Whether you want to chalk it up to nerves, rust, or the fact that he’s simply not yet the caliber of pitcher the White Sox hope he will become, regardless of injury, Rodon couldn’t find the strike zone Wednesday.

First, the positive: The fastball velocity was fine. He was routinely pumping 93-95 mph gas with the four-seamer, and when he found the zone, Yankees hitters had trouble doing much with it. His wipeout slider still had the same bite, such as when he struck out Tyler Wade with it to end a prolonged first inning. Despite the struggled, he gutted through five innings and saw his pitch count climb to 94 pitches, which is about what he was at in his last few rehab outings.

The downside, of course, is that while his stuff looked just as we remembered, it rarely found the plate. The fastball command was particularly out of whack — he walked three in the first inning and six total in his five innings of work — and that aforementioned slider, so dangerous when it looks like it’s headed for the strike zone, was often far enough off the plate that good hitters could spit on it.

For a pitcher with both his skills and flaws, it’s not an unsurprising outcome for his first start back from a prolonged layoff, but while the injury was an unfortunate setback in a season we expected him to take “the leap” from promise to stardom, seeing his stuff in good shape, as fleeting as it may have been, is a baby step in the right direction.

2. Avisail Garcia’s hot start to the season was so impressive and unlikely that we waited and waited and waited and waited and waited for the other shoe to drop. Surely, this was not the hitter he’d become. He’s been good but it’s totally, definitely not going to continue. OK, fine, it’s time to talk about how good he is.

Poof.

Just as we started to let our collective guard down and maybe kind of believe in Garcia’s ascension from disappointment to above-average contributor, he’s suddenly found himself in a teensy, tiny, itty, bitty, sky-is-falling, major, terrible, sound-the-alarms 0-for-19 and 1-for-23 funk.

He also left Wednesday’s loss with a sore left knee that he described as “OK” but he’ll have an MRI on Thursday and is supposedly day-to-day.

Joking aside, Garcia’s hot first half of the season has been a pleasant sight for a team that’s now 11 games under .500. Whether you’ll be in the “told you so” crowd if this is the start of a hellacious descent, or you’ll just be a little bummed (I’m the latter), well … that’s up to you.

3. Rick Renteria is developing a bit of a reputation.

Ejection/Games Managed

Rick Renteria: 4.60%
Earl Weaver: 3.69%
Bobby Cox: 3.57%

— James Fegan (@JRFegan) June 29, 2017

The White Sox manager was ejected for the third time in the last six games Wednesday after a bit of a disagreement about the strike zone with home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt during the Yankees’ five-run eighth inning. Jake Petricka, who happened to allow all five of those runs, including a two-run bomb to Aaron Judge, was also, not-so-coincidentally ejected.

The White Sox have experienced both ends of the managerial craziness scale in recent years, from stark-raving lunatic madman Ozzie Guillen to “Is he awake?” Robin Ventura. I don’t know if I’d go so far as to put Renteria in the Guillen category yet, but he’s been on a bit of a roll of late.

4. Adam Engel went 2-for-3 with his second career home run in Wednesday’s loss, and has quietly hit .319/.360/.511 in limited time during two separate stints with the White Sox this season.

The hot start has been nice to see, particularly given the struggles of equally flawed prospect Jacob May to start the season. But he’s always had shortcomings at the plate that will need to be overcome for him to stick around long term. Despite those small sample size numbers thus far, he’s also striking out in 33 percent of his plate appearances and that’s unlikely to change.

Still, Engel is athletic and can run like a damn gazelle. He’s likely the best defensive center fielder the White Sox have anywhere near the majors right now, and if he can continue to provide any semblance of production with the bat going forward, the White Sox may have found a nice fourth outfielder/defensive substitute/pinch runner type. That ain’t much, but it’s not nothin.

