We’re into the second week of the playoffs, Major League Baseball’s annual celebration of excellence.
The action has been compelling, what with upset sweeps in both American League Wild Card Series and 1-1 splits after two games of all four Division Series. Thousands of websites and media outlets are providing extensive coverage.
But I’m deviating from the mainstream today.
My topic isn’t excellence, but incompetence, specifically the horrendous 2024 season endured by the Chicago White Sox and their beleaguered fans. This year’s final stats are now available, and they allow us to really appreciate the scope of what the Sox accomplished — or more accurately, what they failed to accomplish — in the recent season.
Here are 11 points for your consideration:
1. Much has been made of the fact that the 2024 White Sox set a post-1900 record with 121 losses in 162 games. But it should be noted that the previous record holder, the 1962 New York Mets, played only 160 games because of a pair of rainouts. The Sox therefore finished with a better winning percentage (41-121, .253) than the ’62 Mets (40-120, .250).
2. Three other clubs since 1901 also fared marginally worse than the 2024 White Sox, all in seasons that featured shorter schedules. The 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (36-117) were the most terrible team of all, playing at a .235 clip. The others were the 1935 Boston Braves (38-115) at .248 and the 1904 Washington Senators (38-113) at .252.
3. The White Sox finished 51.5 games behind first-place Cleveland in the American League Central this year. Only three other clubs have dropped more than 50 games off the pace since the current century began in 2000. Those laggards were the 2018 Baltimore Orioles (61 games behind), 2019 Detroit Tigers (53.5 GB), and 2021 Arizona Diamondbacks (55 GB). Sox fans should take hope from these examples, since the Orioles and Tigers qualified for the 2024 playoffs, and the Diamondbacks made it all the way to the World Series a year ago.
A new installment will arrive in your email upon posting
4. You can say this much about the ineptitude of the White Sox: It was well-balanced. All nine of the club’s regular position players finished with overall base values (OBV) in negative territory, which means they performed below league average at the plate. Catcher Korey Lee was the worst with a BV of minus-54, indicating that he reached 54 fewer bases than the typical American League batter would have piled up under the same circumstances.
5. The pitching staff was equally inept. The White Sox used 35 pitchers in 2024, and 29 posted negative OBVs. (If a pitcher’s value is below zero, he allowed opposing batters to reach more bases than the average AL pitcher would have surrendered.) Only two members of the staff did better than plus-six: Garrett Crochet with a BV of plus-31 and Erick Fedde with plus-30. (Fedde was traded to the Cardinals in July. His BV doesn’t include his time with St. Louis.)
6. If we add up the overall base values for all 63 players who donned White Sox uniforms this year, we get a grand total of minus-886. That’s historically bad. Only the 1915 Philadelphia Athletics did worse with a collective OBV of minus-983. Those A’s finished with a 43-109 record, 58.5 games out of first place in the American League.
7. Only one big-league club approached the White Sox at the tailend of this year’s OBV standings — and it didn’t come all that close. The Colorado Rockies had a collective base value of minus-693. That’s truly an awful number, to be sure, yet it’s 193 bases better than the team value for the White Sox.
8. The White Sox ranked dead last among all 30 big-league clubs in these batting categories in 2024: runs per game (3.13), home runs (133), batting average (.221), walks received (395), on-base average (.278), and slugging percentage (.340).
9. Chicago’s pitching stats were slightly better than those for its hitters. The White Sox were worst in the majors in only a handful of categories for pitchers, notably the fewest saves (21) and most walks allowed (643).
10. Let’s end on an optimistic note, offering one upbeat stat apiece on the offensive and defensive side of the game, giving White Sox fans something to build on for the future. The offense first: The Sox finished the 2024 season with a contact rate (CT) of .739, which means that they put the ball in play on 73.9 percent of their at-bats. That was better than the CTs for 12 of the other 29 clubs. (Now if only they could hit the ball harder.)
11. What about the pitching side of the equation? The Sox actually finished 12th in the majors in strikeouts, whiffing 8.66 opponents per game. Five of this year’s playoff teams did worse. That’s a stat that should inspire hope — a little bit, at least — on the South Side.
