The White Sox' season/streak deserves its own thread

[Frayed Knot]

The ChiSox are suddenly winners of three straight!! ... two vs Oakland then last night vs Angels
Now 36-115 with 11 remaining, a 121st loss requires a finish no better than 5-6 and if the "real goal" (as mentioned earlier in the thread) is 123 losses then that's going to need 3-8 or worse. Now either or both of those is easily achievable by a team with three double-digit losing streaks this year, but they no longer seem as certain prior to this mini-run.


Remaining games (with an odd Road-Home-Road twist)
@ LAA x 2
@ SDP x 3
LAA x 3
@ DET x 3



P.S. they were 7 - 44 in July & AugUst, and they started July 2-2 so were 5 - 42 over a 56 day stretch.
FIVE and FORTY TWO!!!!!

[Frayed Knot]

P.S. again: Just to show how wacky baseball forecasting can be ("you just can't predict it Suzyn"),
the White Sox and the Mets had identical 9 - 19 records in May.
Since then the Mets are 23 games over .500 while the White Sox are 51 games under.

[Edgy MD]

Go Sox, go!!

[Centerfield]

And you guys laughed when I said they reached the soft part of their schedule.

They have 5 more games against the Angels. 6 against SDP/DET.

[metirish]

Admin has given up

[Edgy MD]

Ouch.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah but only one more run.
And it took the other team 13 innings to do it.
So that's sort of a win, isn't it?

[Lefty Specialist]

Sox going for loss #120 tonight, with only 36 wins.

[The Hot Corner]

I definitely hope the White Sox win tonight. currently tied 2-2 with the Padres.

[Edgy MD]

Nice thought. Sadly for such advocates as you and me, the Pads now lead, 4-2. Lefthander Fraser Ellard looks depressed as hell on the bench after coughing it up.

[Cowtipper]

I hope the White Sox lose.

I'm tuning in now to witness history.

[Edgy MD]

Andrew Vaughn reaches with two out! Tying run at the plate is Gavin Sheets.

[Edgy MD]

And that's 120.

[Centerfield]

Six games left. 3-3 to finish under 40 wins.

[Benjamin Grimm]

[Centerfield]

Records aside, there are so many reasons the 2024 White Sox are a far worse team than the 1962 Mets. The White Sox are obviously not an expansion team. They have no excuse for a barren farm system and no talent on the major league level. They play in the third largest market in the US. According to Forbes, they had the 6th highest revenue in MLB last year (not surprisingly, behind the 4 NY/LA teams and the Cubs). Spotrac says they had the 18th highest payroll, and though a Chicago team with the 6th highest revenue should be much higher, there's no reason an 18th ranked payroll should result in a historically bad team.

And now the buzz is that the White Sox are looking to cut payroll in 2025 and will likely trade Garret Crochet, the one good thing going for them. But none of this should be surprising if you're familiar with Jerry Reinsdorf. He somehow managed to make Jerry Krause the villain in dismantling the Bulls Dynasty, when in fact he was the one who wanted to cut payroll. He was one of the owners vocal about opposing Steve Cohen. And somehow has gotten a relatively free pass for his part in this 2024 debacle.

[Edgy MD]

Reinsdorf is a very weird figure, who often seemed to be professional enemies and personal friends with the same people, which I guess isn't so crazy in an industry run as a cartel. I guess he's 85 now so he gets something of a pass. (OE: He's 88.)

[Fman99]

I guess he's 85 now so he gets something of a pass. (OE: He's 88.)

Ah, so he and his team both have something in common, that being that they've shat their own pants all year.

[Gwreck]

I guess he's 85 now so he gets something of a pass. (OE: He's 88.)

I don’t think his age earns him a pass. Sell the team if you aren't going to compete.

[Edgy MD]

Hey, he's not getting any pass from me.

I'm on record a having advocated for his team's relegation!

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Reinsdorf was Fred's biggest buddy (and Doubleday's worst enemy if I remember right)

[Edgy MD]

He was also a Steinbrenner bud, even though they publicly poked each other. He additionally led the coup to oust Faye Vincent (probably on behalf of Steinbrenner), and even Vincent didn't have bad things to say about the guy.

A weird, almost insidious figure.

[Frayed Knot]

I remember Reisndorf as a hardliner against the players in the mid-90s labor strife, only to then turn around and sign Albert Belle to a FA
contract in the winter of '96-'97 in what I remember as the first $10mil/yr deal, a significant jump from whatever the ceiling had been to
that point.
Do as I say, not as I do.

More recently the ChiSox, along with the Padres, tried to use FA signings to jump to the top all at once. Both franchises failed via that route.
They then pivoted to trading for other teams' top prospects such as Yoan Moncada (BOS) and Eloy Jiminez (CHC). That worked briefly as they
actually won 93 games in 2021 before losing the the Astros in a playoff series. But neither 'future star' worked out in the long term. Moncada
has since moved on. Jiminez is still there but was only occasionally good, always seems to be injured, and is rarely playing now. Plus those
deals cost them Jose Quintana, Chris Sale, and Michael Kopech so safe to say that they just haven't made a lot of good decisions lately.

[Frayed Knot]

Don't look now, but the ChiSox have won three straight (swept the Angels) and therefore are still 'stuck' on 120 wins (39 - 120).

They head to red-hot Detroit* for the final weekend. The Tigers won earlier today and, by my reading anyway, have clinched at least a tie for a WC spot
(especially with the Twins currently getting their butts kicked by the Marlins) although I haven't checked out all the tie-breakers. 123 losses, which I
think someone here pegged as the ultimate goal to erase the Mets ownership of ineptness for a modern season, is now the worst the ChiSox can do.



* The Tigers, 78-84 last year, and the Royals, 56-106 in '23, look to join Baltimore as the three AL WC teams.
The O's are losing big to the Yanx tonight which will settle the ALE unless something dramatic happens in the next few innings.

[Centerfield]

Would be nice if the Twins could beat the Marlins so that KC has something to play for.

They did dick against the Braves too IIRC.