Finally, we're bringing back the 2005 White Sox in classic Showdown fashion! The White Sox won 99 games and went an incredible 11-1 in the playoffs, finally breaking the Black Sox Curse. The team's Pythagorean W-L shows what a great job at being opportunistic and strategic manager Ozzie Guillen was, outperforming their expectation by eight wins! While they're known for their speed and grit, the pitching was the real key to this team. They've got a great rotation and 'pen, helping them at least hang around in any game against other teams we've given you to play with earlier!
Lineup: The White Sox were known for their small ball ways, going all in for Ozzie Guillen's intense managerial style. It worked well for them, even though the Showdown lineup looks rather barren... as constructed here, the exact way that Ozzie Guillen set them up (I would do things differently) Scotty P (one of my all-time favorite Brewers) leads off. Sure, the only homers he's going to hit are off another pitcher's chart, but he's got a TON of speed to go with all of his singles. Meanwhile, he's supported by an OB 7 and 6 (hard to believe Everett is hitting third). In cleanup is their best hitter, Chicago legend Paul Konerko. Paulie brings a great OB 9, HR at 16 card to the cleanup spot. Following him are a couple of powerful outfielders that I'm sure managers wish had better on-bases in Jermaine Dye and Aaron Roward. Rounding out the lineup are a trio of OB 5s, which really shortens what the White Sox have going offensively.
Rotation: This is the strength of the White Sox. They're led by two All Stars, with Tier 2 Buehrle providing an absolute tank of a card at the top of the rotation. Fellow stud Jon Garland brings a Tier 3 card without doubles, and he's supported by a pair of additional Tier 3 pitchers. No weak links here, although Freddy's weak control is definitely a concern. Overall, one of the most consistent rotations we've released and up there with the best of them!
Bullpen: Dustin Hermanson and Bobby Jenks should combine to make a lethal 1-2 combo in the 8th and 9th inning, whichever way you decide to use them! They're supported by Politte's Tier 2 card and a Tier 1 card out of Neal Cotts. This gives them a Tier 1 and three Tier 2 pitches!!! With a total of 7 in the tiers, they're tied with the Royals for lowest combined Tier total in a bullpen. Teamed with their starting strength, it's no wonder they won with small ball!
Overall: The 2005 White Sox are a sneaky dangerous team! Lots of people will understandably be detoured by their lower OB lineup, but this is one of the best pitching teams we've released so far, if not *the* best. Their rotation is near the top of the list and the bullpen may be the best one we've put out. With the speed of Podsednik and power of Konerko, this team could win a lot of 2-1 or 1-0 games, even against these other WS winners. It'll definitely be a team that needs a hands on, capable manager to pull off big wins though and I'm excited to take on the challenge!
Non-Foil
As a Rockies fan, I'd love to see the 2007 Rocktober team.
ReplyDeleteThat works well, because they're the first team that I'm making when I'm done with the bar exam next week!
DeleteCould you tell me what the +3 +2 rating is for CF? I only seem to see it on CFs
ReplyDeleteits how the old cards were CF +3 LF/RF +2 but when we make the cards it wont fit in the box so we adjusted it to just the +3+2
ReplyDeleteAnd all this time I'd assumed it was a Typo...it is weird that a CF playing RF/LF would have worse defense.
ReplyDeleteI think it's more that a LF/RF player tends to make less of a defensive impact, similar to how the cap on 3B tends to be +3 and 2B/SS is +5 while a 1B can only be +1
DeleteThat's right...I've played my own brand of baseball for so long that I forgot that defense in Showdown is nearly senseless...
DeleteMan runs must be hard to come by for this white sox offense line up
ReplyDelete