Ding dong, the witch is dead.

I had those words written on my screen shortly before our midnight deadline last night, describing what it meant for the Twins that the White Sox had just traded Jim Thome to the Dodgers and Jose Contreras to the Rockies.

Yes, those moves seemed to signal a white flag. I wrote that but deleted the part about the witch because I don’t think the White Sox are dead. In fact, I think they are going to be even more dangerous for the Twins these next two days.

This has been the road trip from hell for Chicago. The Sox are 1-7 after getting beat up at Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium. But sometimes when gloom and doom envelopes a clubhouse, trades like this can give everyone a healthy new perspective.

Look no further than Cleveland’s 15-12 August to realize how teams can somehow play better after losing stars. Cleveland’s July fire sale included Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez.

When the White Sox traded for Jake Peavy at the July 31 deadline and took on Alex Rios in early August, their roster became more talent-laden, but their performance lagged. Why? Perhaps because too many people became unsure how they were going to fit in.

Without Thome, the White Sox now have the DH spot to give more at-bats to an extra outfielder. As long as they’re healthy, Rios, Carlos Quentin, Scott Podsednik and Jermaine Dye shouldn’t wonder if they’re going to play every day.

The Sox will miss Thome’s production — .249/.372/.493, 23 HR, 74 RBI — but their lineup should be a little more dynamic each game. Consider how much better the Tigers played after shedding Gary Sheffield.

Thome and Contreras are two of the classiest players you’ll meet, but the White Sox knew they’d be turning the page after the season, so why not get started now?

Before long, Peavy will be ready to join the rotation, and Contreras will be a distant memory. It was scary when Peavy had that MRI on his right elbow Monday, after cutting short Saturday’s outing for Charlotte, but it sounds like he had some swelling in there from the comebacker in his previous start, no structural damage.

The White Sox might be 2-15 in their past 17 games at the Metrodome, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them win the next two games. Tonight, Jeff Manship will be making his first major league start, opposite John Danks, who was 4-1 with a 3.60 ERA in September.

And Wednesday, Brian Duensing will be making his fourth major league start, opposite Mark Buehrle, who is 0-4 with a 5.77 ERA since his July 23 perfect game. That slump is not going to last forever. Buehrle is 23-15 for his career against the Twins.

Rios is batting .179/.190/.304 in 15 games since coming over from Toronto. Jermaine Dye batted .189/.284/.267 in August. Again, those two will produce eventually. This shakeup might be exactly what this team needed to get back on track.

Last night, the Twins were riding high, perhaps feeling like they’d knocked a team out of the race. Chicago sits six games behind the Tigers, while the Twins have climbed within 3 1/2. But things could look a lot different by Wednesday afternoon if Chicago wins these next two games.

Note: Check back here this afternoon for tonight’s starting lineups.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 11:08 am and is filed under Around MLB, Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.