Bloomberg Sports 2010 AL Central preview

Gardner:

April 5 links

- Happy Opening Day!

- Uncle Phil says Jake Peavy better show better stuff than 91-92 mph fastballs. Ehh, Peavy always was a 91-92 mph fastball pitcher.

- Erik looks at various 2010 AL Central forecasts.

- The White Sox hired Jerry Krause as a minor league scout. Krause has extensive baseball scouting experience. He was a scout for the Sox in the 70s and 80s.

- White Sox Opening Day payroll: $105,530,000 million. All MLB player salaries.

- Jim looks where recent ex-Sox players are.

- FutureSox: Kannapolis Intimidators season preview. Futuresox: Winston-Salem Dash season preview. al.com: Birmingham Barons season preview.

- Joe Cowley says the Sox need as fast start to put some quarters in Kenny’s pocket.

Lindsey Willhite on the 2010 White Sox

Willhite:

If you read Sunday’s Daily Herald — or if you checked out dailyherald.com/sports — you saw colleague Scot Gregor’s White Sox story with the headline “Guillen finally has the team he wants.”

My question is, does Ozzie have a team that can win? I was reading Joe Posnanski, America’s Greatest Living Sportswriter, and he dropped a stat that boggled me: The team that put more runners on base won 83 percent of the time in 2009.

Have the White Sox taken the correct steps to be the team that puts more runners on base on a given night in 2010? I’m going to skip a monstrous analysis and just look at players’ 2009 on-base percentages. …

Phil Rogers’ AL Central predictions

Rogers:

1. Twins, 89-73
2. White Sox, 85-77
3. Tigers, 84-78
4. Royals, 73-89
5. Indians, 68-94

NY Times says the Sox will win the AL Central

Kepner:

American League Central

1. White Sox – Their rotation could be overpowering, and the offense should be able to score runs in more ways. Carlos Quentin and Alex Rios need to be consistent power sources, but Gordon Beckham is a rising star. …

Keith Olbermann on the 2010 White Sox

Olbermann:

I’m less confident about assessing CHICAGO than I am about any other team in the majors. Here is a team with the terrific burgeoning talent of Gordon Beckham and Carlos Quentin – yet its success will depend much more on virtual castoffs like Andruw Jones, Juan Pierre, Alex Rios, and Mark Teahen. Here, if Jake Peavy rebounds, is a four-man rotation as good as any in the game, but a bullpen where only one guy (Matt Thornton) does not start the season as a question mark (how could you possibly get as many ex-studs in one place as Kenny Williams has in Scott Linebrink, J.J. Putz, and Tony Pena?). The White Sox could easily win the division, but I would hesitate to bet on it.