Chicago White Sox (46-46): D

Before the season, I picked the Chicago White Sox to win 100 games and the American League pennant. Their combination of lights out pitching through all nine innings, a potent lineup all the way down and a skipper who has three championship rings seemed like the perfect recipe for a World Series to return to the south side of Chicago. Welp, two of those key aspects are not winning this team games, in baseball’s weakest division.

Tony La Russa was expected to lead this ballclub out of a long and hard rebuild and bring the White Sox back to the forefront of contention. Ironically, it’s him who is one of the main reasons holding the team back from that ceiling.

Now there are other culprits for the underwhelming first half in Chicago. The lineup has been shaken by injuries to the point where only Jose Abreu has played in 80 or more games this season. The AJ Pollock trade has not provided the White Sox with the steady veteran bat they needed in the middle of the order. When healthy, Yasmani Grandal was a pedestrian in the batter’s box. Lucas Giolito has seemingly forgotten how to throw an effective fastball.

These shortcomings though are nothing like totally losing your clubhouse morale, refusing to adapt to the modern game and quite baffling in-game decisions that Tony La Russa has made this season. The outrage among the fanbase has been on full display for weeks now, as “Fire Tony” chants have been more than audible in Guaranteed Rate Field throughout the summer. While it’s not all on Tony, I wouldn’t say he’s helping to right the ship at this time. Despite the managerial mishaps and lack of consistency on the field and off, it hasn’t all been bad for Chicago.

The breakout of Dylan Cease as the team’s new ace has been a much-needed revelation for this team. Through 19 starts, the former top prospect has lived up to the hype with the sixth best ERA in the league (2.15) to go with a league leading 150 strikeouts. How this man wasn’t an all-star is an absolute travesty. Unfortunately for Chicago, the rotation gets pretty slim behind him and Michael Kopech as can be seen in Johnny Cueto being a regular starter on this team in 2022.

The lone pitching representative in Hollywood in Liam Hendriks has been himself this season with 18 saves in 21 chances and an impressive 0.95 WHIP.

A .500 record at the all-star break is very underwhelming for a team that had World Series ambitions in March, not to mention the locker room drama that’s been plaguing them. However, Chicago seemed to round into form by winning seven of their last ten before the break. If they can keep the good momentum rolling through the dog days, all can be forgiven. Keyword: If.

Cleveland Guardians (46-44): B+

Entering the season, the only headlines surrounding Cleveland were the team’s new name and where they would trade Jose Ramirez at the deadline. Well like Ramirez’s multi-year extension, the Guardians have managed to surprise a good contingent of people thus far in 2022.

The all-star this baseman obviously leads the way for this club offensively, as J-Ram leads the team in nearly every major category with the bat by a good margin.

Unlike last year, he’s gotten some help behind him. The two key pieces acquired in the Francisco Lindor deal have panned out as Andres Gimenez rode a .296 batting average and stellar glove to secure the starting spot at second base in the all star game while Amed Rosario has found himself at the plate with a .291 slash line. Josh Naylor has been productive in his limited time on the field as well, but it’s the same formula that Cleveland rode to the playoffs years ago that’s getting them wins right now.

Once again, Progressive Field has been the home to some pretty good pitching. Shane Bieber is still dominant, with a 106 strikeouts in 17 starts. Triston McKenzie has emerged as one of the livleist young arms in the game with a .199 OBA in 101 innings. Cal Quantrill has started to meet the expectations placed on him as a top prospect in San Diego as he sports a decent 3.75 ERA. And of course, there’s the fireballing nightmare to slam the door in Emmanuel Clase whose 19 saves are second in the American League.

Why Cleveland hasn’t been more successful though, comes in what’s not named. The production drop-off from these guys to the rest of the team is rather daunting, forming one of the more top-heavy squads in baseball. In a weak division though, they’ve been able to stay in the conversation. The Guardians position at the deadline could be one of the most fascinating in baseball as although the talent level isn’t on par with other contenders, they stand just 2 games out of Minnesota for the division lead. What they’ve done with what they have is impressive this season, and we’re going to find out very soon just how committed they are to winning.

Detroit Tigers (37-55): F

This offseason, the Detroit Tigers looked to progress out of their painful rebuild by signing Boston standout LHP Eduardo Rodriguez, longtime Chicago superstar Javier Baez and bringing on World Series winning manager in AJ Hinch to take this team back to October. Not only have these moves (aside from Hinch) came back to kill them, but no one else on the team is helping the cause.

Among qualified hitters, one member of this team is hitting above .220 and that’s 39 year old Miguel Cabrera. Javier Baez has massively regressed in the notorious pitcher’s park of Comerica and has seen his production take drastic falls in nearly every single category. Top prospect Spencer Torkelson, brought up to ignite a spark in this sleeping lineup, has only tucked the covers in more as he was sent back down to AAA last week following his batting average dipping below the mendoza line. As a whole, Detroit ranks in the bottom five in the league in batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage, as well as dead-last in runs scored.

