3 MLB Teams to Fade Following the All-Star Break (White Sox, Rockies, Padres Should Stumble)

Michael Jackson's song, "Heal The World," features the lyrics "there is a place in your heart, and I know that it is love."

But I'm here to call that a bunch of baloney. I prefer the lyrics from "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," when the King of Pop says "You love to pretend that you're good, when you're always up to no good."

I want you to embrace the hate in your heart as we approach the second half of the MLB season. It's fun to hate things in sports, right? Especially when you find a few teams to fade. There's nothing like rooting for human failure, and these three teams deserve to be faded following the All-Star Break:

3 MLB Teams to Fade Following the All-Star Break

Chicago White Sox

I've been the conductor of the "No, the White Sox actually suck" train all season and I'm not jumping off the tracks now. A trendy pick to win the American League pennant, Chicago sits at .500 despite playing in MLB's worst division and is squandering what should be an excellent roster.

Listed at +2000 to win the AL Pennant and +4000 to win the World Series at WynnBET Sportsbook, the White Sox are my favorite "good" team to fade moving forward.

Let's start with Tony La Russa, who is the worst manager in all of MLB for my money. You know things are bad when even your own broadcast booth can't make sense of your decisions.

Between the confounding choice to continuously intentionally walk hitters in favorable counts, mystifying bullpen management and reports he's lost the locker room, it's clear to everyone except Jerry Reinsdorf that La Russa is, to quote Kendall Roy from Succession, a malignant presence.

The lineup struggles against right-handed pitchers, the rotation features precisely one starter that ranks above the 48th percentile in expected ERA, the bullpen has the sixth-worst ERA in the American League, and the defense has the second-fewest Outs Above Average, per MLB Statcast.

On top of all of that, the club has actually been lucky. The White Sox have the third-highest BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) in MLB, so we can expect the offense to regress moving forward. As frustrations mount and its postseason hopes grow dimmer, Chicago's misery only figures to grow throughout the second half of the season.

Colorado Rockies

No one expects the Rockies to make a magical postseason run. WynnBET has them at +50000 to win the National League Pennant and +100000 to win the World Series, after all, but bettors can still profit by fading them the rest of the way.

Despite one of the easiest schedules in MLB so far, the Rockies sit at 43-50 and figure to be much worse in the coming months.

Colorado has the highest BABIP in the league. While part of that is due to playing at the hitter-friendly Coors Field, they're one of the luckiest lineups on the road as well. Thus, we can expect their hitters to negatively regress.

Their defense is among the worst in MLB, their bullpen is a disaster, and every single member of their rotation is in the 28th percentile or worse in expected ERA.

As a cherry on top, the Rockies have baseball's most difficult schedule moving forward, per Tankathon's Strength of Schedule metric.

With upcoming series against the Brewers, Dodgers, Padres, Cardinals, and Giants, I'll be looking to fade Colorado early and often after the All-Star Break concludes.

San Diego Padres

Fernando Tatis Jr. has been cleared to start swinging the baseball bat, but his potential return is too little and too late, in my eyes.

San Diego overachieved at the beginning of the season and is crashing back to Earth. The Padres are 12-18 over their last 30 and sit at 52-42 on the year. But, their lineup is struggling in a huge way and their pitching staff is starting to fall apart.

With the 26th-highest OPS against right-handed pitchers and 24th-highest OPS against lefties over the last month, San Diego's batters have been atrocious. Yu Darvish is the team's only starting pitcher who has played well recently, and even he has a 4.04 ERA this month.

Their defense rates well by most advanced metrics, but anchors like the obscenely-overpaid Eric Hosmer continue to cost them games.

With a mediocre bullpen and the third-highest BABIP on the road, the Padres' luck appears to be running out quickly. They've got upcoming series against the Mets, Twins, Dodgers, Giants, and Guardians, and I think they'll quickly fall out of the playoff picture over the next couple of months.

WynnBET has San Diego listed at +700 to win the NL Pennant and +1500 to win the World Series, but I have no faith in the franchise's ability to stay afloat.

Follow all of Joe Summers' betting picks here.