Recently, the White Sox enjoyed some of their young players making major contributions -- including Eloy Jimenez's game-winning homer at Wrigley Field last Tuesday and Zack Collins crushing a three-run shot for his first big league hit in a win Friday -- but they went 2-3 during the week.
Here are the latest trends with the White Sox:
Third baseman Yoan Moncada, 24, is continuing to showcase what he can be as a big league hitter and in doing so, he's giving the White Sox plenty of reason for excitement.
A year after posting a slash line of .235/.315/.400 and leading MLB in strikeouts, Moncada is at .295/.347/.509 in 2019 with a .359 weighted on-base percentage and 128 weighted-runs-created-plus. He's already at 2.3 wins above replacement, per FanGraphs, and that mark has eclipsed the 2.0 WAR that Moncada managed all of last season.
Another sign of progress for Moncada is that his strikeout rate is down from 33.4 percent to 27.8. While there's still room to improve there, the production with batted balls should have lasting power during his career.
After early struggles for the rookie Jimenez, the month of June has changed all that. He's slashing .313/.375/.641 (1.016 OPS) to go with six homers and 16 RBIs. That, of course, includes the ninth-inning, go-ahead homer that he had in a 3-1 win against the Cubs at Wrigley Field last Tuesday, beating the team that traded him.
While the season number for Jimenez are solid but not great, what June has offered a glimpse of the potential in place if he puts it all together.
It didn't take long for the rookie Collins to show off the kind of power the White Sox knew was there. His first MLB hit came in Texas on Friday night, and it traveled 447 feet to center field.
Collins is projected to be a power presence and patient hitter in the White Sox's order. He had a walk rate of 17.5 percent in Triple-A this season before getting the call to the big leagues last week. Collins walked in his first MLB plate appearance.
Designated hitter/first baseman Yonder Alonso hasn't reached the levels of Adam Dunn's 2011 in Chicago, but his struggles have been horrific -- and are getting even worse.
Alonso has a slash line of .178/.276/.304 over 65 games and 246 plate appearances. In June, he's hitting .111 with a ,278 OPS. Alonso is a -1.0 WAR player on FanGraphs for the season. By comparison, Dunn slashed .159/.292/.277 and was a -2.9 WAR player in 2011.
The White Sox released a veteran pitcher in Ervin Santana after he was 0-2 with a 9.45 ERA over 13 1/3 innings across three starts early in the season. Now, the veteran pitcher who's struggling is Odrisamer Despaigne, who was an identical line in being 0-2 with a 9.45 ERA in 13 1/3 innings across three starts.
Despaigne has struggled to give the White Sox a chance to win, as was the case when he let up the team's 4-0 lead in an eventual loss Saturday. With top pitching prospect Dylan Cease expected to be called up to the White Sox soon, Despaigne figures to be the next starter out.
The White Sox have showcased progress this season but still haven't had a winning record at any point. They reached 34-34 on June 14 before losing three of their next four games. After taking the series opener in Texas on Friday, they dropped the next two games.
The South Siders are now 36-39 and five games back of the second American League wild-card spot.