Three Up, Three Down - 1st Half Edition

With the first half of the season in the bag and the Sox sitting atop the Central, admittedly, it's difficult to find too many things to bitch and gripe about, especially considering just about everyone was pegging the Sox to be an also-ran this season. While I'm obviously ecstatic about the Sox's impressive first half, there are still things that can be done better.

ONE UP: Gavin Floyd & John Danks

If in March or April you said that the Sox's season rested on the performance of Gavin Floyd and John Danks, that would have been a quite the understatement. With a veteran offense, a revamped bullpen, and three veteran starters at the front of the rotation, the Sox seemed to have a built a moderately competitive team, but even the best teams can't survive 2 black holes in the back of their starting rotation. Floyd and Danks, however, have been incredible surprises and they've been the best, most consistent starters the Sox have had all year; Floyd has flirted with a no-hitter late in games against division rivals twice already, and John Danks finished the first half of the season with a 2.67 ERA, 4th best in the American League.

ONE DOWN: Organizational lack of pitching depth

While Floyd and Danks have been tremendous, Jose Contreras, Javier Vazquez, and Mark Buehrle have had their struggles. Buehrle seems to have gotten back on track. Since June 1, he's gone 4-2 in 8 starts with a 1.86 ERA. In that same span of time, however, The Count has gone 2-3 with a 7.46 ERA and an eye-popping .393 OPBA while the Silent Assassin has been slightly less terrible, 2-3 in 7 starts with an ERA pushing 7. Yuck. With so much of this team's success build around pitching, it's doubtful the Sox can continue to carry two mediocre-to-terrible starters and continue winning.

I'm willing to give Vazquez a pass for now. In his 2½ years on the South Side, he's proven to have the stuff of a staff ace, but the toughness of a #3 or #4 starter. I'm confident that he can rebound and at least be serviceable. Contreras, on the other hand, is no stranger to lengthy slumps, and whether this one be physical (god only knows how old he really is), mental, or a combination, he's just been terrible over the last 2 months. Unfortunately, unless Kenny Williams can pull off a miracle, it looks like the Sox will be stuck riding out these 5 horses barring (knock on wood) injury. What alternatives are there? Lance Broadway? He looked nice in his limited time up here last year, but then again, so did Kip Wells in his late-season audition in 1999. While I believe Broadway ultimately has a future in a starting rotation somewhere in the Major Leagues, I'm less than thrilled with the prospect of having three young (i.e. prone to late-season breaking down) pitchers in a pennant race. After Broadway, the only fruits the Sox system has to bear are still incomplete prospects and washed up veterans such as Clayton Richard, Aaron Poreda, Esteban Loaiza, and Tomo Ohka.

While most teams would be negatively impacted by the loss of a starter, the Sox would, simply put, be devastated.

TWO UP: Bullpen.

Easy enough, last year the White Sox's bullpen was absolutely terrible, one of the worst in the A.L.; this year, its the best. They're half a run better than the 2005 bullpen, which was downright nasty. Can't overstate the effect Scott Linebrink and Octavio Dotel have had in restoring normalcy to the White Sox pitching staff.

TWO DOWN: Middle of the Lineup

Even with Jim Thome's recent surge that has his batting average above .250 and his slugging percentage north of .500, Jim Thome and Paul Konerko have been major disappointments so far. When the Sox relieved Thome of his responsibilities of batting 3rd in the order, he was hitting .209/7/22. Konerko has yet to find his stroke, reportedly thanks to a bum hand which eventually landed him on the D.L., but he heads into the break hitting a robust .217/.320/.368.

THREE UP: Cleveland & Detroit

The two sexy picks to win the division before this season started, the freefall of the Indians and Tigers opened the door for the Sox. They are a combined 14-7 against the preseason favorites. Cleveland has already thrown in the towel and the Tigers are deep in the rear view mirror and have been floating aroud .500 for most of the last few weeks.

THREE DOWN: Minnesota

God dammit, after the Sox swept the Twins at the Cell in early June, it looked like they were on the cusp of running away with the division, but since that sweep, the Twins have posted a 22-9 record and picked up 5 games on the Sox in the standings. Can they keep it up? While there are plenty of reasons to say they won't; they can't hit .300+ with RISP all year, they have a lot of road games in the 2nd half, they don't have the pitching, hitting, or fielding to match the Sox, etc. but I don't need to remind too many people of some of the Sox's recent late-season trips to the Metrodome and the myriad of ways those trips end in bitter disappointment. Honestly, I'd pull for anyone besides these guys to be pushing the Sox. The White Sox and Twins have 7 games left this season and all are in Minnesota; a 4-game series between July 28-31 and the last road series of the year, September 23-25.

This is going to be interesting.