They were expected to be bad when they went into sell mode but not this bad. That said,yes they are this bad. Maybe not should have lost 21 in a row bad, but bad.
They have a Pythagorean record of 32-84 (only 4 games better than their actual (22-88)
Team OPS+ 74 (26% below league average)
Only 1 player with more than 100 PAs with an OPS above 100, Tommy Pham at 101 who was traded.
3 of their better hitter, Luis Robert Jr, Yaon Moncada and Eloy Jimenez were all injured for parts of this year and 2 of them under perfomed when healthy.
Their most expensive contract ever Andrew Benetendi was on pace for one of the worst seasons by a player EVER. H’;s since picked it up and is now just terrible and not historically terrible.
The starting rotation actually wasn’t terrible even after trading Cease. Fedde and Crochet where about as good a 1-2 puch in baseball this year. Of course fedde was traded at the deadline and Crochert will probably be shut down due to innings concerns “soon”
Their bull pen on teh other hand, absolute dumpster fire even before trading away some of their pieces.
On the whole the team ERA+ is 87, 13% below league average.
So you have a team that is offensively 26% below league average and pitching wise 13% below league average. That’s not a goo combination.
I don’t know how they ran over all defensively but I’m guessing the negative 70 defensive runs saved has to be at or near the botton of the leauge.
So yea all in all, this a a dreadful roster combined with decent players having dreadful years.
I bet Andrew Benetendi feels good about his comments about signing with the White Sox last year because he "wanted to go to somewhere that was going to a perennial winner"or something like that. It had nothing to do with that everything to do withe Sox offering a 4th year and t he Yanks only offering 3, thanks for saving Cashman from another horrible mistake. At least AB should be able to feed his family is this is his last contract.
Reinsdorf never invested the necessary money into building the robust analytics and player-development systems of the best teams, and so the infrastructure necessary to ease La Russa’s transition back onto the field was nonexistent. Regardless of his voluminous baseball knowledge, La Russa was set up to falter.
There you go.
It’s a lot to ask. The White Sox aren’t on pace to be the worst team in history by accident. Institutional rot pervades the organization, and it starts at the top. And until things differ there – either via approach or wholesale change – it’s bound to be more of the same.
Sure take out ~240 IP of ~135 ERA+ball and it will be a lot worse, which is why I noted Fedde was dealt and Crochet is likely to be shutdown “soonish” I’d guess around labor day maybe a start or 2 after that. So that 87 might get worse as the season goes on. Also the key piece in the Cease deal, Drew Thorpe was just shut down with a flexor strain injury. That’s sometimes a precursor to TJS, if so he won’t pitch again until 2026 but either way I’d be surprised to see him throw another pitch this year, they just have to hope he avoids surgery and comes back next spring.
When they talked about the projected wins yesterday on the radio, they’d looked into why. It turns out that the reason for what seems like an unreasonably high number is that it is bounded by replacement level, while they have been actually playing below replacement level. So basically, if I’ve got the concept right, they should win 46 games if they just got rid of everyone and picked up whoever was available.
I don’t know if Grifol is any good, but he didn’t have a chance this season. Reminds me a little of when Lovie Smith got hired and fired by the Texans who handed him a crap roster.
He’s not been good. The main things he focused on in his talking pre-season was the stuff the team has failed to do all season. A great example is how word is out that you not just run on the outfielders, you run on them just lobbing the ball into the infield. Lackadaisical throws, not backing up plays, not throwing to the right place, insane baserunning, … Just generally not thinking. Pitching management has not been good, although I admit it is tough when you can’t really rely on any pitcher.
I’d heard they’d already told him they weren’t having him back. So, cool that he’d be fired for losing the #1 pick, but imo even cooler that he’d win the game and lose them the #1 pick as a big f you for getting rid of him.
