The White Sox are 13-0 against Left Handed Starters, that’s good, right?

I really can't tell if the #WhiteSox are this good, or if they are just on a monster heater or both, but I hope it doesn't subside until November

— BeefLoaf 🥩 (@MrDelicious13) September 10, 2020

That tweet above shouldn’t matter to most of you. Enjoying the fucking ride is inevitably the way to go, but your man BeefLoaf, despite being a glass half full kinda guy, is a skeptic and contrarian and when I see something that looks too good to be true, I gotta dig in and take a look.

Here’s the White Sox batting line vs LHP coming into today…

It is well established that the White Sox smash LHP in a violent and unnatural way. Think of the way Hannibal Lecter attacks his victims, it’s calculated and horrific and absolute. Nobody gets away alive (well, one guy got away completely maimed). That’s what the White Sox do to LHP in 2020, they are 13-0 against Left Handed Starters. That’s impossible. Right?

Below is a list of the 13 game win streak, with date, team and pitcher for reference….

There’s probably a bunch of guys on this list you have never heard of, Jon Lester who is toast, Danny Duffy and 40 year old Rich Hill. Not the most spectacular list of southpaws around, but you gotta smash who you gotta smash, right? I agree that bludgeoning bums is par for the course for a good team, definitely not as good as the White Sox are doing it this year (again, revert to the tweet that opens the blog), but still you should beat these types of guys mostly.

Above are the season stats for this crew. What an embarrassment to left handedness. I bet if you are a lefty sitting at home, on the pot, reading this you want to spit in these guys fucking faces!! Calm down. This crew drags a 5.26 ERA to the ball yard on a daily basis. The totality of left handed mlb pitchers in 2020 have a 4.50 ERA, that’s three quarters of a run difference, now to be fair, there is some feedback loops in this data. Meaning, the White Sox clobbering these palookas has helped inflate their terrible numbers, while the rest of the league that isn’t as bad as these dudes didn’t catch any (or at least as much) shrapnel from the Pale Hose.

However, we are just looking at the average in this instance, what if we turned this around a bit and looked at what the White Sox might face in the playoffs, who are a reasonable list of left handed pitchers that the White Sox could see starting a game against them in October.

I know what you are thinking, there is NO FUCKING WAY the Twins will start Rich Hill vs the White Sox during a playoff series, you are probably right. Also, I didn’t realize J.A. Happ was still in the league after last year, but he’s serving up a mediocre brand of serviceablenesses. IRREGARDLESS…this crew has a 3.93 ERA combined, a good half run lower than league average and over a run lower than the collection of scrubs the White Sox have destroyed.

In summary, I think the White Sox are getting the benefit of some especially bad Lefties taking the hill against them, a trend that probably won’t continue into October, and a trend that probably won’t continue into 2021 and beyond as they’ll get a more homogeneous mixture in future seasons as the schedule won’t be quite as weighted towards this grouping of teams. Are the White Sox good or on a heater? I’ll say both. I GOT GOOD NEWS!!!

Below is the White Sox batting line vs RHP…it’s well above average!!

That 109 wRC+ is with Nomar Mazara being a top 3 left handed bat on the roster and Yoan Moncada having an illness riddled season. Imagine if the White Sox actually tried to put a strong hitter in RF? The White Sox might not be as good as their 2020 pace indicates, but this offense is definitely one to be reckoned with in the future, even if they don’t get to pummel Matt Boyd several times a season.

-BeefLoaf