Chicago White Sox: Ranking nine 2020 opponents
The Chicago White Sox are going to play nine opponents this season. Some of them are very good and some of them are very bad.
The Chicago White Sox have announced their schedule. We already knew that it was going to be the nine opponents that make up the rest of the American League Central and all of the National League Central. There are some good teams in there and there are some very bad teams in there. There isn’t however, anyone that is as of right now a sure-fire World Series contender.
The White Sox can absolutely have a winning record after this short 60 game season if all goes well. The only thing that can really stop them is themselves. They have so much young talent that can boom or bust but a lot of them have already shown that they are booming. This year is a big year for those guys and even bigger for the ones who are still looking to take that next step.
With that, the opponents that the White Sox will be playing vary greatly. They pretty much all have great players on their rosters that can impact a single game but there is no reason the White Sox should be scared of any team. The opponents that they will face are the ones they will face and they have no control over it so they might as well take each challenge with stride.
There is no telling exactly how the short season will affect a specific team with specific skill sets but you can absolutely rank their rosters on paper. As of right now, this is the ranking from ninth to first of the nine opponents the White Sox will face this season:
9th: Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are bad. They were the worst team in all of baseball in 2019. Now, in a 60 game season, anything can happen but most people expect them to be right there at or near the bottom once again in 2020. That could be good for them because they will have a chance at the first overall pick again. The White Sox need to take this team seriously because they still have a few players that can be dangerous.
With that said, they do not look good on paper. The White Sox need to take care of their business against them if they are going to make the playoffs. Turning the corner as an organization means you start to beat the good teams you face but it starts by beating the bad teams that you face first. If the White Sox struggle against Detroit this season, they likely aren’t going to have a great time against anyone.
Detroit is somewhat still suffering from some really great seasons in the early 2010s. That core they had might be one of the greatest cores to never win the World Series. They came oh so close but couldn’t get over the hump. Now, a guy like Miguel Cabrera is making a lot of money but isn’t that all-time great player that he once was. This is going to be a tough year for Detroit.
8th: Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are in a tight race for the worst team in the league. They did win the World Series in 2014 and are now paying the price for it. They aren’t good and couldn’t keep being an elite team going for very long. They fell off quickly after winning and here they are competing for the title of worst team in the league. Things might also get tougher for them before they get better.
Once again, in a short season, one hot week could make things look a lot better for you in the final standings and the White Sox have to understand that. Historically, the Royals always play the White Sox very well no matter where one another are in the standings. This year might not be any different so the White Sox needs to be ready.
The White Sox are going to play the Royals ten times this year so having a winning record against them is very important. Seven of the ten games against them are going to be in Kansas City which is less than ideal but it shouldn’t matter where the games are in this case. The White Sox need to have a good year against the Royals as the second-worst team they will play.
7th: Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates might go on to be one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball. They are definitely going to be the worst National League team that the White Sox play this year as the rest of the teams in the NL Central should be much more respectable in terms of their records. This is a team that was pretty good not so long ago but the division that they played in kind of hurt their chances of getting over the hump.
The Pirates aren’t usually one of the good teams in any given year for whatever reason. Pittsburgh is a proud sports town with the Steelers and Penguins having so much success all the time but the Pirates just can’t seem to catch up. These are a few games that the White Sox should be able to play well in to help their chances.
In late August, the White Sox will play the Pirates two times at Guaranteed Rate Field and then in the second week of September, they are going to go to Pittsburgh for two. It should be fun to see these two teams battle but hopefully, the White Sox are able to take care of business against one of the bottom tier teams they will play.
6th: Cleveland Indians
For half a decade, the Cleveland Indians were the team to beat in the American League Central. They even made it to the World Series and lost to the other Chicago team in seven games. They are not starting to take a step back as an organization and there could be some major change to this team over the course of the 2020 season. They could be looking to shed some salary, according to multiple sources across the MLB.
In 2019, they made things interesting at the top of the AL Central for a while but eventually fell way off. They ended up having a better record than the White Sox by 20.5 games but it didn’t really feel like it. They started to shed some salary even last season and there have been rumors about them trading their best player, Francisco Lindor, for a while now.
It seems like the Indians are going to try and be competitive here in 2020 but this might be their last kick at the can. If they struggle early on, there might be some serious change there. No matter what, the White Sox need to fear them as they are the proven ballclub right now and the White Sox are not. This could be the last year that the Indians have a respectable record or it could be the first year that they start to retool. Right now, every team in the NL Central appears more threatening besides the Pirates.
