James Fegan went in-depth detailing what was working for Giolito over at The Athletic, and the fact that his changeup was so devastating — eight of his 17 swinging strikes were against that pitch — is a great sign going forward. Giolito’s curveball was the pitch that elicited excitement during his time as a prep and minor leaguer who shot up to No. 1 prospect status, but his ability to throw his fastball, curveball, and changeup for a strike is what’s going to make him effective long term.

Giolito’s three starts thus far have shown a lot of promise. The aforementioned piece by James outlines how Rays hitters weren’t prepared for the arsenal he displayed based on video and scouting reports, so there’s reason for caution as teams see him more over the last month of the season and into 2018, but through 20 innings he’s struck out 18 and walked just four — three of which came in one start — while displaying all the characteristics of the pitcher the White Sox thought they were acquiring eight months ago.

2. Giolito wasn’t the only one of the highly touted young White Sox pitchers to flash the goods, as Reynaldo Lopez returned from his minor injury and showed his elite swing-and-miss ability after a slow start in Friday’s loss to Tampa Bay. More important than the results at this point is Lopez showing no signs of the back tightness that forced him out of an August start against the Rangers, but after a slow start he recovered to finish the day by retiring 11 straight Rays and generating 15 swinging strikes in just 85 pitches.

Whether or not Lopez can be a viable starting pitching option in the long term has been and will continue to be a point of debate going forward. But from the standpoint of his ability to challenge major league hitters with his entire arsenal and miss bats, he’s passing the test thus far.

3. Not everything has been sunshine and flowers when it comes to White Sox pitching prospects this season, of course, and with the Sept. 1 roster expansion came our second glimpse of the struggling Carson Fulmer.

Fulmer has just made one appearance since re-joining the White Sox following a disastrous appearance as the 26th man in a doubleheader two weeks ago, picking up his first career win while allowing one run in two innings of work Saturday.

There’s not much to be gleaned from the appearance in which he allowed a walk to Kevin Kiermaier and solo homer to Logan Morrison other than, maybe, the fact that he retired more hitters than he did in his start against the Twins. But where Giolito’s and Lopez’s ascent to the majors represents the duo taking the next step in their respective developments, the last month of the season for Fulmer gives the White Sox an up-close look as they attempt to figure out what, exactly, they have in the former first round pick.

Fulmer’s Triple-A season was disjointed, to say the least. If you had a pendulum with “reliever” on one end and “starter” on the other, the bob would most certainly be swaying more heavily toward the “reliever” side at the moment. But while the Fulmer living up to that potential is less of a necessity given the White Sox recent influx of prospects, he’s still just more than two years into his professional career and the Sox aren’t yet at the point where they’re willing to concede one way or the other.

This month isn’t likely to provide any sweeping conclusions about his trajectory, but a month hands-on work for Fulmer with Don Cooper and the major league coaching staff will go a long way toward helping them figure that out.

4. Fulmer was joined as a Sept. 1 addition to the roster by, to put it kindly, less-than-exciting minor leaguers in David Holmberg, and Rob Brantly, and a day later Rymer Liriano after Leury Garcia was placed on the disabled list.

Holmberg and Brantly are, quite simply, veteran September depth to the pitching staff and catching position, respectively, while Liriano represents a former top prospect given a new opportunity with a new team, not unlike Alen Hanson.

Still 26, the odds of Liriano making any meaningful contributions as a major leaguer are slim, but he joins a long list of players trying to make the most of an opportunity that might not otherwise be afforded them. He was No. 52 on BP’s Top 101 prior to the 2012 season while still with the Padres organization and rose as high as No. 39 on the list pre-2013 with Jason Parks grading him with above average arm, run, and raw power tools, giving him the future potential of a first division corner outfielder.

That hasn’t happened, of course, and 2013 was a long time ago (Jurickson Profar was No. 1 on that list, for perspective), but after solid overall production while spending the entire season at Triple-A Charlotte, he’s being given a shot, and he went 2-for-3 with a double, walk, and his first career home run in Monday’s loss to Cleveland.

Liriano’s most likely to be among the 2017 White Sox most difficult to remember on a Sporcle quiz a few years from now, but it will at the very least be interesting to see what kind of impression he can make in a September audition for which he’s been waiting a very long time.

