Rozner: White Sox can't be as bad as last year

You don't always get to choose your formula for winning baseball games.

Unless you've got unlimited time to rebuild a team in your image, or unlimited funds to spend in your owner's image, you mix and match and let player development dictate whether you try to dominate with pitching or scoring.

Drafts are a crapshoot, kids improve or they don't, free agents work out or bust out, and pitchers stay healthy or ruin your season.

But there are some certainties.

If you're going to rely on pitching, you better be able to pick it up and throw it to first. You better have outfielders who can run down balls in the gap. You better be flawless on the bases.

Fail in any of those areas and you are destined for six months of misery.

Which brings us to the 2015 White Sox.

They were middle of the pack in the American League in pitching and good enough to compete if they had been any good on defense or on the bases.

They were not.

They were the absolute worst in the league attempting to catch the ball, and they were clowns on the bases for long stretches of the season.

Adding to the unwatchable play was the offense, which was dead last in the American League in runs scored, home runs, OPS, extra basehits, stolen base percentage and offensive WAR.

So, yeah, if you thought last season was about as bad as it gets, you were right.

It was awful.

And that brings us to the winter of Rick Hahn, the general manager who knew he had to make significant changes.

He knew he had to get Adam Eaton out of center field, Avy Garcia out of right field as often as possible and Melky Cabrera out of left. He needed a new third baseman, shortstop and second baseman.

He has done that by adding Austin Jackson to the outfield mix and acquiring Todd Frazier, Brett Lawrie and Jimmy Rollins, not to mention giving Tyler Saladino a bigger role.

His biggest break was Adam LaRoche walking away and opening up a spot at designated hitter for all the designated hitters who were butchering the baseball last season.

Spring training is worth little more than a snapshot, but the Sox offered a picture of a significantly improved offense and a defense that seemed more alert and willing to throw to the right base and hit a cutoff man.

So based on the upgrades and the assumption that some of the really bad performances from new players a year ago gets a little bit better, the Sox should improve considerably off a 76-86 mark a year ago.

They could be a .500 team this season and, depending on the play of teams like Cleveland and Minnesota, the Sox might just jump up further and hang around the division race all year.

Kansas City will continue to play well because the things they excel at are easy to repeat. They shorten games with their bullpen, play great defense, run the bases well and manufacture runs better than any team in the game.

But the pick here is the Sox finishing second, ahead of the rest in the Central Division, mostly because Detroit depends heavily on the health of Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez in order to have a big season.

If nothing else, the Sox should be easier on the eyes this season, scoring more runs and hopefully playing better defense with better baserunning.

As bad as 2015 was on the South Side, this season has to be better.

Basically, if the Sox can tie their shoes this year, 2016 will be an improvement.

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's “Hit and Run” show at WSCR 670-AM.