Chicago White Sox: Mid-Term Grades
Jul 15, 2014; Minneapolis, MN, USA; American League pitcher Chris Sale (49) of the Chicago White Sox throws a pitch in the fourth inning during the 2014 MLB All Star Game at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports
The second half of the Chicago White Sox season is set to begin on Friday when they host the Houston Astros for three games at US Cellular Field over the weekend.
Jul 5, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu (79) warms up prior to a game against the Seattle Mariners at U.S Cellular Field. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports
Up to this point of the 2014 season the White Sox have played 96 games, where they have an overall record of 45-51 (24-21 at home, 21-30 on the road) with a .469 winning percentage.
That record leaves the White Sox fourth in the AL Central standings, 10.5 games behind the first-place Detroit Tigers. In the Wild Card race, the White Sox are 6.5 games back of the Seattle Mariners for the second spot of the WC standings.
Even with the below .500 record, the White Sox are still better than they were on July 17 one year ago where they were 37-55 on July 17, with a .402 winning percentage, 14 games back of the Tigers.
Even with the improvement of the standings, this season thus far is still somewhat disappointing when you look at the entire framework of the White Sox.
There have been some exciting moments with the walk-off wins, but there have been other moments where the pitching (especially the bullpen) made you want break something.
With that said, at this midway point of the MLB season, let’s see what type of grades the White Sox have earned in my view of the team. I’m sure they will differ from yours, and that will be great, because I want others to share their thoughts on the team as well.
The team was graded overall and on starting pitching, offense and bullpen.
Let me know what grades you give this ball club thus far. The good thing about mid-term games is they have the ability to improve once the season is complete.
Jun 29, 2014; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Jose Quintana (62) throws a pitch during the first inning in a game against theToronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports
• Starting Pitching: B-
Chris Sale has had one of the best seasons in the MLB this season. He has an ERA of 2.08 in 95 innings with an 8-1 record to match that ERA. Though he spent nearly a month on the disabled list, he still has 102 strikeouts in 14 starts, keeping opponents to a .190 batting average and a WHIP of 0.84.
John Danks has improved as of late. He has an ERA of just under 4.00 at 3.99 with 83 strikeouts in 18 starts. Danks has pitched 119.2 innings. In his past 10 starts, he’s lowered his season ERA from 4.90 to 3.99, due in large part to his allowing three or fewer earned runs in nine of his past 10 starts.
Jose Quintana has been the third solid starter for the White Sox thus far in ’14. Quintana has a season ERA of 3.24 but has had a lot of tough luck in the win-loss column with a 5-7 record. In his past five starts, Quintana is 2-0 with three no-decisions, allowing a total of five earned runs in that span. For those five starts, he allowed no ER in two of those games.
The rest of the White Sox starting pitching this season has been a coin flip of sorts when determining what type of performance they will bring to the mound. Hector Noesi, Andre Rienzo and Scott Carroll have had a majority of the starts for the White Sox in those spots of the rotation. We never know what we are going to see when it comes to those spots in the rotation.
Jul 8, 2014; Boston, MA, USA; Chicago White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez (10) bats during the fourth inning against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
• Offense: C
The offense could be better, but it has been worse in past seasons, so I was close to giving out another B-minus here, but I just couldn’t.
The plus of this offense has been Jose Abreu‘s emergence as a home run hitter with an MLB-high 29 home runs this season. The first baseman has built back up his batting average to .292 and in his past 10 games has a BA of .375 with 15 hits.
What I like about Abreu is he also hits more than homers, tallying 20 doubles and one triple, giving him 73 RBIs on the season. He’s walked 22 times in ’14.
Adam Dunn actually has a better on-base percentage than Abreu, but his batting average is just .224. That would be OK, but he has just 14 home runs in that average and he’s played in 78 games. Dunn is paid to hit home runs, and he just hasn’t had the numbers he should at this point of the season.
Besides Gillaspie (who is batting .326), no other regular on the White Sox is batting over .300. After Abreu’s .292 average, in third is Alexei Ramirez at .282, followed by Moises Sierra (50 games) at .271 and lead-off hitter Adam Eaton at .270 in 74 games.
I think the biggest disappointment for the White Sox offense is catcher Tyler Flowers. He had such a great April, but since then he went back down to a .218 batting average with 102 strikeouts (two more than Dunn) and just 56 total hits on the year. In his past 10 games, Flowers is batting 0.91 with three hits in 33 at-bats.
Also with Flowers, 29 of his 56 hits this season came in April, followed by 15 hits in May and nine hits in June. Thus far in July (10 games), he has just three hits.
Jul 7, 2014; Boston, MA, USA; Chicago White Sox relief pitcher Javy Guerra (41) throws a pitch against the Boston Red Sox in the eighth inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
• Bullpen: F
This bullpen will cause ulcers, no doubt about it. This bullpen will also make you shake your head in disbelief and wonder what they are doing in the bullpen for a majority of the game. Do they even read the scouting reports?
The bullpen of the White Sox is the the No. 1 reason they are 10.5 games back of the Tigers, because they’ve gift-wrapped more than a few wins to the opponents this season that would have gone to the White Sox.
Scott Carroll pitched well in the bullpen with a 1.83 ERA in relief but has gone back to the starting rotation.
There is no actual closer on the roster with Matt Lindstrom and Nate Jones both on the disabled list for a majority of the season, but when Lindstrom was pitching, his ERA was 3.32 in 19 games with six saves, so he wasn’t the most reliable guy either as he blew three saves this season.
Ronald Bellisario has a 5.16 ERA and has also been the closer at times in ’14 with eight saves in 12 opportunities. Besides Jake Petricka (2.17 ERA) and Zach Putnam (2.50 ERA), no other current reliever for the White Sox has an ERA below 3.00.
Javy Guerra has blown all three save opportunities this season.
On the season, White Sox relief pitchers have a total of 13 blown saves. Five relievers that have pitched for the White Sox this season are no longer on the MLB roster (not including injuries), so with turnover like that, it is easy to figure out why they have been so disappointing thus far.
Jun 28, 2014; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Chicago White Sox manager Robin Ventura signals for a pitching change during a conference at the mound in the White Sox 4-3 win over Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
• Overall Team: D … There are some great spots in the lineup of the Chicago White Sox, as there is rookie All-Star first baseman and slugger Jose Abreu, along with fellow All-Star Alexei Ramirez at shortstop and the third White Sox All-Star in ace Chris Sale.
Besides the three All-Stars, Conor Gillaspie has had a good year for the “Good Guys,” batting .326 in his 70 games played. In those 70 games he’s collected 84 hits, with 23 being doubles, along with three triples and four home runs.
One plus for the White Sox this year was they had a four-game winning streak. One of the negatives is they have been shut out six times and the longest losing streak of the season is five.
Also for this team, they’ve yet to sweep a three- or four-game series on the road. They’ve had seven walk-off wins, but they also have five walk-off losses.
What brings down this grade for the White Sox, besides their overall record, is the bullpen and back end of the rotation starters, as they been anything but reliable this season, but more on them later.
It is just tough to praise a team that is six games under the .500 mark and over 10 games out of a division lead. I do see improvement coming, but probably not this season.