25 For 25: White Sox 1970-1994

After the 2009 season, I went through every franchise in the majors and created a 25 For 25 Team for each one for the seasons 1985-2009. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, a 25 For 25 Team takes a 25 year stretch, picking a single player from each season, and putting together a 25-man roster. To keep it simple, I pick two players each at C/1B/2B/3B/SS, six outfielders, five starting pitchers (at least half of games pitched as starts), and four relievers; for AL teams, I substituted in the DH for a 1B or OF. Player position is determined by whatever position they had the most games played (combined OF games for outfielders). No player can be picked for multiple seasons or multiple eras (this will come into play momentarily). For this new set, I used the following statistics for comparison: Fangraphs' WAR & WPA and Baseball Reference's WAR & waaWL% (a measure of how well a particular player would impact the win percentage of an otherwise .500 team; kind of like bWAR divided by games played). I tried to restrict low PA/IP players, but in very rare instances I may have needed to expand out based on lack of options.

If you're interested, here are links to all 30 teams for the years 1985-2009: ARI ATL BAL BOS CHC CHW CIN CLE COL DET HOU KCR LAA LAD MIA MIL MIN NYM NYY OAK PHI PIT STL SDP SFG SEA TBR TEX TOR WSN

I also did up fully-researched version (with write-ups & pictures) of the Cardinals for 1910-1934 & 1935-1959, as well as a 30 for 30 All-Star Edition for 1981-2010.

Anywho, I have planned out a 10-year update for these teams for the end of this season, from 1995-2019. I have these basically completed, just waiting for the season to get done so I can add in this year's picks and make any necessary adjustments. I have also completed a full set of teams for the years 1970-1994 (sorry, no COL or MIA) to help make sure I have players in the correct era. That is what I am presenting today. I had to make a slight adjustment to my selection criteria: Fangraphs WPA only goes back to 1974, but B-R has a similar stat for those missing seasons (this is due to play-by-play data being incomplete prior to 1974, but the gaps are very minor for most seasons going back to at least the 1940's).

These teams are a thought exercise - which player-seasons do you keep & which do you leave off? Occasionally you have the Cy Young Award winner & the Most Valuable Player in the same year. Sometimes you have a more deserving player, but you need to pick that catcher because your good options are really limited. Sometimes you have a really bad year, but you have to pick somebody. By pushing these out to 1970-1994, I'm also giving you a look at an era of your team's history that you may not be familiar with.

Take a look at this team, let me know what you think. I look forward to your comments.

1970 – Tommy John SP (4.5* fWAR, 5.8* bWAR, 0.60 WPA, .586 waaWL%) *including batting

1971 – Wilbur Wood SP (8.7 fWAR, 11.8 bWAR, 5.00 WPA, .699 waaWL%)

1972 – Dick Allen 1B (8.0 fWAR, 8.6 bWAR, 7.30 WPA, .543 waaWL%)

1973 – Bill Melton 3B (4.1 fWAR, 3.8 bWAR, 1.40 WPA, .509 waaWL%)

1974 – Jim Kaat SP (5.2 fWAR, 7.1 bWAR, 3.97 WPA, .607 waaWL%)

1975 – Goose Gossage RP (4.0 fWAR, 8.3 bWAR, 6.94 WPA, .567 waaWL%)

1976 – Brian Downing C (1.8 fWAR, 2.4 bWAR, -0.40 WPA, .510 waaWL%)

1977 – Oscar Gamble DH (3.4 fWAR, 3.6 bWAR, 3.80 WPA, .514 waaWL%)

1978 – Chet Lemon OF (4.6 fWAR, 4.9 bWAR, 1.20 WPA, .532 waaWL%)

1979 – Jim Morrison 2B (2.4 fWAR, 2.4 bWAR, 0.29 WPA, .522 waaWL%)

1980 – Britt Burns SP (4.5 fWAR, 7.0 bWAR, 3.51 WPA, .645 waaWL%)

1981 – Tony Bernazard 2B (3.3 fWAR, 3.7 bWAR, 0.61 WPA, .521 waaWL%)

1982 – LaMarr Hoyt SP (5.3 fWAR, 5.0 bWAR, 0.04 WPA, .572 waaWL%)

1983 – Scott Fletcher SS (2.8 fWAR, 3.6 bWAR, 0.26 WPA, .522 waaWL%)

1984 – Harold Baines OF (4.8 fWAR, 4.3 bWAR, 3.53 WPA, .516 waaWL%)

1985 – Bob James RP (3.6 fWAR, 4.3 bWAR, 3.24 WPA, .535 waaWL%)

1986 – Ray Searage RP (0.4 fWAR, 1.6 bWAR, 1.25 WPA, .539 waaWL%)

1987 – Ivan Calderon OF (4.0 fWAR, 4.2 bWAR, 1.12 WPA, .515 waaWL%)

1988 – Ozzie Guillen RP (2.8 fWAR, 3.4 bWAR, -1.39 WPA, .509 waaWL%)

1989 – Carlton Fisk C (3.4 fWAR, 3.3 bWAR, 1.85 WPA, .517 waaWL%)

1990 – Bobby Thigpen RP (1.6 fWAR, 3.5 bWAR, 3.95 WPA, .522 waaWL%)

1991 – Craig Grebeck 3B (3.1 fWAR, 3.1 bWAR, 0.79 WPA, .520 waaWL%)

1992 – Tim Raines Sr OF (5.5 fWAR, 6.3 bWAR, 3.62 WPA, .528 waaWL%)

1993 – Lance Johnson OF (4.7 fWAR, 6.1 bWAR, 2.24 WPA, .527 waaWL%)

1994 – Frank Thomas 1B (7.0 fWAR, 6.4 bWAR, 4.88 WPA, .541 waaWL%)

C – Brian Downing (76), Carlton Fisk (89)

1B – Dick Allen (72), Frank Thomas (94)

2B – Jim Morrison (79), Tony Bernazard (81)

3B – Bill Melton (73), Craig Grebeck (91)

SS – Scott Fletcher (83), Ozzie Guillen (88)

OF – Chet Lemon (78), Harold Baines (84), Ivan Calderon (87), Tim Raines Sr (92), Lance Johnson (93)

DH – Oscar Gamble (77)

SP – Tommy John (70), Wilbur Wood (71), Jim Kaat (74), Britt Burns (80), LaMarr Hoyt (82)

RP – Goose Gossage (75), Bob James (85), Ray Searage (86), Bobby Thigpen (90)