Williams: Pitching will help White Sox contend

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Kenny Williams believes the White Sox can contend in 2013.
With starters Jake Peavy, Gavin Floyd and John Danks back in the mix, along with new reliever Matt Lindstrom, whose signing is expected to be announced this weekend at Sox Fest, Williams thinks the club has enough pitching to stay in contention in the American League playoff race.
The White Sox won 85 games last season with a similar pitching staff and led their division for 117 days until they eventually succumbed to American League pennant winner Detroit.
If you've got pitching, you've got a chance, Williams said. And no matter, we could be talking about 2013, or 1913 or 1930, that's still going to be the determining factor in baseball, so what we need to do is expect some of the same performances from some of our guys last year and some growth in some other guys, and I think we'll be in the mix. Because you have pitching, it automatically puts you in the mix.
Williams also believes the White Sox can challenge even though they wont have A.J. Pierzynski behind the plate for the first time since 2004. The teams decisio- makers are high on Tyler Flowers, who is in line to take over as the clubs starting catcher.
A.J. got a lot of big hits for us over the years, and we're gonna miss his left-handed presence in our lineup, and his fight, Williams said. When (Flowers) is on, you'll see an approach where he drives the ball to right center field, and it took him a while to get back to that because he has power to all fields. But he also has the ability to have a good solid at-bat.
"In a short spurt last year when you saw A.J. go down, you saw him get a little bit more consistent with the bat and have those better at-bats, so I think that he's going to continue to improve offensively to where he can be something special. And defensively, all you have to do is just talk to our pitchers for five minutes and they'll tell you how enjoyable it is for them to throw to him, and the job he does behind home plate.

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