5. The White Sox played 44 of their first 71 games on the road, and Dan Hayes wrote a nice piece on how Renteria has tried to help the team combat travel fatigue. Intangible stuff like this is impossible to quantify when it comes to how it affects the team’s performance and mentality, but it’s nice to see Renteria thinking outside-the-box and having regard for the little things, which is something that can easily be overlooked when you’re so used to the status quo.

Lead Photo Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

Their run differential following Wednesday’s 4-2 loss in Minnesota is now zero, which is somehow second best in their division, and their Third Order Winning Percentage entering the day was .495. Put simply, the White Sox performance to date is more in line with approximately a .500 team.

That difference also only equates to about three wins, so we’re not saying the White Sox have been unlucky to a substantial degree, but this illustrates by larger point. The White Sox are somehow playing better than their record despite their staring pitching performing like utter trash.

First, the season stats: Entering play Wednesday, White Sox starters have thrown the third fewest innings in the American League, ahead of just Minnesota and Baltimore. Their 4.85 ERA is ahead of only the aforementioned pair and Seattle. Their HR/9 is tied for third worst with Seattle, ahead of only Minnesota and the LA Angels. They’re striking out batters at the fourth worst rate in the league, and they’re walking batters at the second highest rate in the league.

Using an arbitrary end point, in 18 games since the calendar turned to June, the White Sox have had only one starter go seven innings and only five times have they gone six innings. Starters have only lasted as much as five innings in half of those 18 games.

You get the point.

We knew coming into the season that the White Sox pitching depth was thin. The fact that as we approach the halfway point, the only starters who started the season with the team and have yet to spend time on the disabled list are Jose Quintana and Derek Holland — and neither have been particularly good — means we’ve seen a whole lot of Dylan Covey, David Holmberg, and Mike Pelfrey, hardly a trio that elicits a whole lot of confidence. What’s funny is that those three more or less held their own, relative to expectations, but Holland, Quintana, and Miguel Gonzalez have all been underwhelming.

2. Really, it’s been a credit to the White Sox bullpen that the White Sox are merely the second worst team in the American League and not on par with, say, the Philadelphia Phillies. They currently sport the fourth best ERA in the American League and sixth best K/9.

This, of course, is not sustainable, and Rick Renteria is well aware.

“These guys are trying to give us length,” manager Rick Renteria said. “It just hasn’t happened. I get it. I don’t anticipate that’s what’s going to continue to happen as we move forward. I don’t think anybody could sustain over a long haul using your starters for three or four innings. It’s impossible. You would wear out your arms in the pen. Today we were fortunate in that we just used two guys for quite a few innings and outs. … They did a very nice job. That type of work is unsustainable.”

One of the crazier aspects of the White Sox bullpen’s stellar performance is that it hasn’t come from the guys you would’ve expected coming into the season. David Robertson has been better than last season, but Nate Jones and Zach Putnam have both been injured for most of the season, while Tommy Kahnle could be an All-Star and Anthony Swarzak has been lights out for long stretches of the season. Likewise, they’ve gotten competent innings out of the likes of Chris Beck, which I never would’ve imagined coming into the season.

3. We worried at the start of the season that the White Sox pitching depth issues would lead to premature promotions for any of the heralded prospects. That, uh, hasn’t been a problem.

So that’s now 32 IP, 36 H, 27 ER, 23 BB, 16 K, 6 HR and a 7.59 ERA over Carson Fulmer’s last 7 starts

— James Fegan (@JRFegan) June 21, 2017

Once the White Sox acquired Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez, Fulmer fell down the totem pole a bit in terms of pitching prospect upside, but the White Sox top arms taking longer than normal to look major league ready is at least worth keeping an eye on. The plus side of having no interest in winning is that their struggles simply mean they get more time at Triple-A to develop, while the downside is that, ya know, they’re struggling.

4. Tim Anderson committed his 16th error of the season in Wednesday’s loss, which is the highest total in baseball by any player at any position.

