This weekend saw a few significant division rival match ups, and things were flipped upside down rather quickly. During the last iteration of Around The AL Central, (brought to you by our own Collin Whitchurch, whom I will be doing the honors for this week) the division looked like this:

Now, just a short week later and the landscape of the AL Central looks like this:

Yes, you may note that the White Sox are clinging for dear life to their status as an above .500 team, while Detroit finally made the mark. As the White Sox faced the Tigers at Comerica Park this past weekend and the Indians hosted the Royals, both visiting teams got their stuff rocked, for lack of a better term. Let’s take a look at what’s happening now with each team.

INDIANS

For the last few years, the Indians have always been the sleepers in this division, and every year I underrate them, probably due to their lack of star power with the exception of Corey Kluber, but they always tend to sneak up on the Central when we least expect it. That time is now. Their starting staff has the fourth-best ERA in the AL, most of that on the backs of Danny Salazar and Kluber, the latter of which currently has a K/9 rate of 8.92, good for eleventh in the AL, while posting a BB/9 rate of 2.03 (which for the record is higher than both Chris Sale and Jose Quintana). Kluber has struggled stranding runners on this season though, posting just a 66 percent LOB%, fifth-worst in the AL. Salazar holds a 2.24 ERA with a 10.67 K.9. His walk rate is 4.63, but he’s been a bit better than Kluber at keeping the runners on base from scoring and the ball in the yard.

The Indians hosted the Kansas City Royals this weekend for a four-game set, and they sent the Royals off to Baltimore without something that they had come to Progressive Field with — the division lead. The Indians outscored the defending World Champs a whopping 25-6, thanks to a Royals rotation that it seems can only take solace in Danny Duffy lately. The Indians didn’t see Royals closer Wade Davis all weekend after he sat out on Thursday walk-off victory, as no other save situation came up.

The real scoop on the Indians these days though, is that all the good they’re currently doing they’ll likely have to continue doing without Michael Brantley. After Jeff Passan tweeted that the Indians were “seriously concerned” about the state of Brantley’s health, Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported Monday that Indians GM Chris Antonetti addressed the situation with a little less trepidation:

Antonetti responded, “Nothing really new. We are focused on working with Michael to help him get to the point where he’s not only healthy…

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 6, 2016

“…but strong enough to make a meaningful impact on the balance of our season. We don’t have a clear timetable for that yet but are …

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 6, 2016

“…encouraged by progress he continues to make.” Keep in mind: Not in #Indians’ interest to admit concern. Would compromise trade leverage.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 6, 2016

Brantley is an important piece of the Indians offense and should he be out for a significant amount of time, it would not only effect of the AL Central race but potentially the outfielder marker at the trade deadline — a front on which the White Sox could be active. I would speculate the situation with Brantley is quite severe, but Antonetti is going to do his best to keep it under his hat for now.

Next up: The Indians are facing the Mariners for a four-game set at Safeco before continuing their West Coast road trip in Anaheim to take on the Angels. They’ll then head back to the Midwest to face the Royals again, this time at Kauffman Stadium for a three-game set to finish out their road trip.

ROYALS

Shell shocked might be a good way to describe how the Royals feel after they were swept this past weekend (The Sox have a sympathy card in the mail). The sweep simply served to underscore the subtle issues their rotation is facing. Or perhaps they’re not so subtle, with the example of Royals starter Chris Young, who gave up four home runs in the fifth inning of Sunday’s contest while struggling with his slider. The Royals  starters currently are 13th in ERA in the AL, with their rotation compiling a less than impressive 4.82 mark so far this season.

Having a strong offense is key, especially when your rotation is scuffling — something the Royals learned the hard way this weekend. The Royals have been victim to a myraid of injuries that has recently plagued their lineup, with the latest addition being third baseman Mike Moustakas, who just underwent season-ending knee surgery. Left fielder Alex Gordon is on the disabled list with a fractured wrist, and catcher Salvador Perez missed six games with a bruised thigh, finally returning to the lineup on Saturday. It goes without saying, that yes, as much as the rotation for the Royals is not the best, being as banged up as they have been has not aided the situation either.

