The White Sox have put behind a forgettable 1-4 start to the season by rattling off six-straight wins, the second longest active streak in the majors behind only the New York Yankees. During this stretch, we’ve seen the starting pitching slowly come around and the offense take care of business, despite some recent injuries that could continue to challenge the team’s depth moving forward.
Just how well do the Sox stack up compared to the rest of the competition? Here’s a look at where major media outlets placed the club in their power rankings at the beginning of the week.
Note: Many of these rankings were released on the morning of Monday, April 3rd.
MLB.com: 14
Conducted by Alyson Footer.
Previous Ranking: 19
Released on Monday, August 3rd.
ESPN: 15
“The Sox are living up to their billing as exciting — and unpredictable. Rookie center fielder Luis Robert is a whirlwind of power and speed, Eloy Jimenez is likewise off to a strong start, and rookie second baseman Nick Madrigal had four hits Sunday in his third big league game. The Sox remain too free-swinging, however, to have an elite offense (28th in the majors in walk rate), which means the pitching will have to rise up. Losing shortstop Tim Anderson to the injured list because of a groin strain will hurt over the next 10 days as well.” – ESPN staff
Previous Ranking: 17
Released on Monday, August 3rd.
CBS Sports: 11
“It was fun to see Nick Madrigal play the role of a throwback star on Sunday, going 4 for 5 with four singles. He has little power, doesn’t walk a ton and makes a lot of contact. He’ll have lots of these days, in addition to those where he grounds out four times.” – Matt Snyder
Previous Ranking: 19
Released on Monday, August 3rd.
The Athletic: 18
Conducted by Grant Brisbee. If you are subscribed to The Athletic, click here for further reasoning.
Previous Ranking: 17
Released on Monday, August 3rd.
Bleacher Report: 12
“A weekend series sweep of the Royals has moved the White Sox into the upper half of the rankings. The offense ranks fourth in the majors with a .797 OPS, and ace Lucas Giolito has rebounded nicely last week after a rocky start on Opening Day. The starting rotation as a whole remains the big X-factor, though, with an MLB-worst 7.04 ERA.” – Joel Reuter
Released on Monday, August 3rd.
Radio.com: 11
Conducted by Tim Kelly.
Released on Wednesday, August 5th.
As you can see, the White Sox are making some noise early on and creeping their way into the upper portion of many of these rankings. Should they continue to have similar success throughout the rest of this week against the Brewers and Indians at home, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see them break the top 10 in Monday’s next round of power rankings.
Check back early next week as we’ll provide another update on where the team stands.
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Featured Photo: White Sox/Twitter
ESPN is right in the lack of walks category. In fairness, they faced Berrios and the Indians for 3, so half their games at the time this was posted were against very good pitchers. Still, they got Grandal and EE to boost their walk rate and it hasn’t really happened much yet.
I’d love to see Madrigal put on about 10 lbs of muscle. Not enough to dramatically affect his speed or glovework, but enough to make some of these grounders find a hole and turn a couple more of his line drives into gappers.
I agree regarding Madrigal. I think his ability to find the gap will be key to his hitting success in future years. While he’s able to drop bloopers and line drives in certain places now, defenses will soon begin adjusting to take away some of these hits.