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2009 MLB American League Central Notebook
The Chicago White Sox are getting to the point of the season where general manager Ken Williams has to be a realist.
Either Williams thinks his team can contend for the American League Central title or it won’t. At 28-33, the Sox are 5½ games behind first-place Detroit. That certainly isn’t an insurmountable deficit.
But this team is just not playing very well, and its offense is a mess. The team has hit only 62 home runs and it plays in home run friendly U.S. Cellular field. And then it didn’t help when outfielder Carlos Quentin recently learned he probably won’t be back until the All-Star break because he is battling plantar fascitis in his left foot.
Of course, the ever volatile Ozzie Guillen said Quentin may not be back until after the All-Star break. Quentin was already off to a rough start at .229 with eight home runs and 20 RBIs.
DETROIT
Here comes Justin Verlander’s climb back into the conversation as one of the most dominating pitchers in the game.
Baseball’s strikeout leader with 102 has really come on strong lately. He is 7-2 with a 3.02 ERA. Verlander was clocked at 100 mph in the sixth inning of his June 10 start against the Chicago White Sox.
He has allowed only eight earned runs in his last 62 1/3 innings going back to April 27. That translates to a 1.16 ERA. And this stretch has helped him overcome a rough start.
This has also validated how good of a pitcher he is after suffering through an 11-17 record in 2008.
KANSAS CITY
No one has ever questioned how hard right-hander Kyle Farnsworth can throw. He can get it up there in the high 90s. But sometimes, that can be his only pitch.
Farnsworth has bounced around baseball between the Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, Atlanta and Detroit. That’s because Farnsworth has usually not lived up to the closer many envisioned early in his career. He’s been more of a setup pitcher.
For now, the Royals are happy. Prior to him surrendering the winning run against Cleveland on June 11, Farnsworth had put together an impressive run of 17 consecutive appearances without surrendering a run. That spanned 17 1/3 innings.
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MINNESOTA
Right-hander Nick Blackburn has been the most consistent starting pitcher for the Twins. He’s 5-2 with a 3.31 through his first 13 starts. Blackburn has also been a pretty good workhorse for the team as he is averaging nearly 6 2/3 innings. Like the rest of his pitching teammates, he also isn’t walking people. He has only 24 walks.
And he certainly has his franchise’s confidence because he threw the one-game playoff at Chicago last year. He was the hard luck loser in the 1-0 loss to the White Sox.
CLEVELAND
So much has been made of Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer’s hot start that is at .410. Mauer has won two batting titles this decade in 2006 and 2008.
But if Mauer slips, Indians catcher Victor Martinez might get into the American League batting title race very easily. Well, he actually is in the AL batting race. Martinez is hitting .339 with 10 home runs and 42 RBIs. He’s fourth in average.
Martinez is also been very sharp at learning the strike zone by only striking out 31 times in his first 236 at bats. s
By Kevin Lonnquist
MLBcenter.com Staff Writer
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