Chicago Baseball Overview

   A look at Chicago's baseball teams

BY: Joaquin Carrig

Chicago White Sox: Just Not Real Exciting

When looking at the White Sox roster, there doesn’t appear to be anything hugely wrong with it. They have decent speed and on-base percentage at the top of the lineup in Alejandro De Aza. They have decent power in Adam Dunn, long-time Chi-town favorite Paul Konerko, and Alex Rios. The have a strong young ace in Chris Sale and decent depth behind him with Jake Peavy and Gavin Floyd. Addison Reed has the potential to be a top-notch closer, but only has one year of experience at the position.

Their brand of baseball is decent. Not great. Not exciting. Just decent.

And what coincides with decency is a .500 record, which is the best the team will achieve. Especially considering the powerhouse residing in Detroit, home of the both the best hitter and pitcher in the American League, Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander respectively.

Both the Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals have improved rosters and are at least attempting to interest their fan base.

However, it seems as if the White Sox are satisfied with where the team is currently and have very little interest to “Make an Impact” (the team’s 2013 marketing slogan) on the division.

They certainly made no impact on last off-season’s free agency market. A.J. Pierzynski, coming off the best season of his career with the White Sox, left for the Texas Rangers after the team only conveyed a decent amount of interest in retaining him. The Sox replaced Pierzynski with Tyler Flowers, a career backup who has never hit above .213 (and is currently hitting .163 in 11 games).  And Jeff Keppinger (.196/.196/.214 in 13 games this year)was apparently the answer to filling the hole at third base, whose hitting ability can only be described as decent when using the word extremely loosely.

With all that being said, the White Sox are basically fielding last year’s squad, who were two or three games from making the playoffs. That speaks volumes to second-year manager, Robin Ventura, who took a mediocre team and turned them into a competent one.

So don’t be surprised if the White Sox are in the playoff hunt again this year. Just don’t be surprised if they aren’t either.

Settle for a decent season, because the White Sox have.

* The Minnesota Twins were left out of this post due to being so irrelevant that over two-thirds of active baseball fans probably didn’t know that Vance Worley was the team’s Opening Day starter.

Chicago Cubs: Patience Truly Reaps Rewards

Cubs fans, this isn’t your year. Neither is the next. The most heated battle the team will fight this year is over the recently approved $500 million renovations the Cubs’ owners have planned for Wrigley Field.

But that isn’t to say there isn’t reason to finally be optimistic. The team is in capable hands under the leadership of Theo Epstein, the GM who took the cursed Boston Red Sox to not one, but two World Series championships.

And although the team may look like an above average minor league team at the moment, Epstein is taking the right steps to build a perennial playoff contender.

Last year, in his first year on the job, he got rid of everybody with a high salary, except Alfonso Soriano, whose ridiculous 8 year/ $136 million contract would be impossible to unload. He then brought up all the prospective talent in his farm system and tested them at the major league level. Anthony Rizzo, Bryan LaHair, Steve Clevenger, and Tony Campana were some of the few that stood out. Some prospects he chose to build around, and others he traded.

But Rizzo and shortstop Starlin Castro, a rising star, are the youth that Epstein sees as part of the team’s future.

This offseason, Epstein started adding the secondary pieces, namely Nate Schierholtz. The ex-Giant has never been a premiere player in the league but has always put up decent numbers and has one of the strongest arms at the right field position. Schierholtz is off to an excellent start this year batting .343 with two homeruns and six RBI’s in 40 AB.

Epstein also signed Scott Baker, from the Twins, and Kyuji Fujikawa, from Japan, to bolster the pitching staff, highlighted by ace Jeff Samardzija.

Finally, the Cubs’ GM signed Cuban phenom, Jorge Soler, to a 9 year/ $30 million contract. The team hopes to have him in Chicago at some point this season.

The last piece of the puzzle for Epstein will be landing a top name free agent or two within the next two seasons.

Their biggest hurdle over the next few years will likely be their division, boasting two perennial contenders in the Reds and Cardinals.  Despite that, the Cubs are a young team, with twenty-eight players on their 40-man roster under the age of thirty.  If their young players continue to develop and Epstein lands one or two top-notch free agents then will be the year of the Cubs fan will be upon us soon.