Anything worth doing is worth doing, and when losing the game, the 2024 White Sox is the grandmother of the art. Of course, the Cleveland Spiders in 1899 had a poor record, but it was a deliberately terrible team, thanks to a host sending the club’s great players to another team they own, St. Louis perfect. The 1962 Mets led Sox by winning percentage, but in the expansion draft, the team's advantage was that their talent was too short and became an expansion club in their first year, similar to the toilet paper aisle in the grocery store. Last year's White Sox only removed from the .500 record for only two years and based on all accounts, ownership and front desk intentions to really win the game. However, a great record is needed to be forged in the fire of the new Challenger, and this season, two early competitors emerged: the Colorado Rockies and the durability of the reign itself.
The cold starts in the Rockies and is currently the leader with a record of 4-20. For a team with a win rate of 0.200, Colorado received some unexpected pitching performances, two main pieces were former Cy Young contenders Germán Márquez and Top Prospect Prospect Chase Dollander. The Rockies' offensive aspect is amazing, with the team hitting .213/.287/.345, while the average distance per game is barely three points. There are at least 20 cricket courts for 14 bats, with more than half of them having WRC+ below 70. Ryan McMahon performed particularly poorly. The Third Baseman already had 39 strikeouts, thanks to the out-of-area contact rate below 20%, which is such a banana that looks like a programming failure that proves that our existence is actually a simulation.
Zips believes the Rockies will struggle in 2025, but not to that level. The system's predictions were only 99 losses, and there was even a (very) small chance to make Colorado a playoff team. After Thursday’s race, I made a complete reshuffle of the 2025 season to predict what the Rockies could achieve if they couldn’t put the wheels back on the cart:
Zips Win Projection – Colorado Rockies
| victory | percentage | accumulation |
|---|---|---|
| 28 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 29 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 30 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 31 | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| 32 | 0.1% | 0.2% |
| 33 | 0.1% | 0.3% |
| 34 | 0.2% | 0.5% |
| 35 | 0.3% | 0.7% |
| 36 | 0.5% | 1.2% |
| 37 | 0.7% | 1.8% |
| 38 | 0.8% | 2.7% |
| 39 | 1.0% | 3.7% |
| 40 | 1.5% | 5.2% |
| 41 | 1.8% | 7.0% |
| 42 | 2.0% | 8.9% |
| 43 | 2.6% | 11.5% |
| 44 | 2.9% | 14.4% |
| 45 | 3.3% | 17.7% |
| 46 | 4.0% | 21.7% |
| 47 | 4.1% | 25.8% |
| 48 | 4.4% | 30.2% |
| 49 | 4.7% | 34.9% |
| 50 | 5.2% | 40.1% |
| 51 | 5.0% | 45.0% |
| 52 | 5.4% | 50.4% |
| 53 | 5.2% | 55.6% |
| 54 | 5.1% | 60.7% |
| 55 | 5.0% | 65.7% |
| 56 | 4.7% | 70.4% |
| 57 | 4.3% | 74.7% |
| 58 | 4.1% | 78.8% |
| 59 | 3.7% | 82.5% |
| 60 | 3.3% | 85.7% |
| 61 | 2.8% | 88.5% |
| 62 | 2.4% | 91.0% |
| 63 | 1.9% | 92.9% |
| 64 | 1.7% | 94.6% |
| 65 | 1.3% | 95.9% |
| 66 | 1.1% | 97.1% |
| 67 | 0.9% | 97.9% |
| 68 | 0.6% | 98.6% |
| 69 | 0.4% | 99.0% |
| 70 | 0.4% | 99.4% |
| 71 | 0.2% | 99.6% |
| 72 | 0.2% | 99.8% |
| 73 | 0.1% | 99.9% |
| 74 | 0.1% | 99.9% |
| 75 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 76 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 77 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 78 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 79 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 80 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 81 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
Naturally, by April, the team's playoff probability is very small. In the pre-season forecast, the Rockies had only 1.5% chance of matching 121 losses and had a 0.8% chance of setting a new record. So while this feat is at least reasonable, it is a long-term vision. The odds are still strong – it's really hard to lose so many games – but seven and five percent are real earl numbers.
