AL Central Is a Two-Team Race

I don’t know who will win the American League Central, but it does feel like the Minnesota Twins are fading.  The Tigers and the Chicago White Sox are the only two teams that have much of a shot.  I know the Twins are only 3.5 games out of first place, but their pitching is just awful and their lineup lacks punch behind Morneau and Mauer.

So, what’s the difference between Tigers and the White Sox?  The Tigers have really struggled to put runs on the board this season, but the powerful White Sox have scored only 15 more runs than the Tigers, and they’ve played two more games that Detroit. 

However, the heart of the White Sox order has to instill more fear into the opposition than the Tigers order.  The trio of Dye, Thome, and Konerko are still slugging balls out of every stadium in which they play.

The two teams run differential is only one run apart.  The Tigers pitching staff has allowed 16 fewer runs than the White Sox staff, but again, the Tigers have played two fewer games.  However, the White Sox recently traded away some of their pitching depth to obtain the injured Jake Peavy. 

If Peavy is able to come back and pitch well down the stretch, the Tigers and Sox starting rotations may be about equal.

The Tigers foursome of Verlander, Jackson, Washburn, and Porcello is darn good.  The first three guys have been among the league leaders in ERA all season and Porcello could still walk away with the Rookie of the Year award.

The White Sox current top four (excluding Peavy) is Buehrle, Danks, Contreras, and Gavin Floyd.  All of those guys have had good seasons in the past, but only Buehrle has excelled this season. 

However, the other three fellas got off to terrible starts and have since rebounded.  Adding Peavy to that rotation makes them look pretty decent.  I’ll still take the Tigers rotation.

Enough editorializing, here’s where the two teams ranks in the American League.  Tigers ranks will be first, White Sox second:

• Runs: Tigers 11th, White Sox 9th
• HR: Tigers 7th, White Sox 4th
• AVG: Tigers 11th, White Sox 9th
• OPS: Tigers 11th, White Sox 9th
• SB: Tigers 13th, White Sox 7th
• ERA: Tigers 2nd, White Sox 3rd
• Quality Starts: Tigers 6th, White Sox 3rd
• BAA: Tigers 5th, White Sox 3rd
• SV%: Tigers 11th, White Sox 9th
• WHIP: Tigers 9th, White Sox 4th

Boy, when you stack it up like that, it doesn’t look that great, does it?  Of course we can take solace in the fact that the Tigers lead the division by a game and have owned the White Sox this season.  Should be an interesting conclusion to the season.