This race is OVAH! (Probably)

Lifted from Carl Skanberg's Smells Like Mascot blog.

For about a week after the Manny Ramirez trade, the White Sox made some Twins fans sweat. Then the South Siders' seven-game winning streak gave way to a three-game slide in Detroit, and now the Twins hold a six-game lead. Cue the Hawk Harrelson cockiness.

Here's what a magic number of 17 means when the two teams involved have 22 games left to play:

If the Twins go 11-11 the rest of the way, the White Sox have to go 17-5 just to get to a Game 163.

Mathematically, it's not over; but the path is getting mighty dark for the team in black.

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The hulking Twin in the above cartoon is suggestive of Jim Thome, whose presence on the Minnesota roster rankles many of the White Sox faithful and is, I think, somewhat misinterpreted. From my reading of the Internets, the general assumption is that Thome is playing every day in the absence of Justin Morneau.

The truth is that it's rare to see him in the lineup four days in a row, and such a stretch is almost always followed by a couple days (or more) in which he is limited to pinch-hit duties at most.

I underestimated Ron Gardenhire's ability to handle the roster issues presented by a player limited to part-time DH duties. Thome enters today's play with 297 plate appearances, and that seems to be both a burden that he can sustain physically and a level keeps him fresh and productive while not screwing up other players' at-bats.

This is less easily done that one might think. Ozzie Guillen didn't think he could do it; that was part of why he argued against bringing Thome back.

Those three losses this week at Detroit all came at the hands of right-handed pitchers. Chicago scored a total of five runs in those games. It's no wonder there is disgruntlement among the fan base about the Thome decision.

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One reason the Twins have thrived with a roster slot given to such a limited player is that Michael Cuddyer is a Swiss Army knife. The man has started 61 games at first base, 60 in right field, 14 at third base, one each at second base and center field. He's great at none, passable at each.

Mark Teahen was (is) supposed to fill a similar role for the White Sox (and provide some left-handed punch). But he not only hasn't hit, his defense has been atrocious enough to inspire this mocking flow chart. Quite amusing -- to a Twins fan.

Around the division: White Sox

The White Sox so far this offseason have had a theme, and that theme is infielders.

They have:

• Traded two players handed infield jobs at the start of 2009 — Chris Getz (second base) and Josh Fields (third base) to Kansas City for veteran Mark Teahen. Teahen is to be their third baseman.
• Said Gordon Beckham, who dislodged Fields and emerged as one of the American League's better rookies, would play second base.
• Signed Omar Vizquel (photo above) to be a reserve infielder and mentor to incumbent shortstop Alexei Ramirez.

Taking them one at a time:

Off his track record with the Royals, Teahen is exactly the kind of guy Twins fans should want the White Sox to accumulate. He was not a particularly productive hitter for Kansas City, and he's not a sensational fielder either.

But ... I haven't given up on him as a hitter, and it may be he'll blossom. The White Sox' stadium is much more hitter friendly than the Kansas City park, and the Royals the past few years have shuttled Teahen from position to position.

Beckham sounded OK with moving to second base, although the general feeling is that he'd rather be the shortstop, the position he played as an amateur. And there's no shortage of people outside the Sox camp who think he should get that chance, Ramirez having had a rough season with the glove at short last year.

But even in his shortstop days, Beckham was viewed as a guy who would play his way off short sooner or later. "Alexei's better than Gordon at short," was GM Kenny Williams's six-word answer to the question of why not Beckham at short and Ramirez back at second, where he played in 2008.

Which is where Vizquel comes in, at least in theory. The 11-time Gold Glover spent last season playing a similar infield reserve role with the Texas Rangers — where part of his job was mentoring rookie shortstop Elvis Andrus.

It might be a good cop-bad cop routine for Ramirez, with manager Ozzie Guillen (himself no slouch of a shortstop glove) continuing to ride Ramirez hard and Vizquel patting him on the back.