This was acknowledged tacitly on Thursday by a trade sending long-time starting center fielder and leadoff man Denard Span to the Washington Nationals for big, powerful right-handed pitching prospect Alex Meyer. The Nationals have coveted Span for the past two years, the Twins have been unimaginably terrible at pitching for two years. In heaven, there are matches more awkward than this one.

We could pick apart the pure value-swap of this trade for hours–Nick and I quibbled about it on Twitter for at least 45 minutes–but in the interest of keeping this under 4,000 words, how does this affect the White Sox?

Well, immediately–and how far does White Sox thinking ever really stray from the immediate?–the Twins should be a bit worse in 2013, since Span is leaving and Meyer was in High-A ball last year. Assumed Span replacement Ben Revere has incredible range in center field and can absolutely fly, but also  is completely devoid of any power or much patience. Span recovered to a .283/.342/.395 batting line in 2012, whereas Revere’s .294/.333/.342 is likely the best he can manage with his tools. Also, the departure either forces across more playing time for Devin Mastroianni, or brings the Twinkies to a “Catch everything, Ben!” outfield alignment of Revere, Josh Willingham, Ryan Doumit/Chris Parmalee.

But the Twins were always going to be pushovers in 2013, with or without Span’s career .324/.391/.439 career line against the White Sox (he hurt the Tigers worse). Rebuilding their pitching staff is going to be a long, arduous process, and Meyer represents them doing something about it, and in a way you wouldn’t expect.

For all the mocking the Twins get about their strange distrust of strikeouts, and their affinity for  low-potential control artists, they just traded a cheap, trusted, but non-star veteran straight-up for a 6′ 7″ monster who throws 97 mph and has command and deliver-repeating problems. That’s risky, and could result in an overpay for an eventual reliever, but it’s also bold, and representative of the risk the Twins need to start taking if they want to have something to throw up against Justin Verlander and Chris Sale.

Until that comes to fruition, let us celebrate the departure of Denard, a torturous destroyer of worlds who hit nearly .400 against the Sox this season, and made a bunch of rangy plays in center field on the worst day of our lives.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan

Brent Lillibridge sought to destroy this notion last season, but was eventually brought back into cold grip of reality.  But now A.J. Pierzynski is the one flouting logic by having the best season of his life at 35…by becoming an entirely different hitter.

If you’re unfamiliar with Pierzynski’s approach of the last few years–he never walked, he never struck out, and he rarely did things besides single to right field.  He just matched his career-high in home runs from 2005 with 18, but even that year was an outlier from his career record.

This season, Pierzynski has walked in 5.8% of his plate appearances–small potatoes, but enough for the most walk-heavy season of his career.  He’s struck out in 14% of his plate appearances–perfectly normal, but more than double the rate he whiffed at last season.  And it’s hard to  overstate the increase in power production–Pierzynski has 18 HR when last year he had eight.  His isolated power is .236; if you added his ISO from the last two seasons together it’d be .237.

Thanks to Lillibridge, we’ve seen random power spikes before, and A.J.’s somewhat listless beginning to the 2nd half seem to indicate things were headed back to normal.  Then he complained of an oblique strain, missed a week, and returned to hit two  home runs out of Target Field in only two games he’s played since.  If you think it’s easy for lefties to yank balls out of Target Field, Joe Mauer has words for you.

Which points to the problem in predicting Pierzynski to level off.  He’s earning these home runs, they’re not wall-scrapers, or being aided by lucky gusts of wind.  Only four of his 18 home runs could be said to have benefitted from the small confines of the ballpark he was playing in, and only one of those actually took place in U.S. Cellular Field.  He’s always had large raw power and strength when gets into one, and the 388 feet he’s averaging on home runs this season is one of his lower figures of the last six years.

A.J. could always crank it, but he generally didn’t, because his approach was all about making contact. and maybe he just isn’t normally this good at squaring balls up.  There’s nothing  in his plate discipline numbers to indicate he’s suddenly looking for pitches to drive, or even swinging harder, so it’s hard to make a conclusion much more definitive than “he’s in a groove.”

