The White Sox were in the playoff mix for some time and while their chances were still pretty slim the last week or so, that all went out the window this week with three straight losses to the Twins and now two more to the Detroit Tigers. At this point, the White Sox magic number is down to five and that’s with over two weeks left in the season.
The last time the White Sox were in first place was August 11, 2010 when they were tied with the Twins at 64-50. Since then, the White Sox have gone 15-19 and have lost a ton of ground. Only three other American League teams (Angels, Royals and Mariners) had a worse record in that same stretch.
Paul Konerko has definitely been the best hitter and it was nice to see him have a resurgence. The downside to that is, if the White Sox want to keep him, they’re going to have to give him a new contract so it’ll be interesting to see what direction the team takes. He’s made $12 million the last five years and while there have been some seasons where the White Sox haven’t gotten their money’s worth, he’s made up for some of that this year with an MVP caliber season.
John Danks, who’s pitching right now as a I write this, has been the team’s best pitcher. Both he and Mark Buehrle should finish with 200 innings and even Gavin Floyd should reach the plateau. You just wonder whether a healthy Jake Peavy would have made more a of a difference.
Bobby Jenks had a rough year and he enters his final year of arbitration. He’ll probably get a raise, but you wonder if the White Sox would be better off going in a different direction and dealing Jenks. Maybe they’d try someone like Chris Sale, although the rumors are that he might be in the mix for a spot in the rotation this year. Still the White Sox 2010 first round draft pick was pretty tough to hit this year.
It’s just disappointing that the White Sox could be in the mix for long and fall out so quickly. The same thing happened to the Tigers, just a lot earlier. We just have to hope that the front office makes the right moves to keep the White Sox competitive next year.
