RRosternomics
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White Sox CHW

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GM: Kenny Williams

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↗ rising
expensive & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.32× league · TAB -2.9
-2.9TAB — talent above budget21st/30
-6.6WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)24th/30
11.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars2nd/30
-6.8dead WAR — sub-replacement drag24th/30
38%dead money %18th/30
0.488win %17th/30
34.8roster fWAR14th/30
-41surplus $M (value vs cost)22nd/30
$126Mpayroll $M6th/30

Roster

CFAlex Rios 143GAlejandro De Aza 19GBrent Lillibridge 11G
LFJuan Pierre 155GBrent Lillibridge 9GAlejandro De Aza 4G
RFCarlos Quentin 102GBrent Lillibridge 43GAlejandro De Aza 31G
SSAlexei Ramirez 155GOmar Vizquel 9GEduardo Escobar 3G
2BGordon Beckham 149GOmar Vizquel 16GBrent Lillibridge 6G
3BBrent Morel 125GOmar Vizquel 29GDallas McPherson 5G
1BPaul Konerko 111GAdam Dunn 35GBrent Lillibridge 22G
STARTERSMark Buehrle 3.2WARGavin Floyd 3.1WARPhilip Humber 3.0WARJake Peavy 2.9WARJohn Danks 2.8WAR
CA.J. Pierzynski 120GTyler Flowers 31GRamon Castro 21G
DHAdam Dunn 81GPaul Konerko 37GCarlos Quentin 15G
BULLPEN★ Sergio Santos 30svJesse Crain 24hMatt Thornton 20hChris Sale 16hJason Frasor 14hWill Ohman 3hBrian Bruney 3hRamon Pena 0h
CA.J. Pierzynski 120 · Tyler Flowers 31 · Ramon Castro 21
1BPaul Konerko 111 · Adam Dunn 35 · Brent Lillibridge 22
2BGordon Beckham 149 · Omar Vizquel 16 · Brent Lillibridge 6
3BBrent Morel 125 · Omar Vizquel 29 · Dallas McPherson 5
SSAlexei Ramirez 155 · Omar Vizquel 9 · Eduardo Escobar 3
LFJuan Pierre 155 · Brent Lillibridge 9 · Alejandro De Aza 4
CFAlex Rios 143 · Alejandro De Aza 19 · Brent Lillibridge 11
RFCarlos Quentin 102 · Brent Lillibridge 43 · Alejandro De Aza 31
DHAdam Dunn 81 · Paul Konerko 37 · Carlos Quentin 15
SPMark Buehrle 3.2 · Gavin Floyd 3.1 · Philip Humber 3.0 · Jake Peavy 2.9 · John Danks 2.8
BP★ Sergio Santos 30 · Jesse Crain 24 · Matt Thornton 20 · Chris Sale 16 · Jason Frasor 14 · Will Ohman 3 · Brian Bruney 3 · Ramon Pena 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.

