Quickest way to improve is through run prevention

	Kevin Millwood signed a one-year contract with the Indians last season and proceeded to lead the AL with a 2.86 ERA. John Biever/SI

Yes, Milwaukee, there is hope for the mediocre. Each of the past five World Series, and seven of the past nine, have included a team that won between 73 and 85 games the year preceding its pennant.

The baseball world turns over faster than ever, with the 2005 Chicago White Sox being the latest surprise team of this wild-card era fluctuation. Can the White Sox teach us something about how to quickly become an elite team? Yes, and it has nothing to do with grabbing the biggest headlines of the winter or adding a big bat.

By dint of brilliance or luck or the influence of manager Ozzie Guillen -- or most likely, a sprinkling of each ingredient -- the White Sox moved ahead of the curve when it came to the performance-enhancers crackdown. Scoring dropped 5 percent in the AL and 4 percent in the NL last year, the first season in which first-time steroid offenders drew announced suspensions. It could dip again next season if the new ban on amphetamines causes, as many baseball people speculate, the need to use bench players more often.

Only six teams in baseball scored significantly more runs in 2005 than they did in '04. The Sox, though, planned to score fewer. They built a team on pitching, defense and athletic role players (though they still smacked 200 home runs). The result? Chicago scored 124 fewer runs in 2005 than it did in 2004, the biggest decline by any team in baseball except for the largely Bonds-less San Francisco Giants. And the Sox still increased their win total by 16, second in baseball only to Arizona's 26-win improvement.

The White Sox, and a handful of other clubs, suggested that the prevention of runs is more important than the production of runs when it comes to a major year-to-year improvement. And, seemingly counterintuitive, it does not require major free-agent spending to accomplish.

For instance, five teams last season cut their runs-allowed by more than 90: the Indians, White Sox, Blue Jays, Nationals and Angels. All of them won more games than they did the previous year, improving by an average of about 12. And none of those teams acquired any of the 15 major free agent pitchers who signed multi-year contracts last winter. Here is how they did it:

1. Indians (215 fewer runs allowed)
Key additions: Cleveland replaced Jason Davis in the rotation with Kevin Millwood, a free agent who settled for a one-year deal after elbow problems in 2004 scared off most clubs. Arthur Rhodes, acquired in a trade, provided reliable left-handed relief.

Stepping up: Cliff Lee cut his ERA from 5.48 to 3.79. Virtually the entire relief corps, including Bob Wickman, Bobby Howry, David Riske and Rafael Betancourt, managed to lower its ERA.