Jerry Reinsdorf, what on Earth have you done? How can a Major League Baseball team be metaphorically “out of it” before the month of May begins? Currently sitting at 8-21 on the 2023 season, the Chicago White Sox are done.
They entered yesterday on a 10 game losing streak and 15 games below .500. Only one team, the 2001 Oakland Athletics, have ever made the playoffs after falling 10 games below .500, as they started 8-17.
However, they famously won 20 games straight in order to get there. So you probably don’t want to bet on the Sox making the playoffs this year then! Instead play the games over at pg slots; it’s much more rewarding than watching the Sox slog through a miserable year in baseball’s worst division, and no doubt one of the worst divisions in baseball history.
“Jerry Reinsdorf has torn the White Sox organization down from within.”
Sounding off on the what’s going on with the White Sox ?
— Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) April 30, 2023
This White Sox team can’t even win a single series. They’re currently on pace to finish 43-119. That would match the division rival Detroit Tigers, who set the record for the worst team ever of the modern era in 2003. So much for Jerry Reinsdorf, Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn, for their so-called “competitive window.”
Finishing around .500 would be a massive underachievement, for a club with this much talent. See last year, when it was just easy to blame Tony La Russa.
Yeah, and how’d that work out for him? pic.twitter.com/cfrh3UOm3t
— Dave Melton (@DMelt57) April 30, 2023
And yet, no team that started 7-21, in the entire history of baseball, has ever finished .500, let alone made the postseason. While yes, hiring La Russa was a bone-headed, clueless move, which everyone said at the time, the current situation is even worse.
I’m still not actually sure that even Pedro Grifol knows how Pedro Grifol is. Then you have Williams, who should have been sacked ages ago, for the mess he made.
He’s just baseball John Paxson (naturally, as Jerry Reinsdorf owns the Chicago Bulls as well), as he just failed upward in the organization.
As for Hahn, the White Sox have a .458 winning percentage over the decade that he’s been in charge. That places them 26th in MLB. I have no real answers, but I do this- everyone and everything must go, most importantly, Jerry Reinsdorf.
There are only three teams that have never spent a $100 million on a single player. Actually the White Sox have never topped $80M. Joining the Sox in this category are the A’s and the Kansas City Royals.
Coincidentally, the only two teams with a record worse than the Sox this season, thus far.
Not saying that spending solves everything (look no further than the New York Mess, whoops, I mean Mets), but it is an example where correlation can imply causation. But make no mistake about it, the issues and problems are everywhere, in this joke of an organization.
And it all starts at the top.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.
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