5. Avisail Garcia’s surprising and very real 2017 season has entered its final month and he hasn’t shown a lot of signs of slowing down. At this point, even with a horrid September he’ll end the season with a career high in basically everything, and you’re looking at a final line of a WARP north of 3.0, a career high in home runs, and an OPS in the mid-.800s in ~500 plate appearances.

The latest surprising thing Garcia did this season came Monday when he got into a jawing match with Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer after fouling off a hanging breaking ball.

Here’s Trevor Bauer on his exchange with Avisail Garcia. pic.twitter.com/A5Q4Cyrvef

— Dan Hayes (@CSNHayes) September 4, 2017

We can debate all day who was in the right or wrong, who won the exchange (Bauer did strike him out), or Bauer’s history of having, uh, less-than-stellar opinions, but beyond all that, what was eye opening to me as someone who has destroyed mistakes all season long miss one, and get really pissed off at the fact that he did so.

This is noteworthy in that it was commonplace for Garcia to take a hanging breaking ball and do nothing with it through the first three years of his career. Whatever changed in his approach and ability this season has done something to his confidence to the point where he rarely does so anymore. That confidence translated to the altercation we saw Monday.

In the grand scheme of things, this means very little. Any harmless trash-talking is fun, and dare I say good in sports, so long as it doesn’t end in 90-plus mph fastballs aimed at people’s heads. That’s what happened between Garcia and Bauer Monday. Bauer obviously got the best of him this time around, but that amount of confidence in himself, as unquantifiable as it may be, is a pleasant sight out of the All-Star outfielder facing a former top prospect who has never lived up to his potential.

Lead Photo Credit: Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

Despite staking themselves to a pair of early two-run leads, the White Sox were quickly overwhelmed by the division-leading Indians, and dropped to a season-worst nine games below .500. They’re 49-72 since their high point of the year.

1. Trevor Bauer, whom the Indians need to pull off a convincing impression of a No. 2 starter in the wake of injuries to Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar, got jumped on early by Sox hitting. Tim Anderson lined a high fastball into the right-center cap that bled all the way to the wall with one out in the first inning. But his quick footwork to turn the play into a triple was quickly made irrelevant when Melky Cabrera yanked another heater to right for his 13th home run of the year to put the Sox up 2-0. After the Indians tied it in the fourth, Bauer was burned once more the very next frame when Avisail Garcia fought off an inside fastball for a high fly that dropped just over the fence in the right field corner for another two-run shot. Bauer would take another economical outing against the Sox into the eighth inning, but at the least they made his ERA jump. Garcia is now slugging over .500 for the second half.

2. That would be the last crest of the evening for Chicago, and things became all the way broken really quickly. After twirling three shutout innings to open the night, Miguel Gonzalez had something looking like a cutter launched out to right for a game-tying bomb from Indians’ breakout star Jose Ramirez to knot the game 2-2. Gonzalez has to challenge hitters with mediocre stuff a lot to get through the night, so one mistake usually doesn’t doom his night, but he wound up being chased with just one out in the fifth. After giving up a leadoff double to Carlos Santana, he was completely lost, hitting Jason Kipnis and bouncing a wild pitch to push them both into scoring position. Francisco Lindor scored Santana on a sacrifice fly, and Mike Napoli bounced a slider through a drawn-in infield–which backfired for the umpteenth time–to tie the game and end Gonzalez’s night.

3. The White Sox are not teeming with bullpen depth, but it can’t be said they didn’t pull out some guys with recent success. Juan Minaya had yet to give up a run in his major league career before Coco Crisp ripped a two-run double into the right field corner off him to put the Indians up 6-4 in the fifth. Dan Jennings, who had been looking as good as his pristine ERA for the all of the season’s second half, came on to relieve in the sixth after the rookie gave up a one-out single to Santana. After striking out the lefty Kipnis, Jennings couldn’t get out any of the next five batters, with a booming Ramirez double and a pair of jammed singles from Napoli and Crisp all bringing in runs to put the game out of reach.

4. Adam Eaton crashed into the center field wall making a running catch on a Roberto Perez fly ball to start the top of the sixth. He had to be helped off the field and was replaced by Leury Garcia. He is undergoing the concussion protocol but really made a full body collision with the wall, so injuries to his shoulder and knee are also distinct possibilities.

