It's June 1, and the White Sox have only 23 wins

The baseball season is long, and it's easy as a fan to get too high after a win and too low after a loss. 

What I've learned to do through the years is take stock of how my favorite team is doing after each month. The season is six months long, and as a general rule, I feel like any club that gets to 90 wins or better is having a good year -- and can claim to have a chance to get into the playoffs and do something once they get there.

I'm sure some people will quickly cite examples of 87-win teams that have won the World Series. They do exist. But we're speaking in generalities here, and asking ourselves, is our favorite team on the right track?

So, if you accept 90 wins as a reasonable benchmark of quality, and you know the season is six months long, that means you need to win about 15 games per month, right?

I'm always thinking this way: 

• Have 15 wins by May 1.
• Have 30 wins by June 1.
• Have 45 wins by July 1.
• Have 60 wins by Aug. 1.
• Have 75 wins by Sept. 1.
• Have 90 wins by Oct. 1.

This gets me off the roller coaster of worrying about the day-to-day results. Instead, I just ask myself the question, "Is the team trending at a reasonable pace?"

The answer for the White Sox is a resounding no. They were 8-21 on May 1, seven wins behind that pace you want to see. 

In May, they went 15-14. OK, that's not great, but they hit that 15-win benchmark. Alas, they are 23-35, still seven wins behind the pace I want to see by June 1.

If they were two or three wins off, that wouldn't be so bad. However, seven is going to be hard to make up. To get 90 wins, the Sox are going to have to win 17 games per month for the remaining four months -- a tall order for a team that's yet to win more than three games in a row.

If the Sox win 15 games per month for the remaining four months, they are going to check in at 73-89 -- not nearly good enough, not even in a weak division.

That's why I'm feeling as though it's time to back up the truck and get ready for 2024. Having only eight wins on May 1 has simply buried this team into an insurmountable hole.