This guy makes Sox Subdivision look like Marlin fans.


Five bold predictions for the 2015 Chicago White Sox
http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2015-04-01/white-sox-preview-lineup-predictions-fantasy-chris-sale-jose-abreu

This year is the 10th anniversary of the White Sox’s only World Series win in the live ball era, and the seasons since then have been uneven, with four winning records and five losing records — and only the past two seasons being on the same side of .500, the wrong side, as it happens.

One of the most active teams in the offseason (adding Melky Cabrera, Adam LaRoche, David Robertson, Jeff Samardzija and other key players), Chicago has its eyes on much more than just a winning record this time around.


Avisail Garcia (Getty Images)MORE PREDICTIONS: Yankees | Red Sox | Cardinals | Phillies | Indians | Nationals | Giants

So, what can be expected from the White Sox in 2015? Here are five predictions.

1. Hardware store
Chris Sale will miss the beginning of the season as he recovers from a broken foot, but the left-hander won’t break stride once he returns, marching to the Cy Young Award after finishing sixth, fifth and third in the voting the past three years. Sale will begin his season with six no-hit innings against the Twins on April 12, but Robin Ventura will remove his ace from his season debut with good reason — it will wind up being a combined one-hitter, and the first of Sale’s 18 wins in a season he finishes with a 2.05 ERA, 2.36 FIP and 218 strikeouts in 195 innings. Jose Abreu, last season’s Rookie of the Year, will not follow it up with an MVP award, because of the continued existence of Mike Trout, but the Chicago slugger will lead the American League in home runs and will finish second in the MVP vote, or first in the non-Trout division, which should soon enough get its own trophy.

MLB 2015: Predicting win totals for every NL team | Predicting win totals for every AL team

2. Look, new Avi!
One of the biggest additions to the White Sox this year might be someone they already had, but missed for almost all of last season. Avisail Garcia is 23, and hit .244/.305/.413 with seven home runs in 46 games before a shoulder injury ended his 2014 campaign. The main player the White Sox got back in the Jake Peavy trade in 2013 is ready to break out, and will make the first All-Star team of his career in the middle of a season in which he hits .288/.343/.449 with 26 home runs.

3. Geo Metro
Geovany Soto, the 2008 National League Rookie of the Year with the Cubs, will thrive in his return to Chicago, snatching the starting job behind the plate from Tyler Flowers in late May, as Flowers, who hit a career-best .241 last year with a .297 on-base percentage and .396 slugging percentage, will slip back a bit and have offensive numbers that simply cannot justify a regular spot in the lineup. Soto will be a 2 WAR player, his best year since 2010, thanks in part to his bat, but largely because of his defensive work behind the plate. Flowers will continue catching Sale’s starts, which works out just fine because the White Sox do not need as much offense in the lineup on the days their ace pitches.

4. Swiping Sox
On May 27 in Toronto, with knuckleballer R.A. Dickey on the mound and Russell Martin out of the Blue Jays’ lineup with a stomach bug, the White Sox will break one of their oldest team records. Chicago stole 11 bases on July 2, 1909 against the St. Louis Browns, but in this game, the Pale Hose go 12-for-12 on the basepaths, with a team-record five by rookie second baseman Micah Johnson, four by Adam Eaton, two by Alexei Ramirez and one by Melky Cabrera. This will represent more than 10 percent of Chicago’s season total of 106 stolen bases.

5. Wild finish
The White Sox will fall short of a first division title since 2008, but will make the playoffs for the first time since that season by securing the wild card, and thanks to Sale’s brilliance, Chicago will defeat the Angels to advance to a division series meeting with Seattle. The games will be low-scoring and close, with home-field advantage helping the Mariners both in the form of Safeco Field containing some of the White Sox’s power and the last at-bat. Being able to throw Felix Hernandez twice, while the White Sox are only able to use Sale once, also proves critical in the series — a case where the design of the wild-card system provides the advantage that it is supposed to provide for the team with the best record in the league.

wow

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yeah about that.... i seem to remember good ol "avisingle" (from america: the poster) doing the .320 thing for a bit with a suspiciously low amount of power, but then he put it together for a glorious 2-4 week span where he got up to like .320/8/23 or something.... but then i remember he tweaked his knee and missed a game or 2 or 3 and since then he's been pretty much useless/shit/etc. do any white sox fans here have any reasoning beyond "that knee thing fucked him up" for this?

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This is my favorite quote "4. Swiping Sox
On May 27 in Toronto, with knuckleballer R.A. Dickey on the mound and Russell Martin out of the Blue Jays’ lineup with a stomach bug, the White Sox will break one of their oldest team records. Chicago stole 11 bases on July 2, 1909 against the St. Louis Browns, but in this game, the Pale Hose go 12-for-12 on the basepaths, with a team-record five by rookie second baseman Micah Johnson, four by Adam Eaton, two by Alexei Ramirez and one by Melky Cabrera. This will represent more than 10 percent of Chicago’s season total of 106 stolen bases"