MLB: 5 teams who need to finish May strong
By Robby Sabo
Chicago White Sox, AL Central
With a record of 10-15, no MLB team has played fewer games than the Chicago White Sox. This means they’ll have plenty of opportunity to catch those Royals, Tigers and very surprising Twins.
Listen, even if you’re not a believer of the new look Sox (as I raise my hand), you can’t argue this club has talent.
It hasn’t been all bad for Chicago. Considering they lost their first four of the year, their record comes out on the other side as average. It’ll be the rest of this month that’ll allow them to make up some ground.
In order, the White Sox play the Reds, Brewers, Athletics, Indians, Twins, Blue Jays, Orioles and Astros to close out the month. Only the incredibly shocking Twins and Astros have winning records. Toronto also qualifies at 16-15, but who’s counting.
This schedule is ready made for a strong finish to May.
The problem they’ve faced is the notion that slugger Jose Abreu is too heavily relied upon.
Abreu’s stat-line on the season – five home runs, 16 runs batted in and .278 batting average – is nowhere near the magic he pulled off a season ago to start the year. If he’s not going well, then Chicago, as a club, follows suit.
The only other hitter on the team who’s hit multiple home runs is Adam LaRoche, who’s belted three of them. This has led to a team batting average of .243, good enough for 18th in the majors.
They’ll have the opportunity to get the bats going against some poor pitching for the remainder of the month. For their sake, they better capitalize to help out a pitching staff who has simply not gotten the job done to this point.
Next: Number 3