RRosternomics
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White Sox CHW

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GM: Kenny Williams

Overview

WINDOW ↘ cooling
cheap & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.81× league · TAB +4.6
+4.6TAB — talent above budget10th/30
+1.9WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)15th/30
6.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars15th/30
-2.9dead WAR — sub-replacement drag9th/30
5%dead money %1st/30
0.500win %14th/30
36.2roster fWAR14th/30
+9surplus $M (value vs cost)5th/30
$53Mpayroll $M18th/30

Roster

CFAaron Rowand 76GWillie Harris 6GJoe Borchard 5G
LFCarlos Lee 137GAaron Rowand 40GJeff Liefer 24G
RFMagglio Ordonez 150GJeff Liefer 12GAaron Rowand 7G
SSRoyce Clayton 109GJose Valentin 50GD'Angelo Jimenez 10G
2BD'Angelo Jimenez 71GWillie Harris 38GTony Graffanino 25G
3BJose Valentin 83GJoe Crede 53GTony Graffanino 35G
1BPaul Konerko 140GJeff Liefer 31GFrank Thomas 4G
STARTERSMark Buehrle 4.3WARJon Garland 2.2WARDan Wright 1.7WARTodd Ritchie 1.4WARGary Glover 0.8WAR
CMark Johnson 85GJosh Paul 32GMiguel Olivo 6G
DHFrank Thomas 139GPaul Konerko 7GJeff Liefer 4G
BULLPEN★ Keith Foulke 11svDamaso Marte 14hAntonio Osuna 9hKelly Wunsch 9hMike Porzio 3hLorenzo Barcelo 1hMatt Ginter 0hJim Parque 0h
CMark Johnson 85 · Josh Paul 32 · Miguel Olivo 6
1BPaul Konerko 140 · Jeff Liefer 31 · Frank Thomas 4
2BD'Angelo Jimenez 71 · Willie Harris 38 · Tony Graffanino 25
3BJose Valentin 83 · Joe Crede 53 · Tony Graffanino 35
SSRoyce Clayton 109 · Jose Valentin 50 · D'Angelo Jimenez 10
LFCarlos Lee 137 · Aaron Rowand 40 · Jeff Liefer 24
CFAaron Rowand 76 · Willie Harris 6 · Joe Borchard 5
RFMagglio Ordonez 150 · Jeff Liefer 12 · Aaron Rowand 7
DHFrank Thomas 139 · Paul Konerko 7 · Jeff Liefer 4
SPMark Buehrle 4.3 · Jon Garland 2.2 · Dan Wright 1.7 · Todd Ritchie 1.4 · Gary Glover 0.8
BP★ Keith Foulke 11 · Damaso Marte 14 · Antonio Osuna 9 · Kelly Wunsch 9 · Mike Porzio 3 · Lorenzo Barcelo 1 · Matt Ginter 0 · Jim Parque 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.

2002 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Magglio Ordonez 28 arb 1534.5 6.5 +1.2
Mark Buehrle 23 pre-arb 344.3 0.3 +7.0
Jose Valentin 32 FA-elig 1353.5 5.0 +1.0
Ray Durham↔ OAK 30 FA-elig 962.3 4.0 -0.1
Jon Garland 22 pre-arb 332.2 0.3 +3.5
Antonio Osuna 29 FA-elig 592.0 2.2 +1.2
Carlos Lee 26 arb 1402.0 2.7 +0.7
Kenny Lofton↔ SFG 35 FA-elig 931.9 0.7 +2.6
Paul Konerko 26 arb 1511.8 3.8 -0.8
Dan Wright 24 pre-arb 331.7 0.2 +2.6
Damaso Marte 27 arb 691.6 0.2 +2.5
Todd Ritchie 30 arb 271.4 3.5 -1.2
Frank Thomas 34 FA-elig 1481.4 9.9 -7.6
Keith Foulke 29 arb 651.3 4.0 -1.8
Joe Crede 24 – 531.2 – –
D'Angelo Jimenez↔ SDP 24 arb 271.1 0.1 +1.9
Royce Clayton 32 FA-elig 1121.0 4.5 -2.7
Tony Graffanino 30 FA-elig 701.0 0.6 +1.1
Gary Glover 25 arb 410.8 0.2 +1.2
Aaron Rowand 24 pre-arb 1260.7 0.2 +1.0
Sandy Alomar Jr.↔ COL 36 FA-elig 510.7 1.4 -0.3
Mark Johnson 26 arb 860.5 0.3 +0.5
Matt Ginter 24 – 330.3 – –
Bob Howry↔ BOS 28 arb 470.2 0.8 -0.6
Miguel Olivo 23 – 60.0 – –
Rocky Biddle 26 pre-arb 44-0.0 0.2 -0.3
Lorenzo Barcelo 24 pre-arb 4-0.0 0.2 -0.3
Kelly Wunsch 29 pre-arb 50-0.1 0.3 -0.5
Jon Rauch 23 pre-arb 8-0.2 0.2 -0.5
Joe Borchard 23 – 16-0.2 – –
Jeff Liefer 27 arb 76-0.3 0.3 -0.8
Willie Harris 24 – 49-0.3 – –
Josh Paul 27 – 33-0.4 – –
Mike Porzio 29 arb 32-0.6 0.2 -1.2
Jim Parque 26 – 8-0.8 – –

Key additions (new vs 2001)

PlayerfWAR
Kenny Lofton1.9
Damaso Marte1.6
Todd Ritchie1.4
D'Angelo Jimenez1.1
Miguel Olivo0.0
Jon Rauch-0.2

Key subtractions (gone from 2001)

Player2001 fWAR
Chris Singleton2.3
David Wells1.7
Sean Lowe1.7
Kip Wells1.5
Jose Canseco1.1
Herbert Perry Jr.0.6

Current & Historical Payroll

2002 payroll
$53.1M

What the front office was committed to as of 2002, 2002–2008. 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 (8)

PlayerAgeSvc2002200320042005200620072008
Frank Thomas3412.000$9.9M$5.0M$6.0M$8.0MFREE AGENT
Jose Valentin3210.000$5.0M$5.0M$5.0MFREE AGENT
Royce Clayton3211.000$4.5MFREE AGENT
Ray Durham307.000$4.0MFREE AGENT
Antonio Osuna297.000$2.2MFREE AGENT
Sandy Alomar Jr.3614.000$1.4M$700k$700kFREE AGENT$382k
Kenny Lofton3511.000$686kFREE AGENT
Tony Graffanino306.000$575k$675kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (14)

PlayerAgeSvc2002200320042005200620072008
Magglio Ordonez285.000$6.5MFREE AGENT
Keith Foulke295.000$4.0MFREE AGENT
Paul Konerko265.000$3.8MFREE AGENT
Todd Ritchie305.000$3.5MFREE AGENT
Carlos Lee263.000$2.7MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bob Howry284.000$842kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Johnson264.000$320kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Liefer273.000$285kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gary Glover253.000$240kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Damaso Marte273.000$228kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Porzio293.000$215kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
D'Angelo Jimenez243.000$57kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Parque264.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Josh Paul273.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (13)

PlayerAgeSvc2002200320042005200620072008
Mark Buehrle232.000$310kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kelly Wunsch292.000$285kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jon Garland222.000$275kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rocky Biddle262.000$250kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Lorenzo Barcelo242.000$240kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Aaron Rowand241.000$225kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dan Wright241.000$220kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jon Rauch230.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Crede242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Ginter242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Miguel Olivo230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Borchard230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Willie Harris241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = White Sox 2002; 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.