1. Until then, however, we’re left scouring reports from the beats, box scores, and the random glimpse at MLB.tv where you have to squint and figure out who No. 92 is while awaiting the next Luis Robert at-bat or Michael Kopech inning. Patrick Leonard, who the hell is that?

The story Wednesday was the spring debut of one Lucas Giolito, whose results didn’t match his feelings about the performance after the game.

“Some of my pitches were working really well. I know what I did wrong on a few. It was a little fast — first one out (I had) a little adrenaline going (and was) working a little too fast. There’s a lot to take away and build on for the next one.”

Giolito went two innings, giving up two runs (one earned) while walking two and striking out one. Reports had his fastball hitting as high as 95 — a positive sign — and while his command wavered, he generated swings-and-misses with his curveball. Commanding the fastball throughout the zone and generating whiffs with his curveball will be the keys to his success going forward.

2. Adam Engel has become something of a whipping-boy in this space as the offseason has gone on. The speed and defensive potential are great, but his bat is such that optimism about his future with the team is very low. And with Charlie Tilson, Leury Garcia, and perhaps one or two others (Ryan Cordell?) seen as big-league ready options in center field, the desire to see another young piece who isn’t coming off a sub-.500 OPS season has increased.

But Engel will undoubtedly get another shot this season, perhaps even as the Opening Day starting center fielder, and he’s reportedly overhauled his swing — an added leg kick — in an effort to get better timing and rhythm that can help him cut down on what was a 35 percent strikeout rate in the majors last season.

“From a mechanical approach he’s actually developed a little bit more rhythm,” Renteria said. “He’s trying to get his feet underneath him and get comfortable with it. Hitting is timing and I think he’s trying to find a way that he can generate some momentum and more fluidity into his swing. We want him to touch the baseball a little bit more, take advantage of his speed, maybe bunt a little more. Yesterday he tried to bunt a couple of times so he’s trying to take his game, the things he’s capable of doing, use him a little bit more this spring and see if we can take advantage of his speed.”

The odds remain stacked against him. The above-linked article by James Fegan of The Athletic noes an inability to find external scouts who express the same optimism as the White Sox in Engel as anything more than a fourth outfielder, but the point of a rebuild — as we’ve said over and over again — is giving guys like Engel every chance possible to succeed. At 26, there may not be much development left, but given his speed and athleticism, there’s still enough to dream on to hope.

3. Last season, Anthony Swarzak went from non-roster invitee to legitimate trade prospect to someone who a team is willing to invest two years and $14 million. All offseason, as the White Sox scooped up a number of downtrodden veteran pitchers, the running gag has become the search for the Next Swarzak.

In reality, it’s a futile exercise. Success stories like Swarzak’s aren’t altogether impossible, but expecting it on a regular basis would be foolish. Still, with a bullpen filled with inexperienced, volatile arms and more than a few injury risks, names like T.J. House, Jeanmar Gomez, and Xavier Cedeno likely have a better chance of finding relevance with the White Sox than most organizations.

Lead Photo Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

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

2. The loss to the Cubs Tuesday afternoon wasn’t the headlining news of the day, but it did bear significance for the White Sox rebuild. That significance was in a puzzling outing for Carlos Rodon. The problem for Rodon is the same problem he’s had since he joined the team — he can’t find the strike zone. Or perhaps more precisely, he has no command. He has been able to find the strike zone at times in his career, but his finding of the strike zone has been paired with hitters feasting on fastballs in the zone. Not ideal.

On Tuesday Rodon struggled to command, or even control, his pitches the same way he’s struggled to do so in each of his starts this season. That’s still a very limited sample size, but some concern is warranted. The good news is that Rodon managed to strike out 11 batters while pitching just four innings. He also walked three batters, allowed seven hits, and gave up four earned runs. His inability to tap into his incredible potential has been extremely frustrating for both the White Sox and their fans. Some patience is required, however. Rodon is coming off an arm injury that knocked him out for half the season. There’s bound to be some rust there. The strikeouts in Tuesday’s game are a good sign that he’s beginning to shake that off but, like always, the command has to come. The good news is that the White Sox aren’t trying to win anything as they witness Rodon’s growing pains, so for now he can struggle in the big leagues and find his way well before the next competitive White Sox roster arises.

