Jeff Pearlman, a writer for CNNSI, had this to say about the White Sox chances for this year(or rather the Twins chances at winning the division).

 

What's your take on how the Minnesota Twins will do this year? I don't think they are a fluke because it's a 162-game season and you have to have some talent to win 100 games, as they did last season. Do you think Minnesota has the best chance to win the AL Central again? --C.J., Edina, Minn.

 

C.J., while the Twins don't quite have 100-win talent, there's a good chance they'll reach the magic number. Here's why:

 

Kansas City

Detroit

Cleveland

Chicago (White Sox)

 

The Twins are a very good team in a very bad division. Even with the addition of Bartolo Colon, the White Sox -- a trendy pick to overtake Minnesota -- still have two open rotation slots, Frank (The Big Easy) Thomas and a second baseman named D'Angelo Jimenez (Writer's Note: In San Diego Padres history, there has likely never been a player more loathed by his teammates than Jimenez. Good skills, no effort).

 

Minnesota, meanwhile, features four guys (Brad Radke, Eric Milton, Joe Mays and Rick Reed) who are each capable of winning 15 games as well as a slew of good, if not great, young players. And the Twins are loads of fun.

 

How stupid is this guy? He says we have 2 open rotations spots, a mediocre DH and a bad 2Bman.....yet fails to recognize the Twins problems(the fact that Milton's knee is about to fall off and Mays just had surgery again this offseason). He also fails to realize that the White Sox ALSO have 4 pitchers capable of winning 15 games(Colon, Buehrle, Wright, and Garland)....and we have a better bullpen on paper, a better offense and are also tons of fun to watch(or the Twins aren't...it depends on what you like to watch).

 

I believe this guy was hired to be funny....but there is no shot at humor in this post. Just the fact that he is a f***in douchebag.

This dumbass right heres probably a Twins/Cubs fan.

Whos worse...Twins or Cubs fans?

Twins fans....atleast some Cubs fans have the nuts to admit they aren't that good

I can't believe his comment about Jimenez is true. The most hated teammate???????????? Any ideas on how we can track this down? He was with the Padres for only parts of two seasons. This smacks of s***ty journalism.

Jimenez hated playing for the Padres, he asked them to trade him several times and finally they did. So i could see why his teammates didn't like him.

Twins fans....atleast some Cubs fans have the nuts to admit they aren't that good

So, so true. This guy must have the IQ of Sammy Sosa.

I saw that BS on SI site today, when he said the Sox needed 2 starters I knew this asshole did not have a clue,TWIN KISSASS

He wasn't well liked, but it was blown out of proportion. He got screwed around by them. He played great his first year, then they started moving him all over and he fell into a funk and asked to be dealt.

I don't know about any of you, but we only have two proven pitchers. Garland and Wright could just as easily have a melt down. Why does everyone just assume they're going to win 15 games a piece? I could just as easily see them both going a combined 10-30.

 

The Twins are the favorites, hands down.

ok so do you have the rest of the article so i can see the punch line here.......

DoubleM, the twins are the favorites hands down? Are you kidding me? Without a doubt, the White Sox have the talent edge, and that right there negates the hands down advantage you claim the Twins have, even if they have better team chemistry, and play in a dome where only they can see the fly balls, etc. Garland and Wright have nowhere to go but up, it's not like they were over their heads last year. They took their bumps along the way for sure.

The Twins won the division by 13 1/2 games last season and beat us 11-8 (I think) in head to head competition. I'd have to say, by definition, they are the favorites.

Bartolo Colon won 20 games last year

 

Any questions?

 

Anyway, new team this year, no doubt. If you think this is the same team, you are sorely mistaken. Bye bye april god lofton, can't field a ground ball durham, hit with chopsticks clayton, and i'm not jon lieber todd ritchie. Hello d'angelo jimenez, joe crede, bartolo colon, billy koch, willie harris, to name a few and the most important. Oh and bye bye david ortiz from the twins. What did they do over the offseason? Next to nothing. All i'm saying is that "hands down" is a bold and incorrect statement. And in my opinion, trying to be unbiased, it's the Sox division for the taking, period. This team is more talented than the Twins this year. Anything less than an AL central title is a disappointment in my eyes, and i highly doubt i'm alone.

That writer probably slept in the same bed as Mike SOUTH the day before writing that article!!!

Bartolo Colon won 20 games last year

 

Any questions?

 

Anyway, new team this year, no doubt.  If you think this is the same team, you are sorely mistaken. Bye bye april god lofton, can't field a ground ball durham, hit with chopsticks clayton, and i'm not jon lieber todd ritchie. Hello d'angelo jimenez, joe crede, bartolo colon, billy koch, willie harris, to name a few and the most important.  Oh and bye bye david ortiz from the twins.  What did they do over the offseason? Next to nothing.  All i'm saying is that "hands down" is a bold and incorrect statement. And in my opinion, trying to be unbiased, it's the Sox division for the taking, period. This team is more talented than the Twins this year. Anything less than an AL central title is a disappointment in my eyes, and i highly doubt i'm alone.

Face reality. The Twins are a DAMN GOOD baseball team. Don't get me wrong, I like the Sox chances. But the Twins have to be considered the favorites by any reasonable logic whatsoever.

My reasonable logic involves talent, and we have more of it. There's the logic. I never said the Twins were a bad baseball team, i just think it's our division because we now have more talent. And i'm not alone, go read the so called experts out there, the majority are picking the Sox.

I really, really hope you and the "experts" are right.

If you think this is the same team, you are sorely mistaken. Bye bye april god lofton, can't field a ground ball durham

"Can't field a ground ball Durham" ?? Please ! Ray Durham is one of the best fielding 2nd basemen in our era. Damn! Be real!

Durham would have strange lapses though when it appeared his head wasn't in the game.

 

I always like Ray a whole lot more than most of my friends and never understood the bashing. But sometimes when he had those lapses I would be so unsure of how good he was.

I always considered Durham as "adequate" defensively. He was weak on turning the DP, and also those previously mentioned "lapses".

Yes, Ray Durham had "lapses". But, we all know we lost someone who deserved to be an all-star. I felt secure with Ray at 2nd base. Que sera- at least he's in the NL.

He wasn't well liked, but it was blown out of proportion.  He got screwed around by them.  He played great his first year, then they started moving him all over and he fell into a funk and asked to be dealt.

isnt that what JM did to jose ???

not to defend the twins here but..........fundamentaly they are the better team.........we can have all the talent in the world on the team but if they cant get back to basics of baseball then whats the point.....you have to give the twins credit they never lost their baseball 101 skills, while our guys were only focused on hitting for fences............i think its going to be a fairly close race this year..........hey at least we dont have to worry about cleveland being in there anymore..........its just us and the twinkies now......

Okgoh, are you kidding me? Best fielding 2nd baseman of our era? What, cuz he could run down a fly ball? I'll give him that, but man, there were PLENTY of muffed groundball and more than his share of defensive lapses, for sure. Pretty good fielding 2nd baseman, ya, but not THAT great.

cant call ray the best defensive 2nd baseman but in '00 when jose was on SS ray was awesome...jose at SS really seemed to pick up ray's game....they were the best DP combo in chicago i ever saw...man they could really turn it..i never saw fox and aparicio together but ill you have to go back to those guys to find a keystone combo better than jose and ray in a sox uni...