Sox playing better, but playoffs a tough proposition
A few weeks back, I said that of Chicago's two professional baseball teams, the White Sox were the more likely to emerge from their early-season slumber and make the playoffs.
In one sense, I was correct. The Sox have since played better baseball ... not that they've exactly set the world on fire. They're almost to .500 at 37-38 after taking two of three from the Cubs this weekend. But during that time, the playoff picture has shaped up as a tougher one for the Sox ... largely because Detroit's not cooperating.
Virtually every I talked to expected that the Tigers would come crashing to Earth after their hot start. Instead they've continued to play some pretty solid baseball, allowing them to maintain a five-game lead on the Sox in the AL Central. Even if the Tigers do fall off, the Sox still have to get by Minnesota, which is currently a game ahead of them, and that's a task for the Sox that's always easier said than done.
The road to the AL Wild Card should prove even tougher than a division championship, since only one of the three competing powerhouses in Boston, New York and Tampa Bay can win the AL East. Even Toronto's got a better record than Chicago, as do Los Angeles, Texas and Seattle in the AL West. Simply put, it's not very reasonable to expect the Sox to leapfrog all those teams for the wild card.
Contrast that with the situation of the Cubs, who even at 35-37 are a mere 3.5 games back in the NL Central. What's more, the current NL Wild Card leader, San Francisco, is just four games ahead of Chicago. There's a logjam of teams competing with the Cubs for those two paths to the playoffs, but they should need 5-10 fewer wins than the Sox to get in. Whether either team actually gets the wins it needs to qualify for the postseaon is another story.
