Lucas Giolito's first start could have gone a little bit better, and Carlos Rodon's still injured. So unless the back end of the rotation ends up fixing all of this, it may be the tricky part of this team.
The other factor is the fact that, well, this is the AL Central. The Indians have had a stronghold on the division for two years now, and they look to hold onto said stronghold. It's also looking like the Twins will be taking another run at 2nd place and beyond, and at least the Twins have a burgeoning pitching staff to fall back on. The White Sox could break out and do some nasty things down the stretch, but things may not entirely come to fruition.
Hopefully they'll get a bit further than their BIG STARTS over the last two years.
Coming Tomorrow- One of the many stars to escape from Miami, this one already off to a nice start in St. Louis.
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