Errors don’t tell the whole story, of course, but FRAA has him at -2.1 on the season, which is 26th out of 35 qualified shortstops this season (although above bigger names like Jean Segura, Xander Bogaerts, and Brandon Crawford) and right in line with how they viewed him last year (he finished at -4.7 last year in a little more than half a season).

Anderson’s struggles are noticeable, but also given his athleticism and what we’ve seen from him when he’s at his best, they’re likely mental. I’d fathom a guess he’ll break out of his defensive funk sooner rather than later.

5. The White Sox announced the signing of first round pick Jake Burger on Wednesday to a signing bonus worth $3.7 million. They also reportedly came to terms with second round pick Gavin Sheets on an over-slot deal worth approximately $2 million.

They saved approximately $500K on signing Burger under-slot, and also reportedly got third round pick Luis Gonzalez to sign for $119K less than his slot, so some of those savings went to Sheets. It’s nice to see the White Sox avoid any type of draft pick signing drama, and all of their top picks should be reporting to short season ball soon enough.

For full coverage of White Sox draft pick signings, our friends at FutureSox are a great resource.

Lead Photo Credit: Jesse Johnson-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

That wasn’t a clear cut rebuild in the same way teams often operate today, but the offseason between 1998 and 1999 saw at least something of a youth movement. Robin Ventura and Albert Belle were allowed to depart as free agents, and the team went from four regulars in their starting lineup aged 30 or above to just one — Frank Thomas.

One of the players included in that youth movement was Paul Konerko, whom the White Sox acquired from the Cincinnati Reds that offseason in exchange for Mike Cameron.

Konerko was joined on that team by first-year slugger Carlos Lee and Magglio Ordonez, fresh off a successful rookie campaign, among others. The ’99 team went 75-86, a five-win decrease from the year before, but a year later the White Sox found themselves in the playoffs for the first time since 1993.

The success of that young core was fleeting — another four-year playoff drought followed the 2000 campaign — but that young trio flourished throughout their individual careers, as Konerko, Lee, and Ordonez combined to play 47 major-league seasons and have 15 All-Star selections to their credit, and all three were part of winning ball clubs at various points during their careers.

Konerko was a 23-year-old rookie when he joined the White Sox and went on to have an 18-year career, all with the White Sox. He visited camp last week and said he saw similarities between the transitional phase that 1999 team went through and what the White Sox are going through in 2017.

“You feel comfortable because everywhere you look, you see somebody like yourself,” Konerko said about his rookie season. “You see someone in the same boat. That was a fun year. We had guys go out together, have dinner together. It was like a college team in a lot of ways.”

This year’s White Sox seem to be trying to create a similar environment. Sure, there are still plenty of veterans still around, but the vibe around camp is all about getting these youngsters — the future of the organization —  comfortable with their environment.

“I think they’ll probably be experiencing the same growing pains, so that helps because you have someone else to talk to,” manager Rick Renteria said. “But I think in terms of being able to gain information about themselves, learn to play the game together, and just take the experiences they’re going to gain at the major league level is going to be a plus regardless of the outcome.”

The mixture of veterans and youngsters isn’t necessarily unique to this team. And Spring Training is always flush with optimistic outtakes that might not be as present when a team is, say, 10 games below .500 getting through the slog of July or August, but when you compare the roster to last season’s — the Drake LaRoche saga, the jersey incident, and what you heard from Jimmy Rollins just a few weeks ago — the expressions of optimism, of feeling comfortable, and of learning together, is a welcome sound.

“When I was younger, I’d ask a lot of questions, just as they’re doing,” said Todd Frazier, one of those veterans. “I remember sitting on the bench … nine innings is a pain in the butt when you know you’re not going to play. But watching what your peers do. Say you’re a third baseman, you’re watching the third baseman. I remember watching Scott Rolen go about his business. I couldn’t do everything he did, but I wanted to see how he prepared, how he set up, what he did in the morning.

“Just kind of take little by little and then hopefully when it’s your time, you’ll be ready.”

And, for what it’s worth, even the young guys seem to be comfortable working with the veterans who are still around.

