85-77, 2^nd in the AL Central

In the first year of the post-Ozzie Guillen era, the White Sox were a surprise team. They played much better than expectation until September, at which point, they collapsed and handed the Tigers back the AL Central. I had the White Sox finishing last in my pre-season predictions, so while they fell apart at the end, they should feel good about 85 wins.

Alex Rios had a nice bounce back campaign (4.3 WAR) and AJ Pierzynski (3.4) had one of the best years of his career. Alejandro De Aza (2.7) and Paul Konerko (2.1) were the other position players to cross the 2.0 threshold.

The offense was too weak to take them into the postseason, but the pitching was another matter. The first two spots in the order, Sale (4.9) and Peavy (4.4) were excellent and Gavin Floyd (2.0) was good enough. Jose Quintana even posted a 1.9 WAR in 22 starts. The last spot was a bit of a mess, the rotation was pretty solid, especially for the division in which they played. The Sox pen was also pretty solid.

The Sox faded down the stretch because they played over their heads during the first few months. They were a very average team and ended up a little better than that in the standings.

The brightest spot for me had to be Phil Humber tossing a perfect game on April 21^st (during my bachelor party!) despite having completed the travel from hot prospect to journey/swingman.

The Sox have done virtually nothing to improve the 2012 roster, but they have held it together. I think they know that they aren’t in a class with the Tigers and didn’t want to go for broke when it didn’t make sense to do so. I think they’ll be marginally worse in 2013, even though they totally should have gone for Josh Hamilton.

2012 Grade: C

Early 2013 Projection: 83-79