Posted by Geoff Young on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 8:35 am

The White Sox are still in first place. Hello, where was I?

What gets me is the way they’re doing it. Sure, Jermaine Dye and Jim Thome are putting up big numbers — no shock there (although maybe Dye is a mild surprise given his performance last year at age 33) — but Paul Konerko and Nick Swisher have been missing in action. Swisher has been passable, but certainly not what anyone expected, while Konerko is hitting like Orlando Cabrera less the batting average.

Where Swisher has faltered, another off-season acquisition, left fielder Carlos Quentin, has emerged. Through Thursday’s game he’s hitting .279/.380/.550 and pacing the club with 26 homers. Oh, by the way, Quentin doesn’t turn 26 until the end of August. It’s a good thing Arizona got rid of him. Well, it’s good for me, but I’m a Padres fan.

Meanwhile, back in Chicago, have you noticed how good the White Sox pitching staff has been? Despite a down year in 2006, Mark Buehrle refuses to go the way of Steve Avery and let heavy workloads at a tender age come back to haunt him. (Have people forgotten about Avery? Very well, use Barry Zito instead.) John Danks is blossoming in his second full season, and the bullpen has been ridiculous. Bobby Jenks? Of course. Octavio Dotel and Scott Linebrink? Those absolutely didn’t look like good signings at the time, but it’s hard to argue with the results.

The question now with the White Sox is whether they can hold off Minnesota and the surging Tigers for the final 2+ months. I don’t know how the Twins are staying in the race — a two-man lineup and a stud closer hardly seems like a strategy for success to me. Over in the other corner, Detroit’s offense can turn it on at any moment, but they’ve basically got two reliable pitchers and one of them is Armando Galarraga, who didn’t fit anyone’s definition of “reliable” before the season started.

Bottom line? The White Sox pretty clearly are the class of the AL Central. Despite my earlier doubts, I’m liking their chances.