The White Sox are an Average Team

[spiderman]

At what point do we become resigned to the fact that the White Sox are an average team - at best ?

 

Since the all-star break last season, I believe the White Sox are actually under .500 - and we're talking somewhere around 100 games now.

 

For the most part, our pitching staff has been fine (though Contreras in particular just does not look very good), but this offense just stinks, and it was my biggest concern entering the season. Did I think it would be this bad ? No, but I did know it was way to HR dependent, and it struggles to score runs when it doesn't hit HR's.

 

This is too good of a division to struggle through an extended period. Yes, it's still early, but I don't know that we're good enough to be trailing 3 teams, and having to play catchup with an inconsistent offense.

 

Am I overreacting ? Maybe, but this is based on 100 games now of this team just not being better than average.

[caulfield12]

At what point do we become resigned to the fact that the White Sox are an average team - at best ?

 

Since the all-star break last season, I believe the White Sox are actually under .500 - and we're talking somewhere around 100 games now.

 

For the most part, our pitching staff has been fine (though Contreras in particular just does not look very good), but this offense just stinks, and it was my biggest concern entering the season. Did I think it would be this bad ? No, but I did know it was way to HR dependent, and it struggles to score runs when it doesn't hit HR's.

 

This is too good of a division to struggle through an extended period. Yes, it's still early, but I don't know that we're good enough to be trailing 3 teams, and having to play catchup with an inconsistent offense.

 

Am I overreacting ? Maybe, but this is based on 100 games now of this team just not being better than average.

 

 

45-55 and the worst team in ST, which usually doesn't matter, but I think it was a sign this year

[Soxfest]

Williams failed to address post all star break problems and his bench he put together in 2007 is horrid!

Edited May 5, 2007 by Soxfest

[beck72]

At what point do we become resigned to the fact that the White Sox are an average team - at best ?

 

Since the all-star break last season, I believe the White Sox are actually under .500 - and we're talking somewhere around 100 games now.

 

For the most part, our pitching staff has been fine (though Contreras in particular just does not look very good), but this offense just stinks, and it was my biggest concern entering the season. Did I think it would be this bad ? No, but I did know it was way to HR dependent, and it struggles to score runs when it doesn't hit HR's.

 

This is too good of a division to struggle through an extended period. Yes, it's still early, but I don't know that we're good enough to be trailing 3 teams, and having to play catchup with an inconsistent offense.

 

Am I overreacting ? Maybe, but this is based on 100 games now of this team just not being better than average.

It's two different problems. Last year's poor 2nd half had more to do with pitching--both SP and bullpen. The offense this year has been horrible. Will it be this bad all year? No. But you're right. The AL Central is too good for the sox to struggle for an extended period. The sox could be chasing some teams all year.

 

Williams failed to address post all star break problems and his bench he put together in 2007 is horrid!

He addressed the pitching problems. No GM in the world could count on having all his hitters barely hitting their weight. The sox bench is fine. If the sox [or any team] has to worry about the bench carrying the team, they are in big trouble.

[caulfield12]

Williams failed to address post all star break problems and his bench he put together in 2007 is horrid!

 

 

Mackowiak and Ozuna ARE bench players, not regulars or starters.

 

Molina is horrible, I would go with Wiki Gonzalez and hope to get some offense.

 

Hall was obviously supposed to be a big part of this bench, that's a big loss offensively.

 

Cintron is still recovering from surgery and is overpaid for how we utilize him. Good place to start off in ditching players, along with Mackowiak.

 

 

 

It's two different problems. Last year's poor 2nd half had more to do with pitching--both SP and bullpen. The offense this year has been horrible. Will it be this bad all year? No. But you're right. The AL Central is too good for the sox to struggle for an extended period. The sox could be chasing some teams all year.

He addressed the pitching problems. No GM in the world could count on having all his hitters barely hitting their weight. The sox bench is fine. If the sox [or any team] has to worry about the bench carrying the team, they are in big trouble.

 

 

I'm not going to blame this on Mackowiak or Cintron not hitting.

 

It's a team-wide epidemic. The one thing you can do is wonder why our best replacements are Sweeney (who projects to be very good 2-3 years from now) and Luis Terrero...

