Frank Thomas seems to dislike Ken Williams. The two have had a verbal spat for the past few weeks, calling each other idiots and so on. Only thing is, Frank, you don’t have a leg to stand on with that argument. After Williams orchestrated a World Series winning roster last season, it would have been easy for him to stand pat in the offseason, or at the very least simply try to resign first baseman Paul Konerko.

Well, Williams did resign Konerko, despite pursuits from the Angels and Red Sox, but he made several other moves that make the White Sox a good bet to repeat as AL Central champs, and maybe even win a second consecutive World Series.

First, Williams stole Javier Vazquez from the Diamondbacks for Orlando Hernandez, reliever Luis Vizcaino, and outfield prospect Chris Young. El Duque is a proven big-game pitcher, albeit an aging one, and Young is supposed to be a major talent, but adding Vazquez significantly upgrades what was already the best starting rotation in the game. Williams then traded centerfielder Aaron Rowand to the Phillies for slugger Jim Thome. Though Thome was hurt last year and Rowand was a big part of the team’s success, the move made sense on several levels, particularly in balancing a heavily right-handed lineup with the lefty Thome. One move that Williams made that is kind of under the radar is the acquisition of Rob Mackowiak from the Pittsburgh Pirates for disgruntled reliever Damaso Marte. Mackowiak is the type of player who doesn’t do anything spectacularly, but does everything well. A utilityman like Mackowiak has been a staple of championship teams for the past decade.

With his offseason shopping completed, Williams has given manager Ozzie Guillen every opportunity to defend the 2005 World Series title, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he makes another move in midseason to fill a need if someone goes down with an injury.

Pitching

The White Sox have the best staff in baseball. Period. There is no debate. While other teams are scrambling to fill their rotations, Guillen’s toughest job in the spring will be to determine what to do with supertalent Brandon McCarthy. Likely the odd man out until someone gets hurt or traded, McCarthy has been on the radar of many experts as a future ace, so it will be interesting to see if the club keeps him in Triple-A to start the year, and if so for how long.

And why would the White Sox keep such an amazing talent in the minor leagues? Well, let me run through their five starters and you tell me which one you’d sacrifice so McCarthy could start the year in the rotation.

Would it be Mark Buehrle? The ace of the staff who won 16 games last season and hasn’t fallen short of 200 innings since he joined the starting rotation permanently in 2001. Or maybe you’d cut Freddy Garcia, who won 14 and had a 3.87 ERA. Maybe you’d cut loose Jose Contreras, who seems to have finally gotten it together after leaving the Yankees, going 15-7 in ’05. And not only did Contreras break the 200 inning barrier for the first time, it was also the first time he had gone more than 100 innings in a year. Then you’ve got Jon Garland, who projects as possibly the fourth starter even though he was the Cy Young favorite for much of the season last year. Garland faded down the stretch, losing 2-5 in his last seven decisions, but he still finished 18-10 with a 3.50 ERA. So clearly, McCarthy is the odd man out on this staff, since he doesn’t warrant a spot ahead of these four and Kenny Williams didn’t trade for Javy Vazquez to stash him in Triple-A.

Speaking of Vazquez, don’t let his 11-15 record or 4.42 ERA from a year ago fool you. He was playing for an abysmal Arizona team in a situation he didn’t want to be in. Still, when he was on his game he was on. Vazquez had 192 strikeouts and only 46 walks in 215.2 innings, numbers that bode well for him now that he has a much better supporting cast. Not only will Vazquez not have to face the aces of other teams in 2006 (he projects as Chicago’s third starter), he also has a far superior offense and defense backing him up, and will almost assuredly receive more run support than he did in 2005.

In the bullpen, the White Sox are equally strong. Closer Bobby Jenks may have been a closer in 2005, but he didn’t look like it when he took over the role late in the year. He only had eight regular-season save opportunities, converting six, but really turned it on in the postseason going 4-5 in save chances and holding opposing hitters to a .258 batting average and a .158 slugging percentage. In what will be his first full season in the bigs, expect Jenks to make major strides toward becoming an elite closer.

There should be no trouble getting the ball to Jenks with a lead, as his supporting cast is exceptional. Dustin Hermanson was the closer for most of last season and there is still a slim chance that he will regain the role (34 saves in ’05). In the likely event that he doesn’t overtake Jenks, he will be the primary late-inning setup man, a role that should suit his ground-ball style well. Cliff Politte is the other right-handed setup man, and is more than capable of filling the role. In 68 appearances last season Politte went 7-1 with a 2.00 ERA and held opponents to a .254 average. Neil Cotts will be the primary lefty out of the bullpen and that’s no problem for White Sox fans. Cotts went 4-0 with a 1.94 ERA last season and shined in the postseason, not allowing a single run in six appearances and holding opposing hitters to a .222 batting average.

