Tyler Clippard — Clippard served as the awkward throw-in of one of the White Sox’ biggest trades this season. He was sent to Chicago along with three prospects, which made him a very certain outlier. At first blush it seemed like he was included to merely cover innings for a team that was trading away two of their best relievers at once. When he was traded to the Astros almost exactly a month later, it was clear his inclusion in the inital trade was merely to balance out salaries. It’s hard to say whether the team planned to flip him all along or his strong performance (10 IP, 2 ER) ignited interest from other teams. Regardless of the why, Clippard was in a White Sox uniform for merely an uninteresting month of the season.

Todd Frazier — Frazier was one of the many White Sox players belonging to the group of last ditch players from the era of the team piecing things together in hopes of finding something that worked. He spent a season and a half with the team, showing power in 2016 and nothing of great significance in 2017. The team was forced to package him with two strong relievers to get a team to bite, and he went on to find a leadership role with a Yankees team that was just one win away from the AL pennant.

Miguel Gonzalez — One of the big stories of the 2015 season was the massive failure of the Jeff Samardzija acquisition. There was absolutely no chemistry between Don Cooper and Samardzija, causing concerns about Cooper to ripple through the White Sox fanbase and baseball world. If it’s even fair to say there was a revival of Cooper’s reputation, it came in 2016 when Gonzalez went from throwaway player on the Orioles to one of the White Sox best pitchers. The 2017 was much rockier for Gonzalez, who battled injuries in the early part of the season. His 4.62 ERA on the season certainly wasn’t great, but he was effective while in Chicago. He weaved his way through hard contact left and right to make himself a trade asset in August, which helped the White Sox gain even more young talent in quantity even if not in quality.

Derek Holland — Holland always seemed like a great fit for the 2017 White Sox. He was a free agent whose price tag was greatly reduced by injury concerns, but if he was healthy he could easily provide a multitude of innings at at least a passable quality. That was a perfect fit for a team in the very early stages of rebuilding, and if the team got lucky he could have been a trade target by July. Instead things went horribly wrong, and Holland was cut from the roster before the season ended. His 6.20 ERA and 4.6 percent strikeout minus walk rate was not a site to behold, and as the summer came to an end his starts seemed to get worse and worse. The pitcher who appeared to be a solid signing with plenty of potential turned out to be a dud.

Dan Jennings — Jennings appeared in 77 games this season, which was good enough to put him tied for third in all of baseball among relievers. Perhaps it was the frequency with which Jennings was used that caused the Rays to show interest at the deadline. At the time they were certainly contenders for at least a Wild Card spot, if not within reach of the division title. With limited resources financially and within their system, they were forced to go bargain shopping. It’s hard to say why or how they landed on Jennings, but the fact remains that he was the guy they wanted. The White Sox were happy to oblige as they handed out bullpen arms like candy on Halloween throughout the months of July and August, and in return got Casey Gillaspie, a prospect who is flawed but interesting enough to more than justify the trade.

Tommy Kahnle — Kahnle and his morbidly huge thighs stepped out of nowhere and into our world in 2017. Before this season he was merely a fireballer who couldn’t find the strike zone, hardly a rare breed in this day and age of baseball. All it took for him to take off, as is the case for so many relievers, was a bit of command. He was able to establish the fastball early in counts and blow hitters away with his devastating changeup. The White Sox could have held out to squeeze more value from what seemed to be a very good reliever, but the general principle of selling high on relievers whenever you can is a good one. Kahnle went on to be a crucial part of the powerful Yankees bullpen, making strong and important appearances in a multitude of postseason games.

David Robertson — Robertson, like Frazier, was part of the team’s last ditch effort at contention over the last couple seasons. With contention out of the picture and Robertson still a valuable bullpen arm with a large salary commitment through 2018, the White Sox decided it was time to part with him. His value was neither at an all-time high nor all-time low, but when he was packaged with Kahnle and Frazier the return was at the very least a couple players of interest.

Anthony Swarzak — During most seasons you would be hard-pressed to find a reliever that came more out of nowhere to find success than Kahnle. However, in 2017 Swarzak did exactly that. The White Sox gave him a minor league deal, converted him to the bullpen and saw immediate success. He started the season on fire and finished with a 2.33 ERA and 30 percent strikeout rate. With Swarzak only signed on for the single season, it was an even easier decision to send him away to a contender. He landed in Milwaukee, where the Brewers were trying to keep themselves in the playoff race.