3. Down on the farm, two of the top pitching prospects took the mound on Tuesday. Lucas Giolito had a fine night in Charlotte, going seven innings with no earned runs. He allowed four hits while walking three, but he struck out six. Jeff Long of the BP prospect team got a good look at him two weeks ago and remarked that, “This new Giolito is still very, very good. He’s just not a dominant stuff guy anymore, showing elite pitchability and getting outs by outsmarting hitters rather than overpowering them.” Alec Hansen, another darling of the BP prospect staff, also pitched Tuesday. He went six innings while giving up two earned runs on two hits. He did walk three batters, but he struck out seven. Hansen is relatively new to the level, so that’s certainly a good performance. There’s no rush, but the White Sox would surely like to see a college arm make his way past A-ball by 2018. He looks in line to do so.

4. Avisail Garcia’s first half of 2017 is well-documented. He got in shape, improved his plate discipline, and became an All-Star. With a little boost from a .371 BABIP, he posted a .310 average with an .850 OPS. His 125 wRC+ made it seem like he had become a legitimate weapon. In the past week he has gone 3-for-19 with four strikeouts and one walk. That’s a small sample size and certainly something he can crawl out of, but it does appear as though the BABIP dragon is beginning to breathe a little fire on Garcia. His BABIP in the second half (small sample!) is down to .333, which is a reasonable place for a player like Garcia if he continues to show some speed down the line and hit the ball hard. Maybe it’s the cynic in me expecting the bad Garcia to return, but the cracks in his dream season are already starting to show.

5. A player who is even more difficult to figure out than Garcia is Matt Davidson. Co-editor-in-chief Nick Schaefer wrote about the mystifying Davidson last month, and not much has changed. It is worth noting, however, that he’s striking out at a 39.0 percent rate while still managing to post an above average 103 wRC+. This is reminiscent of Todd Frazier’s 40 dinger season a year ago where he looked abysmal aside from the times the ball flew over the outfield wall. What is even more impressive than Frazier’s season is that Davidson is doing it not as a three true outcome player. He’s striking out far more than Frazier did and walking at just a 4.8 percent clip. Even the .255 ISO is good but not all that great. Hitting 19 home runs in fewer than 300 plate appearances, however, remains an impressive feat that has allowed him to find success. Where the team goes with him in the future is a decision to be made down the road when the major league roster starts to fill. For now, they can afford to play a mediocre to bad defensive player at third who strikes out almost half the time but still clobbers dingers.

Lead Photo Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports

Swarzak was given a minor league deal back on January with a non-roster invitation to Spring Training. He parlayed that opportunity into a spot on the Opening Day roster and became a surprising success story during the first half of an otherwise forgettable season. The journeyman and former starter increased his velocity by 3-4 mph and was downright dominant at times, opening the season with a 19 2/3 inning scoreless streak and posting a 2.23 ERA with 52 strikeouts in 48 1/3 innings overall.

Where the prospect of trading Tommy Kahnle was contentious given Kahnle’s age and the prospect of him remaining a dominant reliever until the White Sox next contention window, cashing in on Swarzak is a no-brainer. This season’s success has been unexpected and helped the White Sox get through injuries to expected contributors Nate Jones and Zach Putnam and later trades of Kahnle and David Robertson, but he’s also 31 years old and has zero track record of sustained success. Given his unexpected rise, the fact that he came to the White Sox for nothing, as well as the volatility of relievers, getting anything remotely valuable in exchange for him prior to the July 31 trade deadline is a bonus.

What, exactly, the White Sox got in return is the question. Cordell is a 25-year-old outfielder/utility type who is ranked No. 17 in Milwaukee’s farm system, per MLB Pipeline. The Brewers acquired him last summer as the PTBNL in the trade that sent Jonathan Lucroy and Jeremy Jeffress to the Texas Rangers. He’s played all three outfield spots, as well as first and third base during his minor league career, and is hitting .284/.349/.506 at the hitter friendly environment of Triple-A Colorado Springs this season.

He’s likely nothing more than a fourth outfielder type long term, but having Swarzak go from NRI to trade deadline asset was an unexpected bonus for the White Sox. And they were smart to cash in.

Lead Photo Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

The young players are too inexperienced or simply not good enough to make it. That leaves Yoan Moncada (duh), Tim Anderson, and any of the pitchers who might make their White Sox debut in the coming month out of the equation. Then there are the underperforming veterans. Perhaps it seemed obvious that a Todd Frazier, Melky Cabrera, or Jose Quintana type would be donning the ugly All-Star attire for the White Sox coming into the season. However, none of those three have lived up to expectations, especially not to #ASGWorthy expectations.

What we’re left with is an odd group of players who all have a real chance at making it to Miami. Abreu seems like the obvious choice at this point. Unexpected players like Yonder Alonso, Logan Morrison, and Justin Smoak are crushing the ball right now, but the rest of the field at first base is thin. With a cool-off period certainly coming for the aforementioned first basemen and Abreu just now heating up, he could easily squeak in. He ranks fifth in wRC+ among qualified first basemen in the American League. The three odd emerging players mentioned before and Chris Davis are the only players above him. On the other hand, Alonso and company could keep up their torrid pace and make it an easy decision to keep Abreu out.

If Abreu can’t make it because of oddly great seasons from a few players, the White Sox do have some other options. There’s always Avisail Garcia, who somehow hasn’t completely cooled off yet. He’s still hitting .338/.388/.544 with a surprisingly low strikeout rate of just 19.0 percent entering play Wednesday. Among American League outfielders he ranks fourth in wRC+ with 157. Only Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, and Corey Dickerson have a higher wRC+ than Garcia. It would be hilarious, it would be sad, and it seriously could happen. Let’s continue to peruse the options though.

The other Garcia in the outfield is making quite a case. Leury Garcia is quietly hitting .312/.345/.486 with a 127 wRC+ and has taken over center field for the White Sox. His defense has been good, despite getting clocked in the head by a fly ball the other night. He’s also shown some surprising pop in his bat with four home runs and a .174 ISO. He hasn’t hit quite as well as the other Garcia or Abreu, and he doesn’t have the name recognition. However, he could be a dark horse for the All-Star Game spot if one of the other top Sox performers starts to crumble.

So far we’ve only discussed position players. The last time the White Sox even had a position player at the All-Star Game was 2014. Jose Quintana has already been dropped out of the race because of his poor start. After all, it took a few injured players to even get him on the All-Star roster last year despite an incredible start. It’s just not gonna happen. A pitching All-Star would have to come from the White Sox bullpen.

There are a couple candidates from the Sox bullpen. David Robertson hasn’t been as ridiculous as Anthony Swarzak or Tommy Kahnle, but he has the name recognition and performance to get him to the game. He’s currently sporting a 33.9 percent strikeout rate to go along with his 1.21 WHIP and 3.21 ERA. Those numbers are pretty good, but pale in comparison to Swarzak or Kahnle. Swarzak didn’t give up an earned run until Wendesday. He has a 35.5 percent strikeout rate, 3.2 percent walk rate, 0.31 WHIP, and 1.61 DRA. That is absolutely ridiculous.

Kahnle has also made his presence known with his wicked fastball and nasty changeup. His ERA is way above Swarzak’s at 1.80. He also has a comical 49.1 percent strikeout rate with a 7.3 percent walk rate, 0.80 WHIP, and 1.27 DRA. If either Swarzak or Kahnle can keep it up for the next month, they might have a shot at making it. With Terry Francona as the manager, they appear to have as good of a shot as anyone.