Infield

The White Sox infield is solid all the way around, starting behind the plate with A.J. Pierzynski. He slugged 18 home runs last season and drove in 56 runs. His .257 average would be a worry, but the job he does handling a pitching staff trumps any concerns. Although his abrasive personality got him run out of Minnesota and San Francisco, he hasn’t had any problems to this point in Chicago and if he continues to contribute to a winning team I wouldn’t expect anything to change. His backup, Chris Widger is capable of stepping in to give Pierzynski a day off without forfeiting anything defensively and very little offensively.

Konerko returns to play first base and anchor the lineup, which is huge for this club. As good as he was during the regular season (40 HR, 100 RBI), Konerko was huge in the postseason. He didn’t hit for average (.250), but slammed five home runs, none bigger than his grand slam off Houston reliever Chad Qualls in Game Two of the World Series. Thome was brought in to DH, but may occasionally give Konerko a breather at first. If he can revert back to something close to his 2004 form (42 HR, 105 RBI), as opposed to his injury-riddled 2005, Chicago’s lineup will be that much more formidable and provide even more run support for a staff that might not even need it. Thome is also only 70 home runs shy of 500. Two solid years as a DH in Chicago might get him to that milestone.

At second base, Tadahito Iguchi came out of Japan to have a very impressive rookie season. No one was quite sure what to expect from Iguchi, but 15 home runs and 71 RBI certainly exceeded the wildest dreams of White Sox management. The club would like see Iguchi cut down on his strikeouts and walk more often, but that will likely come as he becomes more familiar with the pitching in the American League. Look for steady improvement from Iguchi in ’06.

Shortstop Juan Uribe is a free-swinger with pop, but his total lack of plate discipline will never allow him to move higher than the bottom third of the lineup. Uribe doesn’t strike out as much as you might expect from someone who wouldn’t know a pitch was too far inside if it hit him in the ribs. However, his .252 batting average is a reflection of swinging at bad pitches that results in a lot of weak groundouts and lazy fly balls.

Third baseman Joe Crede has had a tumultuous career with the White Sox. Highly touted in the minor leagues, he’s never had the breakout year that many have predicted. Last season, amidst talk that he was going to be traded for Oakland’s Eric Chavez, Crede produced with 22 home runs, but batted only .252. You can expect more of the same from Crede in 2006; great glove work and the occasional big hit, but if you’re asking him to carry the club you’re in trouble.

Supersub Rob Mackowiak will back up Crede at third and do a little bit of everything for this club. He’ll play some outfield, pinch run, pinch hit, and basically be a jack-of-all-trades. Last week, the club acquired shortstop Alex Cintron from the Diamondbacks and he’ll likely compete with Pablo Ozuna to make the club and back up the middle infield spots.

Outfield

Scott Podsednik made this team go last year with 147 hits and 59 stolen bases. He was limited to 129 games because of leg injuries, but he should be healthy and ready to run at the start of the 2006 season. If you recall, Podsednik didn’t hit a single regular season home run last season, but clubbed two in the postseason, including a walkoff job off Astros closer Brad Lidge in Game Two of the World Series.

New centerfielder Brian Anderson only has 34 big league at-bats, but the club has enough confidence in him that they dealt ’05 starter Aaron Rowand and prospect Chris Young in separate offseason deals. Rowand was in many ways the glue of last year’s team and it will be interesting to see if Anderson can provide the same spark that Rowand’s defense provided for this club last season.

Jermaine Dye returns to play right field, and at 32 there’s no reason to think that he can’t match last season’s 31 home runs and 86 RBI. Joe Borchard and Mackowiak are the outfield backups and bats of the bench for Guillen and should be more than adequate in those positions.

Outlook

There’s an old saying in sports, ‘to be the best you have to beat the best.’ Well, until someone proves otherwise, the White Sox are the best team in baseball and I see nothing that stands between them and a deep run in the postseason. In their remarkable 2005 season the White Sox were fortunate to have very few injuries of significance. Reason dictates that they can’t have that same good fortune in 2006, but with six major-league caliber starters and a deep bullpen and lineup, Kenny Williams has his team primed for a march toward back-to-back World Series titles.

Steve Schaefer is a journalism major at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. In 2004 he was the only person to storm the court in Washington D.C. when Gerry McNamara hit a 3-pointer to beat Georgetown. Steve feels that he should get some of the credit for Gerry’s Big East Tournament play this year as a result. You can reach him at steve.schaefer@atomicsportsmedia.com