The White Sox begin a six-game road trip in Texas tonight and are currently on a three-game winning streak, winning the team's first series of the year against the Seattle Mariners.
The White Sox offense simply doesn't make sense.
There is really no other way to put it.
The team is batting a Major League-worst .222 to go along with the seventh worst number of runs scored, sitting on 74.
Okay, that makes sense.
However, the White Sox are currently third in MLB in home runs at 26, one behind the Arizona Diamondbacks and two behind the Toronto Blue Jays, and tied for first with the Tampa Bay Rays for stolen bases with 21.
So the White Sox are hitting a lot of home runs and stealing a lot of bases, but have an awful average and can't score?
What is missing?
Oh right, that whole on-base percentage thing. The White Sox have the worst OBP in the American League and are only ahead of the Houston Astros in all of baseball.
Out of the White Sox's 26 home runs, 17 of them have been with no runners on base.
Paul Konerko and Andruw Jones have 14 home runs, 10 of which have been solo shots. Juan Pierre and Gordon Beckham are simply not getting on base before the big bats. Then after the big bats, the rest of the lineup is simply doing nothing.
The White Sox have walked 63 times. The Minnesota Twins have walked an MLB-best 96 times. Second in MLB in walks are the Detroit Tigers with 92.
Who sits atop the American League Central? Those Twins, with the second best record in MLB, and those Tigers.
Another aspect that is hurting the Sox and this genius Ozzie ball thing is the fact the team is completely mediocre in stealing percentage. Lots of stolen bases isn't necessarily a good thing.
The White Sox have been caught seven times out of the 28 attempts, leaving them at a mediocre 75 percent stolen base percentage.
I'll take stealing 15 bases and being caught once to stealing 21 bases and being caught seven times.
Mix this random offense with a starting staff that has three pitchers above five ERAs and one pitcher at 4.56, and you have yourself a team struggling to get to .500.
Either the starting staff needs to get its act together or the offense needs to learn how to take pitches.
An offense likes this leaves no room for error for the starting staff.
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