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 White Sox pitching staff has, predictably, become much worse since the departures of Quintana, Robertson, and Tommy Kahnle. Those three were arguably the best three pitchers on the roster, so it’s natural that their departure would have lasting impacts on the team they left behind. Quintana has only been gone from the team for 10 days now, but since his departure the longest outing by a White Sox starter has been six innings. Miguel Gonzalez has done it once, and James Shields has done it once.

Things are bound to get even uglier when fatigue sets in for both the rotation and the bullpen. Gonzalez has been unimpressive, Shields has shown flashes of his poor 2016 self, and Carlos Rodon has battled control issues since arriving back in Chicago. That’s going to be taxing for the bullpen, which just lost two of the relievers they leaned on the heaviest. Robertson and Kahnle threw more pitches for the White Sox than everyone but Chris Beck, Anthony Swarzak, and Dan Jennings. Tyler Clippard was supposed to alleviate some of that burden, but he’s thrown just one-third of an inning in two games while allowing three hits and an earned run. The team will have to get creative with how they handle the remainder of the innings needed in 2017 while keeping in mind that they don’t want to burn any of the young arms.

3. One young arm that could be on his way to Chicago in the near future is Reynaldo Lopez. While his future as a starter still hangs in the balance, he’s already shown an ability to make some starts at the big league level (with Washington in 2016) and is having a fine season in Charlotte. In his last nine starts, he’s posted an ERA of 3.23, which includes one stinker of a game where he allowed six earned runs and four walks. In those last nine starts he’s walked more than two batters just that one time while striking out six or more five times, including two different outings with double digit strikeouts. He’s looked really good, which should be a sign that the White Sox are ready to give him the call. They’re right to be patient, of course, but he seems like a pitcher that is ready to make that next step. It may not be before his next start, but it seems like his time in Charlotte is coming to a close.

4. Another prospect who has been lighting it up as of late is newly acquired Eloy Jimenez. On Sunday he went 5-for-6 with two doubles and a home run. He’s had just 31 at-bats with the Dash, but he’s managed to hit seven extra base hits. His 19.7 percent strikeout rate this season indicates that he’s not whiffing or getting fooled all that often. In fact, his 10.8 percent walk rate seems to point toward some excellent discipline at the plate. This is all scouting the stat line, of course, but it’s certainly not a bad thing to see a top 10 prospect getting the desired results. It seems like it’s only a matter of time before he departs the crowded outfield of Winston-Salem for the bright, shiny Double-A ballpark in Birmingham.

5. Zack Collins is a prospect with less desirable results than Lopez or Jimenez. Despite being drafted as a bat-first prospect, Collins has stalled in High-A, a level that a player his age should have no problem with. There is of course the notion that catching prospects develop at different paces with different parts of their game taking a back seat at different times, which the lovely James Fegan mentioned in his excellent article about Collins. Even being generous towards Collins in that regard, the failure to hit at such a low level is a concern. If he’s unable to put things together the White Sox could have a failed pick at the top of the draft on their hands. The good news, however, is that the team has built enough prospect depth to withstand such a thing. It is also far too early to give up on a player like Collins, but the clock keeps ticking and he does keep getting older with each passing second. The concern is there, but the alarm bells aren’t quite ringing yet.

Lead Photo Credit: Denny Medley-USA Today Sports Images

• -The return for Todd Frazier, David Robertson, and Tommy Kahnle.
• -The high difference of opinions on Blake Rutherford.
• -Whether trading Kahnle was the right thing to do.
• -Any other trades likely? Does anyone want Melky Cabrera?
• -The insanely mediocre American League Central
• -Yoan Moncada’s promotion and what to watch from him the rest of the season
• -Other prospects who might get called up this season. Reynaldo Lopez? Lucas Giolito?

Also be sure to check out our summary of Wednesday’s deal, as well as BP’s transaction analysis. You can also read a more in depth take on the decision to trade Kahnle by Ryan Schultz, and Collin’s closer look at Moncada’s White Sox debut. Follow us on Twitter @BPSouthSide.

You can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by searching for “The Catbird Speaks.”

When the White Sox traded for Kahnle, there was a good chance he would simply never cut it on a competitive team.  The stuff was always there, providing 11.1 and 13.5 percent swinging strike rates in his two seasons with the Rockies. He struck out batters at a rate of 22.1 and 25.2 percent those years. While that isn’t elite, it showed his ability to miss bats. The biggest problem was a common one among young pitchers — finding the strike zone. His 18.1 percent walk rate in 2015 was indicative of that issue. Even in his first season with the White Sox, his walk rate was at an uncomfortable 16.8 percent.

In this breakout 2017 season, however, the walk rate has plummeted to just 4.9 percent. That alone would have helped Kahnle become a more useful pitcher. What has been even more crucial is that his ability to find the strike zone has led to even more strikeouts. 37 innings into the 2017 season, Kahnle has struck out 43.1 percent of the batters he has faced. Only Craig Kimbrel has struck out hitters at a higher rate.

