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In all honesty, I had planned to write about the teams that were looking horrific due to their roster mismanagement and lack of spending and effort besides the A’s, just to change things up a bit, you know? I keep staring at the White Sox’ 2024, though, and forgetting why I ever needed to check in on what’s happening with the Marlins and the Rockies, too, because it seems like it barely compares.
The White Sox are 3-20. They’ve lost five in a row, and are 1-9 in their last 10. They’re already 14 games back in the AL Central after, again, all of 23 games. They’ve scored 50 runs on the season, while allowing 129, for a run differential of -79. That puts them on pace for a record of 21-141, and a run differential of -556, neither of which is likely to be what they’re sporting come October, but they don’t bode well, either. The A’s lost 42 games before June 1 just last year, which was a new record for ineptitude: on May 31, that horrific team still managed to be on pace for 35 wins, which meant fewer losses than what the Cleveland Spiders famously managed in 1899. The White Sox are on pace for more losses than the Spiders. Whether it actually happens or not, that’s not supposed to be something you can even type out after like, a handful of games.
The White Sox expected W-L record based on run differential is also 3-20, meaning they’ve been exactly as bad as their record suggests. While their record at this point includes a 3-18 showing against teams better than .500, part of the reason those clubs they’ve faced are better than .500 to that degree at this early point is because they’ve been able to face the White Sox.
As far as record goes, the White Sox are just about as bad as the A’s were last April — it took 25 games for the A’s to lose their 20th, compared to Chicago’s 23. The A’s weren’t scoring much, but they did manage 113 runs for the month (plus a March game): their issue was the pitching, as they gave up 230 runs for a run differential of -117. The White Sox have the opposite problem: their pitching is not what you’d call good, not when they’ve allowed 5.6 runs per game, but compared to the 2.2 runs per game they’re scoring, well. This lineup makes that of the 2023 A’s look like an offensive juggernaut.
The White Sox have been shut out eight times in 23 tries. They’ve been limited to a single run another three times, and two runs on four occasions. That’s 15 of 23 games in which the White Sox have failed to score more than two runs. You can blame injuries to a degree — losing Yoan Moncada after 11 games isn’t helping matters, no, and Luis Robert Jr.’s absence has been felt, too — but it’s just the team that’s been put together. The 2023 White Sox couldn’t hit, either, as they managed an OPS+ of 84, which ranked worst in the majors. They fixed this by doing… uh… well they brought in… hmm. Sure, letting Tim Anderson go is, in theory, addition by subtraction, but replacing him with Paul DeJong, who hit .189/.253/.330 in the previous two seasons? Bringing in Martin Maldonado, who managed a .183/.260/.333 line from 2021 through 2023? Trading for Nicky Lopez, who has one above-average season with the bat and, even with that included, has a career OPS+ of 73? Was the plan of new general manager Chris Getz to bring in everyone who was as bad at hitting as he was in his playing days? Or was this just the easiest way to cut $60 million from the year-to-year Opening Day payroll, to appease the misguided whims of the fantastically cheap Jerry Reinsdorf? Hey, it can be both.
This organization is a joke for a number of reasons, but you don’t even have to get beyond the surface level stuff right now. That they’re 3-20 because they can’t hit after making themselves even worse offensively following a league-worst showing at the plate is more than enough to chew on at present. 3-20! Three and twenty. Already shut out eight times, 50 runs on the season. Objectively hilarious, unless you’re paying for White Sox tickets, but at that point I must ask: why are you doing that?
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