White Sox halfway home, with one foot in the grave

The White Sox reached the halfway point in their season with a 4-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday night, which means it's time to double the numbers.

It puts the season into pretty stark relief -- whether you're looking at rate stats, counting stats, or stats that rely on teammates (runs and RBI), there isn't one position player who is having a good season, which is pretty ridiculous. The pitching staff offers more variety, but when the offense is on pace to score the fewest runs of any team in the Jerry Reinsdorf era, it only goes so far.

Position players

Five things that jump out at me:

Alejandro De Aza: He turned into a poor man’s Curtis Granderson somewhere along the line.

Alexei Ramirez: On pace to play every inning of the season, but it’s not helping his power production any. Previous low in RBI? 68. Previous high in stolen bases? 20.

Jeff Keppinger: His average line really has never represented the kind of hitter he’s been at any point in the season.

• Before May 15: .177/.174/.192 over 132 PA
• After May 15: .336/.384/.431 over 125 PA

The turnaround took place shortly after Robin Ventura removed him from the second spot, which was foreseeable. He went from being the worst thing in baseball to a nice player pretty much over the course of a few days.

Adam Dunn: He’s on pace to set the record for the fewest runs scored by somebody who 1) hit 40 homers and 2) qualified for a full-season batting title. The owner of that record – Juan Gonzalez, who scored just 77 runs while hitting 43 homers for the Rangers in 1992. Gonzalez’s OBP was a point higher than Dunn’s.

The catchers: The playing-time split between Flowers and Gimenez is pretty much the same as it was between A.J. Pierzynski and Flowers last year.

Pitchers

Five things that jump out at me:

Dylan Axelrod: I admire the Battle Axe, but any season in which he leads the team in starts isn’t a season that’s gone according to plan.

Jose Quintana: He was pegged by all surface-level sabermetricians as a fluke, but he’s done a nice job of combating regression by establishing some credible peripherals. If anybody can take only 10 decisions over 32 starts, it’s him.

Matt Lindstrom: He’s never walked more than 26 guys in a season. He’s never appeared in more than 71 games. He’s not exactly what the Sox signed up for, but it’s been effective enough, Wednesday night notwithstanding.

The starters: The last time the top two winners on the staff only combined for fewer than 22 victories? 1989, led by Melido Perez (11-14) and Eric King (9-10).

Chris Sale: He was on pace for 205 innings at the same point last year, so the first 81 games aren’t that big of a difference in terms of workload. However, he’s done a much better job of maintaining his velocity to this point. Also, the White Sox modern-day strikeout record is 215 by Gary Peters in 1967 (Ed Walsh owns the top five spots), so Sale's pursuit of that mark might be one of the few things to watch by the end of the year, if anybody gets there alive.