Kevin Youkilis to White Sox: Landing Youk Won't Keep Chicago Atop AL Central

Kevin Youkilis will bring the Chicago White Sox grit, fieriness, a solid glove at the hot corner and hopefully more production at the dish than he gave the Boston Red Sox this season.

What he won't bring them is an AL Central crown or a trip to the postseason.

The wild card is probably out for the White Sox, likely to be won by the Los Angeles Angels or two teams from the stacked AL East.

That leaves the AL Central crown as the only hope for this White Sox team to reach the postseason. I don't doubt the White Sox can hold off the Cleveland Indians. But what happens if the Detroit Tigers finally get hot?

With the addition of Youk, we know the White Sox are fine if not spectacular offensively. Paul Konerko is having another excellent season, Alex Rios has been steady, Adam Dunn still hits for power and players like A.J. Pierzynski and Alejandro De Aza have given the team more than expected.

And atop the rotation, the White Sox are doing just peachy as well. Chris Sale (8-2, 2.24 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 89 strikeouts) and Jake Peavy (6-4, 2.84 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, 90 strikeouts) have been excellent.

It's what comes after that hurts the Sox.

Gavin Floyd? Yuck. Philip Humber? Bigger yuck. John Danks? Disappointing. Jose Quintana? Wonderful surprise, but how long will it last?

And the Tigers are coming. Yes, they've been one of the most disappointing teams in all of baseball this year. No, I'm not a Tigers fan. And yes, they've won three series in a row and are starting to look like a team that can make some noise this year.

Like the White Sox, they have questions in the rotation (outside of Justin Verlander, of course). Unlike the Sox, the team's lineup has underachieved to this point.

No, I'm not a "They have Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder, they must be good!" fan. They have plenty of talent around those two that simply hasn't produced. And in the rotation, the May return of Doug Fister has certainly helped, though the output of Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello has been disappointing.

But I simply can't shake the notion that the Tigers are the better team and will go on a summer run. I've got nothing against the Sox—call it a baseball hunch.

One that the addition of Kevin Youkilis can't shake.

Hit me up on Twitter—my tweets hit the mark more often than Spain's passing.