The White Sox considered trading A.J. Pierzynski before both he and the White Sox got hot. They figured that 24-year old righty swinging catcher Tyler Flowers was ready for the show as he was playing well at the time. But he has not played well lately. Flowers has played in 73 games in AAA-ball this year and he is 59 of 257 (.230 avg, .812 OPS) with 36 runs scored, 16 homers and 48 RBIs. He has also whiffed 97 times this season which is way too many. With the White Sox back in the hunt don’t look for Flowers to get a chance at the show until September when rosters expand if A.J. Pierzynski and Ramon Castro stay healthy. Flowers could even turn into prime trade bait as White Sox’ GM Kenny Williams is never scared of trading top prospects when he is in a pennant race.

32-year old lefty swinging starting LF Juan Pierre came to the White Sox in a trade over the winter with the idea that he would provide a spark at the top of the lineup but it hasn’t worked out that way so far this season. Pierre has played in 61 games for the White Sox this year and he is 60 of 242 (.248 avg, .589 OPS) with 28 runs scored, 0 homers, 7 RBIs and 25 stolen bases. He is the major league leader in steals this season (25) and he has the most steals of any active major leaguer (484) right now. The White Sox need Pierre to be the player he was in his first 10 seasons (all in the N.L.). In his first 10 years in the majors he played in 1,433 games in which he was 1,663 of 5,533 (.301 avg, .720 OPS) with 804 runs scored, 13 homers, 387 RBIs and 459 stolen bases.

28-year old lefty swinging 3B Mark Teahan has always been overrated in my book. But I thought that coming to the White Sox would help his power numbers but I have been wrong about that so far. Teahan has played in 43 games for the White Sox this year and he is 32 of 131 (.244 avg, .707 OPS) with 16 runs scored, 3 homers and 14 RBIs. The White Sox have a couple of solid prospects at 3B in the pipeline with Dayan Viciedo and Brent Morel on the way. So if the White Sox continue to falter Teahan will likely become prime trade bait in July.

23-year old righty swinging Gordon Beckham excelled as a rookie 3B last season for the White Sox. He played in 103 games as a rookie for the White Sox last season and he was 102 of 378 (.270 avg, .808 OPS) with 58 runs scored, 14 homers, 63 RBIs and 7 stolen bases. The White Sox decided to shift Beckham to 2B for the 2010 season to make room at 3B for Mark Teahan. Not only has Beckham had to adjust to a new position but it seems as if opposing pitchers have been watching a lot of tape on his as he is looking quite helpless at the plate so far this year. Beckham has played in 27 games for the White Sox so far this season and he is 20 of 101 (.198 avg, .572 OPS) with 13 runs scored, 1 homer and 4 RBIs. The White Sox will likely give Beckham more time to get things turned around but they can’t wait forever for him to get things going. Look for Jayson Nix and Omar Vizquel to start getting some time at 2B if Beckham continues to struggle.

Paul Konerko is off to one of the best starts of his career, hitting .296 and leading the majors with 12 homers to go along with his 24 RBIs.  Konerko has been one of the few White Sox players who has been hitting the ball, with Andruw Jones and Alex Rios being the only other players who have been productive at the plate so far this season.  Jones is hitting .274 with 8 HRs and 11 RBIs.  Rios is hitting .277 with 3 HRs and 9 RBIs.  Other than those three, the White Sox offense has been absolutely pathetic.  Their team average is .223, by far the worst in the major leagues.  The Toronto Blue Jays are the second worse so far at .233, 10 points higher than the Sox, showing just how bad the Sox have been offensively.  Guys like Carlos Quentin, Gordon Beckham, Alexei Ramirez, A.J. Pierzynski, and Juan Pierre all have batting averages hovering around, or well below .200.  That is worse than just a bad start, especially when you consider the fact that the power-hitting Quentin has the worst career average out of all them at .250. nearly 80 points higher than his current average.  Beckham hit .270 last year as a rookie, Ramirez is a career .278 hitter, Pierzynski is a career .284 hitter, and Pierre is a career .299 hitter.  So, it seems as if things have to turn around soon since these guys have all proven they are good major league hitters, but this terrible start may be too much to overcome down the stretch of the season for the Sox.