“These guys have been around baseball for a long time,” said Lucas Giolito after his most recent start last Thursday. “They’ve had their ups and downs. They have experience. And being able to pick their brains and what they’ve been through and try to apply that to my own game … I’ll take that any day of the week.”

The 2017 White Sox aren’t as young as that 1999 team. For one, this team has more veterans, the likes of Frazier, Melky Cabrera, James Shields, and Derek Holland, and for another, the youth infusion isn’t likely to start trickling through the 25-man roster until midseason.

But Konerko sees the parallels. And with the likes of Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Michael Kopech, Carson Fulmer, Yoan Moncada, and Zack Collins experiencing major-league camp — some of them for the first time — it’s easy to see why.

“I think the idea is you grow that core and I think they start to show up each day for each other because it’s been built that way,” Konerko said. “Then the wins are just a byproduct of it.”

Lead Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

The perception of the White Sox system for the past decade has been that it succeeds in developing pitchers and struggles in the same department with hitters.

This is a fair assessment. Since the mid-2000s when the White Sox brought along players like Joe Crede and Aaron Rowand, they have struggled to develop young hitting talent in the same fashion that they did with pitchers.

Rick Hahn & Co. hoped to change that perception when, after the 2013 season, they hired Todd Steverson as their new hitting coach. The goal, as Hahn expressed at the time, was to begin to develop hitters in a similar fashion to pitchers. That is to say, to focus on making sure the message delivered to hitters is consistent from the top to bottom of the organization.

“Really, you want the continuity to go from the top to the bottom,” Steverson said when asked about that process this week. “You need your player development to be right on queue with the things they’ll hear when they get to Chicago. We want the program to be with everyone in unison. I don’t want someone to hear one thing in one place and then go somewhere else and hear something different and have to switch or change too many things.”

That process, as expected, has been a slow burn. You don’t just flip the switch on an entire developmental strategy overnight. In particular with the White Sox, that process is even more difficult with a system as barren of hitters as it’s been in recent seasons.

But the White Sox have taken steps to improve that part of their organization, and with an infusion of talent that has seen the likes of Tim Anderson, and now Yoan Moncada, Zack Collins, and Luis Alexander Basabe added to the system, there’s more to work with this year than in any other year in recent history.

But for Steverson, while that infusion does provide lumps of clay with which to mold, the process takes time, particularly in a situation like the one the White Sox find themselves.

“You’d be a fool to just jump right in and tell them ‘this is what you need to do,’ ” Steverson said. “They’re here and they’re professionals for a reason. You have to see what they do first. So there’s a little period where you wait and see and watch what they do. One at-bat or one out or one non-result doesn’t mean that they need to change something.”

Mike Gellinger has been in the White Sox organization for 29 years. Like Richard Dotson, the recently promoted minor league pitching coordinator who had developed quite the reputation for his work with pitchers during his tenure, Gellinger has done the same with hitters. And also like Dotson, he was promoted to minor league hitting coordinator during the offseason.

Gellinger has worked with White Sox hitters for years, and when you ask him about the development of the young hitters in the White Sox system, he mentions a lot of the same things as Steverson — watching the players and developing a plan — he also mentions the specifics of what they try to teach once they get past the observation.

“We try not to be too complex with anything,” Gellinger said. “Basically, it’s about the position of the body, putting them in the right position, with good direction, and going from there.

“The goal is definitely to try to become more uniform in our offensive approach.”

And, for what it’s worth, the players seem to be buying in.

“They ask the hard questions about what’s going to help you out,” said Matt Davidson, a once-heralded prospect trying to make the team out of Spring Training for the first time since joining the organization prior to the 2014 season. “You think about those questions and are able to figure out how it helps you as a hitter.”

“They always try to help you,” said Yolmer Sanchez, who has been with the organization since 2009. “I’m looking to get their advice every day.”

