Biggest Offseason Acquisition: Well, no one died in the offseason. So that’s something.
Potential Fatal Flaw: Starting pitching. For one.
Ceiling: .500 baseball
Floor: Awful baseball team.
Overall: Maybe I’m being overly critical of a team that won 85 games last year and didn’t suffer any serious losses this offseason (AJ Pierzynski left, but I said “serious.”).
The pitching is the thing that concerns me the most with the White Sox. They’re Chris Sale (and his ridiculously dangerous delivery), soft-tossing Jake Peavy, and a lot of question marks. John Danks has looked terrible in Spring Training and in the bulk of his recent professional life. Gavin Floyd is, and always will be, just Gavin Floyd, and then Jose Quintana and Hector Santiago are fighting it out to see who can be the more “5th starter” 5th starter.
The White Sox locked up Chris Sale this offseason, keeping him on the South Side until 2018. I’ve made fun of his delivery before, so forgive me, but this is what it looks like. It’s just a mess. It’s frightening to look at. It’s not the kind of delivery that I’d want to lock up long-term.
Offensively, Chicago is led by 37-year-old Paul Konerko. Konerko has made the All-Star team three years running. And while he’s continued to produce, that production has declined each year, going from 4 wins above replacement in 2010, to 2 ½ in 2011, to 1 ½ last year. That’s not a good sign for a team that will need all the help they can get offensively.
Adam Dunn hit 41 home runs last year. You don’t get that from many hitters in today’s game. But Dunn was worth just below one win above replacement last year. He provides absolutely nothing defensively, because he’s a designated hitter. He struck out a career-high 222 times in 2012. He only got on-base ⅓ of the time. It was statistically his worst season (outside of 2011, which was historically bad for any player) since 2006. Oh, he’s 33.
The Chicago White Sox are, in short, old. And where they’re not old (Gordon Beckham), they’re just terrible. They’re an organization with one of the worst farm systems in baseball and a Major League roster littered with guys hovering around, or well past, 30. There are few teams in worse long-term shape than the White Sox.
I don’t see their immediate future looking so rosy either. The Indians, Tigers, and Royals all improved to varying degrees this offseason. Minnesota remained Minnesota and, really, so did the White Sox. There’s not enough starting pitching and there are too many hitters who are in their career declines for optimism to reign supreme. There’s a line of demarcation in the AL Central and the White Sox are firmly below it.
Predicted Finish: 74-88
Mid-Atlantic Bias 
