As many baseball "experts" will tell you, our Sox are not destined for glory this year. I've seen ranges from 65 wins to 80. Nothing special by any stretch of the imagination. 80 wins is actually an improvement from last year!
While I share the same feeling about this lot, there are several things I'm interested in seeing play out in 2012. At least until it's too brutal to keep watching...
- How does this team respond to the mess that was 2011? After the disastrous 2007 season the Sox won the AL Central in 2008. You'd have to go back to the 1997-1999 seasons where the Sox posted consecutive losing seasons.
- Adam Dunn: He can't possibly be the worthless player he was last year. Can he?
- Alex Rios: Speaking of worthless, Rios has apparently gone back to view tape of his batting stance from his "glory" days in Toronto to get his numbers up. That's great and all, but does he care enough to hit the cut off man and not air mail a ball over AJ's head? Probably not.
- John Danks: Is this the year he takes the next step and becomes the staff ace we've been waiting for? He's certainly getting paid like one. (At least by White Sox standards.)
- Jake Peavy: What date should we set for him to make his first trip to the DL?
- Robin: There's no sample size to predict how Robin will be as manager. Nobody knows how he'll manage (or mismanage) a game. Can Robin be the guy to eventually take us back to the Promise Land?
None of these questions will be answered on Opening Day or in April & May. (Perhaps the Peavy DL stint. But I'll give the guy a chance.) So we at least have these to pique our interest. If nothing else, it's baseball. It's the White Sox. We'll be watching.
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