BeefLoaf’s ALL-TIME Most Overrated White Sox

These types of things are always so clickbaity and at 108 we don’t generally do that. But the top couple of these White Sox really stay on my mind about their overratedness, so I felt it time I actually blog this shit and get it off my chest. Sometimes writing is to remember, I’m writing this so I can forget.

BeefLoaf’s Most Overrated White Sox

I want to start with the White Sox that made the list, but didn’t make THE LIST! We been doing top 8’s on Instagram (subscribe to our instagram rn you fuck!) and so I wanted this list to mirror that, so my extras will hop down into the Honorable Mention category below.

Honorable Mention

These guys I feel are overrated, but not overrated enough for me to gush about them. First up Bobby Thigpen, I really liked Thiggy, especially in 1990 when he was setting the MLB record for saves and a young upstart White Sox team was challenging the mighty Oakland A’s, but in hindsight, it was really just that one great season and then he was kinda meh. Maybe they should’ve let him hit. Gordon Beckham was supposed to save the 2009 White Sox (he played well, but not well enough) and despite his boyish good looks he was just always more hype than substance.

Scott Podsednik‘s walk off home run in the World Series I will always cherish, but he’s still earning pay checks off that shit in classic White Sox style so that puts him and his facelifts in my honorables. Tom Paciorek was a totally fine hitter at the end of his career with the Pale Hose, but I’m talking about his announcing, I routinely find myself excited that he’s picking up a weekend series with the team for pure nostalgia and then realize how sick of his bullshit I have become. Last but not least is the stache daddy Dylan Cease. He just cashed $210 million, but to me he was never that good. Yea he’s durable, yea he’s got good stuff, but he was always lacking to me.

Let’s Start the Actual LIST!

#8 – Bo Jackson

Bo Jackson might be the most overrated athlete of our generation. Probably because he was the greatest player in Tecmo Bowl history. Yes he had gigantic physical talents, but he didn’t really accomplish very much before Kevin Walker irreparably damaged him in the LA Coliseum. Bo only played a season plus with the White Sox and although it was incredibly cool that he could actually make it back from that injury he wasn’t really actually any good. He was a below average hitter (96 OPS+) and worth less than 1 bWAR in his tenure with the White Sox, yet he’s treated like an all-time great. Very weird, I won’t ever get it and I own a White Sox Bo Jackson jersey (not the only jersey on this list I own, I love irony).

#7 – Tim Anderson

The 108 blog contains more supportive Tim Anderson blogs than likely anyone else. We LOVED Tim Anderson. Tim also has some skins on the wall, he won the AL Batting Title in 2019 and he had some down ballot MVP votes in 2020 (the year Jose Abreu won it), but for as quick of a peak as he had it was gone in a hurry. The coverage of Tim was wild in that there were people saying he was the new face of baseball and others offering that Tim Anderson was worth $100 Million Dollars? It was a wild time. His 2018-2021 peak lands him as a very solid White Sox player, but the hype surrounding him lands him easily on my list.

#6 – Rick Hahn

Good ole Rick Hahn aka Teflon Rick ($1 Herb Lawrence), aka Teflon Hahn. The majority of White Sox fans eventually jumped out of the “Rick Hahn is a Genius” boat, at some point. I think the Jeff Keppinger debacle was where I decided he probably wasn’t one of those smart modern GM’s. He got gifted Chris Sale, then Kenny Williams went and personally scouted Jose Abreu and identified that the rest of MLB was WAY THE FUCK OFF in evaluating him. So he was handed two all-time White Sox greats and the most wins he could muster with them was 76. Oof!

He did manage to thread the needle on the red paper clip operation of trading good players for future good players. Two playoff births do stand, even the 2020 one (it counts in my book!), but inevitably he was the most overrated front office person in Sox history.

