A Roster Built On Hope Is Costing The White Sox

The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers 8-0 on Saturday to improve their record to 40-43. Johnny Cueto was an artist on the mound, tossing eight shutout innings. He was able to work the ball around the zone with pinpoint precision, recording five strikeouts with no walks. But not even Johnny Cueto's masterclass in pitching could mask the stench of the team's last six games. The White Sox have gone 2-4 to start, arguably the season's most crucial stretch. The Detroit Tigers series was supposed to be a way to gain ground in the standings. Instead, the White Sox find themselves closer to fourth place than first. On Friday, the White Sox posted an embarrassing video of Tim Anderson finding out he was named a starter in the AL All-Star game. The rest of the locker room looks dead. It was a lifeless celebration with golf claps. The White Sox do not look like they are having fun. Having fun is why the White Sox were so successful last season. It's how they built their brand and the "Change The Game" mentality. Some of this falls on the culture created by Tony La Russa. But most of it falls on the roster construction. It is hard to have fun when you are losing baseball games, plain and simple. Despite the talent on this underachieving roster, it is still a flawed baseball team. No impactful free agent signings were made. Too much of the roster was built on hope. Rick Hahn hoped Kendall Graveman and Joe Kelly would address the bullpen issues last season. Kelly has a 9.95 ERA. He hoped the roster would stay healthy. Garrett Corchet, Lance Lynn, Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito, Eloy Jimenez, Tim Anderson, Aaron Bummer, Yasmani Grandal, and Danny Mendick have all missed significant time. He hoped that Gavin Sheets could provide the White Sox with left-handed power. Sheets currently has just six home runs and is a defensive liability in right field. They hoped Yoan Moncada would return to his 2019 form after two down years in 2020 and 2021. Moncada is struggling to the tune of a .188 batting average. Hahn hoped AJ Pollock would be the piece they needed to mask their flaws in the right field. Pollock is on pace for career lows offensively across the board. This is what happens when you play it cheap and hope things happen instead of making them happen. The White Sox have a top-five batting average but rank 26th in home runs. As a team, they go roughly 43 at-bats per home run hit. They are also in the bottom ten in OPS, GIDP, and runs scored. The pitching staff doesn't provide much reason for optimism at this point. The White Sox are 21st in baseball with a 4.10 team ERA. White Sox pitchers have allowed the eighth-most runs in baseball and fifth in walks. Defensively the White Sox have been atrocious. Their 55 errors are the fifth most in the MLB. Despite the roster flaws, the White Sox should not be this bad. This team won the Division last season with ease. Making this even more frustrating is that there are no answers. "Honestly, it's hard to explain," AJ Pollock told reporters. "It's not really our job to explain, we've got to go out there, and we've gotta fix stuff. We've gotta put good routines out there, and keep working, and just hope it turns." Unfortunately, for Pollock and the White Sox hoping has not worked out too well for them this season.