Given the White Sox’ new priorities, the future holds much more interest than the present, and to that end, the White Sox may be positioned very nicely. With just two trades, the farm system has leapt into the top third in the majors, with still more pieces to sell. So, instead, perhaps it makes sense to make some forecasts about what the AL Central might look like when the White Sox are actually good again. First up, the Detroit Tigers.

The Tigers are suffering from the after effects of wringing every last drop of contention out of their aging core for a long, long time. Grabbing Michael Fulmer for the tail end of Yoenis Cespedes in a down year was a neat trick, and Justin Verlander has corrected course after looking like he might crater two years ago. But Victor Martinez and J.D. Martinez are rapidly approaching 40 and free agency, respectively, and unfortunately for Detroit they can’t DH them both. And while historically the Tigers would paper over their lack of any prospects at all with a fire hose of cash, they had already decided to scale back on spending even before the recent death of owner Mike Ilitch.

So now they are left with the money they have already spent and the very old roster they have already assembled, and a still-empty farm.  Their top prospect was in high school last year and projects as a mid-rotation starter, and the system gets less and less inspiring from there.  Even if the White Sox execute a very speedy rebuild and try to contend again by 2018 or 2019, it’s hard to see what the Tigers will have on hand to stand in their way.  Miguel Cabrera will be 35 or 36-years-old by that time, and even solid younger players like Jose Iglesias will be free agents by that time.

Indeed, the way for the Tigers to inject talent back into the ranks would be to trade away players like Verlander, but frankly, the star players they have are all owed so much money that they are unlikely to fetch the returns that Chris Sale or Adam Eaton did.

It would appear that Detroit will be able to muster up one or possibly two more years of making a run at it with this present group, but they are clearly on the wane, and the White Sox have a big head start on the next upswing.

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Sale was mostly dominant in recording his first double-digit strikeout performance of the season, putting away a number of hitters with high fastballs and nasty, wipeout sliders. He struck out 10 in a complete-game effort, walked one and allowed just two earned runs, but in the eighth inning, a 94-mph fastball center-cut to J.D. Martinez — the first pitch Martinez saw since June 16 after being activated from the disabled list — was deposited into the stands for the deciding run of the game.

The White Sox offense couldn’t provide support, offering only a Justin Morneau solo home run to back Sale. It was Morneau’s third home run with the Sox, with two of them coming off Detroit rookie Michael Fulmer, who was backed by both his defense and the BABIP Gods in allowing just the one earned run in 6.2 inning.

The White Sox got the leadoff man on base in the first, second and fourth innings, only to have him erased by a double play on each occasion. Fulmer left in the seventh after giving up the homer and following that up with a walk to Todd Frazier and hitting Avisail Garcia twice (the first was ruled to have hit the bat and was upheld on challenge). Shane Greene entered with two outs and struck out Dioner Navarro to end the threat.

The Sox, again, threatened in the ninth off Francisco Rodriguez when Melky Cabrera led off with an infield single thanks to a lazy throw by defensive replacement Andrew Romine at third base, and Jose Abreu walked. But after a Morneau sacrifice fly advanced Cabrera to third with one out, Frazier struck out, Garcia walked to load the bases and Navarro grounded out to end another threat and another loss.

Sale’s only other blemish came in the fourth inning when Miguel Cabrera and Nick Castellanos sandwiched doubles around a Victor Martinez walk. He escaped further damage when Mike Aviles fouled out to Abreu, who threw out Martinez trying to tag at home. Also noteworthy was the fact that Martinez — who destroyed Sale to the tune of a 18-for-36 with four homers in their careers entering the night — was held hitless.

Team record: 51-56

Next game: 12:10 p.m. CT Thursday against Detroit on CSN-Chicago

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1. Perhaps it’s been awhile since the reader had both the opportunity and motivation to dust off a Jacob Turner scouting report, but he’s a bit of a nibbler. The once-revered right-hander managed to rack up 101 pitches to make just 10 outs, striking out six, walking four (two intentional passes to Victor Martinez!) and hitting a guy.

Turner’s hellbent approach to avoid contact or punishment at all costs allowed him to dance out of the first, striking out Justin Upton with the bases loaded, but hung him in the third. He hit Ian Kinsler to lead off the inning, and let him come around to score on a Cameron Maybin double sprayed to right. A curveball dumped in the dirt brought Maybin across home plate on a wild pitch, and another pensive walk to Miguel Cabrera came around to score on a Nick Castellanos single, and all of a sudden the Tigers had a 3-1 lead

When Kinsler laced one-out single followed by a Maybin walk in the fourth, Robin Ventura decided he has seen enough, and Turner got to see Matt Albers allow an inherited runner to score. There’s an argument to be made that this was better than Turner’s Anaheim start, but it’s a very weird one to make and people will likely not be interested in hearing it.

2. Michael Fulmer on the other hand, the Tigers sensational rookie right-hander, came into the night with 10-straight starts allowing two runs or fewer, and figured to face light resistance from a banged-up lineup.

Instead he had his shortstop Jose Iglesias whiff on a Tim Anderson grounder in the first inning, and two batters later Jose Abreu‘s bouncer snuck through the middle to bring Anderson in for a run. Abreu got Fulmer again in the fourth, shanking a double down the right field line that plated Omar Narvaez, which set the stage for Justin Morneau to turn on something that looked like a botched cutter up-and-inner half for a three-run homer to right, giving the Sox a shocking 5-4 lead that they would hold onto for, y’know, an inning or two.

3. The Sox somehow got Albers, Dan Jennings and Tommy Kahnle to bridge their way to the seventh inning without another run allowed, but a fun bid to see if Carson Fulmer could handle some high-leverage got pretty sad very quickly. The rookie right-hander walked three of the six batters he faced, and got charged for three runs, after Iglesias plated Upton on a bases loaded fielder’s choice, and Nate Jones came on with two outs and allowed Miguel Cabrera to rap a two-run single up the middle for the decisive blow.

4. Despite having their wunderkind chased after just five tumultuous innings, the Tigers’ much-maligned bullpen strung together four scoreless frames where they did not allow anyone to reach second base. Dioner Navarro–in the midst of a terrible year–coming out to hit for Narvaez with a runner on in the eighth, when Narvaez had already reached base twice, only to strike out against left-hander Justin Wilson to end the inning, was particularly telling moment for how 2016 has gone.

5. Abreu was the offensive star of the night, going 3-for-3 with a walk and driving in two while scoring once. If one can push aside concerns that none of these balls were struck true and the existential dread that his power will never return to its past glory, it was a nice little game for him.

Team Record: 46-50

Next game is Saturday at 7:10pm CT vs. Detroit on CSN

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