Jose Quintana — The most inevitable trade of the season was one involving Quintana. It was a shock, however, to see him sent to the other side of town. Despite struggling in the early parts of the season, he rebounded enough to convince teams that confidence in his past performance was enough to warrant sending prospects to the South Side. His departure was the saddest of the season from a rooting standpoint, but it sent the most exciting prospects the other way. Suddenly a White Sox system that still seemed arm-heavy had one of the best hitting prospects in baseball along with another high-ceiling pitcher. Seeing Quintana go after so many years of improbable success was unfortunate, but it was a huge step in the right direction for the White Sox rebuilding efforts.

Lead Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

My guy is Carlos Rodon. I’m not sure how, or why, he ended up being so important to me. It was sometime between the time he was drafted third overall and the halfway point of his first major league season that he fell into my lap. It’s easy to see why he would appeal to anyone. The stuff is absolutely disgusting, with a filthy slider and a fastball that reaches the mid-to-upper 90s when he’s really feeling it. Add a formidable changeup to that repertoire and suddenly a future ace role isn’t out of the question. But litle has gone right for Rodon, and I’ve been challenged with confronting the reality of who he is in the present and who he will be in the future.

As Rodon’s first season passed by, one couldn’t help but think that things were only going to get better for the young southpaw as he matured and found command of his fastball. Control of his fastball came with time, but the results were never better than that rookie campaign. The best ERA of his career was in 2015 when he posted a value of 3.75. The next season he lowered his WHIP by 0.05 only to see his ERA soar above 4. Those two seasons left a lot to be desired, but Rodon was just 23 years old with plenty of room for reasonable growth.

Thus enters 2017 into Rodon’s story. It was supposed to be the breakout year, the year where he finally figured it out. He had the stuff, had improved his control, and was just a couple steps away from stepping into a role in the top of the rotation. Instead, Rodon didn’t see a major league mound until late June because he was bothered by bursitis in his throwing arm. That was certainly worrisome, but rest was supposed to help. Everything was going to be OK once he got back on the mound and into the groove of the game. Instead, everything was not alright. Everything went wrong.

Rodon made just 12 starts for a total of 69 1/3 innings this season. He pitched fine over that stretch, pulling out incredible starts paired with disappointing ones. The results, in the grand scheme of things, aren’t that important. They were in a small sample, and they were followed by the young lefty being shut down with a month of the season remaining. That shut down could have reasonably been interpreted as the team taking a proactive approach regarding injured young players. That interpretation, however, lost its value when it was announced that Rodon went under the knife in late September.

The details of Rodon’s surgery are not intimately known, but it is known that his shoulder was operated on. Even if the specifics were known, it’s tough to make a prediction about what it means. Each arm heals differently and reacts differently to surgery, rehabilitation, and return to high stress baseball activities. That leaves Rodon’s future very much in doubt as we look toward 2018. The expectations from a year ago are all but thrown away, and we’re left with almost nothing to go off of in terms of predicting his future.

Rodon’s arm could heal with ease over the coming months, putting him on the mound by spring training and returning to a dominant form. Or it could cause his entire career to crumble, putting him in a far too large group of young pitchers who never even got a chance to get going before their arm refused to continue working. It’s simply impossible to say what is next for Rodon. To have his career crumble in such a heartbreaking fashion would be a tragedy, but seeing him rise from this injury to finally be the pitcher we all envisioned when he was drafted over three years ago would be the greatest triumph of all. The road Rodon takes is yet to be determined, but hope still remains for those who are willing to keep believing.

Lead photo credit: Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

When the White Sox traded for Lucas Giolito, he was still, at least technically speaking, among the best pitching prospect in baseball. His stock had fallen during his tortuous 2016 season, but with lists that reflected his poor trip to the big leagues yet to be written, he remained at the top. When those new lists were revealed, we had an entirely different outlook on who Giolito was. This is in our nature as fans and analysts, especially regarding players we have seen only in a couple major league starts, on a grainy MiLB.tv feed, or not at all. We trust those who have seen them and rely heavily on the arbitrary numbers next to their names despite those same people who have seen them telling us not to. With lowered expectations for Giolito, we entered the 2017 season.

To the surprise of nobody, Giolito started his season in Triple-A Charlotte. The White Sox believed they had identified major mechanical flaws that were hindering his success during the past season with the Nationals. Reworking those mechanics required time more than anything else. During that time, the results were naturally going to be less important than the process itself.

The majority of his time in Charlotte was spent doing exactly that. He was working on his mechanics, refining his command, and building up the effectiveness of his pitches beyond the fastball and curve. In 128 2/3 innings he had an unimpressive 4.48 ERA and 10.7 percent walk rate with just a 24.3 percent strikeout rate. He certainly was not the same pitcher who had skyrocketed to the top of prospect lists. What he did retain, however, through his velocity drop-off and mechanical adventure is the ability to pitch. It’s not something that can be taught but rather something innate to a very specific set of people.

It was that innate ability to pitch that helped Giolito have smashing success in the big leagues. He pitched just 45 1/3 innings over seven starts, so the sample is incredible small to base analysis off of. However, it was a good 45 1/3 innings, and many young pitchers cannot even lay claim to that long a stretch of good performance. He had a 2.38 ERA during his time in Chicago, but more importantly he had just a 6.7 percent walk rate.

If there are questions about how Giolito went from mediocre in the minor leagues to really good in the big leagues this season, the answer lies almost solely in the walk rate. Giolito was lacking command of his fastball as well as useful secondary pitches. It was easy to see when he had both of those tools working for him because they led to his outstanding starts.

Giolito’s future is still very much in question. In the same way that his short time in Washington did not overtly map out his future, his short time in Chicago has not either. There is room to improve, and there is room to go down. Where he goes is up to him, but the fact remains that he still has the tools to be a very useful starter. If that means he finds himself in the middle of a future White Sox rotation with a league average ERA but ability to pop off an ace-like start now and then, the team would be incredibly pleased. It could also mean that he crumbles and finds himself in the bullpen. Giolito’s 2017 was good improvement, but his future can be summed up in three letters: TBD.

Lead photo credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

The White Sox entered the season as a rebuilding team despite the lingering veteran talent on the roster. Their purpose for the season was clear. They wanted to get younger and more talented in order to prevent the mistakes of years past from happening once again. The lingering talent early in the season made the rebuilding White Sox look different from most rebuilding teams. As the season wore on, however, and talent was traded away, playing time started landing in the pockets of many has-been prospects. Matt Davidson, despite also getting a lot of work early in the season, was one of those has-been prospect beneficiaries.

Davidson had a solid 2016 season in Charlotte, hitting .268/.349/.444 with 10 home runs. That performance earned him a call-up toward the tail end of last season, but he injured his foot during his first game (an odd curse on a season that hardly needed more to go wrong) and never saw the field again until 2017. The whole point is that there was promise. Davidson was the prized prospect that landed in Chicago during the first of now many Addison Reed trades, but he struggled in the White Sox system. Finally, at age 26, it seemed like he might be able to put things together and become a useful player.

But baseball is cruel, and it cares not for the victims it leaves in its wake. The 9.8 percent walk rate in Charlotte from 2016 became just 4.3 percent with the White Sox this season, causing his OBP to crater to .260. That meant his slash line of .220/.260/.452 was awfully unimpressive during a season where home runs and power were favored league-wide. He hit 26 home runs, but so did Curtis Granderson, Nick Castellanos, and Hunter Renfroe. Scooter Gennett, Eddie Rosario, and Rougned Odor all hit more home runs than Davidson in 2017. His 26 in just fewer than 450 plate appearances may have been a glimmer of hope in other years, but in this season of the long ball it was disappointing for a player whose power carries his game.

What does this mean for the future of Davidson? He’ll be entering his age 27 season without having shown many signs of progress towards becoming a valuable player. That usually doesn’t bode well for the player in question. The good news for Davidson, however, is that the White Sox will once again be towards the bottom of the American League standings in 2018.The only immediate threat to Davidson’s position at third is Yolmer Sanchez, who will find himself roaming all over the White Sox infield. Most days that would result in Sanchez at third with the power duo in the middle, but Davidson would easily find some starts at third given Sanchez’ flexibility.

If the team decides to ride Davidson at designated hitter, there are even fewer candidates to take his spot. The White Sox could decide they want to give Ryan Cordell, Casey Gillaspie, or Rymer Liriano a chance in that spot to prove their bat, but they will likely have similar expectations as Davidson. The argument for simply trying those other players for the sake of change is a good one — you never know which player is going to breakout, but that argument can also be applied to Davidson, who has hardly been given a full shot in the big leagues. By that standard, Davidson is actually the prospect with the highest pedigree and should be an option fully exhausted before moving onto someone like Cordell (who is only a year younger than Davidson despite his prospect status) or Gillaspie.

The White Sox could easily decide that Davidson has already exhausted all of his chances, though. That would not bode well for the big man at the hot corner. As easily as Davidson could find himself receiving just as much, if not more, playing time in 2018, he could find himself floating in the abyss without a team if the White Sox let him go. That is, Davidson’s future is far from certain. There are decisions to be made by people with far more information and knowledge. Right now it’s hard to predict which way those decisions will go. There is uncertainty in Davidson’s future because of his lackluster performance in an environment in which he should have flourished.

Lead photo credit: Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

Single seasons by single players on bad teams are not often remembered beyond what appears on a Baseball Prospectus player card. The players we once watched daily, saw with our own eyes, and understood are relegated to pure numbers with the passing of time. Those numbers alone say that Tim Anderson had a woeful sophomore season. They say that handing the young shortstop an extension after half a season of good, but still raw, play was a mistake.

Statistics and metrics have creeped their way into the everyday vernacular of baseball fans. They’re a great insight into players around the league whose stories are unknown or play is unseen. They remind us of seasons past without forcing us to embark on a sometimes difficult trip down memory lane. They do this because they’re numbers. They have no emotion, narrative, or motive. They are the way they are, and they’re not subject to change (usually). Anderson will always have a -0.1 under the WARP column on his BP player page. We love to use numbers for exactly this reason. They’re objective. They tell us the results without muddying the waters with things that cannot be made certain.

The one problem that remains in numbers, however, is that they cannot perfectly explain the actions of human beings. Baseball players are, in fact, people. They have emotions, hormones, and are subject to real-life factors the same way the rest of us are. Those things don’t show up on a stat page. Anderson’s .233 TAv or 78 wRC+ say nothing about how he felt after his best friend was tragically killed, and his 13 walks in more than 600 plate appearances tells nothing of the path he had to walk down without someone he thought of as a brother.

Anderson played the entire season while mourning his dear friend, attempting to separate his real life from life on the field. That task was, of course, easier said than done. Every day Anderson presumably battled his feelings after the loss of his friend while trying to piece together a season that would cement his place in the White Sox’ future plans.

“I’ve kind of been numb throughout the whole season. I’m just now starting to feel like myself. The numbness is going away. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about him. I think about the good times and things that we did. Just from a long friendship and just try to always think about the positive,” Anderson told Scott Merkin in an interview following his decision to wear the name of his friend during players’ weekend in lieu of a nickname.

Anderson would get hot only to find himself once again slipping into a disastrous slump. That’s why his full season .257/.276/.402 slash line doesn’t tell the whole story. It doesn’t say anything about the .191 ISO he put up in the months of August, September, and October, which was coupled with the 17 home runs that showed off his power potential.

Despite experiencing a tragedy that many much older and more experienced than Anderson have never been forced to go through, he found a way to make his season productive. The -0.1 WARP or whopping -11.2 FRAA are without the context of a young man just trying to do his job amid a great deal of grief. At times, Anderson’s grief made him appear complacent, lazy, or simply not in the game. Those mistakes reflected poorly in the shortsighted eyes of fans, but they were more representative of just how much strife Anderson was enduring.

The good news for the shortstop is that the season is over. He found ways to improve on his impressive rookie campaign, but his flaws are still well-known. His 26.7 percent strikeout rate was an improvement on the season before but still remains a concern in comparison to the very low rate at which Anderson takes walks. The team would certainly love for him to improve his average by a few points while maintaining an ISO nearing .200. His defense could stand to improve if he wants to stick at the position. He has a lot to work on over the offseason and into the 2018 season, but he can do so with a clean sheet in the coming months.

The 2017 White Sox are bound to be forgotten by the time the flowers begin blooming again, and spring will provide an opportunity for Anderson to bloom into the excellent player within. With the pressure of a newly signed contract on his shoulders and the loss of his friend on his heart, Anderson attempted to bear the weight of the world on his shoulders at the ripe age of 24. The season, as a result, could be considered a failure. On the field, there were merely minute details to rejuvenate the excitement that once existed about Anderson. The hope of a bright future for the young shortstop remains, however, in the minds of those who can recognize the season Anderson had beyond the numbers alone.

Lead photo credit: Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports

It’s been a long season, but if we can think all the way back to April we find some good memories. The White Sox went 13-10 in April, certainly surpassing the expectations of a tanking team. They still had Jose Quintana, Todd Frazier, Melky Cabrera, and a shockingly good bullpen; they also got a strong, surprising contribution from Avisail Garcia. It made sense that a team with such solid lingering veteran talent would find itself a few wins above the norm for a team just entering a rebuilding state.

When that talent was all shipped away at the deadline, yes literally all of it, the team naturally recoiled and had a stretch of games that sent them into first pick territory. The White Sox had lost half their bullpen, their best starter, the starting left fielder, and their starting third baseman. With those players happily playing for contending teams, the team in Chicago was forced to lean on a pitching staff that was not only bad but also tired. Their starters didn’t go deep in games, and their bullpen was sad as well. That was the closest they came to tanking. They had dropped a good portion of their roster, and it was suddenly filled with misfits and guys that were being given a shot merely because they had the space to do so.

Not long after that brief period of tanking, however, reinforcements arrived. Carlos Rodon returned from his injury to sort of look like himself for about a month before being shut down for the season. Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez both made their way from Charlotte with guns blazing, taking the White Sox rotation from abysmal to, at the very least, optimistic. Tim Anderson snapped out of his funk to put together a solid season, and his double play partner, Yoan Moncada, found himself in September after a power and walk happy August. Each of those contributions could have been predicted at the start of the season. We all were confident that Rodon would return and be good. While doubts about Anderson surfaced early in the season, there was a small part of every fan that assumed he would be just fine in the end. As for Giolito, Lopez, and Moncada, they were the prized prospects — anything less than the success they’ve seen would have been a disappointment.

The team also received positive contributions that could not have been predicted. The seasons from Leury Garcia, Avisail Garcia, Nicky Delmonico, and Yolmer Sanchez all came out of nowhere and were relatively productive. Avisail Garcia’s 136 wRC+ over a full season, and Delmonico’s 136 in a much smaller sample had profound impacts on the team. Even 97 and 92 from Leury Garcia and Sanchez respectively was far above preseason expectations. Contributions from the predictable young players, and surprisingly good seasons from others led the White Sox to a uniquely non-tanking season for a rebuilding team.

So here the White Sox sit with a record of 65-93, with the fourth pick in the draft likely, the third within reach, and the first requiring a miracle of sorts. In the eyes of some this marks the season as a failure, but that type of thinking requires assuming the White Sox were ever tanking to begin with. That’s simply not the case. They were too good in the early going while still possessing elite talent, and received too many encouraging performances from young players that could fit into a future White Sox roster.

Marking the 2017 season as a failure for the rebuilding White Sox would be foolish. Moncada, Giolito, and Garcia (x2) all took strong steps forward while Lopez, Rodon, Anderson, and Delmonico all showed that they could be part of the team’s optimistic future. Those strong steps forward by players already at the major league level put the team behind the eight ball regarding draft day, yes. But those strong steps are likely to have a more profound impact on the team’s future than whoever dons a White Sox cap next June.

Lead Photo Credit: Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

Finding the answer to that question lies in finding why Giolito has seen success in his short time in Chicago. First and foremost, the 0.99 WHIP and .188 average against have helped. Hitters aren’t squaring him up well, and he’s had solid command of the zone. As with most pitchers, having a well-established fastball is the key to pitching well. Giolito is no different, and despite his decreased velocity from his early years in professional ball he’s been deceptive and quite good with the pitch. At times the success comes from strong downward plane thanks to his large frame, and at other times it’s his ability to do exactly the opposite by placing it up in the zone. His ability to change eye levels with the pitch fundamental to his success has been crucial.

The fastball has been good in each of his starts. That’s the foundation, and it has helped him see success regardless of how the other pitches look. When he’s at his best, though, he has at least one of his other pitches working. Surprisingly enough, more often than not that pitch has been the changeup. Giolito’s strong prospect prowess was due almost entirely to his strong fastball and hammer curve, and his changeup was always considered to be a work in progress. In a small sample, he’s seen incredible success with the pitch in Chicago. It has generated swings and misses 18.6% of the time he’s thrown it. His other secondaries have shown themselves at times as well.

The chart above shows that during his two best starts, against Tampa Bay and San Francisco, he had at least one of his secondaries generating whiffs at a good rate. He had ten and five strikeouts in those games respectively. Without even looking at a chart with concrete data, it was easy to see that he was looking good. He was changing eye levels with the fastball, fooling hitters with the secondaries, and keeping batters guessing to generate strikeouts and weak contact. It’s really that simple. It’s that simple because he’s been able to command the ball well, posting just a 7.8% walk rate despite some thinking that may have also been a flaw in his game before he donned the black and white.

When he’s lacking the changeup, slider, or curveball he struggles to rack up the strikeouts. His last two starts have seen a decrease in performance from those secondary pitches, which has resulted in just three strikeouts in each of those starts. He’s managed to work through those starts to see success, but that’s certainly one area where he might see some regression. A pitcher’s ability to generate soft contact is still something that’s hard to quantify, especially in such a small sample, so there isn’t a whole lot that can be said about that part of Giolito’s game.

The best version of Giolito comes out when he’s able to strike batters out. That happens when he has a good feel secondary pitches. The best example of a great feel for those pitches was in his start against Tampa Bay, when he posted a career-high ten strikeouts. He can also see success when those pitches aren’t working by generating soft contact, but it remains to be seen whether that ability is sustainable or not.

Giolito has been extremely encouraging during his short time with the team. At times he’s flashed the brilliance that convinced many that he could be an ace in the future. When he hasn’t been flashing that high-end stuff he’s been able to push through to provide good starts. Both of those things seem to point towards him becoming an effective pitcher in the middle of a future White Sox rotation. It’s been a very short time to make such a conclusion on, but it seems like the White Sox have gotten a solid contributor to a future rotation in Giolito, regardless of if it’s as a number one or lower in the order.

Lead photo credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

2. Abreu’s real life factors are certainly fresher, but the struggles that Tim Anderson has endured this season have been well-documented as well. These players are not robots, after all, and the emotional ups and downs that come with life affect them just like they do the rest of us. Growing pains and emotional turmoil piled on Anderson during the first half of the season, leading to results much poorer than could have been expected going into the season. Since August 1st, however, he’s hitting .284/.299/.546. The OBP is never going to jump off the page, but his combination of average and power in the last month has been a good showing of what he can be in the future. The White Sox will certainly take a .262 ISO from a shortstop that hopefully smooths out some of the wrinkles defensively as long as his middle infield partner lives up to his potential as well.

3. Sunday’s pitching matchup was between Carson Fulmer and Madison Bumgarner, which on paper is a bit of a mismatch. The final score of the game suggested a mismatch as well, but it was shockingly in favor of Fulmer, who put together what was by far the best start of his career. It was in September against a Giants lineup that even before the expanded rosters struggled to perform, but his stuff looked better than it has at almost any other time in his career. Fulmer averaged 93.4 mph with his fastball with an 88.3 mph cutter while mixing in a curveball and changeup here and there. It worked to perfection, giving Fulmer nine strikeouts over six innings with 12 swinging strikes.

Manager Rick Renteria told reporters after the game, “Fulmer did a real nice job. Six innings. Gave up the homer early. Was very effective. Kept the ball down. Was using his cutter a little bit more today. Worked at a good tempo. . .His fastball had some life, some sink, some cut. It was getting on top of those guys. Look, he’s got a quick arm. He’s 94, 95, it looks like it’s getting on top of you pretty quickly.” Renteria’s analysis of Fulmer’s game is incredibly apt, describing the authority with which his pitcher established his fastball early on. Fulmer used the fastball and cutter in 82 of his 98 pitches and was especially reliant on the hard stuff early in the game as he established himself on the mound.

Confidence and command with the fastball were key early on according to Fulmer, who told The Athletic, “You have to go with what feels good. Luckily for me, today I was able to command everything that I had. But when you fall into a rut sometimes you have to rely on what works for you and I think that the fastball up sets up a lot of other things for me and I’m going to continue to work on it.” Command is key for Fulmer, who has been walking batters at a greater rate than he’s been striking them out this season. His stuff is good enough if he can get ahead, but doing so is no small task. Fulmer, like every other high end pitching prospect in the system, is going to get every opportunity to start. If he can work out the kinks at the highest level and turn things around, he can add even more to the White Sox embarrassment of pitching riches.

4. Abreu, Anderson, and Fulmer all had great performances this weekend, but the best player of the weekend was Yolmer Sanchez. He went a total of 5-for-9 on Saturday and Sunday with two triples, a double, and a home run. Rick Renteria told reporters, “I think it’s more like anybody, probably swinging at a lot more strikes. You’re trusting your swing path. Your trusting getting the barrel to the baseball and driving it. Obviously he’s got quite a few pull-side homers. But that’s just a consequence of good pitch-selection, barrel to the ball.” While Renteria wasn’t extremely specific with his quick answer, he’s not far off in his analysis of what Sanchez has done right. Sanchez’ swing rate on pitches in the zone has increased by 1.2 percentage points from last season to 2017, and he’s made marginal improvements in making contact on those pitches (0.6 percentage point increase).

Those changes aren’t massive or glaring nor do they necessarily mean anything at all. What has been meaningful is the change in results for Sanchez, who looked like a failed prospect less than 12 months ago. He’s now hitting .268/.321/.420 with a 96 wRC+. That doesn’t make him an All Star, but it’s certainly good enough for the White Sox to keep him around as a utility infielder. With Leury Garcia faltering and battling injury in the second half, it seems as though Sanchez has earned the title of future utility infielder that seemed all but wrapped up for Tyler Saladino coming into the season. These types of seasons, finding a diamond in the rough of former prospects, are one of the few advantages a rebuilding team can have.

5. The White Sox playing the Giants is a relatively uncommon and unimportant matchup in the grand scheme of things. There was some importance, however, if one believes in scoreboard watching in hopes of the White Sox having the first pick in the draft. Chicago took a series against the Giants, making them the team with the third worst winning percentage in baseball. Needless to say, fretting about a series victory where Yoan Moncada, Abreu, Anderson, Fulmer, and Sanchez all performed well simply because of draft position would be pretty silly. A better draft position is certainly never worse, but the steps forward taken by young White Sox talent already at the major league level is far more important to the overall rebuild.

It’s becoming clear that Chicago will draft within the top three in almost every scenario for the remainder of the season. In a recent interview with James Fegan of The Athletic, Scouting Director Nick Hostetler remarked, “The only thing that’s really different, it might eliminate a couple players from your pool, and it might lessen the money, or increase the money, but other than it doesn’t change how we go about our business.” If Hostetler is unconcerned about draft position, it’s safe to say that fans should be unconcerned as well. Hostetler also commented on the next stage of a White Sox rebuild that has already been a massive success, which is well-worth reading.

Lead Image Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

Gonzalez seemed to have a case of post-Orioles-itis that helped propel him to a 3.73 ERA, which nestled him between current god of pitching Chris Sale and future stud Carlos Rodon on the White Sox leaderboard. The peripherals weren’t great, and his 4.23 DRA warned of trouble to come. His efforts didn’t help the White Sox find their way to the playoffs, though. Instead they were wasted efforts for an offense that found itself to be inert.

In 2017 the White Sox’ tactics have done a 180. No longer are they making weak attempts at contention. With the team in a state of rebuilding, the pressure was off Gonzalez to perform at a high level. Sure, if he had continued to show the good signs of 2016 he was bound to be on the move to help pack the farm system with even more talent. But mostly he had no expectations laid on his shoulders. Perhaps that is a good thing, because his 2017 season has been a mess of confusion and poor play. He’s had good starts and bad starts, with a DL stint thrown in the middle of the season, and remains a mystery that can’t quite be solved.

Gonzalez has been able to put together solid outings this year. He went 8 1/3 innings against the Yankees in his third start of the season, allowing just one earned run, and followed that up with eight innings without an earned run against the Royals. He’s had a couple starts reach six or seven innings with just one earned run allowed in the past month. In his last three starts he has gone a total of 20 innings with just two earned runs allowed. The start before those three was a stinker in which he recorded just five outs before being yanked from the game with seven earned runs already on his record. His game logs scream inconsistency and beg the question: is Gonzalez good?

Gonzalez has never been the type to blow hitters away. The highest swinging strike rate of his career is 8.9 percent in 2015, and his career-high strikeout rate is just 17.7 percent from 2012. Despite his inability to do so, he has had some good seasons in his past. None of those seasons is quite as good as the one he had a year ago, but his career is that of a good pitcher to place at the backend of a rotation. For that reason, his 13.4 strikeout rate and 6.5 swinging strike rate don’t come as much of a surprise. However, that swinging strike rate is the worst of his career and a huge drop-off from his 8.0 percent mark in 2016.

Inability to miss bats is certainly concerning; it’s a huge reason why Gonzalez’s success has always been met with doubts about his ability to maintain a low run average over a larger sample of innings. DRA agrees with those doubts, constantly stating that Gonzalez’s individual performance is worse than his run average makes it out to be. Believing in DRA’s ability to evaluate performance and hint at the future is a good and smart thing to do, but it can be wrong about players from time to time. There is more than just DRA that points towards Gonzalez being inept on the mound.

While the lowered swinging strike rate and strikeout rate are both signs of a failure to miss bats, the contact rate is perhaps even more alarming. His overall contact rate sits at 86.3 percent, which is fourth highest in all of baseball (100 IP or more). His contact rates in the zone (90.8 percent) and out of the zone (77.5 percent) sit similarly at the top of the leaderboard. Hitters have no trouble putting their bat on the ball against Gonzalez. It stands to reason that when the contact is bad, Gonzalez excels. When the contact is solid, Gonzalez has a bad start.

