The One Hitter…..The Average Major League Regular

This is the One Hitter, just a quick thought or two about a topic from your frents at the 108…..remember, don’t forget to exhale.

The “Average Major League Regular” or as Joe Sheehan would refer to it as the “2 WAR (Wins above Replacement, which includes batting, pitching, defense and base running into one single value) player“.  The last few versions of the White Sox, you know, the ones that sucked and had Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, Adam Eaton and Jose Abreu as big stars lacked this player.  A star player is more in the 3 to 10 WAR spot (for 10 WAR think Mike Trout and for 3 WAR think Jose Abreu)…….the White Sox had 4 of those guys, which is pretty good.  What they lacked in those seasons were the “Average Major League Regular” that filled out the rest of the positions and gave you someone of value.  Since WAR is an imperfect measure and I want to display what type of player I am talking about that the White Sox are going to need loads of for the next time they are really good……I shall use the 2005 White Sox and we’ll go Baseball Reference WAR less than 3.0 and more than 1.5.  Here are the players on that team that fit the bill.

Tadahito Igucho 2.8

Cliff Politte‘s career year 2.7

Jermaine Dye 2.5

A.J. Pierzynski 2.3

Juan Uribe 2.2

Dustin Hermanson 2.0

Joe Crede 1.7

Scott Podsednik 1.7

The team had 2 position player “stars” Paul Konerko and Aaron Rowand and they also had their big 4 starting pitchers all above 3.0 WAR lead by Mark Buehrle (Jon Garland, Jose Contreras and Freddy Garcia).  The last pre-rebuild versions of the White Sox had these “stars” albeit 4 of them instead of 6, but still……….but they sorely lacked the “Average MLB Regular”.  As we look onto this current trade season, think about the 2nd and/or 3rd/4th pieces of these deals and some of these folks and some of the recent draft picks are going to need to become the low cost “Average MLB Regular” that makes our White Sox good enough as a team to make a playoff run.