Who will be the White Sox representative at the midsummer classic? The favorite is probably Abreu. The backup might be Avisail Garcia if he keeps it up and gets enough support. A wackier, yet completely reasonable, choice would be either Swarzak or Kahnle from the bullpen. In a year where the team isn’t supposed to be competitive, a few odd players have actually stood out with outstanding seasons to date. Perhaps the White Sox even send a pair of players.

The picture isn’t much clearer than it was in March for Joses Quintana and Abreu — both are under contract for a couple more years, so they don’t have to be dealt this year. Moreover, trying to size a deadline package for a star who’s not a rental is next to impossible from the outside, since it’s much harder to rule teams in or out on a player that demands a bigger return. For better or for worse, Quintana’s tepid start and Abreu’s solid-but-spiky first six weeks don’t mean much.

For the two proper rentals on the team, the first six weeks haven’t been kind to their trade values. Melky Cabrera’s tAV of .226 would be a career-worst by 25 points, and while he’s due for a bit of a bounce back just based on BABIP luck, it’s not out of the question the power’s just gone. He probably always needed to get off to a hot start to get something more than a lotto ticket on the trade market, but barring a huge streak he’s now more likely to bring back a Nolan Sanburn than a Leury Garcia. (He’s not helped that there aren’t many contenders that need help in left field or a so-so bench bat. The Diamondbacks sort of fit the bill, but for now it’s hard to guess what shape they’ll be in at the deadline.)

The market for third basemen is at least a bit more open, with the Cardinals, Mets, and Red Sox all teams with reason for skepticism about their current situations at the hot corner and some shot at the playoff chase. (Amusingly enough, depending on how teams decide to value Melky’s switch-hitting, Todd Frazier might actually be a better left field/bench bat than Cabrera for the rest of the year.) The issue with Frazier is that there’s uncertainty for him at the hot corner — he just hasn’t been very good, though he’s got even more room for positive regression than Cabrera. While the White Sox won’t be as damaged by Frazier’s walk year slump as he likely will be, it does seem unlikely he brings back a bad piece, but they’re in better shape to get something interesting back for him than they are with Cabrera.

With the White Sox current rolling out Mike Pelfrey and Dylan Covey, it seems a little foolish to talk about trading starting pitching “depth,” but the peripherals suggest they might not have any takers anyhow — Miguel Gonzalez and Derek Holland’s respective cFIPs of 105 and 111 are pretty bad, and while Gonzalez threw a couple gems in April, neither guy has the recent track record to make him an appealing pickup at the deadline.

At least I have a couple positive nuggets to save for last, which is that the White Sox bullpen has been dominant thus far. Before Tuesday’s game against the Angels, David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle, and Anthony Swarzak were each in the top 30 in all of baseball by cFIP, and each of them (along with Nate Jones, if he gets well soon) are likely available to any contender. Right now it’d almost be more surprising if the Nationals didn’t trade for Robertson, but having three or four high-end relievers to deal, encompassing a range of contract situations and track records, means the White Sox are sitting somewhat pretty in this regard. None of the quartet will bring back what Andrew Miller or Aroldis Chapman did last season, but in Kahnle and Swarzak the White Sox appear to have found some lottery tickets worth cashing in (either for innings or in trade), and Jones and Robertson have good pedigrees that might attract a premium. It’s still early, but it’s a couple rays of sunshine peeking through the otherwise overcast trade outlook.

Lead Photo Credit: Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports

But wait! A wrinkle! All of these things have occurred in a small sample size. I won’t get into the disgusting math details because, well, they’re disgusting, but there is an amount of time that must be waited before things start to take focus. That was vague wasn’t it? Some of this can be derived intuitively. Batting average is just a fraction in decimal form. It’s easy to see how in the early part of the season, the change in numerator and denominator are far too close to each other in terms of magnitude. The denominator needs to reach a large enough magnitude to keep the fraction from fluctuating too easily. The same applies to more complicated metrics. There’s a certain point that must be passed before the metric really provides analytical value.