Next Up: A true test of the Royals’ fortitude is quickly approaching. They’re currently taking on the Orioles after the tough series sweep in Cleveland, and will then heading back to the South side of Chicago to take on the White Sox this weekend. After that, they head home to begin a homestand that includes visits from both the Indians and the Tigers. Fasten your seatbelts, Royals fans — it could be a bumpy ride.

TIGERS

Things got ugly in Motown over the weekend for the White Sox as they were swept by the division rival Tigers at Comerica, and the sweep stung especially bad when the White Sox had their three best pitchers in Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, and Carlos Rodon going for them in each start. All three starters were lit up, Quintana not even making it out of the fifth inning, and things were simply not pretty.

The Tigers are 5-3  since last week, taking one from the Angels before the series sweep of the White Sox. While they may be on a relative hot streak, their rotation is currently the third-worst in the American League. However, that rotation has recently found a bit of salvation with a flash of vintage Justin Verlander on the mound and the emergence of newcomer Michael Fulmer. Fulmer flirted with a no-no recently, and has gone six-plus innings and allowed just one earned run in his last four starts, including holding the Blue Jays scoreless while the Tigers offense posted 11 runs for him. Must be nice! 

The Detroit offense has crept up on us all (especially Toronto last night), and the Tigers are currently tied for the second-best batting average in the league at .271, while also holding onto the third-highest slugging percentage at .447.

Detroit manager Brad Ausmus has recently switched up his lineup by batting center fielder Cameron Maybin second, while bumping J.D. Martinez to the five spot. “He’s getting on base, he has some speed, he can distract the pitcher, he can score on a double from first, he can steal a base,” Ausmus told the media of Maybin “He’s not really the prototypical run-producer. That doesn’t mean he can’t drive in runs… But, the bottom line is if he keeps getting on base, if he keeps having good at-bats in front of Miggy and Victor, and then J.D. behind that, there’s probably no reason to move him.”

The Tigers lineup may be of a more vintage makeup, but with the infusion of some youth, they could end up becoming a significant part of this race quite quickly, with a lot of that depending on how well Fulmer continues to carry himself in the rotation.

Next Up: The Tigers will continue a series at Comerica Park with the Blue Jays, and then head off on a road trip that will have them face the Yankees, the White Sox, and finally the Royals for four games. 

TWINS

Is this really even necessary? They’re winning percentage is below .300 and they’re just sort of hanging out until next year — or maybe even the year after that. It’s okay Twins, you’ll always have 2009 and 2010!

With a ton of inter-divisional matchups on the upcoming schedules for these teams, the AL Central is going through some interesting changes, and it’s truly still anyone’s race this early in the season.

The addition of James Shields that the White Sox made over the weekend should help to solidify the back end of the rotation that was so deeply in question, potentially helping keep them  in the race, but they’ll will need to step up the offense to aid the rotation and relieve some of the stress off the bullpen in order to truly feel comfortable as contenders. Shields’ first start will come Wednesday at U.S. Cellular Field against Max Scherzer and the Nationals. Challenge accepted.

Lead photo courtesy of Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Taking a look at the American League Central, let’s highlight what the biggest concerns the White Sox specifically could be facing with each team, and what aspects of these teams flaws they may use to their advantage. We’ll start with two clubs that the White Sox be facing for the first time in 2016 this coming week; the Cleveland Indians and the Minnesota Twins.

Cleveland Indians

2015 vs. White Sox: 9 wins, 10 losses; 66 runs scored, 73 runs allowed

The Offense

Advantage: Francisco Lindor is still young and adjusting to the majors, Michael Brantley is not back in the lineup yet, and finally — no more Ryan Raburn.

Disadvantage: Mike Napoli’s sole duty vs. the White Sox will be to smash lefties, and eventually, Michael Brantley will return to the lineup.

The Cleveland Indians have always been quite enigmatic to me. The old saying goes “pitching wins ballgames”, and the Indians have one of the best pitching staffs in the American League, one that some could say might get even better in 2016. But there’s omitted information in the “pitching wins ballgames” tale. That being the tale of run support, that you still must score runs in order to win those ballgames.

