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YOUR FIRST PLACE CHICAGO WHITE SOX


southsider2k5

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 7, 2012 -> 11:37 AM)
I know people really want to, but it way too early to write off the Tigers.

I don't think a soul has written off the Tigers. The entire national media still expects them to win this division. Sox fans are certainly not writing them off. Indians fans are certainly not writing them off. I think Detroit fans are probably writing the Tigers off more than anyone else.

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QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 7, 2012 -> 12:42 PM)
I don't think a soul has written off the Tigers. The entire national media still expects them to win this division. Sox fans are certainly not writing them off. Indians fans are certainly not writing them off. I think Detroit fans are probably writing the Tigers off more than anyone else.

 

I have seen it said more than a few times on Soxtalk.

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QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 7, 2012 -> 12:42 PM)
I don't think a soul has written off the Tigers. The entire national media still expects them to win this division. Sox fans are certainly not writing them off. Indians fans are certainly not writing them off. I think Detroit fans are probably writing the Tigers off more than anyone else.

 

 

This week's SI has a quick summary of each division in baseball and states that the Sox are a contender but that the Tigers will put a streak together and end up winning the division.

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 7, 2012 -> 01:12 PM)
I have seen it said more than a few times on Soxtalk.

 

There's some young players on this team having great success. We have no idea how they will perform when there's far more pressure.

 

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I don't expect them to win it, but the fact that these young guys are producing so well gives me hope for the future. It's really nice to see everyone winning and having fun. We'll need these young guys to keep it up through the grueling season, which is a lot to ask for, but not impossible. I'll keep rooting for them either way. Kudos to this entire team! :gosoxretro:

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  • 3 weeks later...

To summarize, White Sox and Tigers likely to make playoffs because AL CENTRAL pitching is so terrible...

 

 

 

A year ago, Verlander was 12-5 through July 15 -- he would win his next 12 starts as the Tigers went 46-23 over their final 69 games to run away with the NL Central title.

 

Maybe they'll do that again, although I get a feeling the White Sox will hang around to put up a challenge. And despite the trade that brought in Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante, the Tigers don't seem as likely to get on that kind of roll. Similar to last season, the Indians seem to be hanging on by their fingernails. Zach McAllister scuffled through 6.1 innings and 117 pitches on Thursday, escaping a couple jams, but he has been the best Cleveland starter of late -- maybe the only one.

 

In fact, in looking at the rotations of the Indians, Royals and Twins, I'm starting to think the AL Central will be sending two teams to the playoffs.

 

Cleveland

Justin Masterson, while not quite as dominant as 2011, is solid along with McAllister, but let's look at the rest of the current rotation.

 

Derek Lowe: Let's be honest, Lowe is staring down retirement. Over his past 11 starts he has an 8.07 ERA and has allowed 83 hits in 58 innings. He has the lowest strikeout rate of any qualified starter.

 

Ubaldo Jimenez: He's 8-9 with a 4.97 ERA and thanks to a league-leading 69 walks has allowed the third-highest opponents' on-base percentage of any starter (Lowe is worst).

 

Josh Tomlin: The finesse righty just doesn't miss enough bats to be consistently effective. He has a 5.34 ERA. He had a 5.24 ERA over his final 16 starts of 2011. He throws strikes, but it's difficult to win striking out three batters per start.

 

Kansas City

Remember a couple years ago when all those Royals pitching prospects were being highly touted? Well, Danny Duffy and John Lamb got injured and Mike Montgomery struggled so bad in Triple-A that he had to be sent back down to Double-A. Even Felipe Paulino, stolen from the Rockies a year ago, blew out his elbow. It has been a lot of bad luck, which means Kansas City's pitching is as bad as ever. Let's skip over the gory details; Royals fans have already suffered enough. But we'll point out the Royals have a 5.40 rotation ERA and that's not all Jonathan Sanchez's fault.

 

Minnesota

Amazingly, that 5.40 figure isn't even the worst in the league. The Twins' rotation has a 5.77 ERA, which factoring in the overall decline in offense and Target Field being a pretty neutral park makes this one of the worst rotations ever assembled. And Francisco Liriano may soon be shipped out of town (not that he has been that great overall, with a 5.31 ERA). The rotation is so bad that the Twins are still throwing Nick Blackburn out there every fifth day despite a 7.99 ERA. Not to pick on a guy when he's down, but Blackburn has made 15 starts and has just two quality starts. Only six pitchers since 1901 who made at least 15 starts have ever had a higher ERA. Four of those came during the steroid era; one came in 1934; and the other was Steve Blass, who had a "disease" named after him after he lost the ability to throw strikes. Stop it, Minnesota, stop it.

 

So you get the idea. The Tigers have 28 games remaining against the Indians, Royals and Twins (their final 13 games are against the Royals and Twins; imagine the starters they'll be throwing out by then). The White Sox have 27 games against those three clubs. That's a lot of games against Triple-A caliber opposing starters and it's why I think the Tigers and White Sox can both make the playoffs. That doesn't mean I believe the Tigers and White Sox are two of the five best teams in the American League. It's all about strength of schedule, which we can see in the season run differentials by division: AL East +84, AL Central -134, AL West +158.

 

In fact, imagine this worst-case scenario for a club like the Angels. Say they win 94 games but lose the division title by a game to the Rangers. And then get to face the 86-win Tigers in the wild-card game. Your reward for winning eight more games while playing in a tougher division: Perhaps Justin Verlander in a do-or-die game.

 

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/i...d-make-playoffs

 

doniebrasco30The Tigers will be bankrupt in a few years. There owner spends money on fat people because he is old and thinks he can throw money away and win before he is gone. The White sox are a group of players playing in a contracted year or trying to justify the stupid contracts they got. They being in the second city have the revenue to spend to compete long after the tigers. Thats right I said revenue and not money. Dose anyone Know what revenue is? The money you take in. The Dolan's aren't cheep they just take in less money then say the Chi sox and Yankees. Based on the size of the city's that should make sense to dumb people. Or people that think its easy to run a business. I will laugh my $@% off in a few years when Justin V is wearing pin stripes. Not because I like the Yankees , but because I hate the Tigers more than I hate the Yankees or Red Sox or White Sucks.

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QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 10:47 AM)
Damn, just noticed the last 13 games of the season for the Tigers are against KC/Minnesota. Hope we have a decent lead when that point hits...

 

It's nice to see the Sox beat up the Twins but they struggle against the Royals.

 

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QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jul 27, 2012 -> 10:47 AM)
Damn, just noticed the last 13 games of the season for the Tigers are against KC/Minnesota. Hope we have a decent lead when that point hits...

 

Unless the Sox have a 4 game lead after facing the Tigers in the 4-game series, it's going to be tough.

 

I just want the Sox to get to 90 wins and let the playoff picture fall where it will. If the Tigers get 91 wins, tip your cap for going 52-29 the second half.

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