"White Sox manager Robin Ventura will be learning on the job. We don't know who his Opening Day starter is or who his closer will be. In between, three pitching jobs are up for grabs.

And to think, pitching will be considered the strength of this team.

What's more, there are bigger ifs, starting with the mysterious ways of Adam Dunn and Alex Rios, and to a somewhat lesser extent Gordon Beckham and Jake Peavy. The aforementioned foursome will earn $44 million this year — more than 40 percent of the expected team payroll — after disappointing seasons (although we'll cut Peavy some slack for health reasons) that defined the Sox' failure of 2011."