Year in Review - Chicago White Sox

October 15, 2008 8:13am CDT

We will be taking a look at all 30 major league teams to see which hitters and pitchers failed, which excelled, and which youngsters you might want to keep in mind as you begin to prepare for your 2009 fantasy baseball draft.


HITTERS
Fantasy Flop - Paul Konerko .240-22-62-59-2 in 438 AB

Konerko entered 2008 with four straight seasons of at least 30 home runs and 90 RBI, a streak that came to a crashing halt due to ineffective work coupled with injury in 2008. Overall, Konerko produced his lowest home run total in five seasons, his worst RBI mark since a 75-game campaign in 1998 and the second worst batting average of his career in a season of at least 200 ABs. Konerko ended up with a BABIP mark that was .038 points below his career average (.285), thanks in part to the fact 40.6% of his batted balls were groundballs, his worst rate in four seasons. Still, he produced home runs on 16.1% of his flyballs, which is just off his 17.0% career mark, so the hope is that if he can lift the ball a bit more in 2009, the home runs could inch back up to the 30 range. Konerko also showed something down the stretch, blasting 13 longballs while hitting .294 over his last 43 games. Otherwise the overall numbers would have been even uglier. For such a consistent performer, this was one awful season, even if he did deal with injury.

Fantasy Find - Carlos Quentin .288-36-100-96-7 in 480 AB

Entering the 2008 campaign, Quentin was dealing with a shoulder injury that wasn’t quite healed, and he was being looked at as the White Sox's fourth outfielder who was set to share time with speedster Jerry Owens. Luckily for Quentin, a spot in the lineup opened up when Owens suffered an injury. To say he excelled with his newfound opportunity would be an understatement. Quentin, who entered the year hitting .230-14-63 in 395 career at-bats with the D’backs the previous two seasons, burst onto the scene with a huge April (.302-7-21-21 in 25 games), and he barely took a breath until he injured his wrist by stupidly punching his bat in early September, costing him a month's worth of games and a legitimate shot at AL MVP honors. Despite missing the time he still finished second in the AL in home runs and third with a .965 OPS, spurred on by a strong BB/K mark of 0.83. In fact, with 80 punchouts, Quentin was the only hitter in the AL to smack 30 home runs with fewer than 85 strikeouts (there were 11 such hitters). There were few situations in which he didn’t excel, and a particular note of interest should be paid to his work in 43 day games that produced a .340-13-39-35 line with a 1.097 OPS. From a possible waiver-wire pickup to a top-10 AL MVP finish, that is one heck of a find.


Youngster to Watch in ‘09 - Alexei Ramirez .290-21-77-65-13 in 480 AB

Ramirez, like Quentin, was on waivers in a number of mixed leagues at the start of the year after coming over from Cuba. In his final season in the Cuban League in 2007, Ramirez hit .335-20-68-65 in just 89 games, as he led the league in average and home runs, but there were many who questioned how his game would translate to the big leagues in his first season in America. Consider those questions answered in the affirmative. Ramirez started extremely slowly, hitting an anemic .121 with only two RBI in his first 14 games through the end of April as he played sparingly, but things turned in May when he hit .295, setting the stage for a strong run from June 1st through the end of the season that produced some big-time numbers (.303-19-70-54-11). All told, he was one of just a couple of full-time second basemen to hit 20 home runs with 10 steals (Chase Utley and Brandon Phillips were the others), and one of just two to hit .290 with 20 home runs and 10 steals (the other was Utley). Alexei could be looking at a 20/20 season in 2009 if things break right.


PITCHERS

Fantasy Flop - Javier Vazquez 12-16, 4.67 ERA, 200 K, 1.32 WHIP

It’s tough to list a guy who won 12 games and was ninth in baseball with 200 Ks as a flop, and truthfully he really wasn’t - that is, unless you overpaid for him on draft day after a fantastic season in 2007 (15-8, 3.74 ERA, 213 K, 1.14 WHIP). Let’s examine his performance. His 12 victories were his second highest total in four seasons. His 200 strikeouts was his second highest total in five seasons. His ERA of 4.67 was a bit high, but not overly so considering that he owns a 4.32 career mark. His WHIP was a bit high given his career 1.27 mark, but again, the variation was totally within an acceptable range. So, again, his effort really wasn’t that far off his normal work. Then again, this situation points out just why it is so important not to overvalue an outlier type performance, hich his 2007 performance clearly was. Look for a depressed market in ’09, which could make him a solid value.

Fantasy Find - Gavin Floyd 17-8, 3.84 ERA, 145 K, 1.26 WHIP in 206.1 IP

This season was a complete shock, given that Floyd entered 2008 with a career line of 8-10 with a 5.27 ERA and a 1.64 WHIP in 178.2 big league innings, numbers that he simply dwarfed for the Sox this season. However, a fair number of his measurables weren’t that off what he had done previously, which should cause some pause. His K/9 mark was 6.32 compared to a 6.29 career mark. Secondly, he walked a few less batters, which led to incremental growth with his K/BB (2.07 in ’08, 1.76 for his career). He did cut his HR/9 mark to down to 1.31 (it’s 1.57 for his career), but that mark is still dangerously high. One of the main differences in his performance was his ability to limit hits, leading to a BABIP mark of .268 compared to his career .290 mark. Given that the jury has basically ruled in favor of the fact that pitchers have little control over the number of hits produced on non home runs that are put in play, we would have to say that Floyd was a bit lucky this season, as he posted a BABIP mark that was roughly .030 points below the major league average. Given across the board minimal growth in his pitching line, the smart money would appear to be on some regression in ’09 unless things change. But that doesn’t diminish what he did in 2008.

Youngster to Watch in ‘09 - Aaron Poreda
Minors: 8-9, 3.13 ERA, 118 K, 1.17 WHIP in 161 IP

This 22-year-old lefty certainly produced some dominating numbers in High-A and Double-A this season, thanks to a special fastball that can touch the mid 90s on a good day. The club's top ranked minor league prospect according to the Baseball America at the start of the season, Poreda did nothing to diminish that outlook with his work this season, which included a strong K/BB ratio of 2.95, thanks to an excellent BB/9 mark of 2.24. When you combine pure stuff with the ability to locate, well, then you have something. With Jose Contreras’ outlook cloudy at best, it would appear that the young lefty has a legitimate shot to grab a rotation spot with the Sox next season depending on how the offseason plays out.