“They’re there if I need them,” said Anderson, who probably stands out above any other as a beacon of the developmental changes. “Since I was drafted, they’ve been tremendous and I’ve taken big strides. It’s been a blessing to have guys like that in your corner.”

For as many strides as the White Sox hitting development has taken over the last few years, work is to be done. But the one thing the White Sox now have, as opposed to previous seasons, is time, as there’s no rush toward contention anymore. And if they continue to be patient with that process, the changes could pay dividends once these young players’ developments come to fruition.

“Whether you’re a young player or a seasoned veteran, I think that what we try to do is consistently go to your plan or your approach more than your result,” manager Rick Renteria said. “We know that the result at the end of the day will take care of itself based on how you go about your business.”

Lead Photo Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

• Drafted in the sixth round of the 2011 MLB Draft by the Baltimore Orioles, given a $1.525M signing bonus, which is particularly high for a player drafted in that round.
• Traded by Baltimore to Milwaukee on July 23, 2013 for closer Francisco Rodriguez.
• On July 28, 2014, it was announced that Delmonico was suspended 50 games for testing positive for amphetamine.
• Released by the Brewers on Feb. 6, 2015 after the organization had apparently lost contact with him. “We couldn’t contact him,” Brewers farm director Reid Nichols told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel at the time. “He wouldn’t return calls. We couldn’t find him.”
• Signed by the White Sox shortly thereafter.

In the span of about five years, Delmonico has gone from someone who many were high on to an afterthought and borderline non-prospect.

Then-Baseball Prospectus prospect writer Kevin Goldstein ranked him as the fourth best prospect in Baltimore’s system prior to the 2012 season, behind Dylan Bundy, Manny Machado, and Jonathan Schoop. From Goldstein:

Delmonico certainly looks the part. He has size and plenty of associated power, showcasing easy plus power in high school. His arm is excellent, leading some to consider trying him as a catcher. He comes from a baseball family, with his father a legendary college coach, and comes into the game with outstanding makeup and baseball intelligence.

A year later he had fallen a bit, but was still ranked sixth in Baltimore’s system by BP. From Jason Parks:

Solid athlete; good present strength; projectable hitting ability; potential for 5/5 hit/power; mature approach for age; tracks well; has a plan at the plate; solid arm; gamer type.

Things, of course, came apart at the seams for Delmonico, so much so that he’s not among the Top 30 players in the White Sox system as ranked by MLBPipeline.com, and his name doesn’t appear once in BP’s write-up of their system this season.

This is not surprising, given where he’s been and how he’s performed during most of his first five years as a pro. Even if you set aside the questions surrounding his departure from Milwaukee — he explains what happened somewhat vaguely in this interview with our friends at FutureSox — he never rose above High-A in any stop with Baltimore or Milwaukee while not exactly tearing the cover off the ball.

Delmonico has gotten something of a second chance with the White Sox. After two years in the system, and enough improvement in 2016 to warrant promotion to Triple-A, he’s in major league camp as a non-roster invitee. And, for what it’s worth, he says this is the best he’s felt at any point in his career.

“This offseason I worked a lot with our hitting rover Mike Gellinger. He’s got me where I want to be and I’m feeling comfortable right now,” said Delmonico, who is 8-for-24 with a homer thus far this spring. “I’ve just grown up as a hitter. I feel like I’ve found my routine here.”

Hitting coach Todd Steverson said he’s liked what he’s seen out of Delmonico this spring, and believes his work ethic, strength, and development will help him succeed.

“There’s a point in your career where you start to get it,” Steverson said. “You start to understand the information that’s being given and how it correlates and how you can apply it to your game, and that’s starting to get to where he’s at. He’s heard enough information in his career to where he’s starting to apply the information.

“He’s looking good this spring, making a good impression, and the sky’s the limit in terms of what he can do.”

But in order for Delmonico to re-legitimize himself as a prospect and not just another NRI guy who had a hot spring, he’ll need to continue to show progress as a hitter, as well as find a position. There has been some questions about where he’d fit best, but he said he has found a comfort zone playing the corners, and manager Rick Renteria said he likes the flexibility he could potentially provide.