Somehow, the starting pitching has been just as bad as the bats. Tarik Skubal is the lone bright spot in this rotation and even his shine isn’t lighting it up too much with a 4.11 ERA despite triple digit strikeouts. Behind him, it’s a dumpster fire caused by injuries. Eduardo Rodriguez has made just eight subpar starts this season before he was placed on the restricted list, with reports coming out that he hasn’t made contact with the team in over a month. Michael Pineda is back to sucking and neither Beau Brieske nor Alex Faedo have been able to figure it out at the major league level, making Detroit’s rotation one of baseball’s worst when it was expected to take some significant steps.

The one area that Detroit hasn’t completely failed in though is a very steady bullpen unit. All-star Gregory Soto’s 18 saves are third in the junior circuit and the bridge to him is trustworthy with Michael Fulmer, Andrew Chafin and Joe Jimenez all sporting sub .210 OBA’s and ERA’s in the high 2’s and low 3’s.

In what was supposed to be a step-forward year for Detroit, it’s been the opposite thus far. While reinforcements are on the way in the promising quartet of Torkelson, Riley Greene, Matt Manning and Casey Mize, none have proven themselves as major league contributors yet. The start of the season was simply too brutal for the Tigers to find any sort of silver-lining in 2022 and has been an outright failure for what was expected of this team. GM Al Avila’s best move for future success is to sell off this deadline season and regroup his roster for 2023.

Kansas City Royals (36-56): F

Much like Detroit, Kansas City came into this year looking to finally emerge from the A.L. Central basement they’ve been stuck in since their World Series run in 2015. And just like their division rivals, they’ve fallen back down the ladder.

Despite flashes of promise and potential last season, the Royals’ pitching corps has been a disaster outside of workhorse Brad Keller. Father time finally caught up to Zack Greinke this year as his OBA has shot up to a woeful .285. The young duo of Kris Bubic and Daniel Lynch has gone from future to footnote in this organization as both hold ERA’s over 5. Brady Singer is in and out with his consistency but his pension for giving up the long-ball and getting wild is holding him back from being the staff ace the front office expected out of him as a prospect. Then again, manager Mike Matheny has a bit of a track record with mismanaging his arms across the state a decade ago.

The story gets a little better in the bullpen with the shutdown arm of Scott Barlow whom has worked well with breakout right-hander Dylan Coleman to keep the scores manageable late in games.

Flipping the Tigers script, the offense hasn’t been that much of a weak point. Andrew Benintendi has entered his name in the conversation of the league’s best contact hitters as the all-star outfielder is among 12 players with 100 hits this year. Top prospect Bobby Witt Jr. has been okay thus far, but his high strikeout totals and low on-base percentage are weighing his potential down for now.

Hunter Dozier has quietly had a nice little season with a .772 OPS as he adopts a new contact first approach. Whit Merrifield unfortunately has fallen off with a weak .240 batting average and clearly, the high trade value he could’ve accrued for Kansas City in past years has gone by the wayside.

Billed as the team with one of the brighter futures in the league, Kansas City faithful have a right to be worried following the disheartening first half. Like their rivals in Detroit, the Royals’ best course of action is to trade at least Benintendi and Barlow to contenders for young talent and aim to get back on track next year, where the improvements of the pitching staff and Bobby Witt can hopefully be on display.

Minnesota Twins (50-44): B+

It’s been an interesting campaign in Twins land this year. After coming out of nowhere to nab star shortstop Carlos Correa in free agency, many expected another big year for the sticks in the Twin Cities to go along with the continued struggles of the pitching staff. This script has been followed to a-T as we emerge from the All-Star break.

The new shortstop in town has done his thing up north as Correa has rebounded from a slow start to hit .279 with an .803 OPS despite a bit of a decline in his power hitting. When healthy, franchise face Byron Buxton has continued his power streak with 23 long-balls, even though his batting average has suck down to the dreaded Mendoza line and his strikeout numbers are higher than ever. Lucky for him, Luis Arraez has picked up the slack on the batting average as his .338 clip is tops in the majors, which earned him an all-star nod with Buxton. The Yankee duo acquired in the offseason have been near opposites as Gio Urshela has been rock solid at third base on both sides of the ball, while Minnesota hasn’t been able to fix Gary Sanchez either with the bat or glove.

The rotation hasn’t been anything to write home about, but it’s done a serviceable job for the Twins. Joe Ryan is firmly in the running for AL rookie of the year with an outstanding 2.99 ERA in 14 starts this season. Seasoned veterans Sonny Gray and Chris Archer have rebounded from a handful of rough years to eat some innings for manager Rocco Baldelli to form a working front-end of the rotation, even if it could still be improved upon.

Once the ball comes out of the starter’s hands is where things get hairy for this team. After trading closer Taylor Rogers to San Diego in the winter, the role of closer has been a game of roulette in the Twin Cities. Emilio Pagan has been a trainwreck on the mound while youngsters Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran are softening the blow a bit, the team’s 17 blown saves on the year are among the highest in the league.

While Minnesota has been a pretty formidable team thus far, their inability to take advantage of Chicago and Cleveland’s struggles and open up a big lead in the division is what holds their grade back. They’ll need to be on the hunt for an ace like presence to solidify the rotation as well as the addition of a proven closer if they want to return to October and snap their now 18 game losing streak in the postseason.