Leave it up to LA-A to fuck everything up.
If anyone can get swept by the Sox, it’s the Angels. (The Sox did sweep the Rays back in April.)
Thanks for the article @Pardel-Lux ! It was good! I was happy to see that one of the bright spots for the team has been my dude Grady Sizemore. I have a dog named Grady, and am right now sitting beneath my Authentic Grady Sizemore Louisville Slugger so you know I’m a fan! 
I just now decided that Jose Ramirez’s epic takedown of Tim Anderson in August of 2023 was the harbinger of the Sox’s dismal season. They only won 17 of the 49 remaining games that year!
Granted, they went on to lose 34% of their remaining games after losing 39% of their preceding games. And Anderson is no longer on the team. So really, no. But in my mind movie of the downfall of the White Sox, it opens with Josey’s right hook and Tom Hamilton screaming “Down goes Anderson!”
Anyway, good luck @bobot ! Or rather, bad luck! I hope you get your record!
“Down goes Anderson! Down goes Anderson!”
Another long-form article on the Sox, this one from ESPN, with some analysis on the missteps which brought them to being so horrible this year.
Much of the blame is on Reinsdorf, and in particular his tendency to be loyal to friends – which led to picking Tony LaRussa as their manager in 2021, over A.J. Hinch (who was just coming off of his one-year suspension, and who had apparently expected to become the Sox’s skipper).
They also note how Pedro Grifol struggled to connect with a clubhouse that was in need of a manager with strong people skills, and how first-year GM Chris Getz was unprepared for what he had to deal with this season.
Are they really that much worse than the 2019 Tigers (114 loses) and the 2018 Orioles (115 loses) and the 2003 Tigers (119 loses)? All of these are in recent memory.
I was wondering the same thing. I definitely remember the Tigers being atrocious.
The 2019 and 2018 examples were teams that were deliberately tanking, i.e. trying to be that bad, in a rebuild effort. It worked, for the most part. The Orioles are in the playoffs this season (and had a legitimate shot at winning the division) and the Tigers are also very likely to win a wild card slot.
And both were actually still better than the White Sox this season who aren’t deliberately losing as part of any sort of rebuild strategy.
It’s awe inspiring in a way.
They’re terrible the old fashioned way - by the owner and front office being miserably terrible at running a baseball team. At least the farm system is reasonably good. They might be competitive in a few years if Reinsdorf goes against his instincts and hires a decent GM and manager.
Looking at how they compared to the other teams in MLB in their seasons on key hitting and pitching statistics:
2024 Sox:
- Dead last in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and home runs.
- Second from last in WHIP, third from last in ERA.
2019 Tigers:
- Fifth from last in batting average, dead last in on-base percentage, second from last in slugging percentage, second from last in home runs.
- Fourth from last in WHIP, third from last in ERA.
2018 Orioles:
- Seventh from last in batting average, second from last in on-base percentage, sixth from last in slugging percentage, seventeenth from last in home runs.
- Dead last in WHIP and ERA.
2003 Tigers:
- Dead last in batting average and on-base percentage, third from last in slugging percentage, tenth from last in home runs.
- Third from last in WHIP, second from last in ERA.
So, they were all really bad teams, but the the others were not quite bottom-dwellers in at least some stats. The 2003 Tigers were probably the ones who were closest to the Sox in overall ineptitude.
And, as @Great_Antibob notes, the '18 Orioles and '19 Tigers were clearly being bad for a year, to set the stage for a rebuild. The Sox currently have three guys on their roster who are making $12 million or more a year (Moncada, Benintendi, and Robert), none of whom are doing much of anything productive (and Moncada has missed almost the entire year), but all of whom they clearly thought were worth keeping around this year.
I mean, one relative bright spot: their run differential is sitting at -319.
They’ve come on a bit but were on pace for the worst of any team that played in the 20th century or later.
It’s historically bad but better than the 2019 Tigers (-333), 2003 Tigers (-337), 2023 A’s (-339), and 1962 Mets (-331).
Of course, I might have just jinxed (or blessed?) them for that as well.
If they can give up a few dozen runs, they can win the Triple Crown of Shame: most losses, lowest winning percentage, and worst run differential of the modern era.
They have the advantage of a few fewer games at this point compared to full-season stats for the others, but unless they get truly thumped in their final games, they’re unlikely to “catch up.”
Benintendi has greatly improved since mid-July.
Since that article was published, Benintendi has raised his season average a couple more points, to .228 (he had been hitting under .200 before his bat heated up, or at least warmed up from a deep chill).
True, and I probably should have qualified including him, because he has been better since July. But, he is on year two of a 5-year, $75 million contract (the biggest contract in White Sox history), and even with a good second half, it’s his second-straight disappointing year for Chicago (0.2 bWAR in '23, -0.9 in '24).
He’s probably not tradable at this point, given the size of his remaining contract, but paying $17 million a year for a guy to play around replacement level is as much on Sox management as it is on Benintendi.
And the Sox lead the Angels 3-2 after 4 tonight. They are on a roll.
I think they’re worse, yes.
Back when the 2019 Tigers and O’s were making a run at it I came up with a misery index of what makes a team super bad. Now I don’t recall it, but I think it was:
- Record (how many they lose?)
- Projected record (were they just a bit unlucky?)
- Offensive ineptitude (how boring are they?)
- Presence of players actually accomplishing something individually (at least I can cheer for him!)
- Stars you can be happy to see play even if they suck now
- Exciting young players
The White Sox are terrible in ALL of these.
Let’s turn the question around. In 1921 Babe Ruth batted .378, slugged .846, had 204 hits, an OPS of 1.359, and 59 home runs. In 1927 he couldn’t match any of those numbers, except for hitting 60 home runs. Does anyone remember 1921?
A record is a record and worst is worst.
For sake of argument, let’s assume they finish with 139 losses (not loses). That would be 20 games behind the worst team on your list.
Compare that to the best team in the AL last year, the Orioles, who won 101 games, and a .500 team who won 81 games. That 20 game difference is huge, and, yes, a .500 team is that much worse than the best team.
Tied 3-3 in the 8th. It’s a nail-biter.
I must be missing something. How would this happen with the amount of games left?
Exactly (i.e., it can’t); they only have five games left (counting tonight), and the worst that they could finish at this point is 37-125.