One thing that has been fun to watch thus far for AL Central fans has been the train wreck known as the Minnesota Twins. That’s one thing Smitty and I can agree on. For the Sox and Tigers you need to look hard to find some bright spots over the last week. I’ll let Smitty handle the Tigers, who climbed back to .500 for a day this week, but for Sox fans week two of the season has been a major letdown. The Sox started the week at 6-3 and have carried a lead in every game this year except for two. The Sox ended this week with a 7-8 record falling below .500 for first time this season, and looking to have things start clicking again like they did in week one.

Two more blown saves by Matt Thornton have lead to early panic among Sox fans, me included (see my panic button article, Santos or trade are the only options.) In fact, since I wrote that article the White Sox bullpen has quietly put together 10 innings of one run ball, pretty impressive for a team’s fan base that was calling for entirely new bullpen. I still think Santos should be given a shot, since he has 8.2 innings of scoreless baseball with 11ks under his belt this season. Those are closer type numbers. He even had a tryout in a one run game in the top of ninth on Friday. He struck out two and walked one in a scoreless inning of work keeping the Sox within one run going into the bottom of the ninth.

No one’s mentioning the bullpen because they had other things to complain about, the White Sox bats have seemed to go dormant and Juan Pierre has been thrown out stealing in his last five attempts. Gavin Floyd let up six earned runs on Saturday afternoon in a game where he did not really ever have his control. It was winter like conditions, but somehow that didn’t slow down the team from California. Getting out of town is probably the best thing for the Sox.

Meanwhile, the AL Central is still being lead by the Cleveland Indians at 11-4 with the Kansas City Royals just a game back.

If you’re a Cubs’ fan you can’t be too disappointed at the moment with a 7-8 record coming home to play San Diego starting Monday evening. The Cubs’ bullpen looked more like the Sox pen by letting up four runs in the eighth inning on Sunday to the Colorado Rockies. Ryan Dempster struggled again, but Starlin Castro had three more hits to continue his red-hot start to the season.

Some things have begun to stabilize in baseball, especially in the AL East where the Tampa Bay Rays rattled off six in a row and Boston has won two straight with some major offense. The Yankees continue to have starter issues as Phil Hughes has been sent to the DL with a “dead arm.” Also, the Baltimore Orioles have come down to earth, I wish the Indians would figure out what the Orioles have already; they’re not that good.

Hopefully things will turn around for the Sox this week.