The biggest obstacle to Colorado's pursuit of infamous is the real reason for hope when looking at the list. As mentioned above, Márquez and Dollander are terrible, but at least there are still some chances to get back to his position, which is the elite prospect. Michael Toglia is a triple-level first baseman, not a pitcher Dragoon in the lineup and will surely lower his -6 war pace. Ezequiel Tovar is better than that, and guys like Zac Veen and Adael Amador have legal room for upside. The Rockies have a lot of savings at all, which could lead to more positive results this year. The starting point makes the Rockies match the 2024 Sox futile, but when you watch Colorado, your eyes aren't forced to stare in the middle of the Stygian Maw, here, nothing can make your icy gaze fear from the forgetfulness and Chris Davis' contract.
But hey, we still have OGS, the White Sox. For these purposes, they were half as good as the Rockies in 6-19, but they were fundamentally a worse roster if they believed the Zips. Chicago's 52-110 is expected to enter the 2025 season as the worst projection Zips ever (not counting last year's prediction of the Triple-A team's performance in the pro):
Zips Win Projection – Chicago White Socks
| win | percentage | accumulation |
|---|---|---|
| 28 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 29 | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| 30 | 0.1% | 0.2% |
| 31 | 0.2% | 0.4% |
| 32 | 0.3% | 0.7% |
| 33 | 0.4% | 1.1% |
| 34 | 0.6% | 1.7% |
| 35 | 0.9% | 2.6% |
| 36 | 1.3% | 3.9% |
| 37 | 1.5% | 5.4% |
| 38 | 1.9% | 7.3% |
| 39 | 2.4% | 9.7% |
| 40 | 2.8% | 12.4% |
| 41 | 3.4% | 15.8% |
| 42 | 3.7% | 19.6% |
| 43 | 4.1% | 23.6% |
| 44 | 4.7% | 28.3% |
| 45 | 5.1% | 33.4% |
| 46 | 5.3% | 38.7% |
| 47 | 5.5% | 44.2% |
| 48 | 5.4% | 49.6% |
| 49 | 5.3% | 54.9% |
| 50 | 5.1% | 60.0% |
| 51 | 5.0% | 65.0% |
| 52 | 4.7% | 69.7% |
| 53 | 4.4% | 74.1% |
| 54 | 4.2% | 78.3% |
| 55 | 3.7% | 82.0% |
| 56 | 3.2% | 85.2% |
| 57 | 2.9% | 88.1% |
| 58 | 2.5% | 90.6% |
| 59 | 2.0% | 92.7% |
| 60 | 1.6% | 94.3% |
| 61 | 1.5% | 95.8% |
| 62 | 1.2% | 96.9% |
| 63 | 0.8% | 97.7% |
| 64 | 0.7% | 98.4% |
| 65 | 0.5% | 98.9% |
| 66 | 0.4% | 99.2% |
| 67 | 0.3% | 99.5% |
| 68 | 0.2% | 99.7% |
| 69 | 0.1% | 99.8% |
| 70 | 0.1% | 99.9% |
| 71 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 72 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 73 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 74 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 75 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 76 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 77 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 78 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 79 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 80 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| 81 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
Zips offers the White Sox a 16% chance to match the total losses last year, and the likelihood of beating it is 12% better than Judge Aaron Homer. What makes the White Sox and Rockies different in the Pantheon of a bad team is that the socks are currently configured in a way that greatly limits their ascent. For a rebuilding team, the starting lineup is surprising and established. Nick Maton, Michael A. Currently, injured players like Josh Rojas and Mike Tauchman are on the same boat. Sox has built a triple-level team with a roster that looks like one. If you're out and are behind in baseball news and someone prints this roster with the Charlotte Knights at the top, will it be immediately considered wrong?
This is not to say that no player has room for improvement. Actually, I like the returns of Garrett Crochet's Sox and think that Kyle Teel, Chase Meidroth and Braden Montgomery can all have futures in the profession. Shane Smith as a starter has been a highlight for me, and I completely dig out the popular start of Brandon Eisert as a junk-dumped Doug Jones-sque Reliever, a prototype you often see in modern baseball. However, the prospects won’t stand out anytime soon, and there are too few interesting pitchers to give the team a real short-term optimism.
There's even a chance Both The team tied or set a record, with the Rockies and the White Sox tied the record in at least 1% of the simulations and both beat the record in 0.6% of the run. It's too early to know if we're real losses or if only two usually bad teams are coming, it's September, but the dream… dark.
