Chicago White Sox Morning BP: Stats outlook before weekend games
Just how good are the Chicago White Sox doing as a team as they begin their three-game weekend series at Tropicana Field against the AL East second-place Tampa Bay Rays?
Chicago enters the weekend slate with a three-game winning streak, while having a 28-30 overall record, 6.5 games back of the top spot in the AL Central. The White Sox on Wednesday defeated the Houston Astros, 4-1 in their most recent outing, as Thursday was an off-day for the team.
The Rays are 32-29, two games back of lead in the AL East. Tampa Bay lost their most recent game, a 6-2 loss to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
More from White Sox News
- The Chicago White Sox are expecting Tim Anderson back soon
- Miguel Cairo’s words spark life into the Chicago White Sox
- Dylan Cease should be the favorite for the AL Cy Young Award
- Ozzie Guillen speaks the whole truth about Tony La Russa
- New White Sox comments about the manager situation are baffling
But before this series takes place I’m interested in looking where the White Sox rank team wise in some stat areas in the American League compared to the Rays.
Did you know the White Sox are 12th in the AL in batting average at .242, but right behind them are the Rays in 13th at .237?
A stat that is fun to watch, home runs, has an interesting take overall for the team with the White Sox being tied for last place in the AL with 43 total as a team. Guess who they are tied with … the Royals, but KC leads the AL Central in wins …. go figure. Tampa Bay is eighth in the AL with 56 home runs.
The White Sox are also 14th in runs scored with 211, trailing the 13th place Rays by 11 runs (222) and are only ahead of the Seattle Mariners (208).
Here is a depressing stat … the White Sox are last in the AL with a .356 slugging percentage, trailing the Boston Red Sox who are 14th by 17 points (.373). Tampa Bay is 12th at .379 thus far in ’15.
Chicago is also last in the AL in OPS (.654), total bases (699) and stolen bases (19). They are next to last in runs (211), hits (475), doubles (81), RBIs (204) and walks (137). The White Sox have also grounded out into the second most outs for any AL team this season, that being 653 times. Only the Red Sox have done that more (687 times).
This is OK to a point for the White Sox, because they really have nowhere to go but up as the season continues.
The “Good Guys” proved they have the ability to play solid and winning baseball like they did against the Astros, but they have to start playing that type of baseball on a more consistent basis, or they will stay in the bottom of nearly every batting category in the AL.
If the offense can catch where the starting pitching has been as of late, well the White Sox could be a very dangerous team. If that production stays where it currently is (according to the aforementioned stats) then it could be another long summer for the White Sox like they’ve been the past couple seasons.
Now for some White Sox headlines:
• Rodon similar to Sale in style, path to Majors: By Scott Merkin of WhiteSox.com
• Robin Ventura to miss Tampa Bay series: By JJ Stankevitz of CSNChicago.com
• After cold start, Abreu starting to heat up: by Scot Gregor of DailyHerald.com
Next: White Sox: First 10 draft picks of 2015