July was a pivotal month for the Chicago White Sox when it came to rebuilding the franchise. The draft and the trade deadline was a chance to add some impact bats to a farm system thin on them.
Instead, the White Sox drafted a pitcher in the first round and had a trade deadline where some descriptions vary from underwhelming to terrible.
Now the organization has been good at developing pitching and have a lot of promising young arms. So adding another talented pitcher like Hagen Smith is not a bad thing. However, the Sox are so thin on young bats that it feels like the team is years away from getting back to being competitive because of it.
July went even worse for the team on the field.
The Sox won just three games. They were outscored by over 60 runs. The offense hit well below .220 for the month.
The pitching staff had an ERA over five.
Even worse, the team set the franchise mark for most consecutive losses in a season and overall (the original franchise record was 15 set at the end of the 1967 season and the beginning of the 1968 season). They did it all in one fell swoop with the current 17-game skid they are on.
The saving grace is that this might finally get Pedro Grifol, although it is highly doubtful ownership will allow that.
The White Sox get swept by the Royals. It’s their 17th consecutive loss.  They are 3-22 in July. That’s tied for the 2nd-fewest wins in any month by any team in the last 100 years (min. 20 games). Lots of rumblings about Pedro Grifol’s job status here at the park.
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) July 31, 2024
Making it even more painful was the team set the single-season record for most losses already this year. That's right, the team already set a record for futility and then broke it again by being even worse.
The Sox reached 80 losses this month and are still three victories away from 30. They may lose 90 games before reaching 30 wins.
This truly is the darkest of the dark days right now.
It will not be when the Sox possibly break the 1962 New York Mets record for the least amount of wins in the 162-game era. People are openly rooting for that to happen since it would mean ownership would have to wear that embarrassing distinction.
Even if you want chaos, deep down if you are still a loyal fan, you would like to see some winning here and there. In July, we barely got to see any victories since the bullpen kept blowing leads.
Do not expect it to get much better in August. Ace Garrett Crochet is on an innings limit and Erick Fedde is gone so that is another potential stopper in the rotation out the door. The offense feels it is against the rules to score more than three runs. Pedro Grifol is still in charge and thinks things are not as bad as they seem.
That's probably what makes how July went feel even worse.