What if No one Acquired To Play the White Sox?

Regardless of notching two wins over their final six video games, the White Sox are flirting with historical past, and never the great form. As of this morning, Chicago stands 63 video games beneath .500, 42.5 video games again within the AL Central, and on tempo to complete 39-123. Out of compassion, I’ll chorus from reciting the document of the 1962 Mets, however the gamers from that crew who’re nonetheless with us are seemingly taking this time to get the champagne good and chilled. Laborious as it could be to imagine, the objective of this text is to not dunk on the White Sox. As an alternative, as we enter the house stretch of the season, I’d like to think about how they’ve affected the playoff image.

The White Sox have performed 25 of the opposite 29 groups within the league, and so they have distributed to these lucky franchises a internet whole of 63 victories in the identical method that an aged man on a park bench distributes bread to the legion of ravenous pigeons jockeying for place at his ft: indiscriminately. For a number of weeks now, I’ve been questioning whether or not the panorama would look totally different if these 25 groups by no means had the great fortune of taking part in the White Sox. Whom have the White Sox helped or harm essentially the most?

Let’s begin by checking every crew’s document towards the White Sox. It seems that eight of these 25 groups have swept the South Siders and 10 extra have a successful document towards them. Two groups have fought the Sox to a draw, 5 have a shedding document towards them, and 4 have but to play them. Right here’s a person breakdown.

The apparent winners listed below are the Twins and Royals, who’ve each completely annihilated their division rival, including 11 internet wins to every of their information. The Mariners have added 5 wins of their very own, and 5 totally different groups have netted 4. These groups would all be harm in a giant method if we have been to out of the blue erase their video games towards the White Sox. Of the 5 groups with a shedding document towards Chicago, two are fully out of competition, whereas three – the Braves, Cardinals, and Rays – are within the hunt for a Wild Card berth. However these are simply particular person information above. It’s extra revealing to take a look at how the general standings could be totally different if the league had performed with out a punching bag this season.

Beginning with divisional races, we are able to see that the Nationwide League could be largely unaffected, except for the West, the place the Dodgers would see their 4-game lead over the Padres and Diamondbacks drop to 2 and a couple of.5, respectively. Within the AL West, the Mariners would pay for his or her success towards Chicago, going from 1.5 video games again of the Astros to three.5. After I began writing this text yesterday, the Yankees trailed the Orioles for the lead within the AL East by half a recreation, and eradicating video games towards the White Sox would have reversed that state of affairs. Nonetheless, Baltimore’s loss yesterday, together with New York’s win over — after all — the White Sox, pushed the Yankees half a recreation forward anyway. (The Yankees play their closing recreation towards the White Sox tonight.)

Naturally, the AL Central would see an enormous shift. Now not buoyed by their 12-1 information towards the White Sox, the Twins would fall to simply 4 video games over .500, whereas the Royals would have a shedding document. Extra importantly, the Guardians, whose 5-5 document towards the White Sox signifies that they’ve misplaced extra video games to the South Siders than any crew in baseball, would see their divisional lead leap from 3.5 to 9 video games, the most important in baseball by an enormous margin. The dominos would maintain falling within the Wild Card races. Right here’s the NL.

Naturally, the NL would change lower than the AL. The truth is, erasing all White Sox video games would really solidify the place of the six groups at present in playoff place. The Padres would leap a half-game forward of the D-backs for the primary Wild Card spot. The Cardinals would keep the place they’re: 3.5 video games out of the final spot. Each the Mets and Giants, who haven’t but had the pleasure of going through the South Siders, would fall half a recreation additional away from that final Wild Card spot. In the meantime, the Cubs and Reds, who’ve each swept the White Sox, would fall from fringe contenders to full-on longshots.

Within the AL, there could be larger variations. The Guardians would personal the very best document in baseball and a two-game lead over the Yankees for the very best document within the AL. The Pink Sox would vault all the way in which into the second Wild Card spot, whereas the Twins would drop from the second spot to the third and see plenty of their margin for error eradicated. The Royals would go from possession of the ultimate Wild Card spot to being the third crew in line for it. The Rays, whose 2-4 document towards the White Sox is the worst in baseball, would out of the blue be tied with the Mariners, 1.5 video games behind the Twins for the ultimate Wild Card spot. That would depart six totally different groups inside 2.5 video games of the video games both method of the ultimate postseason berth, establishing a gloriously chaotic finish to the common season, with the playoff groups and matchups probably altering every day.

In any sport, the overall rule is that good groups beat up on the dangerous groups, then attempt to go a bit higher than .500 towards the opposite good groups. However baseball has extra randomness baked in, and for a crew just like the Rays, going 2-4 towards the White Sox could possibly be the distinction between making a playoff push and ready for subsequent yr. The Twins and Royals have to be really chagrined to know that they gained’t face Chicago once more for the remainder of the season. With out these enormous margins, the AL Wild Card race turns into a delightfully sloppy mess, whereas the Mets, Padres, and Giants can’t wait to lastly get their crack on the South Siders.

The White Sox aren’t simply combating to remain out of the historical past books. They’ve the prospect to play one of many extra unlikely spoilers the league has ever seen, with sequence towards the Mets, Orioles, Pink Sox, Guardians, Padres, and Giants nonetheless to return. The saying goes that you may solely play the crew in entrance of you. It’s not the fault of the Twins and Royals that they’ve made essentially the most of their encounters with the White Sox, and we would have to carry out some kind of forensic investigation to determine how the Guardians, who’re at present tied with the Dodgers for the very best document in baseball, managed to drop 5 video games to Chicago. Nonetheless, eradicating the Central’s favourite chew toy would make all the American League playoff image much more enjoyable.