How just about everything has gone wrong for the White Sox so far

Jake Peavy has struggled more than expected to start 2010. (AP/Chuck Burton)

Unless, of course, my nine all-stars fall victim to nine separate misfortunes and are unable to play tomorrow. But that will never happen. Three misfortunes, that's possible. Seven misfortunes, there's an outside chance. But nine misfortunes? I'd like to see that!

Kenny Williams probably feels a lot like Monty Burns right now. Sure, Williams wasn't trying to put together an All-Star team like Burns tried to do, but the Sox have had just about everything go wrong to start 2010 outside their third baseman being knocked unconscious in an argument at a bar about who England's greatest prime minister was.

On the other end of the spectrum, a lot of us didn't have high expectations for the White Sox coming in to 2010. Somewhere in the 77-83 win range sounded realistic—certainly not enough to beat out the Twins.

But I think even the most pessimistic Sox fans can agree that nobody could have seen this start coming.

Of the 20 worst wOBAs of regular position players, three of them are on the White Sox—A.J. Pierzynski (.197), Alexei Ramirez (.226), and Juan Pierre (.245).

While Pierzynski and Ramirez usually hit lower in the order, Pierre doesn't. Right now, the White Sox offense needs a spark—and that's not coming from the leadoff spot.

Pierzynski's struggles are largely because he's had awful plate discipline. It's not that he's been swinging too much—through 54 at-bats this year, he's swung at nearly the exact same percentage of pitches as he did in 2009—but he's been swinging at far too many pitches out of the strike zone.

That 48.5 percent swing rate at pitches out of the strike zone is over seven percent higher than 2009. In other words, Pierzynski is swinging at nearly one in every two pitches out of the strike zone. Vlad Guerrero can get away with doing that. Pierzynski can't.

Ramirez is pulling his usual pre-May 15 slump, but this one seems worse than usual. In 2008, Ramirez walked in his first major league game, and while he didn't take another one until May 16, that one walk he took is one more than he's taken in all of 2010.

In 2009, Ramirez had an 8.1 percent walk rate, which was pretty close to the league average. The hope was that he would continue to improve his plate discipline in 2010, but so far, he's taken a huge step back.

He's swinging at 54.7 percent of pitches he's seen in 2010, four percent higher than 2009. Like Pierzynski, he's swinging at way too many pitches out of the strike zone, coming in at a 37.8 rate, over 5.5 percent higher than '09.

But the Sox's misfortunes don't stop at Pierzynski, Ramirez, and Pierre.

An apparently healthy Carlos Quentin has struggled so much Ozzie Guillen dropped him to sixth in the Sox's lineup yesterday night. That's not sixth in a healthy lineup, too—that's sixth in a lineup with the fourth-worst wOBA in baseball.

Quentin was supposed to be the guy who could carry the offense through team-wide slumps like this. Instead, he's been part of the problem so far.

Perhaps more concerning than Quentin's struggles are those of Gordon Beckham. He hasn't been off-the-charts bad, but like Pierzynski and Ramirez, his pitch selection has taken a step back this year.

Beckham's out-of-the-zone swing rate has gone up from 24.8 percent to 29.5 percent and his in-zone swing rate has gone down from 68.4 percent to 63.3 percent. As a result, he's hitting less line drives and more ground balls, a lot of which haven't been hit hard.

So in the White Sox's lineup, there have been five misfortunes. Andruw Jones, Paul Konerko, Mark Teahen, and Alex Rios have been good, but they're not the kind of players who can carry an offense.

Then there's the pitching staff. The bullpen, on the whole, has been great. Up until his last two outings, Randy Williams was at least doing an admirable job as the second left-hander in the Sox's bullpen. And Tony Pena's numbers aren't indicative of the way he's pitched this year, either—he's been used in an unfamiliar long relief role.

Also, J.J. Putz has a -0.12 FIP. Yes, he has a negative FIP. I just thought I should point that out.

But once you leave the bullpen, the picture isn't as pretty. Specifically, Freddy Garcia  and Jake Peavy haven't thrown the ball well.

Granted, Freddy Garcia has only made two starts—one was good, one was really bad. But given that ZiPS is projecting a 5.11 FIP for Garcia for the rest of the season, his rough start is definitely a cause for concern.

Garcia still needs to have a few more bad starts before the Sox will seriously consider dumping him in favor of Dan Hudson, who's had a slow start to his year in Charlotte as well.

But it's Peavy who's been been the biggest surprise straggler to begin the season.

Peavy wasn't supposed to be a Cy Young contender like he was with San Diego. But he was supposed to be a solid top-of-the-rotation starter to go with three other solid top-of-the-rotation starters in Mark Buehrle, Gavin Floyd, and John Danks.

Instead, through four starts, Peavy has as many walks (15) as strikeouts. I'll let Dave Cameron take it from here:

His pre-season ZIPS had him posting a 3.86 FIP, and the updated rest-of-season ZIPS (which takes into account his first four games of 2010) has him projected for a 3.87 FIP. Clearly, the projection systems aren’t going to panic over a 22 inning sample. However, ZIPS doesn’t know that Peavy’s lost a couple of MPH off his fastball over the last few years or that he’s battled elbow problems the last few years.

It’s not time to panic, but there is certainly cause for concern. Command has been the hallmark of Peavy’s success in the big leagues, and a sudden inability to throw strikes can often be a sign of a more serious problem.

Given all the extra things we know, I’d take the over on that 3.87 rest of season FIP. Chicago fans should be concerned.

I know Dave—who, seriously, has one of the most brilliant baseball minds out there—isn't the most popular person in certain White Sox circles (see: Jose Lopez for John Danks), but he's spot-on about Peavy.

While it's only four starts, that loss of command has been disastrous for Peavy. Maybe it's a product of the cold weather—perhaps he isn't feeling comfortable with his mechanics or grips thanks to chilly temperatures. Or maybe there's something else behind it that we don't know about.

But whatever it is, Peavy hasn't looked like the guy the Sox thought they were trading for last July.

So there, that's seven misfortunes. It's not the eight that plagued the Springfield power plant's softball team and they aren't in the same manner (no radiation poisoning, gigantism, trips to the Springfield Mystery Spot, etc.), but for all of them to be happening at the same time has created a perfect storm for the Sox to sit at 5-11 a 10th of the way through the season.

Links & photos:

• Jim's Shakespearean look at the Sox' rough start is a must-read.
• Erik previews the Sox/Mariners series with Jeff Sullivan of Lookout Landing.
• Larry passes along some encouraging Trayce Thompson updates at South Side Sox.
• Mike talks smallball and the Sox offense at White Sox Mix.