The Chicago White Sox are really starting James Shields Opening Day!

2018 White Sox are in need of major league talent

The 2018 version of the Chicago White Sox are barely the vision of what they can and will be in the future.  This is a team with youthful talent that is not at the big league level yet. They are a group built to dismantle. They are several years from contending, but this year's version is just talent deficient. When James Shields is your opening day starter, that tells you all you need to know. However, let's look at it deeper.

The offense projects 29th, there are only 30 teams! 

They have only 2 batters that project with any significant offensive contributions for 2018. They are circled in red.1B Jose Abreu shows up with 19.6 OFF (RAA). He ranks above average. Avasail Garcia comes in with 6.0 OFF. He ranks average. There are 6 players highlighted. They are negative OFF players and costing the team wins! The rule of thumb is that for every 10 OFF (RAA) there is 1 win. CHW has 5 players costing them wins at or above 1 individually! Even with Abreu and Garcia earning them 2.5 wins, the team total shows -8.7 wins! 

The pitching projects 29th. I guess they did not want to show up the offense.

It is worth noting that Carlos Rodon is out for half the season. He is their best starting pitcher. Look at the highlighted areas. They have 6 of their 9 starters with a projected ERA over 5.00 and a team total over 5.00! They get no support from the relief group as they have only 2 pitchers under 4.00 projected FIP. In this case, does it really matter if 5.36 ERA James Shields is the opening day pitcher when the other veteran guy Gonzalez is 5.19 and the remainder are youngsters with no track record? This team will need to score runs to overcome the pitching and as we have seen, that will be unrealistic to imagine. The future may be bright but 2018 is almost as dark as it can get.