State of the Offense: How Is A Tire Fire So Boring?

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I originally started this State of the Offense "series" thinking that the offense would eventually wind up somewhere close to league average, but that after the first twenty games they were in an underperforming slump. Then after another twenty games...the offense was still terrible. As I write this, 63 games are in the books, and the White Sox just got shut out in back-to-back games, managing fewer than 4 hits in both of them.  At this point it's just a matter of marveling at how bad the offense is.

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State of the Offense: Still A Tire Fire

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I last addressed this issue on May 2nd. At the time the White Sox had played 20 games and they were sitting at 8-12.  The offense was vying with the comical tragedy that is the 2015 Philadelphia Phillies for the title of Worst Offense in MLB. At the time they were hitting .242/.292/.345 as a team. It's been another 20 games since then, and we've seen a streak that included the best baseball they played this year, Carlos Sanchez has replaced Micah Johnson, and well...let's check it out.

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State of the Offense: Tire Fire

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The White Sox are 8-12. Disappointing, but not a disaster, especially given how many things seem to have gone wrong already. And while Samardzija and Sale getting absolutely rocked got most of the attention - sharpened into extra focus given the circumstances of the Baltimore "Series" - the undisputed story of the season thus far must be how terrible the offense has been.

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Where Did The Offense Go?

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After a 10-8 victory over the Twins on August 1st, the White Sox pulled their record to 54-56. Since then they have gone 5-13 while scoring 3.17 runs per game during that time. Take out an 11-run outburst against the Toronto Blue Jays and they have managed 2.71 runs on average in the other 17 games. Offense is certainly down league-wide this year, but that kind of production just isn't good enough. For reference, the 99-loss 2013 White Sox averaged 3.69 runs per game. So what's going on? Isn't the cliché that bats heat up in the hotter summer months?

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