Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
Heading into Saturday's games, the White Sox stand 7.5 games behind Minnesota in the AL Central. The White Sox have yet to really get going in 2010, aside from a three-game sweep of the Mariners, the White Sox have only one other winning streak: a modest two-game "streak" on April 11-12. At some point, you have to actually start winning games with some regularity to make the playoffs, and with the Sox 12-18, it doesn't look like that is ever going to happen.
The lineup has been frustrating, which was in line with what just about everyone expected. The Sox are 10th in the AL in runs scored per game (4.07). This is in spite of Paul Konerko's insane 12 home run start, and pleasantly effective efforts from Alex Rios and Andruw Jones. Some hitters may get hot, others cold, but on balance it's hard to imagine the White Sox offense getting much better.
The pitching staff is a different story. Surprisingly, the Sox have allowed 4.93 runs per game, merely 9th best in the league. Jake Peavy, Freddy Garcia, and Gavin Floyd all have ERAs over 5.00, and Mark Buehrle is just a hair below. Any scenario involving the White Sox getting back into the division race is centered upon the pitching staff, especially the rotation, turning it around.
Are the White Sox better than this? Definitely. Ozzie Guillen's troops don't look like a 64-win team, but that isn't saying much. 12-18 is a larger hole than it might seem, which is why the various playoff odds reports at Baseball Prospectus have Chicago's chances of taking the AL Central somewhere between 2-11%. Those 18 losses count, and they aren't going away. Even if we assume that it will take only 88 wins to win the AL Central (which seems low given how good the Twins look), that means that the White Sox would need to go 76-65 the rest of the way, a .575 winning percentage. The White Sox, to this point, simply haven't demonstrated that they can play that well.
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