Chicago White Sox: One mental hurdle yet to surpass

The Chicago White Sox appear to be up-and-coming, but for them to take the next step to become a playoff contender, they’ll need to overcome one major obstacle standing in their way.

There are plenty of reasons to feel excited about the Chicago White Sox when watching them in action. They’re a young team on the rise, with a ton of talented players who are only going to continue getting better with more experience under their belt. Players such as Yoan Moncada, Eloy Jimenez, Tim Anderson, James McCann, and Lucas Giolito among others make up a promising core who appear set to help the organization win games for a long time.

With that being said, for the White Sox to take the next step to being a World Series contender again, they’ll need to break through from their mental hurdle of getting above .500 in the win/loss column. This has been an elusive challenge for the team, one that is proving to be extremely difficult to surpass thus far this season.

To date, the White Sox have been at .500 or a single game below that mark in 10 separate occasions already this year. They’ve consistently been on the cusp of reaching the above .500 milestone, yet can’t get over the hump to this point. They’re currently falling further from their goal, due to their four-game losing streak heading into Wednesday’s game against the Boston Red Sox.

Through their play, the White Sox are proving to be nowhere near a finished product on the diamond, yet their success and competitive spirit shows that they’re as motivated as ever to become a force to be reckoned with for years to come. They’re certainly on the right track to becoming a great team in the distant future, especially with stud pitchers Michael Koepech and Dylan Cease waiting in the wings to make their mark in the big-leagues.

The White Sox are experiencing growing pains that come as no surprise, given the youth and lack of in-game experience on this team. This is normal, yet everyone within the organization would like to see nothing more than for them to become more than just a middling .500 squad this season.

Getting above .500 at any point this season would be a huge momentum booster for the White Sox. It would add to an already impressive season to date, and would only enhance the confidence-level in all of the players.

Will it happen? It’s certainly still a great possibility, given that even amidst their current losing streak, the White Sox are only a handful of games back from being .500. Let’s just hope this elusive goal isn’t weighing too heavily on the minds of all the players right now, to the point where they’re beginning to over-press both at the plate and on the mound.

If that’s the case, and the losses continue piling up, even if they’re against good teams, than the White Sox would be taking a one step forward, two steps back approach without possibly even realizing it.

Hopefully that’s not the case, and the White Sox get back on track in the win column soon. They’ve already demonstrated earlier that they can battle back from adversity, when they started out the season losing 9 of their first 13 games before rallying back to become a .500 ball-club.

As a result, don’t expect the White Sox to mail it in anytime soon, even as adversity hits.