Teams I’m JACKED about in 2011: The White Sox

February 23, 2011

The new Major League Baseball is one of pitching and defense, with timely hitting thrown in to give you the game. The Giants won a title with this formula. The Rays became contenders , if only for a short while, with this formula. Pretty much any team outside the northeast has to follow this formula, since it’s the most cost-effective. But apparently, White Sox general manager Kenny Williams didn’t get the memo, and has built a perfectly prototypical mid-90’s baseball squad. I hate the White Sox on principle, being an Indians fan and they being the only AL Central team to win a World Series in forever, but all the same I ‘m excited to no end to see what this team can do to the baseball this year. Plus, I recently found out Williams is a Raiders fan, so perhaps it’s no accident I appreciate this team so much.

The last couple times I did this, I started with the pitching, but with the White Sox that’s not really the issue. They made moves of the offensive variety in the off-season while their rotation and bullpen have pretty much remained the same from last year. Anyway, it’s the offense that I’m so jacked about. It starts with my favorite player pretty much in all of baseball, Adam Dunn. The guy made a name for himself early in the decade as your usual big-swinging, home-run happy strikeout machine. He traveled from the Reds to the Diamondbacks to the Nationals, and all he did was hit 40 home runs, walk and whiff. But the key to Mr. Dunn is his tremendous power. When the Mets’ Citi Field was considered too big to hit a ball out of, Dunn clobbered a couple into the upper deck or pretty much out of the stadium, no problem. When the new Yankee Stadium became THE place to go to hit home runs, he hit a couple into the back wall on a line, like Ichiro hitting singles. And through it all, the big Texan has maintained his bovine-like serenity, not caring where he is, being happy, wherever he is, to swing the bat as hard as possible, as much as possible. Now that he’s in the Southside, 45-50 homers isn’t a problem for him. Plus now Dunn is revered as a perfect Sabermetric player. His low average (career .250) is counterweighted by a high on-base percentage of .381 for the career, and he scores a goodly number of runs because he gets on base so much. Sure, he is, as the Mets radio guys said, a condominium on defense, but he’s playing DH this year, so he can concentrate on his clobbering. I love everything about the guy, and can’t wait to see what he does in Chicago.

Behind (or ahead) of Dunn, depending on the lineup, Paul Konerko at first just might be putting together a Hall of Fame career for the Pale Hose (best alternate name ever). Paulie put together an MVP-type season last year, a slash line of .312/.393/.584 along with 70 extra-base hits (including 39 homers) something you could certainly make a living off. When he’s healthy, Konerko is a feared hitter. His problem is when he’s hurt he doesn’t tell anyone, and he ends up having seasons like 2003 or 2008, recording OPS+’s of 83 and 102. He’s a career 119 hitter, for reference. But again, when healthy, he has years like 2010. Another stationary moose, Konerko adds to the station to station, big thumping capabilities of the Sox, and no park can truly hold him. I hate watching him because he kills the Indians, but I love watching him because he’s such a meatball.

The acquisition of Alex Rios by the Sox was widely derided as too much money for not enough player. He’s no Vernon Wells, but people were still bothered by the fat contract J.P. Ricciardi handed out. Really though, he made about $10 million in 2010, and he put up pretty darn good numbers. The problem with Alex is he’s pretty good at a lot of things, but great at nothing. It’s hard to pay a bunch of money to someone who doesn’t put up eye-popping numbers, and his salary jumps to 12.5 mil in 2011 and 2012. Of course, the Indians are paying Travis Hafner $12.5 million to be a pile of North Dakotan uselessness. I’d rather have Rios, especially considering he cost the White Sox nothing. When he was in Double-A, he was in the same league as Jo Mauer, and was the player of the year. Not to say he’s better than Mauer, because he isn’t, but he’s a darn good player. Great glove, good bat, fast enough, he at least adds, if not a wrinkle, a slight crease to the Sox’ plodding offense. With the rest of that lineup around him, he’s going to have a big year.

Their young second baseman, Gordon Beckham, may have the name of a superstar, but he’s not there yet. The Sox seem to be enamored with the youngster, now entering his third season, and I can see where they’re coming from. He was kind of hot garbage in 2010, posting an OPS of .695 and an OPS+ of a meager 86, but he showed so much promise his rookie year, 25 doubles and 14 homers in 103 games, 58 runs, and an OPS+ of 106, it’s not time to give up on the kid yet. He scored the same number of runs over 133 games in 2010 his on-base percentage dropped 30 points, so the ol’ sophomore slump may be to blame. I do believe he’s going to be a stud second baseman, all-star caliber, down the road, (at least until Jason Kipnis shows up in Cleveland. Zing.) but this year is going to be big for him, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s hitting around .300 and hits 20+ homers. I haven’t heard too much out of Chicago’s spring training, but he was the source of a lot of trade rumors, so he can’t be that bad, right? Never mind.

As for their pitching, well, if Jake Peavy can stay healthy (that’s a huge if, I can’t believe they made that trade), Gavin Floyd can pitch like it’s 2008 again even if his WAR has bounced between 3 and 4 between then and 2010, and Mark Buehrle does his typical solid-not-great job, the heavy swingers of the White Sox can keep them in, and win, a lot of games. Sure, they’re a long-shot to win anything big, but anyone makes a mistake against these guys and the ball is going to end up on the other side of the fence. Don’t forget Carlos Quentin’s statue in left field. When he’s clicking he’s a 40 home run threat, and Alexi Ramirez, who had his nickname stolen by Aroldis Chapman (Cuban Missile, my ass) packs a punch like few other shortstops. Kenny Williams has assembled a beautiful group of knuckleheads and sluggers, and when it gets right down to it, wouldn’t we rather see a ball travel hundreds of feet in mere seconds? I know I would.