2005 Chicago White Sox

The first Chicago baseball team to win a title in nearly a century, the White Sox broke their "Black Sox" curse through Ozzie Guillen's "Win or Die Trying" squad. Adding critical pieces like Scott Podsednik and Tadahito Iguchi to the front of their lineup, fiery catcher AJ Pierzynski to impassion the locker room, and the veteran arms of Freddy Garcia, Jose Contreras, and Dustin Hermanson to shore up the team's pitching. The White Sox would improve by 16 wins from 2004, winning 99 games and the AL Central.

Looking at this Showdown team, it's incredible the job that Ozzie Guillen did. Clearly, he took advantage of the team's excellent charts on offense and rolled solidly with their far above average pitching. Against other "Greatest MLB Showdown" teams, this White Sox squad looks like it'd be toward the bottom, but the risk-reward nature of the lineup could provide some really impressive scores if a manager happens to be rolling well!

Lineup: At first glance, this is the worst overall lineup we've put forward on the site so far. Three OB 5s make up the 7-8-9 spots, with three more OB 7s and an OB 6 scattered in the lineup as well. 1B Paul Konerko is easily the brightest spot, bringing great power to the team. Leadoff man Scott Podsednik is also useful, with blazing speed to set the table for a lot of struggling hitters. A high control pitcher could really tame this offense, although it could excel against a Control 2 or 3 pitcher!

Rotation: The White Sox are built around a very good rotation. Mark Buehrle is the ace, bringing a very strong Control 6, on at 16 card to the table. He's followed by three good Tier 3 pitchers, including a 4 on at 17 w/no doubles (Garland), 2 on at 19 with 7 IP (Garcia), and a solid, David  Cone-like card (Jose Contreras).

Bullpen: Chicago has a really strong bullpen, especially fireman Bobby Jenks and ground ball machine Dustin Hermanson. Neal Cotts is (surprisingly) their best pitcher, giving them three top-end options to turn to in a game. Fourth pitcher Politte is still an above average pitcher, making them the rare team without a "punt" pitcher in one form or another.