10 Years Later: A Look Back On The 2005 Chicago White Sox, The Greatest Team No One Remembers

I was raised a White Sox fan. My father was born and raised in Boston so he's always been a fan of the Red Sox. However, after spending his college years in the Boston area, he came to The University of Chicago for graduate school. After living in Chicago's South Side and always being a fan on the American League, the Chicago White Sox became his second team. He eventually moved back to Massachusetts, met my mother, had me, then my brother while living blissfully in New England. When I was three, he moved my family to the Northern Suburbs of Chicago. Cubs territory. But through and through, he remained loyal to the White Sox and my brother and I grew up White Sox fans. We would spend our summers going to Comiskey Pahk (I refuse to call it U.S. Cellular Field) and Frank Thomas was our childhood hero.

The Chicago White Sox had been competitive every now and then throughout my lifetime, but they never seemed to be able to take the next step, While all of my friends would bemoan the losing streak of the Chicago Cubs, the White Sox as a franchise were not all that far behind them. But then something magical happened. In 2005, the Chicago White Sox took a team full of scrubs to not only become one of the best teams in baseball that year, but rode a dominant post-season performance to eventually claim the title of World Champs. I was a freshman in college at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and myself and the rest of the student body could not have been more excited to root for a team to bring the championship back home to Illinois.

This blog post is a dedication to that 2005 White Sox team. It's been a decade since that glorious season, and it seems as if the 2005 White Sox have been lost to history. This is both a combination of my own oral history of their 2005 season combined with historical data to help bring back the glory years of not only one of the greatest baseball teams I was fortunate enough to root for, but also one of the best major league baseball teams in our life time. This is a look back on the 2005 Chicago White Sox, the greatest team no one remembers.

6 Players Who Have No Business Being In The 2014 MLB All Star Game

1) Derek Jeter (SS)
New York Yankees

I understand the reasoning behind WHY the fans voted him as the starting short stop, because it's a terrible and dumb reasoning why the fans did what they did. The fact that this is Derek Jeter's last year in the league is not a good enough reasoning to make him an All Star. In his prime, Derek Jeter was one of the best offensive shortstops in the game. Even with the benefit of sabermetrics hindsight, Derek Jeter has a great average, could take a walk, steal a base, and hit a home run when needed. He was an ideal top of the line up type of player. But with that being said, that version of Derek Jeter died a long time ago, and all we are left with in this beaten down shell of his former self. Jeter doesn't need this extra All Star game push to get him into the Hall of Fame, and by voting him in means that he stole a spot from a more deserving player. Among qualified players, Derek Jeter rates 11th out of 12 players in terms of WAR among AL short stops. Erick Aybar of the Angels and Alcides Escobar of the Royals are the top players in terms of WAR among AL shortstops, yet neither men are All Stars. In fact, making Escobar an All Star means that the Kansas City Royals have a lone representative, and we wouldn't need a reliever like Greg Holland be in the game. Speaking of relief pitchers...

2) Relief Pitchers (RP)
Multiple Teams

In the American League, middle reliever Dellin Betances (NYY) and closers  Sean Doolittle (OAK), Greg Holland (KC), and Glen Perkins (MIN) are All Stars and in the National League, middle relievers Pat Neshek (STL) (pitcured left) and Tony Watson (PIT) and closers Craig Kinbrel (ATL) and Aroldis Chapman (CIN) are All Stars. Who know isn't an All Star? Chris Sale, Dallas Keuchel, Garret Richards, Corey Kluber, and Rick Porcello. Those are the 5 candidates who can vote for for the last AL All Star spot. As Brian Bannister joked on Twitter, those five players would make one helluva a rotation. Sale, Richards, and Kluber are all top 10 in terms of AL WAR this year, and Kluber actually ranks 3rd. Chris Sale is one of the best pitchers in baseball and is going to receiver Cy Young votes by year's end. Yet none of these pitchers are All Stars because of our ridiculous need to praise middle relievers. As joked by Billy Beane in Moneyball, the reason pitchers are relievers is because they aren't good enough to be a starter. ESPN Dave Schoenfield tweeted out last night, "People, quit arguing the case for relief pitchers as All Stars. 26 relievers with 30+ IP have an ERA under 2.50. Not that special". No relief pitchers deserves to be an All Star, and the selections should just consists of starters. Also, who the fuck is Tony Watson?

Weekly Fantasy Baseball Update (June 7 - June 13)

HERO OF THE WEEK

BATTER

Lonnie Chisenhall (CLE) 1B/3B (75% owned)

Chisenhall was tied was first in runs (8), tied for first in home runs (4), and led all batters in RBIs (13) while hitting .583 over the past seven days. These impressive numbers stem from his monster Monday in Texas where he slugged three home runs and 9 RBIs. On the year, Chisenhall has a triple slash line of .393/.438/.619 and if he keeps hitting like this, he's going to remain in the line up every day whether Carlos Santana healthy or not. Chisenhall showed solid power before his explosion and any fantasy owner that took a risk on him early have been rewarded so far. However, now is the perfect time to sell high on Chisenhall. The Indians third baseman currently has a BABIP of .428- which is crazy unsustainable no matter what Chisenhall's career BABIP is (it's .308). Chisenhall was always a decent prospect but never really showed anything in the majors until a few weeks ago. So what Lonnie Chisenhall is doing is not a complete fluke, but something similar to what Alex Gordon of the Royals did a few years ago. However, when a lot of your value is tied up in batting average, and that average is going to drop quickly, sell, sell sell. 

Tanner Roark (WAS) SP (51% owned)

Over the past seven days, Roark has 15 strike outs in 14 innings, and a 1.29/0.71 ERA/WHIP to go along with two wins. On the season, Roark is the 25th best starting pitcher with a 2.92 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP. Roark has a K/9 of 7.02, which isn't that great for fantasy purposes, but you can get away with it in the majors when you're BB/9 rate is only 1.94. I don't think Roark will finish as a top 25 starting pitcher, but he certainly is good enough to keep up these solid numbers all season. While he has a low BABIP (.261) and an ERA lower than his FIP (3.41), logic dictates your ERA will rise; however, Roark doesn't walk anybody or give up home runs. So while I believe the ERA will rise a little, it won't rise significantly to the point where you have to cut him. If someone in your league believes he's destined for superstardom or will be better than what he's doing now, then sell as fast as you can. However, he's probably going to be this level of good all year, which is extremely valuable to your fantasy baseball team, especially if you just picked him up in free agency.