Opinion

The MLB season is off and running, with teams scrambling to get off to a good start. For the Chicago White Sox, it has been a mix of very good and somewhat concerning.

Just the fact that many people projected the White Sox finishing in the bottom part of the American League shows that that they are better than many predicted.

Here are some reasons why the White Sox are a darkhorse for the playoffs.

As much as we've anticipated Bryce Harper getting called up to the majors, we apparently weren't as excited as Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo. Whatever plan he had just got tossed out the window in a desperate hope to inject some offense into an increasingly feeble Nats lineup.

In January of this year, the New York Times ran a story that said the Yankees are saving now for a potential free-agency splash next winter.

The MLB trade deadline brings excitement each summer as contenders try to improve their team while pretenders look to the future.

The saying in baseball is that you can't have too much pitching, so starting pitchers are always at high demand around the deadline.

An elite starting pitcher can be the difference in reaching the postseason or making a run at a World Series Championship.

Cliff Lee was traded at the deadline to the Texas Rangers a few years ago and led them all the way to the World Series.

Jose Reyes returned to CitiField Tuesday night for the first time since he sold his considerable shortstop talents to the Miami Marlins. He heard more boos than cheers, and he continued to struggle at the plate.

Count Derek Jeter as one of the biggest early-season surprises in baseball.

Only a couple of months from his 38th birthday, the Yankee captain has had perhaps the best start of his Hall of Fame career. He entered the second game of the series against the Texas Rangers batting .411 with 30 hits and a 1.08 OPS.

Houston Astros fans were surprised when Brad Mills announced Brett Myers would be the Astros' primary closer heading into the 2012 season. The biggest reason was Myers was expected to be No. 1 or No. 2 in the rotation; a rotation that was atrocious last year.

Jair Jurrjens isn’t getting any better. Since suffering a knee injury in the second half of the 2011 season, Jurrjens has looked uncomfortable on the mound has has vastly underperformed for an Atlanta Braves team that needed him to be one of the consistent starters in their rotation.

Before the start of the 2012 season, the New York Yankees traded catcher Jesus Montero to the Seattle Mariners for pitcher Michael Pineda. I expected the Yankees to make a significant push for Yu Darvish after he was posted, but that didn't happen.

Pineda struggled to find his velocity in spring training and showed up overweight. Now he's been shut down for a while.

It took Tim Lincecum four tries, but the diminutive right-hander mercifully registered his first win of the 2012 season. He went five innings against New York's junior varsity squad, whiffing eight Mets, surrendering four hits and suffering just a single earned run.

This is where the good news starts to turn, though.