All-Time MLB Teams Pt. 2: Chicago White Sox
For today’s team, we’ll be looking at the Chicago White Sox.
Rotation
Ed Walsh
Mark Buehrle
Chris Sale
Billy Pierce
Red Faber
To start, the rotation has the potential to be one of the best of any all-time team. Although he played before 1920, Ed Walsh is a Hall of Famer and put up incredible stats, albeit in a pitcher-friendly era. To me, he still deserves to be the number one guy, even though it’s hard to tell how he would preform against modern day hitting. To combat that, Mark Buehrle and Chris Sale are two contemporary aces that proved themselves during their respective stints in Chicago. Billy Pierce provides more excellent depth as one of the more underrated starters in MLB history. Although he never reached 200 strikeouts in a season for the White Sox, Pierce remains their career strikeout leader to this day. Finally, I chose Red Faber over other historic guys like Ted Lyons to round out the rotation.
Lineup/Bench
Minnie Miñoso, LF
Nellie Fox, 2B
Paul Konerko, 1B
Frank Thomas, DH
Carlton Fisk, C
Harold Baines, RF
Luke Appling, 3B
Luis Aparicio, SS
Shoeless Joe Jackson, CF
Bench:
INF: Robin Ventura, Eddie Collins
OF: Magglio Ordóñez, Jermaine Dye
C: Sherm Lollar
The collection of position players is also incredibly strong, and it starts with the infield. Konerko, Fox, Aparicio, and Appling provide for one of the better defensive infields of any franchise, and I feel like the latter three can hold their own in the batter’s box and on the base paths to give the offense some nice variety. Speaking of which, Miñoso and Shoeless Joe are also two of the most feared baserunners on the team, as they add competitiveness and speed, which the power hitters will likely benefit from. I also want to clarify the positioning of certain players, specifically Harold Baines. In order to provide for the most talented offense possible, I moved Baines into right field, which cleared the way for Frank Thomas at DH (I trust Baines more as a fielder than Thomas, when it comes down to it). I also moved Appling to his secondary position of third base in order to give the double-play combo of Fox and Aparicio the chance to start together. Finally, I felt that Miñoso deserved to be the starting left fielder, which means Shoeless Joe moves to center (not sure if I love him there, but it’s probably good enough). All of this results in the White Sox having one of the most talented bench units of any team, as all of the guys listed were once starters.
Bullpen
Bobby Thigpen, CL
Hoyt Wilhelm
Matt Thornton
Bobby Jenks
Roberto Hernandez
Bob Locker
Keith Foulke
Terry Forster
The bullpen also has a chance to be great, which is not what I expected from an all-time White Sox team. Bobby Thigpen narrowly separated himself from the rest of the unit to take the closer role, but Bobby Jenks and Hoyt Wilhelm are close behind. Roberto Hernandez, Keith Foulke, and Matt Thornton felt like no-brainers thanks to their places in White Sox record books. The real debate came down to the last spot, which I ended up giving to Terry Forster. I liked his consistency and longevity over guys like Damaso Marte when it came down to it, and his stats hold up well given the era he pitched in.