5th: Milwaukee Brewers
The Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers seem to have a sense of mutual respect between most of their fans. With that said, it is less than ideal for that agreement that the Brewers are probably going to take a step back in 2020. Obviously, with the short season, that could be put on hold and anything can happen. As of now, they are the fifth-best team that the White Sox will face over this 60 game schedule.
One major loss for the Brewers actually came to the White Sox in the form of Yasmani Grandal. That is going to be a big loss for them and a big gain for the White Sox. The best player on any team that the White Sox are going to face, however, plays for the Brew Crew and his name is Christian Yelich. He is a game-breaking type player that can always make a difference.
For reasons like that, the White Sox still need to be concerned with their best game when they play the Brewers. They also have lots of players that have a winning pedigree no matter what people say about their chances. This should be a fun series between two teams that hope to be on the playoff bubble this year. Their four games, two at home and two on the road, are back to back in early August.
4th: Chicago Cubs
2020 might be the last kick at the can for the Chicago Cubs and it could also be the year that they fall off. They have a lot of guys who are coming up on needing contract extensions and they are particularly important players. They hired David Ross to replace Joe Maddon which was a questionable move and Theo Epstein is more than likely out after 2021. This is a year where it is very hard to predict how good they are going to be.
They, with all of that negativity, still might have the most talented starting lineup in the NL Central. With players like Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Willson Contreras, Javier Baez, and Kyle Schwarber in place, for now, it should be a team that is consistently able to score some runs. Their issues start to come to the forefront when you look at their starting pitching and bullpen. The pitching is definitely the weakness of the team.
No matter how they end up doing, the White Sox need to take them seriously. It is a bit unordinary because they are going to be playing in empty ballparks and this rivalry is almost 100 percent fed by the fans. With that said, the players are certainly going to still get up for these games with just a little bit more juice than they normally would. They play in the middle of the season at Wrigley Field and then close out the season against them at Guaranteed Rate Field.
3rd: St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are an interesting team to evaluate. They are definitely right there as one of the favorites in the NL Central. They won that crown in 2019 with their 91-71 record. They didn’t go as far in the playoffs as they would have liked but you have to view them as a potential winning baseball team again this year. The White Sox have a chance to prove themselves against them three times.
One of those three times is going to be at the Field of Dreams in Iowa. This is going to be a fun time seeing both of these two teams showcase themselves on National television at the sight of an all-time baseball movie. This game was supposed to be against the New York Yankees but the circumstances changed it to be the Cardinals. They will have a day off after that game and then finish the three-game series against them at Guaranteed Rate Field.
With there only being the three games against the Cardinals this year, the White Sox won’t get to visit St. Louis. They are going to be a good team but the question is just how good. They are certainly going to be at their best in this series because of the fact that they are going at it at the Field of Dreams. That should get the blood flowing for each team so it should be fun.
2nd: Cincinnati Reds
This might be the most surprising for people to see here. The Cincinnati Reds are going to be really good. Some people are buying into the hype more than normal but there are plenty of facts to support the love for the 2020 edition of the Reds. They played well at times in 2019 but they weren’t even good enough to be a legitimate threat down the stretch. They finished the year with a 75-87 record which isn’t bad for a team like that.
After that 75-87 record, they went into the offseason with a lot of hope. Then they added a whole bunch of impact pieces that should be able to have them in the conversation for the division title. Joey Votto has been one of the best players in the league for a long time but now he has plenty of help around him. They added players like Nicholas Castellanos, Mike Moustakas, and Wade Miley to help them out.
There are going to be people who think that they need to prove it first but this roster is no joke. Adding Miley to the starting rotation to pitch with a guy like Trevor Bauer could go a long way with them having a really nice starting lineup. When you combine a pretty good rotation with a good lineup, you have a team that can win a division, especially in a short season. The Reds are an interesting team to watch this year for sure.
1st: Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins, unfortunately, are good. They won the AL Central last year with their 101-61 record. They were only one of three teams (Houston Astros, New York Yankees) to hit the century mark of wins for the season. It was a great year for them and they stand in the way of the White Sox finally winning the division again. They really don’t scare anyone in the long term but for now, we need to be worried about what this team can do.
If the season goes as planned, the White Sox might make the playoffs but it is going to be very difficult to defeat the Twins in the race to the top of the AL Central. If they do, that would mean they had a phenomenal year and they were perhaps even better than we thought. Baseball fans are mostly expecting the Twins to be at a minimum, in the playoffs.
Hot. The White Sox really need Yoan Moncada healthy. light
This is the team the Sox are looking up to. Full team breakdowns are coming to Southside Showdown later but they have a lot of great players coming back from the 2019 season that was so successful for them. There is always a team that needs to be dethroned when a talented young team is coming up and that is the Twins for the White Sox.