Baseball season is still a few months away, but it’s never too early to try to fix your mistakes. And Illinois’ two baseball teams make a lot of errors. If defense wins championships — not entirely true in baseball, where pitching, and timely hitting, are paramount — the Cubs and White Sox need to improve their glove work.
IllinoisBet.com — your source for Illinois sports betting — used TeamRankings.com to look at the least-to-most mistake-prone MLB teams by looking at the average errors per game for each team over the past three seasons. The results for the Cubs and White Sox weren’t pretty.
Least to Most Mistake-Prone MLB Teams
These are stats you won’t find on the many fine Illinois betting apps.
Gloves Need Work in Chicago
IllinoisBet.com looked at play over the last three seasons. The Cubs ranked 23rd in terms of fewest errors per game and the White Sox ranked tied for 28th. Granted, the difference between best and worst only might be an additional error or two over a 10-game stretch, but that could mean a few wins over a 162-game season, and a few wins can be the difference in making the playoffs or not. Well, not in the White Sox case. The White Sox caused a lot of headaches for patrons of BetMGM Illinois and other Chiicago sportsbooks this summer.
For the Cubs this past season, the primary butter-fingered fielder was third baseman Patrick Wisdom, who made 14 errors and had a fielding percentage of .942, the second worst in the majors. The Cubs had a below-par .984 team fielding percentage (10th in the NL), the same as the team did in 2022. Last year, Wisdom again made 14 errors but had a fielding percentage of .964 because he had more chances. Nico Hoerner’s 13 errors (.974) and Christopher Morel’s 10 miscues (.968) brought the 2022 team down. In 2021, the glovework was a tiny bit better (.985, 7th), but Javier Baez struggled, making 18 errors for a .954 fielding percentage. Last year, the Cubs gave up 72 unearned runs, with 89 in 2022 and 74 in 2021.
With the White Sox, there was fielding trouble in the middle of the infield in 2023. Shortstop Tim Anderson made 15 errors (.964) and second baseman Elvis Andrus botched 12 balls (.970). The team fielding percentage was .983, 11th in the AL. The Sox gave up 67 unearned runs, 13th in the league. In 2022, team fielding was. 982, last in the AL, and the team had the most errors (105) errors. Anderson’s .962 and Josh Harrison’s .965 were key. The 2022 Sox gave up 86 unearned runs. In 2021, the team’s .982 fielding percentage was only third worst in the league. That team, which finished first in the AL Central, was saved by its pitching, which gave up the fewest runs in the American League — 55 of which were unearned.
But good fielding alone doesn’t win games. The Cardinals had a .989 fielding percentage last season, 2nd in the NL, and still finished 5th in the Central Division with 71-91 record.
Heading into this season, ESPN Bet Illinois has the White Sox at +10000, tied with the Kansas City Royals and Washington Nationals for 26th out of 30 MLB teams. Only the Colorado Rockies and Oakland A’s (both +15000) are more lightly regarded. Meanwhile, there is more optimism for the Cubs, who are tied for 10th with the New York Mets at +2500.