That’s not a satisfying explanation come contract time, but since it’s managed to carry over to the 2nd half and through an oblique strain, perhaps just enjoying the ride is an appropriate reaction.  We’re White Sox fans after all, worrying about sustainably doesn’t suit us.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @ JRFegan.  Also check out his full-time, daily blog, White Sox Observer

The two familiar AL Central rivals were favored to go toe-to-toe for the 2011 division crown, but both endured enormously disappointing campaigns.

Yet while the White Sox provided a frustrating trek through mediocrity that portended an uncertain future, the Twins were suddenly dragged into the depths of hell.  They lost 99 games, and were launched into a period of rebuilding they were ill-prepared for.

2012 has not been a morning after, but instead a continuation of the nightmare for Minnesota (14-27), whereas the Sox (21-21) are still an unlikely bet for the playoffs, it wouldn’t take an absurd scenario for them to be in 1st place at the All-Star break.

Are these teams really deserving of such disparate fates?

Everything about the once-lauded Twins Way is under assault in light of their recent failures, but how much different are they from the Sox?

The philosophical failure of “pitch-to-contact” is regularly lampooned now that ace Francisco Liriano disintegrated under it, along with the effectiveness of starters Nick Blackburn, Kevin Slowey, and even Carl Pavano to a lesser extent, but the Sox have been skirting by with a below-average strikeout rate for years as well.

It’s a neater trick when you can turn scrap heap finds like Philip Humber into effective control artists than when you appear to draft and develop them intentionally like Minnesota, but the product is the same.

Neither team is very familiar with having a true #1 starter, or is planning to become familiar in the near future.

The once viable Twins offense is now below-average, as injury troubles exposed their lack of organizational depth after they committed lots of money long-term to Mauer and Morneau.  But since the White Sox offense is Konerko, Dunn, De Aza, a strangely resurgent A.J. Pierzynski and various question marks, it’s safe to say any string of injuries that casts a spotlight on their minor league system would be equally if not more disastrous.

Just recently Brent Morel was hurt and the Sox immediately responded by signing Orlando Hudson, and that’s only after Morel proved incapable of playing through it for a few weeks.

Which gets to the heart of the difference between the two.  The Sox would be equally destroyed by the circumstances the Twins have faced, but they haven’t had to.

It might just be luck–and perhaps a lack of speed–that Paul Konerko hasn’t slid into a knee at 2nd base, and Justin Morneau has, but the overall gulf between the two teams in terms of overall health is much larger than that.

The White Sox finished 2nd in baseball for the least time spent on the DL in 2011, while the Twins finished 18th in that regard.  Minnesota also had the most overall DL trips, which contributed to a sense of constant turnover.

This season the Sox have sent Jesse Crain to the DL for a oblique strain, and just took Brent Morel off the active roster for back tightness.   In turn, the Twins have lost Scott Baker–their best starting pitcher–for the season for Tommy John surgery, Justin Morneau sat out two weeks with a sore wrist, and they just shut down starter maligned Nick Blackburn and C/1B/DH Ryan Doumit.  Joel Zumaya blew out his arm again in Spring Training, but that hardly deserves to be placed at their feet.

While Sox trainer Herm Schneider’s reputation remains pristine–even through curious instances like the Chris Sale saga–the Twins medical staff has been a lightning rod for criticism; be it from disgruntled ex-players, or a front office bewildered by their sudden horrible run of health.  The criticism may be fair, or it may not be, but it certainly was inevitable in light of the franchise steep fall from perennial playoff contender to the dregs of the sport.

In their decline, the Twins have issued a stern warning on how tenuous the hold on viability is for teams with a thin cast of key contributors like the White Sox, but with Herm in charge, the Sox are more protected from their demise than they probably deserve to be.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @ JRFegan.  Also check out his full-time, daily blog, White Sox Observer