New boss = same as old boss

The folks in Chicago are almost ready to give up on the Cubs; Mark Prior's protracted -- and very mysterious -- arm fatigue is a (no pun intended) sore point, and no one on the team seems to be able to stay healthy for long. Barring an acquisition of Nomar Garciaparra or, more likely, Orlando Cabrera (rumored, but he's been awful this season) to shore up the middle infield, it's not looking like the Cubbies will have a repeat of last season's excitement. Oh, the ballpark is still crowded as hell and tensions run high whenever the Cardinals are in town, but as of this writing, they're 10 games behind St. Louis in the enigmatic NL Central, playing a game of one steps forward, one step back while sandwiched between surprise teams Milwaukee and Cincinnati. And maybe it's just the native Pittsburgher in me talking here, but the Bucs have been the best team in the NL Central in the month of July and, well, the Cubs are the only team in the division who don't look like they're trying.

Over on the other side of the city, just south of Chinatown and west of Mayor Daley's palatal manor, the city's red-headed stepchildren the White Sox are in the midst of a pennant race. The AL Central's pretty mediocre, too: here in the Midwest, we don't get excited about anything too easily. It's frustrating pinning your allegiances on the Sox sometimes; no one expects the Cubs to do anything in this lifetime as long as the ghost goat is reinforcing the curse and braying behind the ivy. But the Sox -- well, they've had three 1st place finishes since 1993 (compared to the Cubs only one last year) and -- though looks can be deceiving -- have finished in second place six other times. So the talent has always been there to, at least, tease.

This year, though, it's a great pennant race -- and I'd implore anyone reading this in Chicago to forget about the Scrubs (they also have beer in U.S. Cellular Field) and throw support to the White Stockings. They need it, and they're actually in a dog fight with Minnesota for the lead.  As of the current writing, the Twins are 0.5 games up in the standings; no doubt, next week's Mon-Tue-Wed series in Chi will have a leveling effect.  Still, some problems: Magglio Ordonez is still out and Big Frank's down for two months with a foot injury -- that's the two biggest guns out of the line-up and you've got problems. Chicago's 9-9 since acquiring Freddy Garcia (who's 2-1 with a 3.38 era for July so far), too -- an indicator that they've got the pitching for the playoffs, but need a hitting boost to float through August and September.

To that end, Kenny Williams recently dipped into his endless bag of (generally mediocre) pitching prospects and reacquired gloomy gus Carl Everett (who hasn't reacquired his stroke) for some dude named Gary Majewski and the tallest player in major league history, Jon Rauch. Montreal needed to clear Everett's $7.5 mil/ 2 yr contract off the books, and all of the Sox players seem to be excited about the acquisition -- but what to realistically think about the team's chances from here on out? Three factors seem to be in Chicago's favor: first, Minnesota has a surplus of talent to reconfigure the team with trades, but the front office has zero balls. Next, the White Sox have the best W-L record in their division (16-8 to Minnesota's 25-22). And the other intangible? Scheduling.

ESPN's Buster Olney on the White Sox: "Twenty-six of their last 74 games are against sub-.500 teams, and eight of their last 11 games are against the Royals -- a chance for a late-season feast."

ESPN's Buster Olney on the Twins: "They have 35 games left against teams with records of .500 or better, second most in AL, and fewest home games remaining among AL contenders."

I love me some Minnesota, too. Ron Gardenhire is the most underrated manager in MLB, and the team has an impressive talent pipeline from the minors. Still, this year it's the first round of the playoffs for the Sox. I think. I hope.  Crack open the magic Old Style and make it happen, Ozzie.