Sox' MVP? Guillen says it's the bullpen

The all-star break is two weeks away, but the official first half of the season for the White Sox ended on Sunday night with a 5-1 win over the Cubs.

It was game No. 81 of 162 for the Sox, and manager Ozzie Guillen was asked to name his team MVP on Monday.

"(Scott) Linebrink is throwing the ball unbelievably well,'' Guillen said. "(Matt) Thornton has been great. A lot of people would say (Carlos) Quentin. A lot of people would say J.D. (Jermaine Dye). The way (Orlando) Cabrera's playing right now, the way the Missile (Alexei Ramirez) is playing right now, it's all about effort.''

After giving it some more thought, Guillen came up with an obvious answer.

"If there's one MVP for this year, I've got to name the bullpen,'' Guillen said. "I'm not going to say one name because a lot of guys deserve to be the MVP with the way they've played. But the bullpen's been great. Hopefully they step it up and keep doing what they've been doing.''

Heading into Monday night's game against the Indians, the White Sox' bullpen had the lowest ERA (2.61) in major-league baseball.

Linebrink had the lowest individual ERA at 1.36, followed by closer Bobby Jenks (1.95), Boone Logan (2.22) and Thornton (2.30).

When asked what the White Sox need to improve on in the second half, Guillen couldn't come up with an obvious answer.

"I think the hitting with people on base, that's the only problem we had, really, in the first half of the season,'' Guillen said. "Early in the season, we left a lot on and in the middle of the first half we left a lot of guys on base. The offense was not the one we thought it would be, but now they started swinging the bats better. We see more big RBI. Keep playing the way they're playing. We have the tools.''

Guillen said pitching is likely to decide the AL Central race.

"How are they going to pitch in the second half, that's the question mark for everybody in baseball,'' Guillen said. "This is when you have (starting) pitchers with 100-something innings, and you don't know how they're going to hold up. Our bullpen's pretty good, they're well-rested, and I think that's a plus for us to have those guys ready for the stretch.''