RRosternomics
𝕏

White Sox CHW

‹ ›

GM: Kenny Williams

Overview

CONTEND ↗ rising
expensive & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.01× league · TAB +2.0
+2.0TAB — talent above budget14th/30
+0.9WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)15th/30
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars8th/30
-3.5dead WAR — sub-replacement drag9th/30
36%dead money %21st/30
0.512win %14th/30
36.4roster fWAR13th/30
-13surplus $M (value vs cost)16th/30
$63Mpayroll $M16th/30

Roster

CFChris Singleton 121GAaron Rowand 32GJose Valentin 24G
LFCarlos Lee 130GJeff Liefer 35GAaron Rowand 34G
RFMagglio Ordonez 155GAaron Rowand 11GJeff Liefer 4G
SSRoyce Clayton 133GJose Valentin 43GTony Graffanino 5G
2BRay Durham 150GTony Graffanino 20G
3BHerbert Perry Jr. 68GJose Valentin 66GTony Graffanino 38G
1BPaul Konerko 144GJeff Liefer 15GHerbert Perry Jr. 12G
STARTERSMark Buehrle 4.0WARSean Lowe 1.7WARDavid Wells 1.7WARKip Wells 1.5WARRocky Biddle 1.2WAR
CSandy Alomar Jr. 69GMark Johnson 61GJosh Paul 56G
DHJosé Canseco 68GHarold Baines 22GFrank Thomas 16G
BULLPEN★ Keith Foulke 42svBob Howry 20hAlan Embree 8hBill Pulsipher 6hKelly Wunsch 3hJosh Fogg 2hLorenzo Barcelo 1hMatt Ginter 0h
CSandy Alomar Jr. 69 · Mark Johnson 61 · Josh Paul 56
1BPaul Konerko 144 · Jeff Liefer 15 · Herbert Perry Jr. 12
2BRay Durham 150 · Tony Graffanino 20
3BHerbert Perry Jr. 68 · Jose Valentin 66 · Tony Graffanino 38
SSRoyce Clayton 133 · Jose Valentin 43 · Tony Graffanino 5
LFCarlos Lee 130 · Jeff Liefer 35 · Aaron Rowand 34
CFChris Singleton 121 · Aaron Rowand 32 · Jose Valentin 24
RFMagglio Ordonez 155 · Aaron Rowand 11 · Jeff Liefer 4
DHJosé Canseco 68 · Harold Baines 22 · Frank Thomas 16
SPMark Buehrle 4.0 · Sean Lowe 1.7 · David Wells 1.7 · Kip Wells 1.5 · Rocky Biddle 1.2
BP★ Keith Foulke 42 · Bob Howry 20 · Alan Embree 8 · Bill Pulsipher 6 · Kelly Wunsch 3 · Josh Fogg 2 · Lorenzo Barcelo 1 · Matt Ginter 0

Each position lists its starter then backups by games (so platoons & bench show). Starters (mound) & bullpen (left, foul territory) are ranked by WAR; ★ marks the closer (most save chances). MLB Stats API.

2001 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Mark Buehrle 22 pre-arb 324.0 0.2 +6.2
Ray Durham 29 FA-elig 1523.9 9.0 -2.8
Magglio Ordonez 27 arb 1603.6 3.8 +2.1
Jose Valentin 31 FA-elig 1243.3 5.2 +0.1
Keith Foulke 28 arb 722.6 3.1 +1.1
Paul Konerko 25 arb 1562.3 2.3 +1.4
Chris Singleton 28 pre-arb 1402.3 0.3 +3.4
Carlos Lee 25 pre-arb 1501.9 0.4 +2.6
Royce Clayton 31 FA-elig 1351.7 4.5 -1.7
David Wells 38 FA-elig 161.7 9.2 -6.5
Sean Lowe 30 arb 451.7 0.3 +2.4
Kip Wells 24 – 401.5 – –
Aaron Rowand 23 – 631.3 – –
Tony Graffanino 29 arb 741.3 0.4 +1.7
Rocky Biddle 25 pre-arb 301.2 0.2 +1.7
Mark Johnson 25 – 611.2 – –
Jose Canseco 36 – 761.1 – –
Herbert Perry Jr. 31 FA-elig 920.6 1.0 +0.0
Gary Glover 24 pre-arb 460.5 0.2 +0.6
Josh Fogg 24 – 110.4 – –
Jeff Liefer 26 – 830.3 – –
Bob Howry 27 arb 690.3 0.4 +0.1
Lorenzo Barcelo 23 – 170.3 – –
Matt Ginter 23 – 200.2 – –
Jon Garland 21 – 350.2 – –
Sandy Alomar Jr. 35 FA-elig 700.2 2.9 -2.5
James Baldwin↔ LAD 29 FA-elig 170.2 3.5 -3.1
Alan Embree↔ SFG 31 FA-elig 390.2 1.5 -1.3
Josh Paul 26 pre-arb 570.1 0.2 -0.1
McKay Christensen↔ LAD 25 – 70.0 – –
Cal Eldred 33 FA-elig 2-0.0 0.8 -0.8
Frank Thomas 33 FA-elig 20-0.1 9.9 -10.1
Jim Parque 26 arb 5-0.2 0.6 -0.8
Dan Wright 23 – 13-0.2 – –
Antonio Osuna 28 FA-elig 4-0.2 1.5 -1.9
Bill Pulsipher↔ BOS 27 – 14-0.3 – –
Ken Vining 26 – 8-0.3 – –
Kelly Wunsch 28 pre-arb 33-0.3 0.3 -0.8
Julio Ramirez 23 pre-arb 22-0.3 0.2 -0.8
Joe Crede 23 – 17-0.4 – –
Harold Baines 42 FA-elig 32-1.2 1.0 -2.9

Key additions (new vs 2000)

PlayerfWAR
Royce Clayton1.7
David Wells1.7
Aaron Rowand1.3
Jose Canseco1.1
Gary Glover0.5
Josh Fogg0.4

Key subtractions (gone from 2000)

Player2000 fWAR
Mike Sirotka3.5
Charles Johnson2.2
Brook Fordyce0.8
Bill Simas0.6
Chad Bradford0.4
Craig Wilson0.2

Current & Historical Payroll

2001 payroll
$62.8M

What the front office was committed to as of 2001, 2001–2007. Pre-2015 has no contract-terms data — forward italic $ are realized actuals (hindsight, not commitments known then). Control labels (ARB/FA) are point-in-time.

current $ guaranteed $ actual $ (hindsight) arbitration (proj) pre-arb (proj) free agent

Guaranteed / signed (14)

PlayerAgeSvc2001200220032004200520062007
Frank Thomas3311.000$9.9M$9.9M$5.0M$6.0M$8.0MFREE AGENT
David Wells3814.000$9.2MFREE AGENT
Ray Durham296.000$9.0M$4.0MFREE AGENT
Jose Valentin319.000$5.2M$5.0M$5.0M$5.0MFREE AGENT
Royce Clayton3110.000$4.5M$4.5MFREE AGENT
James Baldwin296.000$3.5MFREE AGENT
Sandy Alomar Jr.3513.000$2.9M$1.4M$700k$700kFREE AGENT$382k
Alan Embree319.000$1.5MFREE AGENT
Antonio Osuna286.000$1.5M$2.2MFREE AGENT
Harold Baines4221.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Herbert Perry Jr.317.000$975kFREE AGENT
Cal Eldred3310.000$750kFREE AGENT
Jose Canseco3616.000—FREE AGENT
Bill Pulsipher276.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (8)

PlayerAgeSvc2001200220032004200520062007
Magglio Ordonez274.000$3.8MARB 3FREE AGENT
Keith Foulke284.000$3.1MARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul Konerko254.000$2.3MARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Parque263.000$550kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bob Howry273.000$375kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony Graffanino295.000$375kFREE AGENT
Sean Lowe304.000$300kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Johnson253.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (19)

PlayerAgeSvc2001200220032004200520062007
Carlos Lee252.000$400kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Singleton282.000$315kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kelly Wunsch281.000$260kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Josh Paul262.000$230kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Buehrle221.000$225kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rocky Biddle251.000$205kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Julio Ramirez232.000$200kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gary Glover242.000$200kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Lorenzo Barcelo231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
McKay Christensen252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Crede231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Josh Fogg240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Liefer262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kip Wells242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Ginter231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dan Wright230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jon Garland211.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ken Vining26–—
Aaron Rowand230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = White Sox 2001; the black line = the league-average player at each slot that season. Staying above the line deep into the roster is the depth edge; dropping below it = holes & dead weight.

What each regime is worth — every settled team-season since 1985

RegimeSeasonsWin %Playoff %Pennant %WS %
WINDOW 28152.131.05.01.1
CONTEND 30056.964.719.710.3
FORCED-SPEND 25648.09.81.61.6
REBUILD 32143.31.20.30.3
Rosternomics — quantifying front-office skill, attribution-clean. Follow @rosternomics on X. Decision-makers on record back to 1933; resource-controlled metrics (WAR & payroll) cover 1985–2026.
Data: FanGraphs (WAR), Baseball-Reference & the Chadwick Bureau register (rosters, IDs), the Lahman Database, Baseball America prospect rankings (via The Baseball Cube), and public payroll records. Transaction and trade data was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet. Executive birth/death data via Wikidata (CC0); bios are original. Emoji graphics by OpenMoji (CC BY-SA 4.0).
All figures are franchise-level outcomes credited to the decision-maker in the acquisition year — not solely attributable to one executive.