[Balance]

Average?

 

How about....

 

Moribund?

Foundering?

Pathetic?

Reeling?

Smelling of crap?

 

Work with me, here, folks.

[elrockinMT]

The Sox have a very good talented team that is in a slump right now. It has happened before. We have a couple key players injured and role players being put in aposition of everyday players. You can point to the Yankess also as a team going through what the Sox are, but I think the difference is the Sox pitching is so much better. We will be back on track when the team is healthy. Right now it seems that everything that can go wrong will go wrong for this team. We can't panic.

[joeynach]

2 More weeks of this garbage and the seaons is 100% lost. No one in this division is going to leap frog 3 teams and make up 10 to 12 games deficit. This division is way too tough for the garbage we are throwing out there daily. Maybe in a weaker division you can float around 5 games under or so and still make a run but not with three very good team ahead of us.

[Kalapse]

The Sox have a very good talented team that is in a slump right now. It has happened before. We have a couple key players injured and role players being put in aposition of everyday players. You can point to the Yankess also as a team going through what the Sox are, but I think the difference is the Sox pitching is so much better. We will be back on track when the team is healthy. Right now it seems that everything that can go wrong will go wrong for this team. We can't panic.

Except the Sox can not afford to be terrible in the first few months of the season considering they're traditionally a horrible second half team. If history is any indication, the Sox will need a nice lead in the division at the break if they want any shot at making the playoffs. July, August and September are not kind months to the White Sox.

 

Podsednik isn't coming back, people need to realize this. If he won't even be able to run again until mid June I don't expect him to be able to do much with his legs for the rest of the season. And Podsednik - speed = s***. So the Sox are currently missing 1 key player in hopes of having him back relatively soon. We can only hope Konerko, Dye, Iguchi and Pierzynski catch fire when the new hitting coach is introduced.

[The Critic]

The Sox are not an average team.

 

....none of the players are hitting for average....

[elrockinMT]

The Sox are not an average team.

 

....none of the players are hitting for average....

 

 

An astute observation for sure

[knightni]

Baseball's the only sport where you fail succeeding 25% of the time, but when you succeed 30%, you can make the hall of fame.

[Jordan4life_2007]

When was the last time we had the hitting and pitching hot at the same time? The '05 playoffs? If we could ever get both going at the same time, we'd be outstanding.

[fathom]

When was the last time we had the hitting and pitching hot at the same time? The '05 playoffs? If we could ever get both going at the same time, we'd be outstanding.

 

First half of last season.

[briguy27]

yea i said a couple days ago that the sox are the worst team in baseball. im going to correct myself- they arent the worst team in baseball. they, like u said, are an average team.

 

the worst team is washington. im watching them now vs the cubs and man, their bad. they havent won a series all year. just bad. maybe the sox could get austin kearns from them, who is a strong hitter (well best on the nats anyway) to fill their need

[caulfield12]

yea i said a couple days ago that the sox are the worst team in baseball. im going to correct myself- they arent the worst team in baseball. they, like u said, are an average team.

 

the worst team is washington. im watching them now vs the cubs and man, their bad. they havent won a series all year. just bad. maybe the sox could get austin kearns from them, who is a strong hitter (well best on the nats anyway) to fill their need

 

Are you the same bri who used to fight with ncorgbl all the time at chisox.com?

 

Or is that another?

[briguy27]

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ May 6, 2007 -> 02:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Are you the same bri who used to fight with ncorgbl all the time at chisox.com?

 

Or is that another?

 

no thats definitley not me. i wish i knew how to make a username and password on chisox.com

[Vance Law]

They're clearly a well above-average team. If the whole team can be in a slump, be the worst hitting team in baseball, and still be at .500, that's a good team.

[Chisoxfn]

Williams failed to address post all star break problems and his bench he put together in 2007 is horrid!

Huh.....The Sox have one of the better pitching staffs in all of baseball when for the last half of the season it was one of the most god awful ones. I'd consider that addressing problems.

 

This team is far better than average and is fully capable of winning a world series (albeit, not with the current lineup...however, with a healthy Thome/Hall) I'm not too concerned (sure it would still have weaknesses, but every team does, including world series champs).

