Francoeur The White Sox entered the weekend with eight rookies on their pitching staff. And they remain in first place.

Lefthander Jose Quintana and righthander Dylan Axelrod are in the rotation. Rookie closer Addison Reed leads the bullpen with 12 saves in 13 opportunities. The White Sox haven't skipped a beat, sweeping the Rangers this past week at U.S. Cellular Field.

Injuries to pitchers have forced Chicago to lean on its youngsters. The White Sox have John Danks, Philip Humber, Jesse Crain and Brian Bruney on the disabled list.

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The Royals, once again, lead the majors in outfield assists. While part of the reason is talent (seriously, why does anyone run on Jeff Francoeur?), another reason is the way Kansas City coach Doug Sisson works with his outfielders. He doesn't believe in using a cutoff man.

"I've never believed that it's an outfielder's job to hit a cutoff man," Sisson said. "I don't like that old cliché. It's an outfielder's job to throw the ball to a base. It's a cutoff man's job to get in line with the throw.

"If we're going to throw people out, we have to learn how to throw the ball to the base -- not to a cutoff man."

Right fielder Francoeur entered Friday having thrown out 103 runners since the start of the 2005 season -- 27 more than any other player. Left fielder Alex Gordon set a Royals record last year by leading the majors with 20.

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Indians catcher Carlos Santana was supposed to be a high-level offensive player, but he entered Saturday batting .219. He debuted with a lot of promise in 2010, but that season was derailed by knee surgery. He came back last year to hit .239 but set a club record with 27 home runs as a switch hitter.

There is a belief that the league knows that Santana likes hitting fastballs, so he rarely gets one to hit.

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Detroit's Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder have combined to bat .448 with five home runs and 26 RBI against the Twins in nine games this season. Ugh.