“Nicky’s been really impressive,” Renteria said. “You see him work inside the clubhouse with the guys. Obviously we feel that there’s a possibility of him playing some third, some first. I know last year he played a few games in the outfield, so we’re going to try to get him in the outfield also. But he’s done a nice job of coming in and showing a little taste of what he’s capable of.”

What he’s capable of is the question, of course. Right now, Delmonico remains a bit of an enigma. But while he’s off the radar for now in terms of his status as a prospect, he’s definitely on the White Sox radar.

Lead Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

The 24-year-old left-hander threw 40 pitches, and Rick Renteria said the plan is for him to do the same thing Saturday.

“He’s going to throw another BP in two days, and from that point we can hopefully assess whether it’s going to be another BP or he can get back out there,” Renteria said.

The White Sox manager said Rodon is still on track to start within the first handful of games during the regular season, and Rodon himself said nothing has changed as far as his expectations to start the season.

“I know I’m in the rotation so I know I’m going to be pitching in April,” Rodon said. “It’s spring training. We’re getting ready still. Spring training is a time for us to get ready and that’s what we’re doing right now.”

Neither Rodon nor Renteria seemed overly concerned with his progress, and Rodon did speak in some detail about what he’s been working on when he has thrown.

“(Working on) refining the change-up and just having everything ready for April,” Rodon said. “You always can get better at something, and the change-up is something I’m still working on. It’s good, but I want it to be great.”

• Todd Frazier made his first appearance of the Cactus League season on Wednesday after dealing with a strained oblique, going 0-for-2 with a strikeout, exiting the game after four innings. He made good contact in his first at-bat, lining out sharply to left field. He said after the game that he felt good, and Renteria seemed confident that he’s on schedule, saying he just wanted to get him out there in action and would see how he progresses from there.
• Carson Fulmer looked good through two innings of his second start and third appearance of the spring. He was getting ahead of hitters and inducing weak contact, something he said he’s been trying to improve through his work with pitching coordinator Richard Dotson.
  “I’ve been able to throw a lot of strikes,” Fulmer said. “I feel very good about where I am. Especially at this level, you have to get ahead of guys. I was able to pound the strike zone and it felt really good.”
  Fulmer ran into his share of trouble at times. In the second inning, he fell fell behind Eric Thames before allowing a double, and walked Kirk Nieuwenhuis. And in the third he allowed a few hard hit outs and a solo homer to Lewis Brinson for his lone run allowed on the day. His final like was 3 innings, two hits, one run, one walk, two strikeouts.
• Avisail Garcia went 3-for-4 with a home run and two runs scored, and also made two nice running catches in the outfield (he also bobbled a ball in the second, turning a maybe-double into a definite-double). Rymer Liriano also homered, but the White Sox lost 5-4 when Juan Minaya gave up a two-run homer to Ivan De Jesus Jr. in the top of the ninth.

Lead Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

“I think I could’ve been a little better in the first few innings,” Shields said of the performance. “But that’s part of Spring Training. You’re just getting used to throwing here.”

Shields’ comments are not particularly enlightening, nor are they uncommon for a veteran after an exhibition start. Results aside, pitchers who have been through the ringer a few times know that, at this point, the process of building yourself up for the start of the season is more important than any success or failure in an individual game. Finding anything insightful to say can be difficult.

You wouldn’t, for example, think anything of it if that same comment were made by, say, Clayton Kershaw, or Madison Bumgarner, or Chris Sale.

But everything is different with Shields. Coming off what was easily the worst season of his career, the only thing that is certain for him at this point is that he’s going to get a shot to make things right again. But because of those struggles, every outing, and every comment, is going to be dissected as we look for clues to tell us what to expect out of him in 2017.

But neither the Shields nor the Sox have offered much in that area, either because there’s nothing insightful worth saying, or because they also don’t know.