[joeynach]

Williams failed to address post all star break problems and his bench he put together in 2007 is horrid!

 

I thought the lineup was gonna need some more shakup post ASB in 2006 when he couldn't do anything all that productive. IMO yes CF needed to be adressed and sort of was, but i was also sure a new LF and SS were needed. The philosophy of "well we can have a glove man thats not all that productive on offense cuz our middle of the lineup is so good" is a bad one. It will only get you in trouble. From the type of hitters Uribe and Pods have become I was failry sure they needed to be replaced, no matter what they do with their gloves. In this division in this league against the tough pitching we face you can not afford to have those guys out there everday. They aren't productive enough, aren't selective enough, dont hit for a high enough avg, dont get on base enough, etc. We had three of those last year in our lineup in pods,uribe, and BA. The bottom of our lineup last year was dismal and nearly automatic non prodcution when we needed it or against any decent pitcher. This year Erstad will be better offensively than BA, but Uribe will be his same self and Pods who knows. This team could use new men at LF and SS who can hit, get on base, and at least make productive outs. Id kill for a SS that would hit .275 with a .340 obp from 8 or 9 spot.

Edited May 8, 2007 by joeynach

[ZoomSlowik]

Id kill for a SS that would hit .275 with a .340 obp from 8 or 9 spot.

 

That's a hell of a high standard for a #8 hitter. There were only 13 qualified shortstops that had an OBP over .330 last year, and none of them hit lower than third...

 

Now for a leftfielder, okay, that's another story. But capable SS's that get on base don't exactly grow on trees. I'd love to have a lineup full of .350+ OBP guys, but there are only around 100 of those in the entire league, not exactly good odds there.

[WHITESOXRANDY]

Wow! I thought I was a dark cloud. The White Sox are definitely and above average team.

 

If they were in any division in the N.L. they would probably win it.

 

In the A.L. West, they might win it too.

 

They are .500 right now with arguably their 2 biggest offensive players out and the rest of the team in a hitting slump. These guys will hit and the pitching is very good and very deep. That will always give you a chnce to win.

 

Will it be enough to make the Playoffs ? Don't know but they are only 4 games back and Thome will be back in a week. I certainly wouldn't give up yet.

 

KW did an excellent job with the pitching staff. He didn't do enough to fix the OF situation but if Hall didn't get injured, I think that things wouldn't be so bad.

 

I really didn't expect us to catch Detroit because they have the best all-around team in baseball. I think the Twins will finish 4th and Cleveland has holes. Defense isn't good and I still don't like their bullpen.

 

The Sox still have a shot at the wild card. If they are out of it by July, then KW can trade some parts. I'd rather see them trade guys then get draft picks. They've proven they don't know what they're doing with that.

[Controlled Chaos]

Except the Sox can not afford to be terrible in the first few months of the season considering they're traditionally a horrible second half team. If history is any indication, the Sox will need a nice lead in the division at the break if they want any shot at making the playoffs. July, August and September are not kind months to the White Sox.

 

Podsednik isn't coming back, people need to realize this. If he won't even be able to run again until mid June I don't expect him to be able to do much with his legs for the rest of the season. And Podsednik - speed = s***. So the Sox are currently missing 1 key player in hopes of having him back relatively soon. We can only hope Konerko, Dye, Iguchi and Pierzynski catch fire when the new hitting coach is introduced.

They haven't been terrible the first few months...we're only through 1 month of the season and they are hitting terrible, but they are still .500 and had one tough schedule.

 

Them being a horrible seond half team in the past has nothing to do with this year. If history has any indicatoin in baseball it's that you can't predict what's going to happen.

[WilliamTell]

Well if you go by records, they're as average as you can get with a .500 record. But as said before, they've had one really tough schedule, this upcoming series with Minnesota is huge I think. If the Sox can win a couple there, go past Minnesota in the standings, maybe they can get on a role.

[BigSqwert]

I'm sick of hearing about our tough schedule. It really isn't much tougher than our division rivals. When it's all said and done the schedules all even out by the end of the year.