That’s where the Indians came to a screeching halt, coming in last season with just 669 runs, good for 11th place in the American League and they scored seven less runs than allowed vs. the Sox. A power outage in Cleveland’s lineup could be partially to blame, as the team’s power peaked last season with Carlos Santana, who hit just 19 home runs in 666 plate appearances.

But the times are changing for this Cleveland lineup. It’s tough to call Lindor a glove-first prospect, because though his glove is elite, his bat plays a large role in his hype. In just 99 games in Cleveland last season, Lindor hit an impressive 14 home runs. But just because Lindor had an offensive heyday in Cleveland while hitters were getting their first look at him doesn’t mean that this bounty of power will continue to flourish at this level. (For the record, from the White Sox standpoint, the only times Lindor really dominated them was against Jeff Samardzija and Zach Duke.) Pitchers will see him, study him, and figure out his weaknesses. He’s still a 22-year old hitter in the big leagues with fewer than 100 games under his belt.

As is the case with many young hitters, Lindor struggles with breaking pitches, and turned over ground balls at a 51 percent clip in 2015. Though that ground ball rate is almost virtually unsustainable for a full season with someone with Lindor’s profile, whiffing and making weak contact on grounders will still continue to be an area of struggle for him, perhaps mitigating the damage he will do against the White Sox’s clan of aces who thrive on such arsenal.

When the notorious Raburn, who hits a ludicrous .295/.415/.591 lifetime against the White Sox, was (finally) no longer a part of not only the Indians organization but the American League Central as a whole, White Sox fans were quick to rejoice. But the Indians didn’t go without attempting to find another hitter who might be able to torment the White Sox to Raburn-esque levels in 2016.

From the looks of it, they did so successfully. Mike Napoli, whose splits vs. left handed pitchers are as ludicrous as Raburn’s numbers against the Sox were, is the perfect cog in the White Sox’s quest for freedom from the clutches of Indians player who wishes to exploit their weaknesses. With the White Sox doling out four left handers in their rotation at the moment, the South siders will certainly be running into some trouble with Napoli in 2016. The Cleveland organization was quite clever with that one.

In the upcoming series (and a significant period after that), the Indians will be without Brantley as he recovers from offseason shoulder surgery. This is the time for the White Sox to take advantage of a weaker Indians lineup early on. When Brantley does return, the question will be how much of his 2015 form and contact skills came back with him. But for right now; no Brantley, no problem.

The Pitching

Advantage: As the weaker members of a strong rotation, Josh Tomlin and Cody Anderson are exploitable. That’s about it.

Disadvantage: This is likely the best pitching trio in the American League. Quite honestly — disadvantage everyone.

Now comes the ugly part. There isn’t a lot to the “advantage other team” side of this argument. The Indians top three starting trio of Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, and Danny Salazar are elite — no matter which team is facing them or how strong said team’s offense is. Which isn’t going to bode well for the White Sox. The trio finished among the top 20 in American League ERA in 2015, and was in the top 5 for K/9 rate. Trying to squeak runs past this group will not be for the faint of heart.

The advantage the Sox will have, starting with the upcoming series, is that they’ll have weaknesses in the back end of this rotation that are much more exploitable than Kluber, Carrasco, and Salazar. Anderson is still a bit rough around the edges, a dominant run in the end of last season was more a string of crazy baseball luck than indicative of his future; cFIP has Anderson pegged for regression at 117. Tomlin is a typical back end starter, and with a 46 percent fly ball rate and extremely lucky .199 BABIP in 2015, the Sox and their new brigade of sluggers will need to jump on the opportunities to take those fly balls into the seats more often than not.

So the theory here would have to be: Mitigate the run scoring early on from a lineup that has a lot of potential for mediocrity, and try to hammer out as many runs as you can against this rotation. Even the Corey Kluber’s of the world are bound to have a few bad days, and the Sox can’t afford to let those opportunities pass them by.

