South Side Uprising

by James Mitchell


  Raise your hand if you had the Chicago White Sox a half game out of the AL Central lead heading into June. 


  Now, raise your hand if you thought Paul Konerko would be batting at a near .400 clip, Adam Dunn would be on pace to hit more than 40 Home Runs, Alex Rios would round back into form, Dayan Viciedo would be a stud in left field, Alejandro De Aza would be one of the top lead off men in the AL, Jake Peavy would be both healthy and good, Chris Sale would look like Randy Johnson and a bunch of hard throwing rookies would round out one of the top bullpens in all of baseball. 

  Still have your hand raised? 

  Alright now put your damn hand down because not even GM Kenny Williams saw this one coming. I think the best way to describe this season on the South Side so far would be everything that needed to go right, has gone right and then some. 

  Hell even Gordon Beckham is starting to hit, surely this team can’t stay on this pace for an entire season, can it? 

  That being said, right now you could make the argument that the Sox have the best overall team; pitching, offense and defense combination in the AL Central. The Tigers defense and the bullpen are suspect, the Royals starting Rotation is garbage, and the Indians offense is underwhelming. 

  You have to give Williams a ton of credit, the last couple years he has said they can both rebuild and compete at the same time. To his point that is exactly what this team has done during the 2012 season. 

  The organization has taken a beating when it comes to young talent coming up through the minor league system over the past few years.  Williams didn’t agree, and he backed that up when the opening day roster came around. Nate Jones, Dayan Viciedo, Hector Santiago, Addison Reed & Eduardo Escobar all rookies who made the big league club coming out of spring training and have had an immense impact on the field.

  It’s still early; however this team is not only fun to watch but with the recent infuse in young talent, is finally starting to head back in the right direction. 

  Sports Illustrated had the Sox losing 95 games this season, Baseball Prospectus said they would lose 87 games. 

  Somewhere Kenny is quietly sitting back in his chair and smiling. Never bet against a man who brought an 88 year World Series championship drought to an end.