This Season Is Over
With tonight's 14-1 defeat at the hands of the Cleveland Indians, the White Sox have been officially eliminated from playoff contention. They are no longer the defending World Series champions and are now the team that failed to defend the crown. This would be easier to accept if they had lost key players to free agency last off-season. Instead, they actually made upgrades to the team by trading for veterans Jim Thome and Javier Vazquez. All they have to show for it is a third place finish and an absolute choke job down the stretch. John L. Smith would be proud.
What happened? This season started poorly with the Sox losing their first four ballgames. However, they only lost three more games for the rest of the month of April. At that point, it looked like failing to make the playoffs was out of the question.
In May, the real trouble started to rear its ugly head. The White Sox were playing well against the good teams, but they went 3-3 in May against Tampa Bay and Kansas City. This came on the heels of being swept by Kansas City in April. For whatever reason, the White Sox did not play as well against the bad teams as they did against the good teams. This would be a problem all season long.
June was more of the same, the White Sox only played two truly bad teams, Pittsburgh and the Cubs, and they only played the Cubs one game that month. Overall, they went 19-7 that month and only lost 2 games over the last 2 and a half weeks. Naturally, one of those losses was against Pittsburgh, a terrible excuse for a major league team.
July is when things fell apart for the White Sox. They were just 4-4 over their last eight before the All-Star break. After the break, they won just five games through the end of the month. Something terrible happened to them after the 15-11 loss to the Cubs on July 2. They were never again the same team.
August was much a lot like July. They played very poorly. They were able to record a three and four game winning streak, which they have not been able to duplicate since. However, they also had a stretch of 9 losses out of 12 games against their four division rivals. Overall, they were 16-13 in August, barely above .500 and not good enough to make the playoffs.
In September, they basically quit. They have lost 15 out of 24 games this month, and they have lost in every way imagineable from 1-0 to 14-1 scores. They might as well have been the Kansas City Royals this month. They have played like a last place baseball team.
Offensively, the Sox were second in the American League in runs scored with 855, and they led the league with 232 home runs. However, the numbers do not tell the whole story. This team was woefully inconsistent in its run production. They struggled to hit left-handed hitting and was unable to manufacture runs with the bottom third of its lineup. Compounding problems, lead-off hitter Scott Podsednik was only able to reach base at a .331 OBP clip, and he was caught stealing in 18 of his 58 attempts. These problems led to a team that would put up 10 runs one night and 2 runs the next, and they were even worse month to month. For example, in August they only placed fourth in runs scored and posted a .331 OBP, identical to Podsednik's for the season.
Pitching was an even bigger culprit than the hitting. The Sox were tenth in the AL in pitching this year, after tying for first in 2005. The four teams that will be making the playoffs placed 1, 2, 4, and 6. The biggest problem was the 196 homeruns allowed, which was third worst in the league. For whatever reason, the White Sox pitching was never really able to put it together this year. The starters and relievers were good at times, but they were never both good at the same time. This is the primary reason that this team crashed and burned.
Coming soon: With the Sox mathmatically eliminated, my future posts will deal with the 2007 edition of the White Sox. Kenny Williams has a lot of work to do to ensure that this disaster does not happen again. This should be an eventful off-season.
What happened? This season started poorly with the Sox losing their first four ballgames. However, they only lost three more games for the rest of the month of April. At that point, it looked like failing to make the playoffs was out of the question.
In May, the real trouble started to rear its ugly head. The White Sox were playing well against the good teams, but they went 3-3 in May against Tampa Bay and Kansas City. This came on the heels of being swept by Kansas City in April. For whatever reason, the White Sox did not play as well against the bad teams as they did against the good teams. This would be a problem all season long.
June was more of the same, the White Sox only played two truly bad teams, Pittsburgh and the Cubs, and they only played the Cubs one game that month. Overall, they went 19-7 that month and only lost 2 games over the last 2 and a half weeks. Naturally, one of those losses was against Pittsburgh, a terrible excuse for a major league team.
July is when things fell apart for the White Sox. They were just 4-4 over their last eight before the All-Star break. After the break, they won just five games through the end of the month. Something terrible happened to them after the 15-11 loss to the Cubs on July 2. They were never again the same team.
August was much a lot like July. They played very poorly. They were able to record a three and four game winning streak, which they have not been able to duplicate since. However, they also had a stretch of 9 losses out of 12 games against their four division rivals. Overall, they were 16-13 in August, barely above .500 and not good enough to make the playoffs.
In September, they basically quit. They have lost 15 out of 24 games this month, and they have lost in every way imagineable from 1-0 to 14-1 scores. They might as well have been the Kansas City Royals this month. They have played like a last place baseball team.
Offensively, the Sox were second in the American League in runs scored with 855, and they led the league with 232 home runs. However, the numbers do not tell the whole story. This team was woefully inconsistent in its run production. They struggled to hit left-handed hitting and was unable to manufacture runs with the bottom third of its lineup. Compounding problems, lead-off hitter Scott Podsednik was only able to reach base at a .331 OBP clip, and he was caught stealing in 18 of his 58 attempts. These problems led to a team that would put up 10 runs one night and 2 runs the next, and they were even worse month to month. For example, in August they only placed fourth in runs scored and posted a .331 OBP, identical to Podsednik's for the season.
Pitching was an even bigger culprit than the hitting. The Sox were tenth in the AL in pitching this year, after tying for first in 2005. The four teams that will be making the playoffs placed 1, 2, 4, and 6. The biggest problem was the 196 homeruns allowed, which was third worst in the league. For whatever reason, the White Sox pitching was never really able to put it together this year. The starters and relievers were good at times, but they were never both good at the same time. This is the primary reason that this team crashed and burned.
Coming soon: With the Sox mathmatically eliminated, my future posts will deal with the 2007 edition of the White Sox. Kenny Williams has a lot of work to do to ensure that this disaster does not happen again. This should be an eventful off-season.
posted by Pat at 2:21 AM
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