17 for 20 the little brother in the windy city.

Sorry for the delay in the series, been a little busy, but here we go with number 17. If you could not have guessed it by the title we are talking about the Chicago White Sox. More importantly, we are talking about the White Sox in 2021. In this season, they ended up losing in the ALCS to the Toronto Blue Jays, the eventual WS winner. However, in this season he put up 113 wins, tied with the marlins that season for best record. Only 5 teams in the history of FCM finished with more wins than the 2021 White Sox and they are the 2023 Marlins, 2020 Marlins, 2020 Cubs, 2019 Blue Jays, 2015 Yankees. That alone makes JHC and his White Sox belong on the list.

The biggest key to the 2021 team was the starting pitching. In the off season after JHC put up 100 wins, he decided to improve on his roster. His big move was picking up Fletcher Conyers from HB in Seattle. In addition to Conyers in the rotation, JHC had 24 year old Alfredo Lopez who won 17 games on the year, along with Brad Rickerly who also won 17 games. The leader in wins though was the tough lefty Brett Devall who JHC obtained from Houston the year prior, he put up 19 wins on the year.

This team was not just limited to pitching. The lineup was strong as well with some minor flaws, The 2021 White sox led the majors in 2021 in Slugging and Home Runs. The thing was there was no one big bopper in his lineup. He had Harry Curtis and Lloyd Vankirk lead the team with 33 homers a piece. After that he had Thomas Neal with 27, Rafeal Urdivana with 26 and then several players from 18-12 home runs. He had a deep and dangerous lineup that could put up runs with solid pitching. However, the biggest reason why he probably ended up losing was the consistency that runners were on base. He had only 4 hitters in his lineup that hit over .280 on the season. Two of those three hitting .281 and .284. So for this White Sox team it was a bit of feast or famine.

I think this team would have been a tremendous team and could have finished in the top 10 and possibly have beaten the Blue Jays if they had a couple bats in the top of the lineup that excelled at getting on base for those bats in the middle of that lineup. But a tip of the hat to JHC on building an excellent team. Next on the list is someone we all will have to pop a tab of old Milwaukee with.