Chicago White Sox series preview: The fight for last place rages on

Two teams battling for the worst record in baseball will face off in Kansas City over the next four days. As if the baseball games between these two awful teams this weekend weren’t likely to be terrible enough already, there will be five games played in these four days.

What Hell hath man wrought?

Game times and pitching matchups are as follows:

• Thursday, April 26, 2018 - 7:15 PM CDT - Lucas Giolito versus Jake Junis
• Friday, April 27, 2018 - 7:15 PM CDT - Reynaldo López versus Danny Duffy (L)
• Saturday, April 28, 2018 - 1:15 PM CDT - Carson Fulmer versus Eric Skoglund (makeup of April 1)
• Saturday, April 28, 2018 - 7:15 PM CDT - TBA versus TBA
• Sunday, April 29, 2018 - 1:15 PM CDT - Chris Volstad versus Ian Kennedy

*All stats courtesy of FanGraphs and Baseball Reference

Most of the numbers up there tell what few stories there are that are worth telling in regards to this epic battle of who could not possibly do less. Lucas Giolito seems pathologically unable to throw strikes despite the massive upside suggested by his pedigree as one of the game’s former top prospects. Reynaldo López comes with a similar prospect pedigree as his fellow former Nationals farmhand, Giolito. López has been going through his own issues with free passes—though not nearly to the degree that the nephew of Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost has—but he’s ridden a .175 BABIP, 90.9 LOB%, and 6.9 HR/FB% to an unsustainable sub-2.00 ERA. Regression is a-comin’.

Saturday and Sunday’s games are still without listed starters on both team sites. The starters listed for Saturday’s first game should go at some point on Saturday, though they may not be facing each other. Clay Buchholz’s scheduled turn in Omaha’s rotation is Friday, and he needs to be added to the 25-man roster by May 1 if the Royals want to avoid him having the opportunity to opt out of his minor league deal. It stands to reason that he’ll make one of those starts for the Royals on Saturday. Who makes the second start for the White Sox will be updated here as that information makes itself known. Sunday should be Chris Volstad and Ian Kennedy should make their scheduled turns (provided Kennedy is healthy after leaving his last start). Volstad pitched most of the season in the pen for the White Sox. He just made his first start of the season on Tuesday, and aside from one rough 0.1 inning appearance in Oakland, he’s looked good thus far.

Daniel Palka’s picture on his MLB player page would seem to indicate that he is a stone-cold murderer.

Having established that Daniel Palka has most definitely taken lives, the Pail Hose shockingly have fielded a nearly league-average offense, notching a 99 wRC+ and .316 wOBA with a .237/.313/.397 triple-slash. Their 2.1 fWAR amassed ties them for 17th with the Rays. As a team, they’re striking out 25.9% of the time, the fifth-worst mark in the game, and their 0.31 BB/K ratio is the fourth-worst mark.