Kahnle’s much-improved control has had a domino effect on his pitching. With his walk rate reduced, hitters are more willing to chase pitches out of the zone. The swing percentage on pitches out of the zone against Kahnle has risen by 11.2 percent. He’s gotten first pitch strikes 53.7 percent of the time, a drastic increase from a season ago. He’s also dramatically improved the number of 0-2 counts he’s manufactured, now sitting at a rate of 29.3 percent. What these numbers boil down to is that he’s getting ahead in counts, and as a result getting whiffs to finish off batters.

All of this has come in one breakout season, or half season, really. There’s no certainty that it will last. Relievers are volatile, and a pitcher magically finding control doesn’t often last for a long stretch of time. That’s where the White Sox brilliance in his handling comes into play.

Relievers are wildly unpredictable, but the trade market at the deadline is incredibly lucrative for teams with bullpen arms to spare. The White Sox are aware of both of these things. Debates raged about whether the White Sox should deal the righty with three years of team control remaining. When the uncertainty of relievers is considered, it was almost a no-brainer that he should have been dealt at the height of his value. If a team was willing to give up valuable assets for a reliever with relatively no track record, the team should have absolutely jumped at that opportunity.

While opinions of Blake Rutherford certainly vary, he remains a Top 100 prospect at nearly every reputable prospect website, including being ranked 49th overall by Baseball Prospectus coming into the season (he was not included in the Midseason Top 50). That’s valuable to a White Sox team in the early years of a rebuild. And while Kahnle didn’t fetch that talent alone, he was likely the most valuable of the three pieces involved in the trade. The White Sox could have seen that value and decided to keep him on the staff. Instead, they decided to trade him while it is reasonable to assume he is at peak performance. It is this type of move that could be invaluable for the White Sox in the next few seasons, especially with pitching coach Don Cooper having a good reputation, albeit mostly anecdotal, for fixing broken pitchers.

The buy low-sell high tactic is certainly not a new one to teams in the throes of a rebuild. However, it’s not often that it works this well. Even by just looking inwardly at the White Sox roster, examples can be found of failures in this strategy. But when it works, it can turn something small into something really valuable.

Beckham’s failures were an indictment of the poor player development regime of recent years past, but they were able to turn him into Yency Almonte. Almonte in turn brought Kahnle to the South side. That provided the White Sox with half a season of a very valuable reliever, which then led to a Top 100 prospect landing in the organization. If the team is able to do that even just one more time, it would be a massive help in the process of rebuilding and piling on the organizational depth.

Lead Photo Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Concurrent with the trade, general manager Rick Hahn also announced that heralded top prospect Yoan Moncada would make his debut with the team Wednesday.

Rutherford is the headliner here as far as the return. The 18th overall pick in last year’s draft was often linked to the White Sox in the weeks leading up to the draft. He was considered arguably the most polished high school hitter in that class, but fell because of bonus demands and a ceiling that isn’t considered quite as high as those who went ahead of him. As BP’s Greg Goldstein put it on Twitter, he has a solid all-around game but no standout tool. He’s an outfielder who’s played a lot of center early in his career but is likely going to be destined for a corner long term. He was No. 49 in BP’s Preseason Top 101 but didn’t make the recently released Midseason Top 50, however, he’s ranked as highly as No. 30 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100, and was No. 36 on Baseball America’s Midseason Top 100.

Clarkin is a left-hander who was a first round pick in 2013 and has yet to pitch above A-ball, primarily because of injuries. Entering this season he’s thrown only 178 innings in his career, but he’s had modest success in High-A through 75 innings thus far in 2017. Polo is a 22-year-old outfielder originally signed by Pirates in 2012 who came over to the Yankees for Ivan Nova last summer. He was on Colombia’s World Baseball Classic team this spring, and has split time between High-A and Double-A with the Yankees this season. He was not in their system’s Top 30, per MLB Pipeline.

The final piece is Clippard, who is decidedly not a prospect. The 32-year-old veteran has a 4.95 ERA with the Yankees in 2017 and is a free agent after this season. He was likely included solely to help balance out the salaries (the Yankees are taking on the entirety of the money owed to Frazier and Robertson), and to eat some innings for the Sox for the rest of this season.

Frazier and Robertson being traded wasn’t a surprise, but packaging the two together, in addition to Kahnle, was a bit of a shocker. Kahnle’s trade value had obviously increased exponentially since the start of the season and there had been some debate as to whether or not he was worth trading at peak value or hanging onto as a present and potentially future bullpen asset. Hahn said in a press conference Tuesday that the trade wouldn’t have happened without the addition of Kahnle, and given the volatility of relievers, as well as the suddenness of his ascension, it’s tough to blame the White Sox for selling highly.

Combining those trades with the call-up of Moncada (as well as reliever Brad Goldberg; sorry for overshadowing you, Brad!) is a logical choice as Moncada can take Frazier’s place on the infield at second base with Yolmer Sanchez and Tyler Saladino now splitting time at third base. It will be important, of course, to temper expectations as he adjusts to the majors once again after an extremely small trial last September.

Lead Photo Credit: Kelley L. Cox / USA Today Sports Images

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

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