Best of the best

Posted July 14, 2010 11:00 pm

As they open the second half Thursday night at Minnesota, here are some of the players who sparked the White Sox' 25-5 sprint to the all-star break:

Carlos Quentin: The right fielder's 16-game tear has put him back on the AL leaderboard. Quentin is tied for sixth with 19 home runs and tied for seventh with 61 RBI.

Gavin Floyd: The right-hander has allowed 1 run or less in 6 of his last 7 starts. He is 3-1 with a 1.07 ERA over that stretch.

Paul Konerko: The captain is batting .358 with 6 HRs and 31 RBI in his last 36 games.

J.J. Putz: At a cost of $3 million this season, the right-handed reliever has been a bargain. Putz hasn't allowed a run over his last 23 innings, the second-longest scoreless streak in franchise history. Shingo Takatsu didn't allow a run over 261/3 innings in 2004.

Andruw Jones: He's batting just .210, but Jones was 7-for-21 with 2 homers and 7 RBI on the Sox' seven-game homestand to close the first half. On Sunday, he hit his 400th career home run.

Mark Buehrle: The left-hander has won 5 of his last 6 starts while lowering his ERA from 5.40 to 4.24.

Juan Pierre: His on-base percentage (.326) is not good for a leadoff hitter, but Pierre has 15 hits in his last 46 at-bats and his 32 stolen bases leads the majors.

Bobby Jenks: Remember when he supposedly was out as the Sox' closer in mid-May? Since then, Jenks has rattled off 14 straight saves while yielding just 2 earned runs in 14 2/3 innings.