The math behind finding those points is incredibly complicated and often requires consideration of variables regarding the player himself. In other words, it’s way above my head.

So how do we know if Avisail Garcia’s hot start is a changed man or a month-long anomaly? How do we know if Kahnle is the next Andrew Miller? Honestly, it’s not easy. It is a struggle dealing with these small sample sizes.

Avisail Garcia is posting a slash line of .370/.420/.609 and had a 199 wRC+ entering Wednesday. That translates to an ISO of .247, which is nearly double the mark he set last year (.140). He also has an unreal BABIP of .460 that is bound to drop at least a hundred points at some point. But he’s also lowered his O-Swing% by nearly two percentage points while raising his Z-Swing% by almost eight percentage points and overall contact rate by about five percentage points. There are good signs. There are bad signs. There are great numbers. There are regression concerns. What remains constant in all of this is that it’s a small sample size.

Swarzak has allowed just four base runners this season. He hasn’t given up a single run. He’s pitched just 13 ⅓ innings. Kahnle has struck out 57.6 percent of the batters he’s faced, but there have been just 33 players to step to the plate against him. Leury Garcia has a 107 wRC+ but in nice little sample size of just 69 plate appearances entering Wednesday. Jose Quintana has allowed three or more runs in half of his starts this season, but there have only been six starts for the White Sox ace. I could go on and on and make you press that little “x” in the corner of this tab. Instead, I think the point has been made.

These sample sizes — they are too small. Intuition, past experiences, and physical cues can sometimes lead us in the direction of a conclusion about a player based on these small sample sizes. However, that sort of analysis tends to come up short.

Dealing with small sample sizes is hard. There’s a strong desire to draw conclusions from the first month of the season. After all, it’s been a whole month! While it’s certainly fine to attempt to analyze the baseball that has been played to this point in the season, we must remember the struggle of small sample sizes. This analysis we have made must be taken with a grain of salt. Will Avisail Garcia have a career year that makes him a viable starter on a good team? Maybe, but probably not. Will Quintana pitch so poorly that the White Sox are incapable of trading him? Maybe, but probably not. Lets wait for the sample size to grow a little before we attempt to answer these questions.

Lead Photo Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

“But it’s just the Royals” you say tauntingly, as you’ve astutely observed that each of Quintana’s last two outings have come against the Royals, who have scored just 69 runs in their 25 games this season (2.76 runs per game). This is true and the Royals are bad, but what ailed Quintana during his first few starts of the season was a lack of fastball command, and in each of the last two starts, as well as the start before that against Cleveland, he once again demonstrated his ability to place his fastball all over the zone, keeping hitters guessing with heat that sat firmly in the 92-93 mph range.

Quintana’s ability to adapt and find success in different circumstances is impressive. In last last start against the Royals, he struck out 10, generating 16 swings and misses, using his curveball as an out pitch. On Tuesday, that number shrunk to eight as he pitched to contact, but the Royals were never able to barrel anything up.

2. The White Sox went with the all-Garcia outfield once again on Monday after, as expected, they called up Willy Garcia to replace the demoted Jacob May. Garcia (the one who was just promoted) was tearing the cover off the ball at Triple-A through the first month of the season, sporting a .923 OPS with four home runs in 81 plate appearances. For someone who has been in an MLB organization since 2010 (when he was 17), this is a well-earned opportunity, although one he might not be getting if he were with a franchise with bigger aspirations in 2017. Whether he can truly handle center field in a pinch is yet to be determined, but given Rick Renteria’s propensity to shuffle around the lineup on a pretty regular basis, even if he can’t he should be afforded plenty of opportunities at the plate in both Avisail Garcia’s and Melky Cabrera’s stead on days off or when they’re playing DH.

