Chicago Herald-American

The White Sox congratulated themselves on another fine year after their season-ending 6-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday that gave the Rays a 3 games to 1 victory in the ALDS. "It's been a great year," team president Jerry Reinsdorf said. "The way we got there was quite an achievement. None of the pundits gave us a chance to be in the postseason."

He's right about that. And the White Sox did well to make the playoffs this season, though the Twins playing unusually poor (9-18) with the division on the line in late-August and early-September had a lot to do with it.

But in every newspaper story promoting the idea that the White Sox overachieved this season, one element of perspective was missing: this team came into this season with a $121-million payroll. That's a lot of money for 88 wins and a quick exit in the playoffs. 

I have asked this question of some of those who have helped promote the "overachieving" angle and have yet to get a response: Has a team with a $121 million payroll every been considered an overachiever? There's an incongruity there that is being overlooked. If the Sox were not expected to contend for the AL Central title this season, the question in April should have been, why not? Shouldn't a team with a $121-million payroll at least be a contender?

Nobody bothered to ask that question. But I'll bet Jerry Reinsdorf himself was thinking about it. Mr. Reinsdorf built an empire by getting the best deal he could with minimum risk. He almost always has the edge. It worked famously as a real estate magnate. And it worked pretty well with the Bulls, where he negotiated team-friendly contracts with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen  "I won't lose money to win games,'' he once said.

So it must be through gritted teeth that Mr. Reinsdorf says he's proud of the 2008 White Sox after he paid $121 million for a team that had to scratch and claw to beat out the Minnesota Twins (a $57M payroll) for the AL Central title before getting soundly beaten by the Tampa Bay Rays ($44M) and then have his own team admit, "the better team won."

There's no denying that Kenny Williams made some great moves to build this team -- stealing Carlos Quentin, acquiring John Danks and Gavin Floyd in trades, signing Alexei Ramirez. And Ozzie Guillen did his best job of managing this year. But in the big picture, if the White Sox overachieved, they only did it by setting the bar way too low.

Not Getting Their Money's Worth

Jerry Reinsdorf gave Ozzie Guillen credit for getting his team in the playoffs despite key injuries. "Everything is a bout expectations and we overachieved this year I think, given the injuries," Mr. Reinsdorf said in the Sun-Times. "There's no way we should have been in the postseason with all these injuries."

Paul Konerko ($12 million) struggled with injuries through most of the season before rallying in August and September. But Jose Contreras ($10 million) was having a bad year (7-6, 4.54 ERA) before he suffered a season-ending injury in early August. And it should not have been a surprise that Joe Crede ($5 million) ended up getting hurt. He was coming off a season-ending back injury in 2007. Anything they got out of him was gravy.

Speaking of gravy, Carlos Quentin ($400,000) hit 36 homers and drove in 100 runs before he suffered a season-ending injury in early September. The most damaging injury of all was to Scott Linebrink ($4 million). The Sox bullpen crumbled after he went down in August. When a team can't replace a set-up guy, whose fault is that?

If injuries were a factor, so was underperformance. Jim Thome ($15.7 million), Mark Buehrle ($14 million), Orlando Cabrera ($10 million) and Octavio Dotel ($5 million) played well but didn't give Mr. Reinsdorf his money's worth. Nick Swisher ($3.6 million) underachieved. And Javier Vazquez ($11.5 million) and Contreras were busts.

Here's how they did:

• Jim Thome     ($15.6M)      .245   34 HR   90 RBI
• Mark Buehrle ($14.0M)       15-12    3.79 ERA
• Paul Konerko ($12.0M)       .240     22 HR   62 RBI
• Javier Vazquez ($11.5M)     12-16    4.67 ERA
• Orlando Cabrera ($10M)      .281    .334 OBP   8 HR  57 RBI
• Jose Contreras ($10M)         7-6      4.54 ERA
• Jermaine Dye ($9.5M)          .292    34 HR   96 RBI
• A.J. Pierzynski ($5.9M)        .281   .312 OBP  13 HR   60 RBI
• Octavio  Dotel ($5.0M)          4-4   3.76 ERA
• Joe Crede ($5.0M)               .248     17 HR  55 RBI
• Nick Swisher ($3.5M)          .219      24 HR  69 RBI