“He looks good,” manager Rick Renteria said prior to Monday’s start. “His mindset is good. His mind is clear. He’s looking forward to potentially putting together a bounce-back season, if you want to call it that.”

Listening to Shields or Renteria talk about his progress this spring, it’s difficult to get a feel for what, exactly, either expects out of the right-hander in 2017. After a season in which he posted career-worst numbers virtually across the board — BB/9, K/9, ERA, ERA+, FIP, you name it — many pitchers might find themselves out of a job. But Shields is due $42 million over the next two season, $20 million of which will come from the White Sox. And for a team that isn’t building toward contention, someone has to pitch, and giving your expensive, recently acquired pitcher pitcher a chance to right himself is a perfectly reasonable decision.

So the question is: are outings like what we saw from Shields on Monday just another forgettable spring training start, or a sign that the Shields from recent past is also the Shields of the present and future?

The answer is impossible to say for certain, and it’s also likely the White Sox are equally unsure.

“He knows what he’s supposed to do,” Renteria said. “He knows what it takes to get it done. I think he’s a good self-evaluator, and we’ll continue to move forward and let the spring help us decide where we are with him.”

Shields is going to get a shot, spring results be damned. But while both he and Renteria continue to say the right things about his progress as he works to make his disastrous 2016 a distant memory, it’s unlikely we’ll know if there’s truly anything left in that right arm until the games start to matter.

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The most noteworthy bit of news to come out of Day 1 was the fact that Carlos Rodon was not among the pitchers throwing — no tossing and no bullpen session.

This was, as repeated by both Rodon and Rick Renteria, part of a plan to limit Rodon’s workload early in order to keep him fresh, particularly during a season where Spring Training is starting early in order to accommodate for the World Baseball Classic.

“Workload is going to be a little more this year, so we’re going to take it a little slow,” Rodon said. “I guess they thought (if) it worked for Chris (Sale), it might work for me. We’re just taking it slow.”

“There are certain guys we’re going to be measuring in terms of their work, and as soon as we get that structured out there in the longer format we’ll get them out there and do what we need them to do,” Renteria said.

Sale, if you’ll recall, had his workload lightened last spring as he was limited to simulated starts and “B” games throughout most of camp, not starting in an actual Cactus League game until March 19.

Whether or not the extra care in Sale’s handling had anything to do with yet another successful campaign for him in 2016 is neither here nor there. The point is that Don Cooper obviously has a strong track record of knowing how to handle pitchers, and with Sale gone and Jose Quintana’s tenure seemingly dwindling, Rodon will soon become the top talent on the White Sox roster, newly acquired prospects notwithstanding.

Rodon threw 165 innings last season, and even if Quintana sticks around for the duration of 2017, he’ll be counted on to provide a top of the rotation workload. Whether or not he takes another step forward and the production matches the workload is to be determined, but while all the talk this spring is on the White Sox shiny, new toys, it’s clear the White Sox still have big plans and lofty expectations for their former No. 3 overall pick.

• Speaking of Sale, the Red Sox showed off their shiny, new toy on Tuesday, and he talked about wanting to win a lot. A LOT. CSNNE’s Trenni Kusnierek writes about it.
• Rick Hahn met with reporters for his spring-opening press conference on Tuesday and held firm on what he’s been saying ever since Sale and Adam Eaton were shipped off early in the offseason. He’s in no rush to make deals happen, as The Athletic’s James Fegan writes.
• The Daily Herald’s Scott Gregor reported Tuesday that owner Jerry Reinsdorf finally gave the green light for a White Sox rebuild after years of steadfast refusal. One quote from his piece: “We pounded the desk for years to do this,” the Sox employee said. “It’s something that needed to be done in the past, but the timing never seemed to be right. It is now, and there’s a lot of excitement about it.” An owner being the final decider for something like this is not necessarily noteworthy, but the fact that he was against the idea for so many years despite an unwillingness to commit the kind of money to built a legitimate contender is, well, it’s something.
• Hahn made it clear Tuesday that the White Sox are going to give their youngsters every opportunity to show what they can do this spring, as CSNChicago’s Dan Hayes writes. Within the piece is a revelation we long expected, that Charlie Tilson is likely to get the first look in center field, presuming he’s healthy enough after tearing his hamstring last summer. Other players expected to get extended looks include Matt Davidson and Omar Narvaez.
• I wrote Tuesday about the trade rumors that are likely to swirl over the heads of a number of veterans throughout the spring, and the spotlight was on David Robertson on Tuesday, fresh off reports that the White Sox and Nationals were close to a deal to send the closer to Washington before it fell apart. Robertson said all the right things about putting the rumors out of his head and focusing on getting ready for the season, as the Chicago Tribune’s Colleen Kane writes.