What allows hitters to make contact with such ease? The lack of elite velocity on his pitches certainly plays a part. His fastball averages just 91.2 mph with his slider at 86.8 mph, splitter at 84.4 mph, and curveball at 77.6 mph. None of those is great or elite, but the wide variety of pitches should provide him a better ability to keep hitters guessing. His usage of those pitches doesn’t provide a a better answer. He’s used hard stuff (four seam or sinker) on nearly half of his pitches thrown this season (48.5 percent). Meanwhile, he’s all but abandoned his splitter while turning to his curveball more than ever before. Looking at isolated power against and slugging percentage against, each of his individual pitches show there isn’t evidence that the change in usage has made much of a negative difference. In fact, it may have even helped on a couple of those pitches. In other words, it’s not simply one pitch that has failed for Gonzalez.

Gonzalez’s entire repertoire is getting sent back his way with authority, and he seems to have no way to quell the onslaught of contact hitters are making. That doesn’t necessarily make Gonzalez bad, but it does make him more susceptible to really, really bad performances from time to time. Contact isn’t always going to land nicely in a fielder’s glove. Sometimes it lands in the outfield grass, or even worse, in the hands of a lucky fan sitting in the outfield bleachers. Inability to prevent contact or minimize the damage of contact leads to bad outings, something Gonzalez has become all too familiar with. In that sense, he’s certainly not good.

The White Sox were able to scrape up a useful starter they really needed a season ago. Now the team is in a state of rebuilding just begging pitchers to throw enough innings to finish the games remaining on their schedule. Gonzalez has, for the most part, fulfilled that duty. What he has not done is be consistent. His extreme tendency to allow contact has helped the White Sox move along quickly through games in which the outcomes don’t matter, but it’s also caused Gonzalez to melt down from time to time. It doesn’t seem like a trade partner has or will come knocking for Gonzalez on the waiver wire, but if they do they will be rolling the dice on which Gonzalez shows up. Or more accurately, which type of contact Gonzalez watches fly over his head.

Lead photo credit: Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports

It was a close, back-and-forth game for the duration of the nine innings. After seven innings, though, the White Sox were on the wrong side of a one-run game. They were in need of a late rally. They didn’t necessarily receive the run explosion they would have liked, but they were able to produce runs nonetheless. A Leury Garcia double was followed by a Moncada double and suddenly the White Sox had tied the game. No other runs crossed the plate that inning, but the man the White Sox need to be a star in the future had just tied it up. It was invigorating.

In the ninth inning the score was remained tied. Yes, the team could go into extras and see what happened from there, but the better route was certainly to finish it off in the bottom of the inning and go home. Once again a Garcia got things going, but this time it was Avisail that reached on a base hit. It, of course, would not be a Rick Renteria-managed game without a sacrifice bunt, which moved Garcia to second. An intentional walk of Yolmer Sanchez* put the game on Tim Anderson’s shoulders, and he delivered. A base hit brought Garcia home, and the celebration began for a team and a hitter that were both in desperate need of it.

*Ed. Note: The second of his career, both coming this season.

The White Sox win on Wednesday was more than just a fun, come-from-behind win in late innings. There have been a remarkable number of those this season (despite the team being bad) that brought just momentary excitement. This one was different. This one gave us a glimpse into what the future might be like.

Anderson has been struggling this season, hitting just .239/.260/.384 with defense that leaves a lot to be desired. But he has shown signs, both during last season and this one, that he can be a difference-maker in the future. He still has a lot to prove, but he has a more certain future on this team than almost anyone else on the major league roster. That means something, and his walk-off hit on Wednesday helped us wonder just how great it might be when he is shining as his best self on a contending White Sox team.

Moncada hasn’t disappointed in his short time with the team, but he hasn’t blown us away yet either. That leaves some fans wanting more. Despite his .192/.328/.364 slash line being lackluster, Moncada has shown an ability to drive the ball and take a ton of walks. The hits will continue to start falling. He has three doubles in his last two games, showing an ability to drive the ball into the gaps. His double, like his game-tying home run just weeks before and Anderson’s walk-off, was more than just a simple double. It meant something both in the game and for fans dreaming on the future.

The doldrums of the rebuild are just beginning, but fans can find little moments to build on. Wednesday appeared to be one of those little moments. If you’re like me, you get a twinge of excitement each and every time Moncada and Anderson turn a double play or step to the plate. They’re the ones we can dream on, the future that is growing right in front of us. Their heroics on Wednesday night could easily be extrapolated into a dream of a White Sox team down the road in a playoff race at the end of the season. It wasn’t hard to picture Moncada and Anderson carrying a much better team into the postseason rather than just to a meaningless win on a Wednesday night. Both players have struggled, but for one night they delivered in the way we expect for many years to come. They are the future, and they’re giving us a lot to dream on. 

Lead photo credit: Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports