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Chicago White Sox
Overall: 96
Title track: T35
Ownership: 103
Coaching: 122
Players: 90
Fan relations: 116
Affordability: 27
Stadium experience: 91
Bang for the buck: 78
Change from last year: -11
This spring, a baseball team in Chicago steamrolled through April and early May, winning at a .697 clip through game No. 33 on the backs of a gleaming sub-3.00 team ERA and a .300-plus OBP. And that team was not the Cubs! OK, it was. But it was also the White Sox, who played like world-beaters for the first five weeks of the season, only to let the world dole out beatings at their expense for the final 21. The Sox finished the year under .500 for the fourth straight time, then said goodbye to Robin Ventura, their all-time best third baseman-turned-beleaguered manager. It was ... not a winning formula in the AL Central (11 games out of the wild card) or the Ultimate Standings. The Sox rank No. 96 overall, the team's lowest ranking since 2004.
What's good
The expiration date on the White Sox's 2005 World Series-engendered goodwill still looms far off, at least according to Chicago's T35 showing in title track. (When your team lands in the postseason nine times since 1901, a long shelf life makes a sad kind of sense.) Besides championship runs, the Sox logged just one top-50 grade, in affordability. An average White Sox ticket ran fans $29.55, compared to their crosstown rival's $51.33. If you can't beat the Cubs on the field, beat them off of it!
What's bad
Ventura spent a decade on the South Side, where he collected five Gold Gloves and an All-Star berth from 1989-1998. But his success as a player in pinstripes did not translate to success as a skipper in pinstripes. In five seasons at the helm, Ventura won only 46 percent of his games, and this year -- with the organization expected to finally contend for the playoffs after a seven-year absence -- he fell short again, as his team finished 16½ games behind the AL Central-leading Indians. Ventura chose to not return to the White Sox, and as a parting gift, the fans gave him a No. 122 ranking in coaching, dead last among all four sports.
What's new
Who do the White Sox want to be? Which direction do they want to pursue? Do they go win-now mode and buffer their stable of stars with some high-priced free agents? Or do they burn the house down, offload Chris Sale and Jose Quintana and turn their focus to the farm? Owner Jerry Reinsdorf, at the helm since 1981, doesn't seem to know, and the fans' confidence in him has plummeted in turn. Chicago dropped 38 spots in ownership since last year, and Reinsdorf's wishy-washy handling of Ventura's departure this fall -- the Sox said they'd bring the manager back next season "if he wanted to return" -- won't do much to endear him to a restless fan base.
Next: New York Yankees | Full rankings