Inevitably what happened was that at one point both he and Kenny were above average at their jobs, but the insular nature of the White Sox and their lack of hiring talent people from the outside and continuing their education in the market place lead to a regression of skills. It happens to everyone. That’s how I get sourced DMing me on the 2022 deadline day when the White Sox are only 3.5 games back of the Clevelands that Hahn is at a coffee shop, no phone, no laptop, no hope. Good riddance.

#5 – Andrew Vaughn

I ain’t clipping it all here, but I was the earliest adopter of the thought that Andrew Vaughn ain’t good. And throughout his 5 major league seasons he’s been the same replacement level player, with some ebbs and flows. There was an Andrew Vaughn fucking rakes club, there were podcast hosts telling me I didn’t know what I am talking about (as the normie media and the wannabe normie media is want to do), but of course, begrudgingly he was never a good White Sox.

Mind you, I wanted him to be good, I even started calling him ANDRE to pump up his power, but nothing worked. 5 probably isn’t even truly high enough on this list because Vaughn had a 3 week Linsanity run with the Brewers and newbs were tryna dunk on me for it. There’s probably at least one more year to have fun with this until Andy has to learn Korean or go sell insurance, but I digress. Easily and overrated White Sox of anyones lifetime, particularly mines.

#4 – Joe Crede

I like Joe Crede. But other than a monster 2 weeks in October of 2005 (in which he had strong arguments for ALCS MVP and World Series MVP), Joe had one really good season, 2006. Despite that resume you routinely run into White Sox fans that think he’s better than Robin Ventura. He was an above average defender at the hot corner and a below average hitter. Heroics aside he was an okay player that is constantly mentioned in hushed tones because he liked to sing karaoke to terrible classic rock.

Now this is where shit gets real. These 3 overrated White Sox are the ones that my feeble brain continues to circle.

#3 – Gene Honda

Gene Honda is still wildly loved across the Chicago sportasphere (is that a word?). The truth is he’s still eating out on an excellent prime that ended 20 odd years ago. The White Sox golden era of the mid-2000’s there was nothing better than him announcing the fellas and conversely using his impending doom voice when talking about Johan Santana or Victor Martinez or Insert Your Favorite AL Central villain.

But when you really think about it, when was the last time his player intro was as iconic as it was from that era. The moment Paul Konerko hung them up was the moment you heard the last of PRIME HONDA! Now what we have is the overrated late stage Honda. Bring me the young up and coming version, let’s try someone new. NEXT!

#2 – Ron Kittle

In a way you have to give the guy credit, he’s managed to still be squeezing out a pay check from the White Sox a mere 42 years after his only good season with the team. I think the kids call this a “HUSTLER”. Now I have Kitty’s Edmonton Trapper’s jersey and if you want to be in awe of an accomplishment, take a look at his 1982 season at Edmonton, it’s wild! No clue how the White Sox ain’t call dude up in 1982 for more than a cup of coffee, it’s damn near embarrassing, but I digress.

Yet, here we are in the lord’s year of 2025 and Kitty is still getting guest appearances at events and free meals (first in line at the buffet with a bullet). I assume he even still signs autographs even though he muscled a career 4.1 bWAR for the White Sox. Just an incredible maximization of a single event.

#1 – AJ Pierzynski

In the world of White Sox lore, AJ Pierzynski is a got-damned deity. You still see jerseys of his around the ballpark today and he hasn’t donned a Sox uni since 2012 (which was also coincidentally his only GOOD season with the team).

AJ is viewed as this acerbic team leader, general, sort of a brains of the pitching operation. An intellectual of baseball (as Hawk would often spout that he’s the smartest player he’s ever encountered) of sorts. He was also the guy that ran on strike three in the playoffs and got that gimmick to work. Michael Barrett punched him in the face setting off an all-time White Sox vs Cubs brawl! But in reality AJ was kind of an averagish ballplayer.

His personality seems to lock in tightly with the Sox fans, but the production really doesn’t match. I’m probably low man on AJ as I don’t find him particularly charismatic and he’s just an average ballplayer. Thems the grits.

Okay, back to the regularly schedule snowstorm

-BeefLoaf