Chicago White Sox: 6 players worthy of All-Star consideration
By Todd Welter
The Chicago White Sox have some starters that have been great this year.
Lucas Giolito deserves some All-Star discussion.
He is in the league’s top 20 for quality starts and top 30 in strikeouts. He has an ERA under four right now and a 1.20 WHIP.
Hitters are currently batting .232 off him with a .718 OPS. After getting roughed up for seven runs in just his second start of the season against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Giolito has given up no more than four runs in his last 11 starts.
Giolito has had seven games where he has given up two runs or less. He currently is a one WAR player according to Fangraphs and has an average 4.29 FIP.
Giolito has been the lone bright spot on a very inconsistent starting rotation. Lance Lynn looks like he is cooked. Michael Kopech and Dylan Cease have been inconsistent. Mike Clevinger has had some decent outings but Giolito has been the clear ace of the staff.
If he has a couple more starts as he did against the Yankees, Lucas has a shot to make the AL All-Star team.
Joe Kelly has been really good since May.
Kelly’s ERA is high because of a bad April when it reached 7.71. He turned things around in May with a 3.27 ERA in 11 outings. He got his overall ERA down to 2.51 during that month. It ballooned to over four again when he blew a save on May 27th against the Detroit Tigers.
Other than that poor outing, Kelly has been reliable to get three outs (although sometimes it comes with drama) during high-leverage situations.
He has a 2.42 FIP and 1.02 WHIP which is pretty good. If he can continue to put up zeros, he might get some consideration for an All-Star spot.