Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie

With a mix of aging star power, emerging talent, and timely contributions from big league filler, the White Sox earned a Division Title in 2008. It wasn’t always pretty. And winning the AL Central took 163 games, thanks, at least in part, to a late September schnide which nearly gifted the division to the rival Minnesota Twins.

Thus two things are certain this year on Chicago’s South Side:
1) There will be a new division title flag waiving (or tossing about) in the breeze
2) Ozzie Guillen will be back for at least a few more games as White Sox manager.

Beyond that, not much is certain. The 2009 White Sox may be a an injury or two, or a statistical regression or two away from a repeat of their putrid 72-win campaign of 2007. And Ozzie Guillen may be a tirade or a post-game meltdown away from prematurely terminating his tenure as manager (or from having it terminated on his behalf).

Anything, as Kevin Garnett likes to remind us, is possible.

The Manager

Why talk about the skipper? Ozzie Guillen wasn’t the one who slugged 36 homeruns, or won 17 games, or finished 2nd in Rookie of the Year balloting. Why bring Ozzie into this?



More so than any other manager, Ozzie Guillen has cursed, ranted, and raved his way into becoming the face of the White Sox franchise. Frank Thomas has long since left the south side, taking his recognizable image with him. Ken Griffey Junior was only a late-season rental for 2008, he has returned home to Seattle. Konerko, Dye and Thome are all good players but none has taken the leap to recognizable, marketable mega-star status.

The beloved skipper, on the other hand, lands on Sportscenter and makes headlines pretty much every week. Maybe it’s the language barrier. Maybe its that Ozzie had the misfortune of learning English in baseball clubhouses and therefore was given a somewhat skewed introduction to our national language. Maybe he just talks the same way in front of a microphone that he does in the dugout and deserves our praise for being so genuine.

Either way, Guillen’s colorful vocabulary and penchant for stirring up media controversies (Paging Mr. Mariotti) are, for better or for worse, a part of the White Sox and may impact the success or failure of the 2009 team.

The Hitters

The lineup isn’t quite a geriatric ward with a handful of youthful visitors. But its inching that way.

Jermaine Dye is back in right field after a stellar 2008 (34 HR .292 BA). This is the final guaranteed year of his contract. Now 35 years old, Dye knows that another productive and most important, another healthy season will earn him a great deal of money as he marches towards retirement. Any hope of a lucrative long-term contract to close out his 30s will depend on repeating last year’s performance. He is joined in the outfield by 2008 sensation Carlos Quentin and a 2-headed monster of mediocrity in centerfield, Brian Anderson and DeWayne Wise. Quentin put up eye-popping numbers in 2008 only to have his MVP-caliber season cut short by a fractured wrist suffered during a post-strikeout temper tantrum. Anderson and Wise will share time in centerfield until one of them completely flops, or until one establishes himself as a bona fide major league everyday-er.

The infield features a return to his natural position for last year’s Rookie of the Year runner-up Alexi Ramirez. Now the starting shortstop, Ramirez batted close to .300, showed power, and demonstrated an ability to steal a few bases. Theres no reason to doubt his ability to put up similar, or even better numbers, in 2009. Jumping to the now vacant slot at second base will likely be top prospect Chris Getz. He has seen his batting average rise each of the past two years as he repeated a year at AA and then jumped to AAA last season. He’s never had a big-league at bat. But, stands to win the job out of spring training this year. Third base will either go to slugging youngster (can you call someone who is 26 young?) Josh Fields or to Wilson Betemit who came over from Gotham City in the Nick Swisher trade. Fields has the huge upside of having mashed 23 homers in emergency major league duty in 2007 and a stellar track record of similar power at all levels of his minor league journey. Betemit is an above-average utility man.

No longer a viable defensive option, Jim Thome will be the DH yet again. He will turn 39 this year. Can he stay healthy? Paul Konerko is, injuries permitting, the 1st baseman. White Sox fans hope and pray that his DL stint last season was not a sign of frailty to come. Similarly, AJ Pierzynski has made a career out of being able to play almost everyday behind the plate. He’s now 32, however, and, it must be pointed out that he’s entering into those years in which catchers who have squatted behind the dish for a few too many innings over their careers start to show signs of rapid decline.

The Hurlers

Gavin Floyd exited the boulevard of broken dreams last season and finally lived up to the high billing which earned him a spot in the top 5 of the 2001 amateur draft. Most statheads prophesy doom for Floyd in 2009, calling last year an aberration. Sox fans, and anyone who was struck in the head by one of his errant pitches during their only Varsity high school at-bat, hope Gavin can repeat his 2008 success. Lefties John Danks and Mark Buehrle will be the top two arms in the Sox rotation. Buehrle has thrown 200 innings in 8 straight seasons. That’s refreshing to see in an era of frail pitchers. Danks is only 24 and proved last season that he has the stuff to retire big league hitters consistently. His 3.32 ERA in 2008 would be nice to see again this season on the south side.

The aging Jose Contreras and Bartolo Colon are, as of March 22, the frontrunners to fill the final two slots in the rotation. Remember when they were front of the rotation studs? Bullpen longmen Clayton Richard, DJ Carassco, and Jeff Marquez are also rotation options should the portly Colon and brittle Contreras collapse.

The bank end of the bullpen features dependable Bobby Jenks. Over the past two seasons, Jenks has run up a stat line which any sane manager would covet: 5 homers allowed and just 30 walks in almost 130 innings. That’s reliability at the end of the game. Sox fans hope to see a lot of Jenks in 2009. The oft-injured Octavio Dotel, Scott Linebrink, and World Baseball Classic alumnus Matt Thornton will be the middle innings links between the starting staff and Jenks.

Overall

At the start of last season, the White Sox were not anyone’s sexy pick to win the AL Central. They return, essentially, the same roster. Everyone is a year older and wiser. If the hitters avoid late-career swoons, the pitchers maintain their 2008 levels of efficiency, and Guillen doesn’t try to light a fire under the team by literally setting them all on fire, the Sox should be able to run with anyone in the AL Central in 2009.

Prediction: 88-74 First Place AL Central.