5. The White Sox have now lost six in a row (another loss Saturday would match their season-high) and nine of their last 13. They have had a losing record in every month this season save for April.

They have nine games left in 2016.

Team Record: 72-81

Next game is Saturday at 6:10pm CT at Cleveland on CSN

Lead Image Credit: Ken Blaze // USA Today Sports Images

Back end pitchers also play enough of a role to matter during the course of a 162-game season. Last year, the White Sox played 67 games that were started by someone other than their presumed Top 3 pitchers going into the season (Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, Jeff Samardzija). Or more specifically, they accounted for 26 percent of the total innings completely by White Sox pitchers in 2015.

Granted, not every back end starter is cut from the same cloth. Using the White Sox as the most obvious example, Carlos Rodon being your fourth or fifth starter in 2015 is much, much different from John Danks. Looking across the division at Detroit, Daniel Norris at the back end of the rotation is much different than Mike Pelfrey. Likewise, the guys who aren’t necessarily expected to be counted on as more than a back end starter who eats innings at the beginning of the year can sometimes ascend (Esteban Loaiza always comes to mind, for some reason), and guys who start the year as a potential key cog in a rotation can fall off drastically (Hello again, Mr. Samardzija).

Keeping all these caveats in mind, let’s try to get an idea of where the back end of the White Sox rotation stacks up compared to those of their AL Central rivals. Most teams have their rotations basically set at this point in Spring Training, but understanding how incredibly rare it is for a team to use as few as five starters during the season, we’ll look at the projected Nos. 4 and 5 starters for each team, as well as guys who won’t necessarily start the season with the big league club, but have a good chance to start at some point during the season because of injury or performance.

White Sox

Probably most of the work: John Danks, Mat Latos

Other possibilities: Scott Carroll, Erik Johnson, Chris Beck, Carson Fulmer, Jacob Turner

Of the pitchers we’re going to go over, there’s only one pitcher PECOTA actually likes more than Latos, who is projected to be worth 1 WARP and have an ERA in the low 4.00s. The question with Latos, of course, is health, and that’s where the other guys come in.

We pretty much know at this point what to expect out of Danks at this point. Unless Dioner Navarro’s pitch-tipping discovery was truly a revelation, Danks will continue to be a guy who eats innings and occasionally gets hammered. But if Latos can’t stay healthy, the White Sox will depend on a mixture of guys who have struggled to find success during their respective brief major league careers.

Carroll, Johnson, and Beck and Turner to a lesser extent, are all guys who shouldn’t kill you with a spot start or two here and there, but Latos’ ability to stay healthy and be effective enough to remain in the rotation is rather important.

The wild card here is Fulmer, who some believe could join the rotation as early as May or June. In the very good chance that someone ahead of him falters, his ascent could give the White Sox a big boost.

Indians

Probably most of the work: Trevor Bauer, Josh Tomlin

Other possibilities: Cody Anderson, T.J. House

At 31, one has to wonder if Tomlin’s impressive work in 65 innings in 2015 is truly a sign that he’s fully recovered from Tommy John surgery in 2012 and even better than he was prior to that, but PECOTA seems to think so, as he’s projected to be worth more WARP than any other pitcher currently pegged for the Nos. 4 and 5 spots in their respective rotations.

Between Bauer — a former top prospect who has shown flashes of brilliance but continues to be erratic and inconsistent, and Tomlin if he’s as good as he could be, the Indians likely have the best back end options of any team in the AL Central. Where things get dicey is what comes if either guy falters or suffers injury. House and Anderson, like the White Sox group of mediocrity, are fine in a pinch, but depth is lacking here. After those two, there isn’t a whole lot to fall back on, and unlike the rest of the teams in the division, there’s no youngster close to major league-ready who could break through.

Luckily for the Indians, they arguable have the best pitching staff in the division. It’s just the depth that is lacking.

Tigers

Probably most of the work: Daniel Norris, Mike Pelfrey

Other possibilities: Shane Greene, Kyle Ryan, Michael Fulmer, Matt Boyd

Detroit’s pitching depth will be tested right off the bat this season, as promising youngster Norris will begin the season on the disabled list. Greene seems most likely to get the fifth slot in the rotation in his absence, and after impressing despite being thrust into duty with the 2014 Yankees, he fell back down to earth last season after a trade brought him to Detroit.

