Last Wednesday in Minnesota marked the White Sox’ last game against a divisional opponent for a month, which is frustrating, because it will spark up a lot of anecdotal arguments about the true nature of AL Central baseball being absent. If the White Sox are still lagging back in fourth or fifth place by the final week of June, then it will be teased that they can make up all their ground by beating the teams in front of them head-to-head. If they’re in it, well then prepare for a lot “Now the real season begins…” talk, which is pretty close to true, because this stretch provides some remarkable opportunities for an average team–provided the White Sox are capable of being that–to look better than usual.

Boston (27-17, +38 run differential) is pretty good, Oakland (23-22, +3) is barely holding on to “winning team” status thanks to a 7-10 month of May. No other opponent on this stretch has a winning record. Miami and Houston are a combined 24-64 and are both paying obligatory organizational lip service to the practice of trying to win major league baseball games. The Cubs (18-25, -3) are rebuilding too, but are too good at filling out a solid middle and back end of a starting rotation to show it too much.

It’s an inviting slate. Not that the White Sox have earned the right to lick their chops.

Their run production has not been scattered around in an unfortunate manner.

Nor does WAR (Baseball Reference nor Fangraphs) think them to be playing at a higher level than their results.

If anything, these charts just play up how much an inability to beat the Angels nor the Blue Jays consistently to be really troubling.

Difficulties of West Coast travel aside, these next few weeks represent the opportunity. The next time the White Sox play Minnesota will be their 70th game of the season. John Danks will be back, Gordon Beckham will be back  and the Sox will have likely decided what combination of him, Jeff Keppinger and Conor Gillaspie (owner of a .245/.315/.347 May batting line) will get featured in the infield, and they will be well past the cutoff date where conclusions about being buyers or sellers can be made.

July brings 10 games against the top of the division, the Braves, Orioles and Rays. Every one of these tames are all composed of major league talent fully capable of providing a substantial challenge, and games are not must-win until they are actually must-win, but let’s just go ahead and admit that if the Sox don’t dominate this stretch, they’re toast.

Not to say that them being toast would be a good thing, but what would be a more preferable result? A below-average team packs it in and plans for the future, or a below-average team reads too much into a stretch of beating  weaker competition and invests resources in a doomed season? It’s the quandary such a group and schedule provides.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan

Beckham and Keppinger

Gordon Beckham was in the White Sox broadcast booth Sunday, still sporting a cast but revealing that he’s been practicing one-handed swings. In his boldest moments, Beckham has said that he’s shooting to return after just four weeks. Since he broke his hamate bone on April 9 and had surgery a week later, the four-week barrier would be crossed at May 14, which is ambitious for someone who admitted himself that rehab games were likely necessary.

The beginning of June remains the scheduled arrival date for Beckham, leaving another month of middle infield work for the White Sox to figure out. Emergency reserves are already in play because of Jeff Keppinger.

Keppinger missed the last three games of the Tampa series due to back spasms, inspiring Robin Ventura to directly replace him at second base and in the No. 2 slot in the lineup with Tyler Greene. The former Houston Astros’ castoff has a gaudy stat line through the five games he’s actually started in, but has struck out in six of  his last 13 trips to the plate. A prominent offensive role could expose him badly in the next week.

We only mention second base because Conor Gillaspie is a de-facto full-time player at third at this point, since the White Sox cannot be dismissive toward players who can string together a .359 OBP over 63 plate appearances, no matter their origins. That said, the left-handed Gillaspie could really use a platoon partner.

Gavin Floyd

The language surrounding Floyd right elbow flexor muscle strain isn’t very good if you read into it, so maybe it’s best to refrain reading into it.

Aawwwww, I can’t resist.

Dan Hayes from CSN Chicago:

“Because the pain he experienced in his right elbow wasn’t quite the same as last season,Gavin Floyd worried he was in bad shape.”

Floyd missed 16 days for his flexor strain in the same elbow last season.

“He’s expected to miss at least 15 days and possibly longer.”

That could easily mean four starts for Hector Santiago even without additional complications. Last year Hector missed bats like crazy but walked the whole opposing clubhouse at times. This year both his strikeout rate and walk rate are well-below average. He’s a work in progress and it’s hard to call what stage of his development he might be at upon stretching himself out again. Efficiency was a big issue for him during his previous stint in the rotation.

‘“It felt like it was stretching every time I threw the ball,’ Floyd said. ‘I kind of had a worry for sure. We took the right way of taking (me) out. If I kept throwing, who knows what would have happened. Last year it was more on breaking balls I’d feel it. This one was more on the fastball.”‘

This could work as a pretty solid excuse for Gavin’s shaky command on Saturday, but will hardly get the job done of convincing the Sox fan base at large to miss him. Even with a challenging slate of opponents, Hector Santiago could easily outperform Floyd’s 5.18 ERA over the slate of starts he’s given. Arguments about Gavin’s xFIP and bat-missing stuff have yellowed pages with dog-eared corners.

Deunte Heath has been called up to replace Santiago in the bullpen in the meantime. He doesn’t seem like he’ll be much help.

John Danks

Thursday will bring about Danks’ first rehab start with Double-A Birmingham, which if nothing else, will give the opportunity for the actual game results of his quest for velocity–or success without velocity–probed and scrutinized in a manner that his extended spring training work was insulated from.

That’s not something Danks seems concerned about, since he’s apparently going stir-crazy in Arizona.

Hayes again:

“’I'm excited to go pitch in an atmosphere,’ Danks said. ‘To graduate from Arizona and get to move on, that’s a good thing. There’s going to be a couple people there and it’s actually run as a game. That’s the big thing. In extended it’s like a high school scrimmage. It’ll be fun to get out there and pitch in an atmosphere.’”

See? The players do care about fans. In the sense that the absence of them makes them feel like they’re no longer professionals.

Velocity loss is something almost every starter who lasts long enough to land the big contract Danks has learns to deal with, but adjusting to such a significant drop all at once–there haven’t been any reports of Danks working past ‘high-80′s’ of recent–should bring plenty of growing pains. It goes without saying, but if Danks is simply just not reclaiming the same command in the wake of surgery, that’s plenty of trouble too.

No more Blake Tekotte

The days of carrying an extraneous left-handed light-hitting defensive-minded center fielder are over, as Tekotte was sent back down in advance of a corresponding move to be announced on Tuesday. Tekotte got all of three plate appearances during his time on the Sox while lined up against two other players with his exact same skill set, but those are just three more plate trips the Sox siphoned away from Jordan Danks for no apparent reason other than to Tekotte something to do while he earned game checks. The beats all think a pitcher is coming in Tekotte’s place, which would inflate the pitching staff to 13 members. Someone who could hit would be more useful.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan

RV on potential roster move: “It might be another pitcher. It’s one of those that a lineup like this can do it to you to make sure you keep

— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) April 12, 2013

…everybody fresh and healthy going back to the American League sked.”

— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) April 12, 2013

The transition to Gillaspie and Keppinger is rather seamless and since Conor stayed hot Thursday night and went 2-4 with a double, the Sox probably aren’t in the biggest rush to give him a platoon partner. Or maybe it’s because his potential platoon parter is Brent Morel.

Brian Omogrosso was pretty much the last pitcher left off the roster in spring training and has substantial major league experience, so he seems like a splendid candidate for a call-up.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan