A Scary Time For A Crumbling Team

The Chicago White Sox are scaring people. The only problem is, instead of scaring opposing teams and fans as they did last year, they are scaring their own fans. This team has struggled since the All-Star break, going 4-11. That isn’t going to cut it when your team is in the postseason race. The trade deadline was looming and it looked as though the Sox were going to make an impact deal to correct their slide. The deadline has come and past, and no deal was made. The White Sox are going to stick it out with the roster they have and hope that their pitching and clutch hitting pull it together.

What is now really scaring White Sox fans is the fact that the Detroit Tigers are not going away. I thought it would be the Tigers who would stumble out of the All-Star break while the White Sox would be able to gain ground and eventually sprint past the young and inexperienced Tigers. This is not true anymore. Detroit appears as though they are going to win the AL Central. They currently have an 8.5 game lead on the Sox, and that is a lot of ground to make up with just under 60 games remaining on the schedule. Sure the Sox and Tigers face off ten more times this season. But that means the Sox would have to win all ten of those games and still be a game or two better than the Tigers the rest of the way out. That is a lot of pressure.

It appears that the Sox will be gearing toward the Wild Card, which is a tad bit frightening considering that means that they have to battle the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees made a huge deadline deal by acquiring Bobby Abreu and Corey Lidle from the Phillies. Abreu just adds to the already potent Yankees lineup and Lidle provides some depth in their starting rotation. Don’t get me wrong, the White Sox still have one of the best teams (if not the best team) on paper, but on paper doesn’t mean a thing. They have to start pitching and they have to start executing in the clutch and not rely on the home run so often. “And if they don’t do those things?” you may ask. Well, football season is just around the corner, and in football, your favorite team will always have a chance because of the extremely short schedule.