What an odd season this has been. Through all the ups and downs so far it's amazing where the Sox are today, June 14th. Their record is a measly 30-34, but they are just 4.5 games out of first place currently sitting in third. It's hard to believe that the Sox are a legitimate contender in this division as it stands today.
The ride so far has been outrageous. I've written posts about how good the Sox are, I've written posts about how bad the Sox are, I've even written a few posts asking WHO the Sox are. But it's starting to become clearer and clearer as time goes on. The Sox are not a great team, the Sox are not a bad team, but the Sox are a team that is good enough to compete in the AL Central. And really that's all that matters. Try to win your division and make it into the playoffs.
And I think the Sox can only be on the way up right now. The pitching has been good, and I really don't think it's been too fluky. Each guy with the exception of Buehrle has had his rough patches, each guy has been great at times. I don't see too much change. I do see some changes possibly with the offense. Gordon Beckham is improving rapidly, Alexei is continuing to come on, Carlos should be coming back around the time of the All Star Break, and as a whole the guys through the middle of the order can only pick up the pace to stay on track for career averages as they usually do. So as crazy as it seems, the Sox may have just been treading water all this time waiting to make a push. I don't know when that oush may be, but if they keep hanging around I think they are good enough to make that run and find themselves right at or near the top of the division as the year rolls on.
If not, look at it this way, 30-34 on June 14th is not good, and it could have the Sox about 10 games out of some divisions, but they are not, and we have a lot of season to go. So whether they make that run I'm hoping for or not, we are getting a lot more excitement out of this team than we would have if they played elsewhere.
Konerko is doing his bit for the club too, its good to see
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