Minnesota Twins

2015 vs. White Sox: 13 wins, 6 losses; 107 runs scores, 57 runs allowed

The Offense

Advantage: There will be weaknesses to expose against the plethora of new and young hitters in this lineup.

Disadvantage: Trevor Plouffe, Brian Dozier.

As a developmental organization the Twins are now showing off their shiny new prospects to the baseball world. With Byung-ho Park now joining Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, and Eddie Rosario in the big leagues this year, it could be a time for the Twins offense to really shine.

Sano will be the toughest challenge for the White Sox to face, and although he’s participated in about 19 fewer major league contests than the Indians young star Lindor, he posted significantly better on base and slugging numbers than Lindor. The one cause for concern while Sano is exploring the big leagues is his tendency to strikeout. Sano struck out at nearly a 36 percent clip last season, and if it wasn’t for the staggeringly strong slash line (.269/.385/.530), Sano could have likely been back on his way to the minors. Pitchers with nasty stuff such as Chris Sale and even Jose Quintana and Carlos Rodon (though Rodon was a victim of one of two Sano home runs vs. the White Sox, the other being Nate Jones) will need to unleash the filth in order to silence the power of Sano. It’ll be a challenge, but it is possible.

Never having faced MLB level pitching, Byung-ho Park has had to adjust to the level of velocity that he will now be regularly facing, which is a level up from that which he faced in the KBO. Though Twins manager Paul Molitor thinks that the spike in velocity doesn’t much faze Park, we have yet to see how he handles the movement and velocity of Sale, Quintana and Rodon this year.  

Even should the aces of the White Sox pitching staff find the weaknesses of the new comers in this Twins lineup, unfortunately, they’ll still be left to face Dozier and Plouffe.

Even during Dozier’s historically bad second half last year, he still managed to put up a slash line up .277/.318/.530 against the White Sox pitching staff. That, coupled with Plouffe, who hit .329/.410/.557 against the White Sox in 2015, could spell some serious trouble for this team.

The Pitching

Disadvantages: Somehow, the White Sox bats have been silenced by a middling Twins starting pitching staff, who also have a pretty good bullpen.

Advantages: It’s still not a very good rotation that leaves a bevy of ways for an improved White Sox team to gain the advantage.

While the White Sox’s toughest challenge facing the Indians will be starting pitching, almost the opposite can be said for the Minnesota Twins. The Twins are certainly the Achilles heel that the White Sox face nearly every year, and the legitimacy of this Minnesota team is likely to improve this season. But with the additions of better defense and a more sound roster that in years past, the Sox can look to target the one area of Minnesota’s weakness: their starting pitching staff.

It’s quite the feat when you look at the 2015 run differential for the White Sox against the mystifying Twins. Of a rotation that includes Ervin Santana as their No. 1 starter, followed by Kyle Gibson, Phil Hughes, Tommy Milone and Ricky Nolasco, the only pitcher the White Sox have even had mildly above average success against is Nolasco, who pitched to a 6.75 ERA in 37 innings last year (but didn’t do much better in 2014 with a 5.38 ERA in 159 IP).

The rotation the Twins will be sending out this year isn’t one that will be sailing strikes by hitters and raking up the whiff counts though. Last year’s Twins pitching staff came in dead last in the American League in K/9 rate, and without much change to this rotation, it doesn’t look as if they’re fit to raise that rate anymore. Bum luck and poor power numbers were most likely the culprit for the Sox only scoring 57 runs on Minnesota last year, but with the upgrade to their lineup, that will likely change.

They will need strike early though, as the Twins bullpen that consists of starter-turned-reliever Trevor May, Kevin Jepsen, and Glen Perkins, is a quite solid.

Unfortunately for the White Sox, there doesn’t seem to be an exact rhyme or reason to why they encounter such bad luck with the Twins, it’s just one of those weird baseball things. But perhaps the new dose of talent in this White Sox order will finally help them team route the pesky Twins.

The White Sox will begin their first inter-division series against these two teams starting with three games against Cleveland at home on Friday, and three at Minnesota on Monday.

Stay tuned for more on the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers just before the White Sox being their first series against them in mid-May.

Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports