Yeah, this team will lose a lot, the thinking went. But they won't be so self-destructive. They'll play clean, at least.
That hasn't totally been the case through the first twelve games.
Yes, the fundamentals are better, though not perfect and not where they need to be. And yes, the lack of run-scoring will make a lot of things look worse than they are. But the Sox are still struggling to win, and the bullpen, which was a problem last year, bears a lot of the blame.
Perhaps this fan is just frustrated -- the Sox looked frisky in the first series, despite dropping two of three to the Los Angeles Angels, but a bullpen meltdown against the Minnesota Twins on April 1st cost the team a chance to win a series against a division rival.
Another bullpen meltdown allowed the Detroit Tigers to sweep the Sox, and yet another one cost the Sox a 1-0 game against the Cleveland Guardians.
The starting pitching has been excellent -- better than one would expect on a team expected to dwell in the cellar all season long. The offense wasn't expected to bring much thunder, but it's likely to improve in warmer weather, especially if Andrew Benintendi can fight through injuries and Andrew Vaughn can return to form.
Yet, this team is on pace for under 40 wins.
There is good news, of course -- new manager Will Venable seems well-liked and respected, and so far his tactical choices have been reasonable. The clubhouse seems swept clean of toxic individuals. And the sample size is small and it's early. The Sox could get a few winning streaks and get back to a more respectable pace, if not, playoff competition.
So yeah, perhaps any doom and gloom is a residual reaction from 2024. The Sox pass the eye test much better despite a similarly horrid start. And if the bullpen was even baseline competent, they'd have four or five wins instead of just two.
There's no reason to overreact to any bad (or good) start through the first twelve games of any given baseball season, and even if the Sox started 10-2 instead of 2-10, we all know they'd likely be heading for 100 losses at season's end. This is a rebuilding team with few stars -- Luis Robert Junior might be the only one -- and given how dire the roster situation was after the previous rebuild failed, it was always going to take another year or two to get back to contending.
There may be an element of Sox-fan frustration here that carries over from the failed rebuild of 2017-2023 -- we're just tired of waiting to be competitive and seeing a start like this sucks away what little optimism we had that things were trending in the right direction.
But, again, the record is just one aspect, and the Sox do seem to at least have a better grasp of fundamentals and the proper way to play. The new manager seems to be the right guy to shepherd this team towards eventual contention. The problems are simply a talent deficit -- and some injuries -- and eventually, hopefully, young prospects will grow into talented veterans.
Although the first week has shown little difference between the two, the 2025 Chicago White Sox isn't as bad as the 2024 edition. We just need to remind ourselves of that.