CHICAGO -- Uh, about this being the first year since 1937 when both Chicago teams followed a winning season with another winning season ... at this point one out of two would be good.

It's not out of the question for both teams to save this season, not yet anyway, but as another White Sox-Cubs weekend approaches it certainly doesn't look promising. That's mostly because of the Cubs, who lumber along with only Milwaukee keeping them out of the National League Central cellar. But the South Siders aren't exactly tearing it up, either.

With Mark Prior (3.97 ERA, 33 K's in first four starts) joining a rotation that already included Jon Lieber, Kerry Wood and Matt Clement, the Cubs should be a lot better in the second half. If Tom Gordon -- who shocked Don Baylor by how well he threw on Monday in Houston -- and Kyle Farnsworth bounce back strong, they might have the pitching depth to salvage a winning record despite an anemic lineup.

But what about the White Sox? Despite a lineup that flashed 1,000-run potential in April, they have given away a 15-7 start. After Monday night's 3-1 loss to the Mets, they had fallen two games under .500. They trail Minnesota by six games in the American League Central and could be looking at another midseason selloff, assuming they can find anyone to take the likes of Carlos Lee, Ray Durham, Royce Clayton and Sandy Alomar Jr.

Good luck. That quartet of veterans is hitting a collective .246. The lack of production from Lee, Durham and Clayton has sent the Sox free-falling from the top of majors in runs per game to sixth. Their average of runs scored is in a downward spike that must frighten general manager Ken Williams, who inherited a defending champ from Ron Schueler and has delivered only rhetoric.

	Jose Valentin Third Base Chicago White Sox Profile
	2002 SEASON STATISTICS AB HR RBI R OPS AVG 200 9 33 27 .768 .255

After averaging 6.1 runs per game in April, the Sox dropped to 4.9 in May and are averaging 4.0 in June. That's why manager Jerry Manuel recently decided to go back to the future, moving Jose Valentin from third base to shortstop.

The White Sox won a Central title despite Valentin committing 36 errors as their shortstop in 2000. But their defensive shortcomings were exposed in Seattle's first-round sweep, which included one 2-1 loss and another loss in 10 innings. That led to an offseason trade for Clayton.

It was a sound move. But as often happens when teams add players for their fielding, the move blew up on Williams when other hitters went cold last April. The Sox were buried by a 14-29 start, which began with Valentin as the regular center fielder. Clayton rallied from an awful start by hitting .310 in his final 110 games.

Clayton once again playing textbook defense while having a hard time hitting his weight. Looking for a spark, Manuel is once again playing Valentin at short, which theoretically opens third base for prospect Joe Crede, a solid fielder who is hitting .306 with 10 homers for Triple-A Charlotte.

Clayton is steamed, Valentin is confused -- he said he only wants to go back to short if the move is permanent -- and the White Sox continue to flounder. They've lost 12 of their last 15, scoring three runs or less in 10 of those games.

With Crede, switch-hitting outfielder Joe Borchard (.292-8-25 in 42 games) and speedy second baseman-center fielder Willie Harris (.302, four homers, 23 stolen bases) a phone call away at Triple-A Charlotte, Williams has options in the minors, especially since the traditionally weak fan base makes it unlikely Jerry Reinsdorf's ownership group will go out and get a high-salaried veteran. If Williams is going to move his logjam of position players to help a rotation that has a 5.31 ERA in the 50 games started by anyone other than Mark Buehrle, he'll have to find somebody to take back salaries in return.

In this market, that's almost impossible. The two choices are to find a team desperate enough for hitters that they'll trade pitching in return or trade someone like Durham to a contender for a Triple-A type pitcher better than the ones left in the White Sox system.

The most likely deal involves Detroit's Jeff Weaver, who is owed $19.6 million in 2003-05. This guy's about as intense as Dick Vitale at a Starbucks. A lack of run support in Detroit, not to mention hope for a winning season, could poison his long-term future if he doesn't get a change of address soon.

But for a Weaver trade to work, the Sox would have to get Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski to overlook Lee's .236 batting average since last year's All-Star break or load up the deal with top prospects like Borchard, Crede, Jon Rauch and Corwin Malone.

No wonder Williams continues to bide his time, seemingly in disbelief that the Twins have opened up such a wide gap in the standings. The White Sox won't get their first look at the Twins until June 24.

The 19-game season series will go a long way toward determining the Central, with the teams playing six times in the last nine games. It's hard to see how the Sox match up any better against the Twins than a year ago, when Minnesota won the series 14-5.

Their best hope is another Minnesota fade. The Twins were 57-33 on July 14 last year before going 28-44 down the stretch. That history might be all that keeps Reinsdorf from ordering White Flag II this July.

Spotlight: Phillies LF Pat Burrell
So this is what all the fuss was about? In his last 29 games, Pat Burrell has shown why he was a clear choice as the No. 1 pick in the 1998 draft, hitting .358 with 10 homers and 31 RBI.

	Pat Burrell Left Field Philadelphia Phillies Profile
	2002 SEASON STATISTICS AB HR RBI R OPS AVG 215 16 46 35 1.003 .307

For the season, the big left fielder is hitting .307 with 16 homers and 46 RBIs. If he keeps it up, he'll wind up with 42 homers and 122 RBIs, making his first All-Star team along the way.

"Confidence is the bottom line," Burrell said. "I think it clicked about five weeks ago and it keeps on clicking."

Burrell has cut down on the number of bad pitches he chases. He has struck out only 22 times in the last 29 games. That's a lot for some players but a significant improvement over his career average of 1.1 per game.

"His goal in spring training was to cut down on his strikeouts without becoming a defensive hitter," Philadelphia hitting coach Greg Gross said. "And I don't think he's cut down on his swing. I don't think he swings that much less. He just controls his bat better now. Everything has fallen into place."

Burrell has been an all-or-nothing hitter throughout his career. Gross sold him on harnessing his power.

"It started even before the pitchers got to spring training," Gross said. "We were just trying to slow him down a little bit, not have him being over-aggressive. He's so strong, he doesn't need that much. And he's been working on it every day since."

The results show.

New face: A's right-hander Aaron Harang
Chalk up another unfortunate byproduct of Tom Hicks' recklessness in the Alex Rodriguez sweepstakes. Had Hicks not sold his franchise's soul for A-Rod, 24-year-old Aaron Harang would be establishing himself as an important part in the Texas Rangers' future.

Harang, who was traded to Oakland for ancient second baseman Randy Velarde in a short-term move one day after the Rangers signed Rodriguez, shows signs of being good enough to take his place alongside Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito for years to come. With 30-year-old Cory Lidle the old man, the Athletics' rotation averages only 25 years, 7 months.

The 6-7 Harang made the jump from the Midland Rockhounds to the big leagues by going 7-3 with a 1.38 ERA in 13 starts. He made three in Double-A and seven in Triple-A before getting a chance as Oakland's fifth starter.

Harang threw seven scoreless innings against Tampa Bay in his debut on May 25 and has followed with solid starts against Seattle and Houston, going 2-1 with an 0.93 ERA over 19 1/3 innings. This is not a total surprise.

A sixth-round pick from San Diego State, Harang learned a changeup from Rangers' roving instructor Al Nipper that helped him go 37-17 with a 3.21 ERA over 437 minor-league innings. He's not overpowering -- fastball in the low 90s -- but has command of three excellent pitches. He's definitely one that the pitching-starved Rangers -- who have a chance to finish with the American League's highest ERA for the third year in a row -- let get away.

Team to watch: Toronto Blue Jays
Give J.P. Ricciardi credit for knowing when to change managers. Toronto had won three in a row for only the third time this season when Buck Martinez got the boot on June 3. The Blue Jays won their first two under Carlos Tosca and have gone on to make it 10 of 11 overall by sweeping a weekend series from Colorado and beating San Francisco Monday night.

While Tosca is getting good reviews, who's to say they wouldn't be playing as well for Martinez? It certainly didn't hurt Tosca that the change was made after a sweep at Detroit and immediately before a 10-game homestand. The real test of the new and improved Jays will come next month, when they play at Boston and New York in the seven games leading up to the All-Star break. They are 4-11 against the East powerhouses so far.

Martinez was probably a lame duck from the day that Ricciardi replaced Gord Ash, who had taken the bold step of bringing Martinez down from the broadcast booth. If that was the first strike, the last two were a 100-115 record with a franchise that had three consecutive winning seasons before he arrived and the perception that he and some of his coaches weren't doing a good job instructing a young team.

"We have so many young kids here and we're probably going to get younger before we get older," Ricciardi said. "We need to be a club that is going in the right direction, playing the game the right way, understanding what it's like to come to a ballpark every day to play the right way, getting through some adverse situations without looking to make excuses. It's the big leagues, it's an unforgiving place. We need direction from the manager on how to get those kids through the rough spots and prepare them and get them ready for 'Hey, OK, this situation may come up.' That's what I mean by direction."

For Tosca and third-base coach Brian Butterfield, who was promoted to replace the ousted Garth Iorg, the immediate assignment is helping young infielders Eric Hinske, Felipe Lopez and Joe Lawrence hold their own defensively.

Hinske, a Rookie of the Year candidate who is on pace for 32 homers and 101 RBIs, already has 15 errors. That's a 40-error pace over the season. No wonder Chicago and Detroit are the only AL teams that have allowed more unearned runs than Toronto.

"I'm very concerned about the development of our young infielders," Ricciardi said. "Brian is a very good infield instructor, a good third-base coach who has a lot more energy. ... I think he has a lot better way of getting to the guys with his teaching methods. I think Brian has a way of breaking the game down for these guys. He understands how to read groundballs, he understands positioning. I think he will explain things clearer and he won't just talk about things. He will show them."

Ricciardi has tried since spring training to move Raul Mondesi. The word is no trade is out of the question now as the Jays look to cut salary. Even Carlos Delgado could be dealt.

If Ricciardi handles those dealings as well as he did the Martinez-Tosca transition, the Blue Jays could come out of a trying season stronger than they were before it.

Phil Rogers is the national baseball writer for the Chicago Tribune, which has a web site at www.chicagosports.com.