Record: 91-71, 2nd AL West (3 GB)
Postseason: --
Ballpark: Comiskey Park (101 hits, 111 HR)
Runs scored: 670 (5th)
Runs allowed: 558 (1st)
Pythag record: 94-68 (-3)
Recap: In the one real pennant chase of 1969 (nope, not the Cubs!), the White Sox were a mathematical possibility until the 2nd to last game. They actually led the division for a large chunk of the summer but a 31-28 record in July and August (which, by the way, 18-14 in July... 32 games in the All Star month) opened the door for the Twins to come back, and not even a 21-9 September could get them back in the drivers' seat in time.
History: Chicago won the first two pennants in the save's history in '46 and '47 but only reached the postseason one time since, in 1954. Since 1962 they've won between 82 and 93 games, a clear victim of the huge 10-team, one division format.
Outlook: Never let it be said, whatever happens, that the White Sox didn't try to improve their lot. They saw the iffy offense, which was not held back by Comiskey the way you might think, and tried to bring it into championship level. Did they compromise their top-rated pitching and defense to do so? I guess we'll have to see...
Rotation
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+ --------------- + -------------- + ------ + ------ + -------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ---------- + ----------- + ---------- + ---------- +
| first_name | last_name | w | l | Pct | Sv | era | g | gs | cg | sho | gf | ip | bfp | h | r | er | hr | sh | sf | hp | bb | ibb | so | wp | bk | Hper9 | HRper9 | BBer9 | Kper9 |
+ --------------- + -------------- + ------ + ------ + -------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ---------- + ----------- + ---------- + ---------- +
| Raul | Mendoza | 17 | 10 | 0.630 | 0 | 2.68 | 36 | 36 | 14 | 5 | 0 | 275.1 | 1081 | 230 | 91 | 82 | 23 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 58 | 6 | 219 | 5 | 0 | 7.5 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 7.2 |
| Daniel | Roche | 17 | 12 | 0.586 | 0 | 2.68 | 37 | 36 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 265.1 | 1081 | 250 | 93 | 79 | 16 | 18 | 7 | 7 | 79 | 5 | 114 | 11 | 0 | 8.5 | 0.5 | 2.7 | 3.9 |
| Sandy | Hinojosa | 16 | 16 | 0.500 | 0 | 3.86 | 37 | 37 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 258.2 | 1066 | 261 | 124 | 111 | 34 | 18 | 5 | 5 | 72 | 5 | 160 | 11 | 1 | 9.1 | 1.2 | 2.5 | 5.6 |
| Gene | Lueders | 12 | 10 | 0.545 | 0 | 3.39 | 30 | 30 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 217.2 | 883 | 193 | 88 | 82 | 14 | 15 | 8 | 10 | 71 | 2 | 94 | 3 | 2 | 8.0 | 0.6 | 2.9 | 3.9 |
| Joe | Field | 3 | 4 | 0.429 | 0 | 5.00 | 14 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 68.1 | 304 | 77 | 42 | 38 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 32 | 0 | 41 | 2 | 0 | 10.1 | 0.7 | 4.2 | 5.4 |
| Estevan | Bernal | 0 | 0 | | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.0 | 21 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 3.0 |
+ --------------- + -------------- + ------ + ------ + -------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ---------- + ----------- + ---------- + ---------- +
Sending Sandy Hinojosa away was tough, there's no bones about it. But good teams make tough moves and Chisox brass had become a little disenchanted with his falling K rates and generally only-average play. 27 year old Raul Mendoza is the new staff ace following a 17-10 season. He won the CYA in '67, albeit with 15 wins (15-7, 2.26 to be exact) and led the league in games started with 35 in '68. Unlike Hinojosa, Mendoza is still striking lots of guys out, finishing 3rd in the league in that category in '69. He throws 4 pitches for strikes but his out pitch is a cut fastball that surely would have been called something else in '69.
The rotation's a little thin after that. Gene Lueders is the #2, a soft-tossing lefty who threw over 200 innings in his first full year in the majors. Daniel Roche could probably just as well be that #2 but I dropped him back to #3 in order to alternate handedness. He's a 3 time All-Star himself who finished 4th in the AL in ERA and 3rd in the all-important Quality Starts statistic. Jim Truss, who was 9-7 with Cincy last year before coming to Chicago for backup CF Ben Menke, and Kien-Lung Hui, who made 5 spot starts in the first half of the year before settling in as a setup man and middle reliever, are the 4 and 5 guys, at least for now.
Bullpen
Code:
+ --------------- + -------------- + ------ + ------ + -------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ---------- + ----------- + ---------- + ---------- +
| first_name | last_name | w | l | Pct | Sv | era | g | gs | cg | sho | gf | ip | bfp | h | r | er | hr | sh | sf | hp | bb | ibb | so | wp | bk | Hper9 | HRper9 | BBer9 | Kper9 |
+ --------------- + -------------- + ------ + ------ + -------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ---------- + ----------- + ---------- + ---------- +
| Malcolm | Post | 7 | 8 | 0.467 | 28 | 2.21 | 68 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 57 | 105.2 | 426 | 83 | 30 | 26 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 41 | 5 | 77 | 1 | 1 | 7.1 | 0.3 | 3.5 | 6.6 |
| Kien-lung | Hui | 6 | 1 | 0.857 | 0 | 2.64 | 29 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 64.2 | 268 | 62 | 19 | 19 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 27 | 1 | 52 | 2 | 0 | 8.6 | 0.8 | 3.8 | 7.2 |
| Elias | Sanchez | 1 | 3 | 0.250 | 1 | 2.48 | 42 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 58.0 | 232 | 49 | 18 | 16 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 19 | 2 | 31 | 1 | 0 | 7.6 | 0.2 | 2.9 | 4.8 |
| Suk-min | Moon | 3 | 2 | 0.600 | 0 | 1.92 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 51.2 | 202 | 40 | 13 | 11 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 3 | 38 | 1 | 0 | 7.0 | 0.3 | 3.0 | 6.6 |
| Ron | Shepherd | 4 | 4 | 0.500 | 0 | 3.15 | 16 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 40.0 | 156 | 32 | 18 | 14 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 2 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 7.2 | 0.9 | 2.9 | 3.8 |
| Edwin | Ruiz | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 5.27 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 13.2 | 64 | 17 | 9 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 11.2 | 1.3 | 4.0 | 4.6 |
| Jason | Martinez | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 2.13 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12.2 | 50 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 6.4 | 0.7 | 2.8 | 5.7 |
| Tim | Natalie | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 0.00 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11.1 | 41 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 4.0 | 0.0 | 1.6 | 7.9 |
| Mario | Valdez | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 2.35 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.2 | 32 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5.9 | 0.0 | 5.9 | 4.7 |
| Miguel | Hernandez | 0 | 1 | 0.000 | 0 | 9.95 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6.1 | 37 | 14 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 19.9 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 7.1 |
| Jonathan | Bentley | 0 | 0 | | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.0 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.0 | 0.0 | 4.5 | 0.0 |
+ --------------- + -------------- + ------ + ------ + -------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ---------- + ----------- + ---------- + ---------- +
11 rows
Trust me when I say that not everybody has a top-flight stopper; it's just that everybody who've I've written up so far does. The White Sox stopper is Malcolm Post, who may not have the pure gas that other guys in the league do but gets the job done. He set a career high with 28 saves last season. Suk-Min Moon handed in a terrific performance of his own as a setup guy and middle reliever. He's a side-armer whose stuff is so electric that even lefties only managed to hit 247/305/340 off of him last year. Elias "Judge" Sanchez is kind of the odd man out in this group but he's still awfully good in his own right. The former Dodgers stopper was bizarrely placed on waivers by LA in the winter of 67-68 and snatched off of them by these Sox. As you might expect, he'd rather be higher up in the pecking order and is reportedly not happy about it.
