For the next four days, the Chicago White Sox will be off my radar.  Usually, the all-star break is one of the most excruciating times of the sports year, with the Wednesday after the all-star game being the dullest sports day of the year.  But this year, it couldn't come at a better time, after a 2-5 White Sox home stand against the two teams below them in the standings, Kansas City and Minnesota.

I guess if I had one shred of optimism left, I'd convince myself that after the break, this team will wake up, smell the coffee and begin to dominate.  Common sense and experience tells me otherwise.  And while I am not ready to declare this team legally dead just yet, I desperately need tangible proof of life.

For as much as the players admit they aren't playing well, they seem to be doing little to improve.  Some guys have been playing better, but still Adam Dunn and Alex Rios are scuffling mightily. I know Dunn is doing everything he can, but I suspect Rios is just showing up and playing out the string.

It's all been said, it's all been analyzed, it's all been picked through ad naseum.  But the bottom line is this: The pitching is good.  The bull pen is solid.  The defense is marginal.  But because of this team to get clutch hits and the total lack of situational hitting, they are four games under five hundred at the all-star break.  And unless Dunn, Rios and some others can catch on fire the last 2½ months of the season, they may be out of the race by the trading deadline. 

Let's all take a four day mental holiday and reassess after the Tigers series.