From ESPN:

 

The White Sox: It will all come down to starting pitching, and while GM Ken Williams has been strapped by payroll issues -- he nearly had Russ Ortiz in a trade, then barely lost out on signing Omar Daal -- the makings behind Mark Buehrle are there, as evidenced by the fact that their starters' ERA after the All-Star break fell to 4.25 from 4.76.

 

 

"What I liked was that Jon Garland and Dan Wright got better in the second half and they pitched well against contending teams on the road," says Williams. They will look at Jon Rauch, Rocky Biddle and rookie Josh Stewart (11-7 at Double-A) as Williams keeps trying to find experience.

 

 

The bullpen (Billy Koch, Antonio Osuna, Kelly Wunsch, Damaso Marte, Gary Glover) is deep and versatile. They have the energetic leadersip of Jose Valentin, who is a special person and they have established producers like Magglio Ordonez and Paul Konerko. They also expect Frank Thomas to come back strong and they have young players like Joe Crede, Willie Harris, Miguel Olivo, Josh Paul and Aaron Rowand they hope will develop

This team isn't as bad as advertised, but having Bartolo Colon would make it a huge upgrade.

It's weird how close we are to being a World Series contender.

 

As of right now, we are, at best, a 90 win team....with Colon, that puts us with one of the better 1-2 punches in the game along with a good #3 and #4 in Garland and Wright and a good #5 in Rauch....without Colon, we have Garland as #2....I don't like that, and I don't think many others like that either....and everyone else is in there as stated above.

 

With Colon, we have a deep pitching staff(with the likes of Stewart, Malone and Diaz as possible replacements for injured pitchers, as well as others in the minor) a very talented lineup, and a somewhat deep bench.

 

Guys...without Colon, we are a very good team that could win the division....but I would take a wild guess and say we will win the division if we get Colon.