The White Sox made all their cuts and finalized the roster for opening day a day earlier than most other teams. It was quite the treat seeing the roster for this year, and now I'll break it down.
Catchers
AJ Pierzynski- AJ has been a solid catcher year after year for the Sox, and I expect nothing less than normal this year. With Flowers playing catcher as well, he should get more rest and be more of a presence at the plate. I think he'll have the best batting average on the team at the end of the year. He's always healthy and is a great catcher. He's one of the best at making the pitchers he works with better. I'm looking forward to another successful season from him.
Tyler Flowers- Before last season, he was called up occasionally, but I was never impressed with how he played. He was a streaky hitter and wasn't that great of a catcher. When he was called up last year after Castro left the team, he played great. He was a good hitter and defensive catcher. I'm hoping he can continue playing that way this season.
Infielders
Paul Konerko- Konerko is always the one solid player on the team. Doubts were in my mind about how long he could keep up the pace, but from what I've seen this spring, he's ready to have another great season. Even if he doesn't have his best season, he will help lead the team and others will step up to take some of the load off his shoulders.
Gordon Beckham- He hasn't had that breakout season that everyone is expecting from him yet. There's always that hope that this year will be that year. I don't think it will be that year, but I think that his hitting will improve. He's a great defensive second basemen, but really needs to improve his hitting. I think the new hitting coach will help him improve a little, and I think he'll have an okay year.
Alexei Ramirez- He's had streaky hitting years in the past, but even if he is just average this year that would help the team. If he improves a tiny bit, that would make a huge difference. He's become better and better each year with playing defense. If he can shy away from too many errors, the White Sox infield will be defensively sound.
Brent Morel- Morel is one of the players that I think the new hitting coach will have the greatest effect on. He didn't hit well last year, but he's fixable. He'll bounce back this year by striking out less and popping out less. His defense is pretty good and as long as he doesn't make careless errors, he'll help add to the great defensive infield.
Eduardo Escobar- He's a rookie and he's looked pretty dang good this spring. That's basically all I can say about him, because that's all I know. I hope he can add something to the team and step into places in the infield when certain players aren't hitting or playing well.
Adam Dunn- This season is huge for Dunn. If he bounces back and hits 25 home runs, the White Sox are in great shape. His swing is already looking better and he is striking out much less than he was last year. By looking at last year's numbers, he can only go up.
Outfielders
Alex Rios- The new hitting coach is going to have a giant effect on Rios this season. Last year, Rios was lost at the plate. The hitting coach didn't help at all, and Rios just had a bad season. With the new hitting coach and maybe a new attitude, Rios can get back into the same form as the Rios from 4 years ago. I believe he can be that hitter again and I believe playing right field instead of center will benefit him defensively.
Alejandro De Aza- Last season was just a sneak peak into how good De Aza is. He's both good at the plate and out in the field. I trust him in center much more than I trust Rios. I'm excited to have him on the team full-time this year. I think he'll have a good hitting season and will help the offense improve.
Dayan Viciedo- He is a tank. I don't think anything else needs to be said.
Kosuke Fukudome- It's exciting to have him on board this year. It's also nice knowing that if Rios starts to struggle, there is someone who can adequately fill in for him. He had a pretty good spring and I'm happy to have him as a fourth outfielder.
Brent Lillibridge- He's been the streakiest player ever in the past couple years, but it's nice when he's hot. I think Venturra will be happy to ride him until he cools down if he does happen to get hot. Looking forward to him having a small, but important roll in this year's team.
Starting Pitchers
John Danks- This is his first year as the ace of the squad and I think he can handle it. Since he first started with the Sox, Buehrle was his mentor and now Danks has Buehrle's place on the team. He's up for the challenge and he's going to do a great job.
Jake Peavy- I'm not expecting Peavy to have a Cy Young year or be close to what he was before he came to the Sox, but I am expecting him to have a good season. He's a good number two pitcher as long as he has confidence and gets along with Cooper.
Gavin Floyd- He's been shaky the past couple seasons, but hopefully he has a good season this year. He's probably the pitcher that I'm most worried about this season just because I can't trust him to be good. He'll have good games, but he'll also have really bad games.
Chris Sale- He's had a great spring and I expect him to have a great season. He could falter toward the end of the season just because he isn't used to the amount of work that is put into an entire season as a starter. Otherwise, I think he's completely ready for this role.
Philip Humber- I'm not expecting him to pitch like he did last year, but for being the 5th pitcher in the rotation he's going to be very good.
Relievers
I'm going to address the relievers as a whole just because I don't know a lot about pitchers like Nate Jones and others.
My opinion on the bullpen is that it will be better than it was last year and has been in the past, but there still isn't a sure closer. I'd like to see Reed in the role and keep Thornton as the setup man because that's what he's good at. Jones has been good in spring training and I'm ready to see what he can do.
