Throughout the season the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball, all sorts of stuff. Last week we tried to figure out what MLB can do about all the pitching injuries. This week we're going to debate the league's worst team.
What's the worst team in baseball?
Dayn Perry: I have to say the White Sox. They lost 101 games last season despite playing an unbalanced schedule in baseball's worst division, and they traded away ace Dylan Cease going into the current season. The Chicago offense thus far has been impossibly listless, and that lineup is pretty banged up right now. Indeed, they're off to a terrible start. Obviously, they're not going to continue being this bad, but hopes for improvement should be limited. That's especially the case since the White Sox might slough off even more talent as we get closer to the trade deadline.
Matt Snyder: I'll go with the White Sox. The Rockies and Marlins (poor Expansion Class of 1993) will have something to say throughout the course of the season, the White Sox are establishing themselves as the drek of the dregs here. They've already been shut out six times before games start Wednesday and scored exactly one run three other times, meaning in more than half their games, they don't even score a second run. Their runs per game average is hovering around two. Luis Robert and Yoan Moncada are hurt. Oh, and they don't pitch well, either. There's a new front office in place, but one that hasn't operated a rebuild and isn't overseeing a strong farm system. There is, however, the same old worthless owner.
The franchise record for losses in a season is 106, which was accomplished by the 1970 squad featuring quality names like Tommy John, Wilbur Wood, Luis Aparicio and Carlos May. This team is worse and will break that record, possibly by a decent margin.
R.J. Anderson: There are some bad teams out there, but I have to agree that the White Sox are at the bottom of the barrel. That roster was wretched even before they lost Luis Robert, Yoán Moncada, and Eloy Jiménez to the injured list. It's no surprise they have the worst run differential in baseball (a more predictive statistic than won-lost record at this point in the year). It isn't because they've suffered a few blowout losses in a small sample: they've already lost five games by five or more runs.
Mike Axisa: I agree it's the White Sox, though the Rockies deserve a mention too. The pitching staff is the worst in baseball even after factoring in Coors Field, and there's not a whole lot to see offensively, either. The White Sox definitely have worse vibes than the Rockies, though. Every White Sox game looks absolutely miserable. I feel for those fans. They sat through a rebuild from 2013 to 2019 or so, and the reward was one division title, two postseason trips, and a 2-5 record in October. Now they're rebuilding again. Yuck.
