Can the White Sox be this bad? Outside of DH Jim Thome's .281 AVG, no other current regular is hitting higher than 2B Tadahito Iguchi's .257. That 5th round pick on Jermaine Dye got you 10 HRs with a putrid .216 AVG. The brilliance of passing on the most-hyped firstbasemen and grabbing Paul Konerko in the 9th round? 9 HRs and a .244 AVG.
But it may be the best time to buy now. MSM reports are emerging about how bad the White Sox are and how various pre-season methodologies predicted this. There is no better way to cement facts than having MSM prognostications come true!
A common way to sniff out buy-low players is to check for abnormally low BABIPs. With the assumption the player will return to league averages, you grab him and get all upside! Could the same thing work for entire teams?
The White Sox's team BABIP is an astoundingly low .257. The next worst one is the Cardinals .281! The best is the Tigers at .325. The MLB average is almost exactly equi-distant from the Card and Tigers at .298. And the White Sox are 24 points lower the the Cards.
This screams, "BUY LOW!"
| TEAM | BABIP |
|---|---|
| Chicago Sox | 0.2568 |
| St. Louis | 0.2806 |
| Cincinnati | 0.2815 |
| Houston | 0.2838 |
| Arizona | 0.2838 |
| Oakland | 0.2863 |
| LA Dodgers | 0.2864 |
| Toronto | 0.2869 |
| San Francisco | 0.2875 |
| Texas | 0.2891 |
| San Diego | 0.2896 |
| Milwaukee | 0.2921 |
| Washington | 0.2931 |
| Pittsburgh | 0.2943 |
| Baltimore | 0.2949 |
| National League | 0.2957 |
| Minnesota | 0.2962 |
| Kansas City | 0.2971 |
| Major League Baseball | 0.2981 |
| American League | 0.3004 |
| Philadelphia | 0.3023 |
| Boston | 0.3032 |
| Chicago Cubs | 0.3046 |
| Atlanta | 0.3074 |
| NY Mets | 0.3089 |
| Seattle | 0.3099 |
| Tampa Bay | 0.311 |
| Colorado | 0.3132 |
| LA Angels | 0.3133 |
| NY Yankees | 0.3135 |
| Florida | 0.314 |
| Cleveland | 0.3194 |
| Detroit | 0.3245 |
Unless the trends in HR Park factors are reflective of a systematic decline in ability. What happened to U.S. Cellular Field as a great HR ballpark? The park factors are 1.402 in 2004, 1.375 in 2005, 1.307 in 2006 and just 1.148 in 2007.