Whipped Cream Difficulties

The NFL loser update won’t post until Tuesday. (0-3 Tennessee plays the early Monday night game.)

But the MLB season mostly wrapped up today.

How did the White Sox do?

Shockingly well down the stretch. They swept the LA Angels Tuesday-Thursday of last week, and won two out of three against the Detroit Tigers (who ESPN had as heavy favorites for all three games). Where was this team earlier in the season?

But they did manage to drop one to Detroit, and you know what that means…

…their final record was 41-121, breaking the mark set by the 1962 Mets, and making them arguably the worst team in the modern (1901 and later) era of baseball.

“arguably”? Well, 121 losses in a season is a record. But 41-121 works out to a winning percentage of .253. That comes in fifth on Wikipedia’s list of worst MLB teams if you sort by percentage. Ahead of the Sox are:

• The 1916 Philadelphia Athletics, .235 (36-117)
• The 1935 Boston Braves, .248 (38-115)
• The 1962 Mets, .250 (40-120)
• The 1904 Washington Senators, .252 (38-113)

Since the 20th century, the number of games in a Major League Baseball season has remained relatively consistent, with each team playing between 150 and 162 games. From 1920-1960, each team in the American League and National League played 154 games a season. In 1961, each American League team played a 162-game schedule. In 1962, the National League teams also added eight games to the schedule. Each of the 30 MLB teams today continues to play a 162-game schedule.

So what’s the best way to determine the worst? Sheer number of losses, which puts the 2024 Sox at the top of the heap? Or does it make more sense to use winning percentage, which evens out the fluctuations cased by the variable number of games per season over the past 123 years, and by some games being cancelled and not made up? (If you notice, none of those numbers adds up to 154 or 162. I haven’t looked at the other records, but as I understand it, one of the 1962 Mets games was a tie, so it should be 40-120-1, and one was rained out and not made up.)

I don’t know. But I think in any case, the achievement of the 2024 White Sox is worth celebrating, even if they didn’t remove all doubt about who is really the worst. There’s always next year.

The Chicago White Sox have now lost 120 games, tying the 1962 Mets.

I plan to post a longer update on Tuesday with the NFL loser update.

Final score of today’s game: White Sox 3, Baltimore 13.

The White Sox are currently 31-108 and have lost their last 11 games. 31-108 puts them at a .223 (heh!) winning percentage, which projects out to nearly 126 losses this season. Over the weekend, they set a franchise record for most losses in a season.

At this point, with 23 games left in the season, the Sox will have to win 12 of those just to finish at 119 losses and miss tying the modern MLB record for futility. That would be a winning percentage of .521 in the stretch.

The Chicago White Sox lost their 100th game on Sunday.

In the modern era, only the 1916 Philadelphia A’s, who were 29-100-1, reached 100 losses in fewer games than the White Sox.

The Sox are currently 31-100, for a .237 winning percentage. Projected out, that comes to 123 losses.

Put another way, in order to go 43-119, and miss tying the record set by the 1962 Mets, the Sox will have to go 12-19 in their remaining games, for a .387 winning percentage. They play Detroit at home tonight: Detroit is favored about 55% – 45%.

Sometime over the weekend – I’m not sure if it was Saturday or Sunday – the Chicago White Sox became the first (and so far only) team to be mathematically eliminated from post-season play.

The Sox are currently 30-95, for a .240 winning percentage, and are currently 42.5 games out of first in the AL Central. A .240 winning percentage projects out to 123 losses.

For them to lose only 119 games (which would make them not as bad as the 1962 Mets) they will have to win 13 out of the remaining 37 games, for a .351 winning percentage over the rest of the season.

They play in San Francisco tonight. SF is roughly a 70-30 favorite.