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The young guys, duh

Duh. We’ve read plenty about all of the White Sox new prospects already, and this will be the first chance to catch a glimpse at the future before the future is frozen in the carbine of MiLB.tv until an undetermined date.

Seeing Michael Kopech face major league hitters or Yoan Moncada face major league pitching in a Cactus League doesn’t mean a whole lot in the long run. Fretting over their numbers during these games does no good. But, dammit, it will be fun to see!

While this will be our first opportunity to see these guys, in all seriousness it’s also the White Sox brass’ first chance to get to work up close with them. And what they see and what they say and what they instruct is just the first step in a long and important process.

Dealing with distractions

I’ve never put much stock in the idea that distractions such as trade rumors has much impact on a player’s performance. But the one thing I do put stock into is the idea that being asked about those rumors constantly is probably annoying as hell.

Some players are probably used to it, and I place no blame on the reporters who are doing their jobs, but while trade rumors can be digested quickly and easily during the winter, Spring Training means Jose Quintana, Todd Frazier and the others will be front and center whenever the next hot piece of juicy gossip comes to the forefront.

Rick Renteria addressed as such when he met with reporters for the first time Monday:

“I think that if there are any obstacles or annoyances that occur, we will do the best we can to kind of minimize those,” Renteria said. “For the most part, I think they are professionals. They know what they have to do.”

Spring Training trades aren’t frequent, and the closer we get to Opening Day the more likely it is that Quintana et al begin the season on the roster. But Rick Hahn has made it clear on multiple occasions that he won’t be afraid to pull the trigger if the right deal comes along. Until then, all we’ll have are the rumors.

Injuries

Again, nothing earth-shattering here, but while a contending team needs to stay healthy because of how it affects their chances of making the playoffs, health is important to the White Sox for other specific reasons.

The younger players likely the make the 25-man roster, whether it be potential building blocks like Carlos Rodon and Tim Anderson, or more volatile youngsters like Charlie Tilson, Matt Davidson, and Omar Narvaez, need the experience to further marinate. Rodon and Anderson are the two players on the current roster most likely to still be around for the next White Sox contender, and the others at least have slim chances to join them.

The older folks break down into two categories: Trade chips (we covered that above) or warm bodies you need because, well, somebody’s gotta play. While the tradable guys need to stay healthy for obvious reasons, for guys who aren’t as tradable (looking at you, James Shields) health simply means the White Sox aren’t tempted to throw players who need further development into situations they aren’t yet ready for.

So, yeah, health is important. Again, not a revelatory proclamation, but the reasons are different than in years past.

Fun along the way

The arrival of Spring Training is exciting because it means some baseball is here and important baseball is close. The more baseball the better, IMO. But after the first few games you realize none of the games actually matter.

This is a depressing realization, but there are plenty of things to enjoy about Spring Training. Every time a player who will likely never reach the majors, someone without a name on the back of his jersey and a number comparable to an NFL offensive lineman gets a hit at the plate or a strikeout on the mound is worth enjoying in the moment.

Spring Training is long and boring and fun and exciting. Let’s just hope the White Sox get through it without any, ahem, clubhouse controversy.

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