Last season the Chicago White Sox ended with a 67-95 won-loss record. It was the fifth consecutive season in which the White Sox endured a losing record. As bad as that .414 winning percentage from a year ago may have appeared, it will require vast improvement the rest of this season for the Sox to equal last year’s record.
After a 3-1 loss to the visiting Detroit Tigers Sunday at Guaranteed Rate Field, the Sox saw their record fall to 24-46. To equal last season’s record, the Sox’s record would have to be 43-49 the rest of the season. On the surface that doesn’t appear to be asking too much! Yet, given what the Sox have shown the first three months of the season, it might be difficult.
The all-time ugly for Sox fans well may have been the 1970 team.
Don Gutteridge, Bill Adair, and Chuck Tanner were managers of the 1970 White Sox. By the end of the season, the Sox had compiled a 56-106 (.346) record. Not surprisingly, the 106 defeats provide for a franchise record.
The operative figure here is the .346 winning percentage of the 1970 White Sox. Note the .343 percentage of the Sox through Sunday.
Three games into a four-game series with the Cleveland Indians last week, the Sox had two victories. Four losses followed and the Sox concluded a seven-game homestand with a 2-5 record.
As bad as the Sox performed a year ago, the team was 10-9 against the Tigers. It’s another story this season.
The Sox opened their home schedule this season by dropping three games to the Tigers early in April. It was more of the same last weekend at home and Detroit took a three-game sweep. So far this year, the Tigers are 8-1 overall against the Sox.
After a brief trip to Cleveland early in this week, the Sox will be home for another seven-game stretch. Four games with Oakland through Sunday will be followed by three against Minnesota.
The biggest Sox watch may be the status of pitcher James Shields.
With the Sox struggling, Shields, 36, would seem to be a good acquisition for a contending club looking for right-handed pitching. In spite of a 2-8 record, Shields has pitched well much of the time. What the Sox would get for Shields seems to be only a minor sticking point. Shields is clearly not a building block in the Sox future.