White Sox Writer Believes Team's First Half Was Not As Bad As It Could Have Been

The Chicago White Sox are 38-49; their last game before the All-Star break was a 10-0 loss to the Colorado Rockies in which they were two outs away from getting no-hit in the most hitter-friendly ballpark in the majors. The team is last in the AL Central. Pitcher José Quintana is on the trading block. The season isn’t exactly going well, but MLB.com White Sox writer Scott Merkin chose to be optimistic. He wrote today that the first half of the season was “better than expected.”

From Merkin’s article, with the headline “White Sox first half: better than expected”:

Slightly better than expected would be one way to describe the first half of the 2017 White Sox season and the start of their rebuild, even with coming within two outs of being no-hit by Colorado on Sunday and with an overall record of 38-49.

The team has played with intensity to the final out of every game for manager Rick Renteria, who has instilled a specific culture running throughout the organization since the start of Spring Training. Then again, this rebuild job didn’t exit Arizona with the same tanking outlook that other clubs have followed.

“[José] Abreu’s hope could be changed quickly by a series of moves from general manager Rick Hahn before the July 31 non-waiver Trade Deadline,” Merkin wrote. “As of the All-Star break, though, the White Sox have been competitive.”

[ MLB.com]