Baseball was buzzing about the Chicago White Sox in spring training, long before the 2011 season began. The team had finished 2010 with 88 wins, managed to hold on to team leader Paul Konerko, and signed free agent slugger Adam Dunn to a four-year contract. With a rejuvenated Alex Rios roaming center field, Adam Dunn and his 38 HR-per-season bat at DH, and a surgically repaired Jake Peavy poised for a return to form, the White Sox were primed for another World Series run in 2011.
Even the Sox’s marketing team was laying it all on the line with the annual team slogan for 2011 being “all in”. Manager Ozzie Guillen and his team looked ready to steamroll the AL Central right from the start, putting up 15 runs on the Cleveland Indians on opening day. Of course, the grind that is the 162-game baseball season, had other plans for the White Sox.
For the second year in a row, the White Sox dug a deep hole for themselves in the AL Central standings, posting a 10-18 record in April. Unlike in 2010, however, the White Sox never came close to challenging the surprising second-place Indians, and eventual division champs, the Detroit Tigers.
2011 was a season of deep disappointment for the White Sox and their fans, as the team finished in third place with 79 wins, trailing the Tigers by 16 games. It also marked the end of an era with manager Ozzie Guillen and owner Jerry Reinsdorf deciding to part ways. Guillen and GM Kenny Williams continued to garner the majority of the focus from the local media, with their apparent dislike for each other, and petty feuding.
Here’s a look at some of the White Sox’s highs and lows during 2011.
With the departure of closer Bobby Jenks in the 2010 offseason, the White Sox eventually determined that left-handed setup man, Matt Thornton, was going to be the team’s closer. Ozzie Guillen named Thornton as closer, but hinted at a possible closer-by-committee approach with Jesse Crain, and second-year pitchers Chris Sale and Sergio Santos in the mix.
Thornton’s past troubles in the closer role gave many pause before the season began, and fans’ fears were realized as Thornton and the White Sox defense failed repeatedly to lock down games in the ninth. The Sox led the American League with six blown saves in April, and the team never overcame those early, heartbreaking losses.
Sergio Santos eventually moved into the closer role, saving 30 games while blowing six saves.
While the early bullpen struggles could be blamed for the White Sox’s atrocious start in 2011, the team had other troubling trends which continued to bring the team down throughout the season.
Baseball pundits were scratching their heads in 2009 after GM Kenny Williams decided to claim outfielder Alex Rios off of waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays. The two-time All Star had fallen out of favor in Toronto while his performance steadily dropped off the map. His reputation as a slacker and head case scared off most teams, but the White Sox decided to pick up his seven-year, $70 million contract.
Rios didn’t do much to alter his reputation in 2009, but he came to life in 2010, good for a WAR of 3, his best output since 2007.
Jake Peavy had an ERA of 3.29 in eight seasons for the San Diego Padres. Peavy looked every bit the Cy Young award winner at the end of 2009 for the White Sox, but a rare injury to his shoulder shelved him for most of 2010, and a supposedly healthy Peavy was looked upon to possibly win some games, and stay healthy for the 2011 postseason.
The White Sox made news by acquiring Adam Dunn, signing the slugger to a four-year $56 million contract. Dunn would play designated hitter for the first time in his career, occasionally spelling Paul Konerko at first base. Dunn brought with him a lifetime .381 on-base percentage and 354 home runs in his ten seasons in the National League.
Alex Rios returned to his poor form of 2008-09. Rios had an on-base percentage of .265 and an OPS+ of 65 in 2011. His WAR was -1.5. He stole 11 bases while getting caught stealing six times.
Perhaps the biggest problem in 2011 for the White Sox was the $12 million black hole in the middle of the lineup, Adam Dunn. Dunn’s career OPS of .902 had Sox fans dreaming of a 50-homer season from Dunn. He was a model of consistency in his 10 seasons with the Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals. Dunn hit more than 38 home runs eight seasons in a row, and while he struck out often, he had a great eye at the plate, averaging 110 walks per season.
On opening day, Dunn smacked a home run and drove in four runs against the Indians. He would hit just ten home runs in his next 492 plate appearances in 2011. He struck out 177 times in 415 official at-bats. He posted a shockingly bad OPS of .569, more than 300 points lower than his 2010 output.
It got ugly early for Dunn. His famous offseason routine of little to no conditioning was questioned daily by the Chicago media. Articles mentioning Dunn and sports psychology were commonplace throughout the summer. The boos at U.S. Cellular Field were constant after most Dunn at-bats, with Bronx cheers raining down after the slightest accomplishments. Dunn had six hits all season against left-handed pitching, and after each one, it sounded as if he had just hit for the cycle.
These three White Sox players became the poster children of what is wrong with the team, and why they are apparently in rebuilding mode in 2012 and beyond. Combined, Peavy, Dunn, and Rios earned a cool $40 million while contributing -3.0 wins above replacement.
It wouldn’t be a season without manager Ozzie Guillen threatening to retire after the year. Guillen was the master at needling his bosses through the media, while taking the focus off of his team’s sometimes poor play. Reinsdorf and Williams finally took Guillen up on his threats of quitting, releasing him from his contract so that he could pursue other opportunities. Guillen eventually landed in Miami with the Marlins, and the White Sox surprised just about everybody in Chicago with their hiring of former Sox third baseman, Robin Ventura.
While Guillen’s worth to the White Sox may have been overvalued during their World Series run in 2005 and the seasons since, his undeniable entertainment value will be sorely missed. His outdated love of “small-ball” and his need to bunt early during an American League ball game was hard to stomach at times, but his candor, enthusiasm, and general insanity made his post-game interviews must-read material during the last eight seasons.
Ventura will manage the White Sox with no professional coaching experience, and may be saddled with an ugly mixture of over-priced, under-performing veterans while the White Sox try to develop prospects.
While Dunn and Rios would be hard-pressed to “top” their historically bad 2011 seasons, the Sox are stuck with them for the next three seasons. With Guillen, Mark Buehrle, and Sergio Santos now gone, with others to possibly follow before 2012, the White Sox are now entering a new era, one which may see the team struggle in the near future. With the 2005 World Series title under his belt, Williams has his work cut out for him, tasked with fixing a mess he partly created, while trying to build another winner.
Young talent such as Dayan Viciedo, Tyler Flowers, Nestor Molina, and Addison Reed hold the key to the White Sox’s future plans, and while the team will be hamstrung by some bloated contracts for a few years, the future looks bright with the aforementioned young players developing along with whatever prospects are mined from other teams.
-James Kries