Catcher
Code:
+ -------- + --------------- + -------------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + -------- +
| pos | first_name | last_name | g | ab | r | h | 2B | 3B | hr | rbi | bb | ibb | k | hpb | sh | sf | sb | cs | gdp | ba | obp | slg |
+ -------- + --------------- + -------------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + -------- +
| C | Mario | Moreno | 118 | 437 | 41 | 113 | 20 | 1 | 6 | 55 | 29 | 0 | 95 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 0.259 | 0.306 | 0.350 |
| C | Danny | Coyle | 52 | 156 | 18 | 34 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 17 | 23 | 1 | 24 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0.218 | 0.317 | 0.372 |
| C | Dave | Leduc | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.250 | 0.400 | 0.250 |
| C | Randy | Munger | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | | |
+ -------- + --------------- + -------------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + -------- +
Mario Moreno announced his retirement this offseason after a long and illustrious career spent with the Yankees and White Sox. He's a 12 time All Star, 7 time Gold Glove award winner, and 1957 AL MVP. It's not a question of if he'll go into the Hall of Fame but how soon (I'm going to say first ballot). The Sox traded for Danny Coyle last offseason to take over the position once Moreno left. Coyle is no slouch himself, having made the NL All-Star Game in '63 and '66. Like any competitive person, Coyle would have rather gotten the job sooner rather than later. Unlike most competitive people, he let out his frustration with pranks. He led the league in "hot foot"s given.
Infield
Code:
+ -------- + --------------- + -------------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + -------- +
| pos | first_name | last_name | g | ab | r | h | 2B | 3B | hr | rbi | bb | ibb | k | hpb | sh | sf | sb | cs | gdp | ba | obp | slg |
+ -------- + --------------- + -------------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + -------- +
| 1B | Willie | Vargas | 155 | 631 | 112 | 225 | 25 | 9 | 14 | 68 | 55 | 10 | 18 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 38 | 21 | 13 | 0.357 | 0.414 | 0.491 |
| 1B | Josh | Lewis | 111 | 309 | 45 | 93 | 12 | 1 | 13 | 42 | 26 | 0 | 61 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0.301 | 0.355 | 0.472 |
| 1B | Jahiem | Williams | 28 | 65 | 8 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 14 | 1 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.185 | 0.333 | 0.231 |
| 1B | Omar | Dominguez | 16 | 17 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.059 | 0.273 | 0.059 |
| 2B | Brian | Long | 130 | 563 | 55 | 155 | 29 | 3 | 7 | 57 | 30 | 0 | 84 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 0.275 | 0.306 | 0.375 |
| 2B | Pat | Jones | 82 | 165 | 18 | 40 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0.242 | 0.259 | 0.376 |
| 3B | Jordan | Wooten | 126 | 372 | 47 | 95 | 14 | 1 | 17 | 57 | 69 | 7 | 44 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 0.255 | 0.373 | 0.435 |
| 3B | Ivan | de Velasco | 76 | 203 | 29 | 54 | 11 | 0 | 6 | 39 | 31 | 0 | 17 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0.266 | 0.361 | 0.409 |
| 3B | Tatsuzo | Hirano | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.250 | 0.250 | 0.250 |
| SS | Justin | Henderson | 143 | 465 | 42 | 118 | 15 | 1 | 6 | 53 | 43 | 9 | 74 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 0.254 | 0.320 | 0.329 |
| SS | Mike | Armand | 44 | 96 | 7 | 23 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 1 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0.240 | 0.315 | 0.333 |
+ -------- + --------------- + -------------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + -------- +
John Lewis spent a good chunk of the season as a pinch-hitting specialist while the team attempted to find the right place for Willie Vargas. At the end of the day, Vargas started 82 games at first and 77 in left and while he's not a good left fielder, he was pretty bad receiving throws, and so for 1970 the Sox are committed to giving Lewis his old job back. He looked expendable when he hit only .265 with 9 HRs in 574 at-bats in 1968. He seems to have tacked on a bit of power, though, and if he can close in on 20 dingers with a .300-ish average, that will really, really help.
The White Sox acquired Brian Long from the Angels in mid-May for Shunichi Zenaya and 2B prospect Mauricio Mendez. Mendez raked after joining California whereas Long, who'd made the All-Star Game in '67 and '68, was only... fine. He set a career high with 97 strikeouts, which is not the kind of bat control you'd prefer to have from your #2 hitter. On the other hand, he also set career highs in hits and RBIs, so it wasn't all bad...
Jordan Wooten missed about a month with various ailments but the man is 38 years old. After a very bad 1968 (.199, 8 HRs, 45 RBIs, and a .304 SLG) left him as only the left-handed side of a platoon with Ivan de Velasco, Wooten hit well enough to break out of that role in the second half. De Velasco was arguably even better in his time and, fair or no, the two of them will enter spring training fighting it out to see who starts there in 1970.
Justin Henderson was the AL Gold Glove at 2B from '66-'68 but moved over to short in the wake of the Brian Long trade. His GG days are most certainly over, given who mans that position in the junior circuit, but he's still very, very good with the glove. His bat didn't really wake up with the rest of the league's, though: his triple-slash of 254/321/329 was only 32 points higher than it was last year.
Outfield
Code:
+ -------- + --------------- + -------------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + -------- +
| pos | first_name | last_name | g | ab | r | h | 2B | 3B | hr | rbi | bb | ibb | k | hpb | sh | sf | sb | cs | gdp | ba | obp | slg |
+ -------- + --------------- + -------------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + -------- +
| LF | Tom | Brown | 154 | 612 | 87 | 171 | 28 | 1 | 13 | 82 | 52 | 5 | 57 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 25 | 10 | 16 | 0.279 | 0.334 | 0.392 |
| CF | Jeff | Murphy | 89 | 329 | 48 | 95 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 34 | 31 | 4 | 19 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 22 | 15 | 5 | 0.289 | 0.357 | 0.398 |
| CF | Ben | Menke | 43 | 87 | 9 | 15 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 14 | 0 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 0.172 | 0.291 | 0.241 |
| RF | Jun | Kim | 139 | 508 | 64 | 127 | 20 | 3 | 7 | 55 | 73 | 7 | 77 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 4 | 7 | 0.250 | 0.350 | 0.343 |
| RF | Kyle | Daly | 43 | 75 | 10 | 18 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 4 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.240 | 0.256 | 0.373 |
| RF | Chris | Fonseca | 9 | 24 | 2 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.375 | 0.385 | 0.500 |
+ -------- + --------------- + -------------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + ------ + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- + -------- +
Vargas moves full-time into LF for 1970, which hopefully resolves one of the biggest issues of 1969, which was a lack of production from the corner outfield spots. I'll talk about Brown shortly but Vargas led the league in hitting last year with a .357 average, not to mention runs (112), hits (225), and steals (38). The White Sox shifted him from leadoff down to 3rd in the order as the season progressed and will be counting on him to contend for another batting crown.
Tom Brown is fine as a player; he's just a bit out of his depth as a corner outfielder and cleanup hitter, whcih is what he was asked to do last year. He did lead the team in RBIs with 82 but the measure of how much the Sox's offense is improved is probably not to be measured so much in personal performance by Brown as in how low in the order they can get away with hitting him.
In right, the Sox saw what the other Sox had in rookie Josh Wade and decided they had to have him. Truth be told, Wade's .323 average was on the empty side, and the lack of walks has to be a real concern, but a .320+ average is a .320+ average and, well, Comiskey may be behaving like a bandbox right now but this is still Chicago we're talking about and there's no telling when all that wind in the Windy City is going to start blowing back in again. And when that happens, you want base hits, not long fly outs. That is my story and I am sticking to it.