The Chicago White Sox start ful squad workout for 2025 Spring Training tomorrow. I thought this might be a good time to review the 2024 team. The 2023 White Sox were horrible. They were record breaking bad. I know, can I analyze or what?
One stat more than any other shows how bad their start to the season was. This stat would be the number of 1 game losing streaks the White Sox had in the first half of the season. A 1 game losing streak may sound like a bad thing but it is actually pretty good. A 1 game losing streak is really a series of 3 games in a row, a win followed by a loss followed by another win. Here is a list of the 30 MLB teams last year listed with their record after 71 games and how many 1 game losing streaks they had at that point of the season.
Arizona Diamondbacks 34-37 12
Atlanta Braves 40-31 12
Baltimore Orioles 47-24 10
Boston Red Sox 36-35 7
Chicago Cubs 34-37 12
Chicago White Sox 18-53 0
Cincinatti Reds 34-37 8
Cleveland Guardians 45-26 10
Colorado Rockies 25-46 5
Detroit Tigers 34-37 7
Houston Astros 32-39 11
Kansas City Royals 40-31 10
Los Angeles Angels 28-43 7
Los Angeles Dodgers 43-28 10
Miami Marlins 23-48 6
Milwaukee Brewers 42-29 11
Minnesota Twins 39-32 9
New York Mets 34-37 7
New York Yankees 49-22 8
Philadelphia Phillies 47-24 13
Pittsburgh Pirates 34-37 10
San Diego Padres 36-35 11
San Francisco Giants 34-37 13
Seattle Mariners 40-32 12
St. Louis Cardinals 36-35 12
Tampa Bay Rays 33-38 10
Texas Rangers 33-38 13
Toronto Blue Jays 35-36 10
Washington Nationals 35-36 11
In 71 games all the other teams in Major League Baseball had at least 5 1 game losing streaks. 1 game losing streaks are a key to any kind of sustained success. A 1 game losing streak means you can start inching back up in the win column. If its multiple losses are followed by a win or two and then followed by multiple losses you are never going to gain any momentum.
lack of momentum was certainly yjr case for the 2024 White Sox. This was partially because it took 72 games to finally stop the bleeding after a 1 game losing streak. By that tine they were 19-53. In the 90 games left in the season they would have needed to go 62-28 to get to .500. They did not go 62-28 in their last 90, They went 22-68 or .244 which was actually worse than the .263 winning percentage for the 1st 72 games.
Very few people including myself, expect the White Sox to be much better than they were last year. They may well lose 100 or more game s for the 3rd year in a row. One thing I will be looking at is if they can put a win or two together and then lose just 1 game before getting back in the win column. In fact I have a plan for a future Stats Sunday focusing on how long it takes each team to stop a losing streak at just one game. Hopefully the White Sox won't be the last team to achieve that this year.
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