Maybe the Chicago White Sox will not be historically bad this season after all
They will still be bad. Just not bad enough to go down in history.
It took 38 games, but the Chicago White Sox finally reached double-digit wins on the season. The Sox opened a four-game series with the Cleveland Guardians as they picked up a 3-2 victory last night.
Heck, the Sox are no longer dead-last in Major League Baseball. The Colorado Rockies are the only team left in baseball with a single-digit victory total.
The Sox have 10 wins which also means they officially have more victories than getting shut out on the season (nine times so far).
The start to the season has been rough, but at least we can stop saying the Sox are setting new franchise lows to begin a season. They have matched the 2018 team that got off to a 10-28 start.
The 2024 White Sox (10-28) have the worst 38-game start in White Sox history—now TIED with the 2018 club.
— South Side Sox (@SouthSideSox) May 10, 2024
The 2024 team has owned at least a share of the worst start in franchise history since April 12.
This is their 3rd W streak this year—totaling 7 wins.#BetterAtTheBallpark
Maybe adding Tommy Pham was all the Sox needed as the club is 7-5 when he is in the lineup this season. At least there might be some hope that this team's future is in good hands after having none at the end of April.
Rookie third baseman Bryan Ramos has been raking since his debut. He had his second straight multi-hit game in last night's victory. He is certainly earning consideration to stay in the big leagues after Danny Mendick returns from the 10-day IL.
Garrett Crochet is back to looking like a stud on the mound. Erick Fedde continues to hopefully increase his trade value after every start. Suddenly, Chris Flexen looks like a starting pitcher who can be packaged along with Fedde to get an even better return.
Still before this recent stretch of decent play, the White Sox were looking to be on a pace to be historically bad.
Like 1962 New York Mets' terrible, the 1988 Baltimore Orioles' bad, the 2003 Detroit Tigers' awfulness, and last year's 2023 Oakland Athletics' season of misery.
While it would be nice to embrace being embarrassingly awful, the White Sox will not be getting the No. 1 overall pick. Heck, they will not even be able to pick in the top nine for their losing efforts. That is one reason to question embracing the suck not being worth it.
After this recent stretch of playing better, it is worth looking into how the Sox compare to those teams of infamy.
The Sox are two games behind the 62 Mets at this point as New York was 12-26 on May 27. The Mets were also in the middle of a 17-game losing streak at this time. The White Sox have been able to keep The Amazin Mets best month came in May with a 9-17 record. The Mets went on to lose 120 games.
The longest win streak the Mets had that season was three games. New York went 23-59 during the first half of the season. They also went 17-61 in the second half of the season. At least, the Mets were shut out less than the Sox as the Amazin's were only blanked six times that season.
The 1988 Baltimore Orioles lost 21 consecutive games to start the season as that team lost 107 games. The Orioles were 6-32 after 38 games, so at least the Sox are ahead of their pace.
Orioles were shut out 14 times that season and the longest win streak was four games.
The 03 Tigers went 43-119 and were 9-29 after 38 games. May was their best month with an 11-18 record. They were shut out 17 times that season. The longest win streak was four games with their longest losing streak bening 11.
Last year’s Oakland A’s went 50-112. They were 8-30 after 38 games and got shutout 16 times last season. They had the longest win streak of these terrible teams when they won seven in a row. Their longest losing streak was 11 games.
Fangraphs still projects the White Sox to have a terrible season.
Their projection has the Sox going 50-74 the rest of the season. That is still 102 losses, but it is not historical awful Heck, they have the Rockies finishing with just 58 wins.
The only thing to take into account if you want the White Sox to really be historically terrible is the White Sox will continue to trade off veterans. They should trade Fedde, Flexen, Pham, and Eloy along with Michael Kopech and John Brebbia.
While it makes sense for the team's long-term future to trade those veterans and give playing time to the youngsters, it also means the young guns might not rack up many wins after the deadline.
There is also talk of having Crochet pitch fewer innings in the second half so that removes a stopper in the rotation. Hey, if that leads to more losses, hopefully more experience is gained for future pieces on the next winning White Sox team.
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