Alex Rios

Winning the Comeback Player of the Year is not nearly as honorable as a Cy Young or an MVP, but this award shows the players and fans that a player's re-emergence as a stud player has occurred in any given season.  

In the 2010 season, there were several players who brought themselves back into the spotlight by breaking a barrier that they have not touched in years.  Whether it was hit .300 on the season for the first time in 5 years, or any other type of statistical drought, the avid followers of baseball know who is worthy of being recognized for their hard work.

Many choices in the 2010 All-Star Game were validated through various ways over the last few days.  And all season.

And one major snub will be validated for the same duration.

The Chicago White Sox have surged back to contention in the American League Central.  Great hitting by the likes of Paul Konerko and others, paired with the unbelievable pitching of the starters and bullpen alike, have the Sox 20-5 over the last 25 games.

The White Sox have won ten games in a row, which is their longest winning streak since 1976. When I wrote my article just over a month ago, I was about to give up on the White Sox, but they have proved me wrong and I will now react to my past article .

Five Reason to Give Up

A fistful of names in baseball this year are steadily producing, but not necessarily gaining the recognition that they deserve. Many of these performances that are flying under the radar are overshadowed by those of early Cy Young and MVP candidates.

By now, Ubaldo Jimenez, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera and others are household names this year.

David Ortiz may be starting to turn a corner, as he's hit safely in his last six games and driven in 11 runs over his last nine.

In 41 games with the White Sox last season, Alex Rios had a line of 11/.199/3/9/5.

Gross.

In just 22 games this season, Rios has already reached his home run and RBI totals with the White Sox last season with 10 runs, nine steals, and a triple-slash line of .276/.326/.470.

Rios hasn’t had a SLG that high since 2007, and his .294 BABIP (career .319) suggests all three of those numbers should improve accordingly.

Roy Halladay earned his league leading eighth victory this afternoon in a 8-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox, putting the Jays up 3-0 in the four-game set.

The game did not start off well for Halladay, as he gave up a double to speedy leadoff hitter Scott Podsednik and was down 2-0 before the Jays were even allowed to hit.

The Jays were able to get a run back in their half of the first when Alex Rios deposited a high fastball into the left field seats for his fifth home run of the season.

Much like the scene at the OK Corral, Roy "Doc" Halladay stood victorious. He allowed only a single run over nine innings and defeated his one time protégée A.J. Burnett 5–1 at the Rogers Centre.

It was the Jays’ first true test of the season. After going up against the likes of the Cleveland Indians and the Baltimore Orioles, they had yet to meet a team of any importance, specifically the Yanks or the Sox.

Major League Baseball is only 30 games into its season, but we already have seen interesting—and, in some cases, controversial—story lines pop up.

We all know the big headlines have been Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez being caught with performance-enhancing drugs.

But that isn't the only good—or bad, depending on your affiliation—news we have around the league.

The AL East, AL Central, and AL West have had some surprising divisional leaders up to this point.

So who is the big winner?

More than a month into the season the Blue Jays have seen 3 pitchers make their MLB debut and are still on top of the AL East, the toughest division in baseball. How have they done it? The Jays came off a terrible offensive year in 2008, and the line-up did not change that much.
What did change is Cito Gaston is back, and so is hitting coach Gene Tenace. With them they brought an approach that the entire team has bought into, going to every at bat with a plan. It sounds simple enough but the proof is there, the Jays averaged a run more under Gaston than Gibbons in 2008.