At the
81-game mark back in July, I went through the 25-man roster's stats and doubled them to see how it would look if their first halves matched their second.
The
results are in, obviously, so I went through the charts and color-coded which categories players improved in, and in which categories they declined.
As you might expect with a 33-41 record, you're going to see a lot of red.
Hitters are coded as such (
bold indicates significant increase/decrease):
- Green = Raw total higher than listed
- Red = Raw total lower
- Black = Raw total the same
- Blue = Not applicable
| Player | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | K | SB | ? |
| Anderson | 330
| 46 | 58 | 14 | 0 | 10 | 36 | 40
| 92 | 4 | ↑
|
Cintron
| 270 | 30 | 78 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 32 | 10 | 24 | 16 | ↑ |
| Crede | 554 | 94 | 168 | 32 | 0 | 32 | 114 | 28
| 52 | 0 | ↔ |
| Dye | 502 | 96 | 156 | 24 | 2 | 40 | 114 | 72 | 106 | 6 | ↓ |
| Gload | 108 | 10 | 30 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 2 | 14 | 2 | ↑ |
| Iguchi | 480
| 112 | 170 | 26 | 0 | 18 | 76 | 46 | 132 | 10 | ↔ |
| Konerko | 582
| 102 | 184 | 30 | 0 | 40 | 124 | 64 | 98 | 2
| ↓ |
| Mackowiak | 298 | 38 | 86 | 16 | 2 | 4 | 24 | 36 | 62 | 0 | ↑ |
| Ozuna | 176 | 36 | 76 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 26 | 8 | 16 | 10 | ↓ |
| Pierzynski | 508 | 60 | 166 | 34 | 0 | 10 | 52 | 24 | 62 | 0 | ↑ |
Podsednik
| 558 | 114 | 154 | 32 | 12 | 4 | 64 | 72 | 98 | 50 | ↑ |
| Thome | 514
| 126
| 150
| 20 | 0 | 54 | 136 | 108 | 158
| 0 | ↔ |
| Uribe | 482 | 58 | 114 | 26 | 4 | 18 | 74
| 14 | 78 | 0 | ↑ |
Widger
| 128
| 12 | 28 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 14
| 16
| 30 | 0 | ↑ |
For pitchers, they're coded slightly different since it's better to have lower totals in categories (
bold indicates significant departure from projection):
- Green: Fared better than total
- Red: Fared worse than total
- Black: Fared the same
- Blue: Not applicable
| Player | W-L
| ERA
| IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | K | SV | ? |
| Buehrle | 18-6
| 3.86 | 233 | 250
| 118 | 100 | 30 | 56
| 102 | 0 | ↔ |
Contreras
| 16-0
| 3.54 | 193 | 174
| 78 | 76 | 18 | 54 | 136 | 0 | ↔ |
| Cotts | 2-4 | 2.87 | 63 | 52 | 20 | 20 | 10 | 18
| 40 | 2 | ↔ |
| Garcia | 20-8
| 4.65 | 205 | 224 | 108 | 106 | 38 | 52 | 120 | 0 | ↔ |
| Garland | 14-6 | 5.60 | 203 | 242 | 126 | 126 | 38 | 50 | 108 | 0 | ↑ |
Jenks
| 4-2
| 2.41 | 75 | 56 | 20
| 20 | 4 | 22 | 86 | 50 | ↑ |
| McCarthy | 6-8
| 4.14
| 83 | 78 | 38 | 38 | 8 | 26 | 56 | 0 | ↑ |
| Montero | 2-0
| 5.14
| 28
| 30 | 20 | 16 | 6 | 4 | 14 | 0 | ↑ |
| Politte | 2-4
| 7.94 | 45 | 70 | 42
| 40 | 14 | 24 | 22 | 0 | ↓ |
| Riske | 0-2
| 2.60 | 35 | 26 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 22 | 0 | ↔ |
Thornton
| 6-2
| 3.71 | 53 | 40 | 22 | 22 | 8
| 22 | 54 | 0 | ↑ |
| Vazquez | 16-8
| 5.15
| 203
| 224 | 108 | 106 | 20 | 50 | 164 | 0 | ↑ |
From the colors, it's pretty obvious how the top of the order screwed up the offense. Tadahito Iguchi and Jim Thome were hot and cold at different times; Scott Podsednik was frigid altogether. Even with Jermaine Dye continuing to hit the cover off the ball and Paul Konerko, Joe Crede and A.J. Pierzynski experiencing less-than-expected tail-offs, runs were down across the board.
Pitching-wise, the only thing that surprised me was how bad Bobby Jenks was in the second half. The failures of Brandon McCarthy and Neal Cotts and the underwhelming performances by David Riske down the stretch covered it up a little. A 4.00 ERA out of a closer won't exactly anchor a bullpen. Thank God for Matt Thornton, and yes, I know
I was wrong about him.