The White Sox headed into the All-Star break needing just a .754 winning percentage the rest of the way to avoid a losing season. So with that in the bag, duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, look to matters of the field, including the draft.

The Sox are gaining a lot of praise from professional evaluators for first-round pick Billy Carlson, an infielder from California who no doubt will have the huge success of their last California infielder first-round selection. Of course, that particular success has come in just the last month, not during the four-plus years Andrew Vaughn spent as a failure before getting traded to Milwaukee.

Then there’s the All-Star game itself, which did not feature Adrian Houser and his 2.9 bWAR in less than half a season, but instead had Shane Smith as the Sox representative, apparently chosen by people who last saw a game on June 10 — since when Smith has given up 23 earned runs in 18 1⁄3 innings.

In more crucial off-field matters, the two ooh and aah over a story eight teams have shown interest in Luis Robert Jr. and his 67 OPS+, but have more hope a decent set of prospects could be had for Houser or Mike Tauchman — or maybe some combination of all three. Or maybe some contender will take Robert if they can also have the recipe for the Campfire Milkshake.

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