3. James Shields isn’t progressing in the way he nor the White Sox had hoped and is being slowed down, Renteria said before Tuesday’s game.

“His lat that might be a little bit of a — it’s not a green so we’re going to kind of slow him down,” Renteria said. “He’s been throwing every other day, and we’re going to kind of shut that down a little bit and let that calm down and then we’ll proceed after that.”

Shields has been out with a lat strain since April 21 and there doesn’t seem to be a timetable for his return. Given how his 2016 struggles, the fact that he showed signs of life early on this year, and the fact that we’re stuck watching Mike Pelfrey (making his third start on Wednesday), the setback is unfortunate.

4. Anthony Swarzak hadn’t pitched since Saturday so was given the ninth inning on Tuesday with Quintana at 102 pitches and the game out of reach. He struck out one and didn’t allow a baserunner, and is now un-scored upon in 10 outings this season, striking out 15 and walking just one in 13.1 innings.

The White Sox bullpen entered the season as one of the team’s few strengths, and that was before Swarzak and Tommy Kahnle turned out to be flame-throwing dragons. I never expected to be one thinking things like “why is Swarzak being wasted when the game is out of reach?” at any point in my life let along one month after he made the 25-man roster. But … well, here we are.

5. We are about six weeks away from the MLB Draft and the folks at MLB Pipeline came out with their first mock draft of the season. Analysts Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo had the White Sox selecting prep lefty D.L. Hall and Florida right-hander Alex Faedo, respectively, with the No. 11 pick in the first round. Mock drafts are fun to follow and provide at least some insight into where players are expected to go, but it’s likely we’ll hear quite a few more names linked to the White Sox as the draft draws nears. The Ringer’s Michael Baumann discusses some of the college players worth watching in Monday’s episode of The Catbird Speaks.

Lead Photo Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Thinking that the White Sox are doomed to repeat their recent history wouldn’t be unwarranted. The White Sox lost their two most valuable players, according to WARP, in the offseason. The team is less experienced. Despite this, the White Sox have looked pretty good. There are three specific things that have stood out and led to a supposedly rebuilding team residing in first place.

The first reason is probably the most obvious one. Avisail Garcia, Matt Davidson, and even Leury Garcia have been offensive revelations. Avisail’s hot start has been the most notable, of course, as he leads the league in batting average while having also slugged five home runs. While he left Sunday’s game with groin tightness, he’s slashing .368/.409/.621 so far this season, has been held hitless just five times, and has a wRC+ nearing 200. That’s a huge reason the White Sox have been able to win ballgames. Matt Davidson has a .327 ISO paired with a 38.9 strikeout percentage to help infuse some power into the White Sox lineup. Leury Garcia has also been a diamond in the rough with his .310/.328/.500 slash line after going 2-for-4 Sunday.

Of that trio, only Avisail spent extended time on the 25 man roster prior to this season. We all know how that went. The arrival and positive performances from these three players have helped push the White Sox offense into a better position to succeed. For a team that hasn’t received help from its depth players in years, the contributions from players like Davidson and the Garcias has proved crucial to an increase in offense. In fact, those three players are currently atop the White Sox leaderboard in WARP.

Another obvious reason the White Sox have been so successful this season is their bullpen. The big names of Nate Jones and David Robertson haven’t been the ones dominating. It has been Zach Putnam (until his injury), Anthony Swarzak, and Tommy Kahnle carrying the load for a Chicago bullpen with the best DRA in all of baseball entering Sunday (2.02). Kahnle especially has been a revelation for the White Sox bullpen. Kahnle has always had the stuff, even dating back to his time with the Rockies. The problem has been getting it over the plate for strikes. It appears that Kahnle has figured that much out, leading to a 19/1 strikeout to walk ratio and 0.99 DRA. The ability to use Kahnle in high leverage situations at the end of games has been a major addition to the White Sox bullpen.

