Tampa Bay Rays' Season Eerily Similar To The 2005 Chicago White Sox

The comparisons are a bit inevitable.

The uncertainty out of the closer position, the emerging stars, the pitching staff throwing completely out of their minds. Yup, that's the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays.

But it's also the 2005 Chicago White Sox.

It's amazing in how many ways you can compare this year's surprising Rays squad to the '05 White Sox team that rolled to a World Series title. 

The most obvious factor in comparing the teams is how out of nowhere the run came. Sure, the Rays are quite a bit more unlikely seeing as how they've never even had a winning record, let alone a championship, in their short existence. But looking back at the start of the 2005 season shows that both teams were expected to do about the same.

The '05 White Sox were projected by most experts to finish in fourth place in the AL Central. The Minnesota Twins were expected to be the class of that division and the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers were both supposed to have mediocre years, but still better then the White Sox.

The '08 Rays were projected by most to finish fourth in the AL East. The perennial powerhouses that are the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees were supposed to dominate the division per usual, with the Toronto Blue Jays finishing in third, out of the picture but still ahead of Tampa Bay.

Things didn't work out that way in either situation. The White Sox soared to an incredible start and never looked back. Leading the AL Central from wire-to-wire, holding off a late Indians' run to win the division. While the Rays haven't quite dominated the East like that, they still have held on to a pretty firm grip on the division lead for much of the year.

And in both cases, experts spent the entire years saying "Can they keep it up?" "When will they collapse?" etc, etc.

Expectations aside, the makeup of both teams is similar as well. First take a look at the closer situation. The big difference in the two teams is that the Rays have a closer in line, when healthy. Troy Percival is and has been the Rays closer when he's been healthy, with the likes of Dan Wheeler, J.P. Howell, and Grant Balfour filling in during Percival's DL stints.

It was a little more dicey for the White Sox. They started the season with Shingo Takatsu as the closer. Takatsu had done wonderful the previous season in the role and was expected to fill that role for the entire season. But the league caught up to Takatsu and the White Sox turned to Dustin Hermanson who did a more then capable job in the role. However, Hermanson's health became a concern, much like Percival's, and the White Sox turned to Bobby Jenks (as well as Damaso Marte, Cliff Politte, and Neal Cotts), late in the season for save opportunities.

But the fact that both teams have had as much success without a set-in-stone closer situation is nearly unheard of these days.

In fact, the bullpen and pitching staff as a whole has been pretty surreal for the Rays, with every pitcher in both the rotation and bullpen throwing far better then they have during their careers.

Sure, the Rays are younger. The likes of Scott Kazmir, James Shields, and Edwin Jackson are all former top prospects who were expected to pitch like this eventually in their careers. But at the same time they have all pitched far above what was expected of them to start the year.

The '05 White Sox saw Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland continue their consistent play that had been expected of them throughout their career. But the biggest emergence was Jose Contreras, who turned from Yankee castoff to playoff-ready ace. Like this years Rays squad, the White Sox's rotation came out of nowhere to dominate the league.

Likewise for the bullpen. Wheeler, Balfour, Howell, among others have been career bullpen guys who have been steady at best and shaky at worst. The same can be said for the White Sox's Politte, Cotts, and Marte. In each case the pitchers surprised most with their lights-out ability and clutch performances in setup opportunities.

But the most noticeable comparison between the two squads are their propensity to win the big game, regardless of how they got it done. Time after time the Rays have pulled through big wins. Whether it's by getting a big pitching performance against a division rival (Shields vs. Boston in July), or getting the clutch, ninth inning hit when it mattered most (name one), it always seemed to work out. Things are just going the way of the Rays this year.

The '05 White Sox were the same way. Every time they needed to win, they did. When Cleveland was nipping at their heels in late August and September, the White Sox always pulled off a big win.

This comparison may be a bit of a stretch, but as a White Sox fan, after seeing the Rays pull out two of three in the Cell this weekend, all I could think about was how much this Rays team reminded me of the team that brought a World Series Title to Chicago.

And if they continue on this trend, they could be the most unlikely champion in sports history.