Kirkwood is right. The Sox won a World Series on the back of a team centered around great pitching, great defense, disruptive baserunning and a couple of big hitters in the middle of the order. For some reason, despite that dynamic leading them directly to a title the instant they implemented it, they abandoned that philosophy immediately and havent tried it again since.

It's just been as many power hitters that strikeout a lot and are at best average defenders stuffed into a lineup together every season.

Yost didnt start managing in 2014


He also got fired from a team 7 games before the playoffs were to begin. He was that bad.

So Counsell is the only one?

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

I disliked Dusty from jump. No bullpen clues, and he hated contact hitters and basestealers. Bad manager. Joe, good manager.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

That dynamic was there in 2006.

Injuries and the disintegration of the bullpen are what led them to ruin. Still won 90 games.

I usually tend to stay out of White Sox business, but I think the Rowand for Thome trade got a little away from the magic of 05

Lost a bunch off the "great defense" and disruptive base running in that deal. Gained a ton of power though.

I don't really think so. Anderson played a better center than Rowand and that team slugged enough to live with his shitty bat. I still think that team was the "best" Sox team in my lifetime. Obviously, that might be seen as a strange argument to make because they won the World Series the previous year. But the pieces and talent they had were better than any of their other teams including the 2005 champs. But you mentioned "magic", and yeah, championship teams always find some magic. It's true the '06 Sox didn't have that. But I think their only real problem was that the starting pitching had simply been ridden too hard in winning the previous year.

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

I didn't like the Thome for Rowand trade. Thome did do everything expected and more but Rowand was MVP level for the Phillies.

It took them 9 seasons to find another CF after Rowand.

They did? I recall it being a straight up deal, Thome+Cash for Rowand. Now Pods did have the groin issue that year as well. As for "great defense" Robby Mac was a disaster but that wasn't why they didn't make the post-season. White Sox defense in 2006 was still solid, tops in efficiency, I believe.

If that bullpen was slightly below average instead of fucking terrible they win the Central.

Sox also got Gavin Floyd and Gio Gonzalez.

Edit- nvm this was the other time they traded away Gio, they still got Floyd though.

Nope. Those pitchers came in the Freddy deal.

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

I kinda forgot about Anderson.

Rowand was a big part of the magic from my pov. He and AJ seemed to always be in the middle of all the big stuff that year.

Anyway, looking at the numbers, it seems like Buehrle and the bullpen were the main differences.

Rowand certainly go to get it in CF, but he was notorious for missing the cutoff man allowing runners to advance and runs to score, and he was not a very good baserunner. This was on display in the World Series where Rowand was on first with 0 or 1 out, AJ hit a long fly into the LF corner that was not caught, and Rowand was standing on 1st base ready to tag up instead of getting to 3rd or scoring himself. It was not an easy play for the Astros's outfielder to make, as the ball was tailing away from him and he had a lot of ground to cover. IIRC, the ball ended up hitting the fence on a fly.

Now it didn't end up mattering because the Sox won the game and the series (2005), and a couple of batters later Biggio ended up dropping a popup that scored a run. Still though, there were a lot of little things like that Rowand did not do particularly well. His absence was even more magnified because Brian Anderson could not hit a lick, and Rob Mackowiak was just terrible in CF. That lead to the revolving door of Jerry Owens, Darin Erstad, Alejandro DeAza, and God knows who else. A lot of people forget that on Opening Day 2008, Alexei Ramirez was the starting centerfielder!

Now, somebody go ahead and tell us again how Kenny scouted Anderson and that was his guy for CF.

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Brian Anderson, defensively, was the best CF I can recall in a White Sox uniform. Rowand was incredibly overrated, but it could have been a chemistry thing. Rowand did go on to win in SF....might be something there. Rowand, Crede, AJ seemed to be the heart and soul of that team. Thome replacing Everett / Thomas always felt like a little bit of a downgrade, but not a lot.

I recall the bullpen deteriorating a bit, which could have been a hangover from a long 2005. Jenks wasn't as sharp as he had been in 2005 and Damaso Marte was gone and Neal Cotts was awful in 2006 as your LH specialist.

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Pollitte was also done, and Buehrle and Contrares had brutal second halves.

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The "Magic" of 2005 was partly generated by the White Sox hitting a metric shit ton of HR's.

Didn't they hit the most in the MLB that year?

Man, that team could do it all.

sad this is what White Sox nation has become. pining for days of yore. I think I'd rather wait until next year.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

How has that team done since he left?

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Average. Pretty much what they were with him.