Mark J. Rebilas/US Presswire

Alexei Ramirez set the tone for the season by hitting .214 in March and April.

By Steve Phillips, ESPN

Before the season I had pretty high expectations for the Chicago White Sox and picked them to win the AL Central. As the season got underway there were four -- and in some people's minds, five -- teams that had a chance to win that division. But I really thought that the White Sox would have a power-packed offense that would outslug their opponents and allow them to come back from deficits when necessary. I loved the power arms they had in the bullpen and thought they had good depth in the starting rotation with an improving John Danks and Gavin Floyd.

Well, things just haven't gone as expected this season for the White Sox, who lost again at Minnesota on Tuesday and are now five games below .500 (64-69) and seven back of Detroit in the AL Central. They always seemed close to making a run, but they just never got enough consistent starting pitching or bullpen innings. The biggest problem, though, has been their offense. They got down years from a lot of their lineup. Yes, Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome (before he was traded to the Dodgers on Monday night) and Paul Konerko all had 20 or more home runs, but Carlos Quentin hasn't been nearly the player he was a year ago because of injury. Alexei Ramirez got off to a horrific start this year, hitting .214 in March and April. He has since turned it around, but without the type of production the team has desperately needed to stay in contention.

Home runs are important -- and the White Sox have always been able to hit them -- but their ability to hit in big spots has been missing this season. As a result, their number of lost opportunities is rather large. Their pitching is good, but not good enough. They don't have a shutdown rotation that allows them to win a lot of close, low-scoring games. It seems like on the days when they did get the starting pitching they needed, the offense didn't step up or their bullpen would let them down.

It just seemed that whenever they were ready to get hot, something else would go wrong. It's clearly time to change the mix in Chicago, and general manager Ken Williams is well on his way to doing just that. He's traded Jose Contreras and Thome and acquired Jake Peavy and Alex Rios.

The White Sox need to get younger and more athletic, just as the Red Sox, Yankees and Rays seem to be doing. Having depth and balance on your roster allows a club to win any kind of game. Right now, the White Sox don't have the ability to manufacture runs. When they've had those opportunities this year, they haven't come through in the clutch. The good news is that, because there is no dominant team in their division, a quick remake of the roster could have them right back in contention next year. Gordon Beckham is going to be a tremendous major league player. He has the talent, makeup and character to be a star for a long time. He reminds me of a young Derek Jeter. I don't know if he'll have 2,700 hits by his mid-30s, but Beckham is clearly part of the future in Chicago.

When teams don't live up to expectations, people want to always play the blame game. I feel that Williams and manager Ozzie Guillen are part of the solution in Chicago. We are never left wondering what Guillen thinks or feels, and his team plays hard and they care. He has them prepared day in and day out. They don't need a new manager or general manager; they just need some new players.

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TOUCH 'EM ALL

Who went deep? Keep track of all the home runs hit each day on "Baseball Tonight" and on the Baseball Tonight Clubhouse page.

For more, check out the Home Run Tracker page.

Home Run Tracker
NAME	HR	OPP	SITUATION
Albert Pujols, STL	42	Looper	Bot 4: 3-2, 0 Outs. None on.
Carlos Pena, TB	39	Lester	Bot 4: 0-0, 0 Outs. None on.
Jason Bay, BOS	30	Sonnanstine	Top 5: 1-2, 0 Outs. None on.
Ian Kinsler, TEX	29	Rzepczynski	Bot 1: 2-0, 0 Outs. None on.
Adam Lind, TOR	28	Nippert	Top 6: 1-1, 1 Out. None on.

The complete list of Tuesday's homers

ON DECK: WEDNESDAY'S BEST MATCHUPS

Red Sox at Rays, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN

Josh Beckett's numbers against the Rays this year have been far from impressive; he is 1-1 with a 5.60 ERA and a .261 batting average against. The rest of baseball is hitting .236 against him this year. Matt Garza, however, has been impressive against Boston, going 2-0 with a 1.88 ERA in four outings this season. The Red Sox are hitting .150 against him.

Giants at Phillies, 7:05 p.m. ET

Brad Penny makes his debut with the Giants. Not a bad team for him to open against; Penny is 8-4 with a 3.72 ERA over his career against the Phillies. J.A. Happ is coming off a month in which he went 3-1 with a 1.67 ERA.

Brewers at Cardinals, 8:15 p.m. ET

The Brewers remain on the periphery in the wild-card race, trailing by 7½ games. Wednesday's matchup might not be the best for Milwaukee to make up ground. Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter is 9-0 in 11 starts since the beginning of July.

For the rest of Wednesday's schedule, click here.