Most of Detroit’s depth is relatively untested at the major league level, as Ryan has gained a spot start or two during 66 career innings across two seasons, and Boyd, while still only 25, was really, really bad in spot start duties with both Detroit and Toronto a year ago.

The only non-youngster of the bunch is Pelfrey, who was surprisingly competent in Minnesota a year ago after a variety of injuries — including Tommy John surgery back in 2012 — limited him to 37 starts from 2012-14. If he holds up, he should be a constant in the back end of Detroit’s rotation, eating innings and pitching to contact. He is Detroit’s Danks.

Fulmer — the other Fulmer — is like the White Sox’s version, a wild card. After being acquired from the Mets in last season’s Yoenis Cespedes deal, he immediately became the best prospect in Detroit’s moribund system and could see the majors this year. Between Fulmer and Norris, Detroit has a pair of young arms to be excited about.

Twins

Probably most of the work: Tommy Milone, Ricky Nolasco

Other possibilities: Tyler Duffey, J.R. Graham, Taylor Rogers, Jose Berrios

I believe Ethan Spalding put it best when it comes to the Twins and their pitching staff:

the Twins pitching dev is obviously a front for a top secret cloning op but why did they choose to clone Brad Radke instead of Johan Santana

— Ethan Spalding (@SpaldingBalls) March 29, 2016

It’s true that the Twins’ rotation is filled with mediocrity. The fact that the back end of the rotation isn’t much less impressive than the top guys isn’t a good sign for the team as a whole, but that they’re loaded with guys who eat innings, stay healthy and keep them in games is at least somewhat nice. Milone and Nolasco are basically interchangeable in that regard, but if Duffey slips into the fifth starter role at some point he may be a nice change.

While his profile doesn’t portend a lot of strikeouts, the 25-year-old did strike out 8.2 batters per nine innings, but he also walked his fair share. He’s likely a swingman long-term, but the Twins would be well served to give him and fellow 25-year-old Rogers a look if they fall out of the race early.

Those two, along with the aforementioned veteran inning eaters, are of course just holding the place of 21-year-old flamethrower Berrios, who in reality you should’t expect to see until September. The five guys listed before Berrios won’t be the problem with the 2016 Twins, it’ll likely be the lack of a dominant arm at the front of the rotation.

Royals

Probably most of the work: Kris Medlen, Chris Young

Other possibilities: Danny Duffy, Mike Minor, Kyle Zimmer, Chien-Ming Wang

The defending champions have, on paper, the weakest backend of the rotation in the division. Medlen, who is kept together by pins and needles at this point, was a solid reliever for most of 2015 after finally recovering from his second Tommy John surgery, while Young rode some good BABIP luck to good results in 2015 before falling apart late. In fact, Young is the only player mentioned on this list who PECOTA projects to be worth a negative amount in 2016.

Royals Devil Magic could strike once again, but if Medlen’s body falters and Young can’t produce, what’s left?

The most likely candidate to get innings in that scenario is Duffy, who outpitched his peripherals in 2014 before falling back to earth a season ago. Duffy is a fine back end of the rotation option who the Royals would probably be better off using over Young at this point, but after that things get very dicey. Minor hasn’t pitched since 2014 and will begin the season on the 60-day DL, and I’m just as surprised as you are to see Wang still hanging around.

Zimmer, much like the law firm of Fulmer & Fulmer, could be a game-changer for Kansas City, however, and may be closer to making his major league debut than either of them. If he does, and one of the Medlen/Young/Duffy trio proves capable, the Royals will be fine.

Summary

OK, so what we just looked at proves something that may be rather obvious: that the back end of the rotation isn’t always very pretty. However, while the raw numbers of these guys aren’t pretty, it’s clear that having a number of pitchers who won’t murder your team’s chances of winning every time they step on the mound is as important as ever, especially with starters throwing fewer innings than ever before in major league history.

The White Sox rolling with Danks and Latos at the start of the season seems fine, especially when you compare them to their division rivals. Those two and the rest eating up innings while Sale, Quintana and Rodon do all the heavy lifting will be an important factor in the team’s success in 2016.

Top Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports