Chicago White Sox

Welcome back, sweet baseball.

We pray from Seattle to Florida and from Toronto to Texas to you to give us the elixir of October success.

Over the next few months we’ll fall back in love with our stadiums—from the Green Monster at Fenway to the Green Monster Ivy at Wrigley. We’ll hope to see a player fall up the hill in Houston, fall over the fence in Arizona, or crash headlong into a superstar at Yankee.

The key to the White Sox season lies in their offense. The team scored less than 4.5 runs per game last year and let two of their most productive hitters leave in free agency.

While their pitching looks very strong, they will need to be more productive to be considered a real contender. While there are some reasons to expect improved production, the offense could conceivably be worse if some things don't break in favor of the Sox.

While everyone is talking about Jake Peavy, Gordon Beckham and "The Outfield Situation," the Chicago White Sox No. 3 pitcher Gavin Floyd is seemingly skirting around the media radar.

Perhaps the most intriguing piece of what could potentially be a terrific White Sox team this year, Floyd is poised to build upon his resume and thrust himself into the upper echelon of pitchers this season.

A few of you by now are probably thinking, "You have got to be kidding me! He had a 4.06 ERA last season and was a measly 11-11!" But hear me out.

Baseball season begins April 4, so it’s time to predict the outcomes for every team in the AL. Look for your favorite squads and compare your picks to mine.

I’ve ranked the teams based on their predicted finish for the 2010 season. I’ve also ranked each squad’s batting and pitching on a letter scale, with a short explanation following.

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The American League Central will likely be the worst division in baseball this year. According to my calculations (which basically involve ranking every player and the managers), the AL Central will combine for 375 wins, equaling an average of 75 wins per team.

Yikes.

Let's see why this division projects poorly...

5. Cleveland Indians

Projected record: 62-100, 28th in infield, 12th in outfield, 29th in starting pitching, 20th in bullpen.

Last season Ozzie put together 126 different lineups over the course of the season. If recent rumors are any indication, the White Sox lineup will continue to be in flux this season.

As reported by Mark Gonzales, Ozzie has floated two ideas recently, both of which gave me the same knee-jerk reaction of “SERIOUSLY!?”

1. Batting Mark Kotsay THIRD against right-handed pitchers

Sergio Santos is a name White Sox fans may need to learn going into this season, as he is currently extremely close to taking the final roster spot. Fans of other teams, however, may learn his name as well before the 2010 season starts.

The 26-year-old Santos has been one of the few surprises in White Sox camp striking out nine in five-and-two-thirds of scoreless work. His dominating pitching is only half the Santos surprise (Santos surprise sounds really dirty).

The most surprising part is that Santos has only been a pitcher for 28.2 innings before this spring.

For the most part, White Sox players go completely overlooked when it comes to fantasy baseball.

In most seasons, the entire White Sox starting staff can be found on waivers after a draft.

This year, however, the White Sox are producing a lot of possible sleepers...but like all sleepers, they come with their share of possible buyer's remorse.

Pick your poison, or perhaps a gold cup of fantasy championship, with Juan Pierre, Gordon Beckham, Carlos Quentin, Alex Rios, Alexei Ramirez, and the entire White Sox pitching staff minus Freddy Garcia.

Is a bomb going to go off in the Arizona desert?

Over the past couple weeks, the Chicago White Sox's Spring Training has overtaken the new ownership of the Cubs as the front page news all over baseball. And it hasn’t been because of anything the team has done on the field.

Paul Konerko gets little respect from fantasy owners, though as fantasy drafts have come upon us he has quickly become a player that I’m targeting.  No, not in shallower leagues, but if I’m in a league that requires a corner infielder he is one of the players on my list.  Why?  He’s a cheap source of power that no one else seems to care about.

First let’s look at his statistics from last season: