Pregame notes: Constant White Sox trade rumors

There was some concern in the comments of the most recent victory recap. One reader worried aloud that a three-game winning streak built upon triumphs over an exhausted Braves team and esteemed baseball institution that is the Colorado Rockies might dissuade the White Sox brass from trading everything that's not nailed down, and taking a claw hammer to some of the things that are.

Luckily USA Today's Bob Nightengale is always present to calm the nerves of White Sox fans, and reported firmly that the Sox intend to trade Sunday's starting pitcher Garrett Crochet by the end of the month. He cited fruitless contract extension talks as the final impetus, and a source confirmed there is not present activity on that front. It also sound like it's more than mere speculation when Nightengale suggests a contract extension with Crochet's potential next team could ease concerns about his workload down the stretch.

But in the quickly dissipating present, Crochet has a chance to lead the White Sox to match their season-high of four consecutive wins. His manager Pedro Grifol's reasoning for why it's best to focus on the task at hand nicely doubles as a request for rival teams to pony up.

“Every year it gets harder and harder to make trades," Grifol said. "Everybody wants to win deals. Sometimes when that happens it just becomes really difficult. In our situation, the guys we're talking about are superstars. It's hard to execute a deal with a superstar. Who are we talking about? We're talking about Crochet, [Luis] Robert [Jr.}, those are the guys that keep getting mentioned. If you see Robert play center field and you see what he does at the plate and what he's capable of doing, those guys don't come around too often. And the same thing with Crochet.

"It's hard to execute a deal. My suggestion to all of them and I don't talk to them about it often, but every once in a while we'll just engage in a little bit of conversation: don't worry about it. Don't focus on it, don't worry about it. Stay focused. The reason you're being spoken about is because you're doing great and you've got tremendous upside."

-- Nightengale also reported that the Sox are interested in trading Andrew Benintendi and well, they surely are. Benintendi is riding a .900 OPS in June, with an injured list stint and subsequent tapering of his workload reducing the sample size. But his recent answer about making progress in pulling the ball in the air more doubles as a status update for playing well enough to make his contract palatable to other teams.

"There’s a lot of work to do on my end," Benintendi said.

Grifol is more optimistic, albeit while revealing that Benintendi's sore left Achilles has prompted him to count how many balls he has to pursue in the outfield every game, as he minds his workload.

"I actually see him right now the best I’ve seen him probably since the beginning of last year where he was up to .280, .290," Grifol said. "His swings are really good right now. He’s swinging with bad intentions, he’s getting the bat head through the zone."

-- Saturday was probably Steven Wilson's best appearance since coming off the IL earlier in June, after almost missing a month because he tweaked his back slipping on the mound at Yankee Stadium. He struck out a pair and retired all three hitters he faced, stranding a leadoff walk he inherited from Tanner Banks.

While Wilson sports a 3.86 ERA on the season, he feels he's been mechanically out of whack for much, if not all of the season and has been slowly working his way out of it. A new sweeper grips that works better out of his traditional high three-quarter arm slot is fueling some optimism, and he thinks his velocity should continue to tick up into the mid-to-high 90s through the second half.

FIRST PITCH: WHITE SOX VS. Rockies

TV: NBC Sports Chicago

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