Slow Down South-Siders, You Still Have To Face The Rays

Congratulations Chicago, your White Sox just defeated the Minnesota Twins 1-0 to reach the playoffs!

Unfortunately, there is some bad news: the Rays are waiting in Tampa Bay and they have been resting for the past week or so.

Oh, did I mention that they won 97 games this year? I'm sure that you remember the 6 times they beat you in the 10 games you played this season.

I hope that you haven't forgotten about their pitching either. Those top five (Kazmir, Garza, Shields, Sonnanstine and Jackson) were awfully good this season, along with the bullpen they posted the third best ERA in all of baseball this year. They always have Troy Percival at the back end to close everything up too.

Then there's the offense, they certainly have to be feared as well. From top to bottom this lineup has quality hitters. There is speed (B.J. Upton, 44 stolen bases), power (Carlos Peña, 31 home runs, 102 RBI), and those versatile multi-tool players (Carl Crawford).

Oh, that Longoria kid has had a pretty good year too (.272, 27 home runs, 85 RBI). I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that he will probably win the Rookie of the Year award for this season.

You didn't forget about that did you?

I haven't even mentioned how tired you guys must be! Dropping five in a row to the Twins and Indians certainly was no fun, pretty demoralizing too. You really showed some gut by winning those last three, I'm sure it didn't completely drain you.

Though I would imagine that Mark Buehrle is really feeling some fatigue. Pitching on three days rest Sunday he threw more than 100 pitches in his win against the Indians. That's quite a load, especially when you consider that he threw 211 innings prior to the 7 he tossed Sunday.

That's just the beginning of the pitching woes too. Gavin Floyd, your wins leader, had never thrown more than 70 innings in one year before this season (he has 214 after game 163). John Danks is still only in his second year, and let's just hope that you never have to see Javier Vazquez pitch again this season.

On offense, well...the bulk of your offense is still nursing a broken wrist. The latest word on Carlos Quentin is that he is "making strides in his recovery", however, it appears that he is still nowhere near game ready. With at most five games remaining it does not seem likely that the team leader in home runs, RBI and OPS will be able to join the team. The other offensive weapons, Thome, Konerko, Griffey Jr., have a combined age of 102 not exactly the freshest come October. Especially when compared to Upton, Crawford and Longoria (combined age 73).

Of course you remembered all of that.

No? You didn't? Well, don't worry about it just yet.

You have a whole day to enjoy your AL Central Championship!

Good luck on Thursday. Maybe once you jog your memory you'll realize that you certainly will need it.