Twins clinch, White Sox eliminated
posted in Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, The Stretch Run |Lost in the passing last night on this blog was the elimination of the 2005 World Series champion Chicago White Sox. Minnesota whipped the Royals. Cleveland whipped the Sox. Why do I bring this up? Because of the postseason implications.
But first, let me write a bit on Chicago. Before the season started, I looked at pitching staffs in the American League, especially those of the Sox and the Indians, as I thought they’d be the two playoff teams. I suspected Chicago would have a dropoff. Several pitchers had career years for the Sox in 2005. These weren’t young guys coming into a third or fourth year, either. These were veteran pitchers where you don’t espect sudden vast improvement. Good defense could lift them. But I didn’t see how they could continu eit for two years. Turns out they couldn’t. Still, I thought the extra runs would make up for allowing a few more and Chicago would be in position to defend its title. I never could have predicted the Sox’ bats would leave them midseason, and they’d drop as many close games as they did. And all that Sox magic that carried them through 2005 and early 2006 was gone, too. Of course, there’s really no such thing as magic. Teams perform in the clutch because they’re good, and because of some luck. Chicago was good. The Indians were much like the Sox, but with an even worse pitching staff in my estimation. Both teams must correct those problems in the offseason, or I suspect we’ll see the same two AL Central teams in the playoffs again next season.
Now, on to the ramifications of Monday’s games. The Twins are now 1 game behind (2, actually, because they must finish ahead of Detroit, not in a tie) the Tigers. They play the Royals, who seem like they ran out of gas after the August surge. And then Twins play the White Sox, who have not only run out of gas, they’ve run out of starters. Jermain Dye was injured this weekend. He played Monday, but we’ll have to see if he plays the whole week. Paul Konerko’s still having back problems. Jose Contreres was shut down for the season. Mark Buehrle may be as well. In other words, don’t count on the old guard to give Detroit a boost when the Sox and Twins meet in the Metrodome. However, Ozzie will be starting some young players, who we hope are hungry and want to prove themselves to help their chances next season. This race for the AL Central title will most definitely require the Tigers to just keep winning. (link to compilation of Sox articles)
Sphere It
I think that one thing that was overlooked this year was the trade the White Sox made with the Phils during the offseason trading Aaron Rowand to the Phils for Jim Thome. Although Thome was killing the ball early in the year (and is a great hitter). he had a 2nd half drop off that coincided with the decline of the Sox. Meanwhile the White Sox outfield was very shaky defensively this year, and losing Rowand did not help them one bit. This shaky outfield could not have helped the pitching staff’s confidence one bit. Whatever the case may be, I am just glad the Tigers don’t have to deal with the White Sox again this season. I really like our chances in the postseason, especially with quality starting pitching and some power arms in the bullpen. The fact that the Tigers can play small ball and manufacture runs looms large in the postseason as well. Typically you see teams that rely solely on homers struggle to score in October.