Kahnle isn’t the only pitcher having fun with strikeouts either. Although Swarzak was initially invited to camp as rotation depth, his stuff has played up in the bullpen in the early part of the season. His numbers aren’t Kahnle ridiculous, but his 14/1 strikeout to walk, 0.00 ERA, and 1.23 DRA indicate that he’s been pretty dang good.

The third and final reason the White Sox have been able to have so much success this season without Chris Sale or Adam Eaton is one that’s much more difficult to pin down with concrete numbers. Instead, it relies totally on abstract thoughts based on what little we know about the clubhouse from the outside looking in. It appears as though the White Sox have better chemistry within their clubhouse and on the field.

Part of this is due to the leadership of Rick Renteria as the manager. Sometimes the effect a manager has on the mood of the team is overstated. However, in this case it appears that the players are genuinely happy to play for Renteria. The feeling appears to be mutual, as Renteria commented on Saturday about how the team has been playing.

“They’re just playing the game,” he said. “They’re not thinking about the division, they’re just playing baseball. We just happen to be playing within our division, and for the most part, they’re doing a nice job. Just having fun. Fortunately for us, all the little pieces are doing what they need to do and fortunately we’ll try to keep [knocks on wood] getting after it.”

In a much more murky sense, the increase in positive mood around the clubhouse may have something to do with those players who left the team this offseason. It’s all speculation, of course, but the comments that Jimmy Rollins made during Spring Training certainly seem to indicate that there was tension in the clubhouse throughout the 2016 season. He also indicates that a big source of the problems lied within players that are now gone.

The White Sox, despite making it pretty clear that they are rebuilding, are in first place as the first month of the season winds down. There are three key reasons they’re in first place. It remains to be seen whether they can keep it up, but this team does look quite a bit different from the one that got off to a hot start a year ago.

Lead Photo Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

Robertson isn’t alone in his hot start, although he has more of a track record to suggest it’s meaningful than some other players I’m about to discuss. Behind him, Anthony Swarzak, Tommy Kahnle, and Zach Putnam have combined for 34 Ks against 2 ERs and 3 BBs in 24.67 innings.

Putnam’s start shouldn’t be a surprise at this point. Over the past two seasons he has posted DRAs below 3 mixed between DL stints.  The first 8.67 innings of 2017, in that sense, are the quintessential Putnam experience, as he has a DRA of 0.98 and was just placed on the disabled list with inflammation of the elbow.

Kahnle and Swarzak represent new developments. Swarzak was fringy as a long reliever/spot starter, but is able to dial it up into the mid-to-high 90s in short outings.  While being used in such a capacity he surrendered 10 homers in only 31 innings with the Yankees in 2016, and those issues could still resurface, but a K/BB ratio of 12 does not suggest that his performance to date has been luck driven. And frankly, he has bullied hitters with his fastball in recent outings, with his streak of 18 straight batters retired broken by a weak single on Tuesday night.

Kahnle was acquired for Yency Almonte — which is looking like it might still sting — and was always intriguing if for no other reason than that he throws really, really hard, averaging 97 miles per hour on his fastball last year.  The flaw was obvious, though, given that he walked 20 batters in 27.1 innings while y’know … throwing really hard!

He still hasn’t cracked seven innings this year, but dropping your BB percentage from 16.8 to 3.9 seems like progress.  I’m not going to call him the next Matt Thornton, but there’s no doubt that if he can keep the ball in the zone there’s the very real potential for dominance.

Ironically, with Michael Ynoa hanging in there, Nate Jones is arguably off to the worst start in the bullpen while probably being the best of the bunch. For a rebuilding team, it is weird that the White Sox may profile to have a bunch of really good relievers. But either way, it sure would be nice if they could polish up NRIs like Swarzak into desirable trade commodities to go along with their higher profile chips.

Lead Photo Credit: Marilyn Indahl-USA TODAY Sports