2011 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Alexei Ramirez 29 arb 1584.2 2.8 +7.5
Mark Buehrle 32 FA-elig 313.2 14.0 -6.3
Gavin Floyd 28 FA-elig 313.1 5.0 +2.6
Philip Humber 28 arb 283.0 0.5 +6.8
Jake Peavy 30 FA-elig 192.9 16.0 -8.9
John Danks 26 arb 272.8 6.0 +0.9
Paul Konerko 35 FA-elig 1492.7 12.0 -5.3
Edwin Jackson↔ STL 27 FA-elig 192.7 5.2 +1.4
Alejandro De Aza 27 – 542.5 0.4 +5.8
Carlos Quentin 28 arb 1182.5 5.0 +1.1
A.J. Pierzynski 34 FA-elig 1292.1 2.0 +3.1
Matt Thornton 34 FA-elig 621.4 3.0 +0.5
Sergio Santos 27 pre-arb 631.4 0.4 +2.9
Tyler Flowers 25 pre-arb 381.3 0.4 +2.8
Brent Lillibridge 27 arb 971.3 0.4 +2.7
Chris Sale 22 pre-arb 581.1 0.4 +2.2
Jesse Crain 29 FA-elig 670.8 4.0 -2.0
Gordon Beckham 24 pre-arb 1500.8 0.5 +1.4
Brent Morel 24 pre-arb 1260.4 0.4 +0.6
Dylan Axelrod 25 pre-arb 40.4 0.4 +0.6
Ramon Castro 35 FA-elig 230.2 1.2 -0.6
Zach Stewart↔ TOR 24 – 110.2 0.2 +0.2
Will Ohman 33 FA-elig 590.1 1.5 -1.1
Josh Kinney 32 pre-arb 130.1 0.1 +0.2
Lucas Harrell↔ HOU 26 pre-arb 30.1 0.1 +0.1
Addison Reed 22 – 60.1 0.1 +0.2
Ramon Pena 29 arb 170.1 1.6 -1.4
Héctor Santiago 23 – 20.0 0.4 -0.3
Eduardo Escobar 22 – 90.0 0.1 +0.0
Jeff Gray↔ SEA 29 – 60.0 – –
Dayan Viciedo 22 pre-arb 290.0 2.2 -2.2
Donny Lucy 28 – 6-0.0 – –
Shane Lindsay 26 – 4-0.0 0.1 -0.2
Jason Frasor↔ TOR 33 FA-elig 20-0.2 1.1 -1.5
Dallas McPherson 30 arb 11-0.2 0.0 -0.5
Lastings Milledge 26 arb 2-0.2 0.5 -1.1
Brian Bruney 29 arb 23-0.3 0.2 -0.8
Omar Vizquel 44 FA-elig 58-0.4 1.8 -2.8
Mark Teahen↔ TOR 29 FA-elig 51-0.5 3.1 -4.2
Juan Pierre 33 FA-elig 158-0.6 8.5 -10.0
Alex Rios 30 FA-elig 145-1.4 12.5 -16.0
Adam Dunn 31 FA-elig 122-2.9 12.0 -19.1

Key additions (new vs 2010)

PlayerfWAR
Philip Humber3.0
Jesse Crain0.8
Dylan Axelrod0.4
Zach Stewart0.2
Will Ohman0.1
Josh Kinney0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 2010)

Player2010 fWAR
J.J. Putz1.5
Andruw Jones1.4
Bobby Jenks1.4
Freddy Garcia1.3
Erick Threets0.2
Daniel Hudson0.2

Current & Historical Payroll

2011 payroll
$126.2M

What the front office was committed to as of 2011, 2011–2017. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc2011201220132014201520162017
Jake Peavy308.101$16.0M$17.0M$8.2MFREE AGENT
Mark Buehrle3210.078$14.0MFREE AGENT
Alex Rios306.130$12.5M$12.0M$8.7MFREE AGENT
Paul Konerko3512.141$12.0M$12.0M$13.5M$2.5MFREE AGENT
Adam Dunn319.074$12.0M$14.0M$15.0M$12.1MFREE AGENT
Juan Pierre3310.056$8.5MFREE AGENT
Gavin Floyd2810.045$5.0M$7.0M$9.5MFREE AGENT
Jesse Crain296.039$4.0M$4.5M$2.9MFREE AGENT
Matt Thornton346.129$3.0M$5.5M$3.7MFREE AGENT
A.J. Pierzynski3410.100$2.0M$6.0MFREE AGENT
Omar Vizquel4421.130$1.8MFREE AGENT
Will Ohman338.027$1.5M$2.5MFREE AGENT
Ramon Castro3512.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Jason Frasor3310.134$1.1MFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (12)

PlayerAgeSvc2011201220132014201520162017
John Danks264.000$6.0MARB 3FREE AGENT
Edwin Jackson275.070$5.2MFREE AGENT
Carlos Quentin284.065$5.0MARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Teahen295.155$3.1MFREE AGENT
Alexei Ramirez293.000$2.8MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ramon Pena295.000$1.6MFREE AGENT
Lastings Milledge265.000$500kFREE AGENT
Philip Humber283.000$500kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alejandro De Aza274.000$414kARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Bruney295.122$154kFREE AGENT
Dallas McPherson303.019$29kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Donny Lucy284.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (16)

PlayerAgeSvc2011201220132014201520162017
Dayan Viciedo220.083$2.2MPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gordon Beckham241.123$485kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Sergio Santos271.000$435kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brent Lillibridge271.115$430kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Sale220.061$425kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Héctor Santiago230.000$414kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brent Morel241.151$414kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dylan Axelrod251.143$414kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tyler Flowers250.067$414kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Zach Stewart240.000$208kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Lucas Harrell262.083$138kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Josh Kinney322.122$97kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Addison Reed220.000$66kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Shane Lindsay26–$66k
Eduardo Escobar220.000$61kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Gray290.122—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = White Sox 2011; 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.