2009 MLB season in review: Chicago White Sox

The Chicago White Sox played in the worst division in baseball in 2009. It seemed no one wanted to win the American League Central, and the White Sox had a chance to win it, all the way to the nearly the end of the 2009 season. They made a strong move to add pitcher Jake Peavey to their rotation, and even though that move didn’t work for 2009, it leaves them very strong moving forward. This is a team that seemed to have the right mix of veteran and young players, and were probably a lot better than their final record indicated. In the end this was a team that could not sustain any momentum.

Their Final record was 79-83. That was good enough for third in the AL central, and had they played harder down the stretch they wouldn’t have lost the division by 7.5 games. Through the midpoint of the summer this team spent 14 days in first place, and even built a half game lead. It was during this time that they raddled off a seven game winning streak, virtually undoing a five game losing streak from earlier in the spring. At their worst they were seven games under .500, but finished just two under that mark.

This was an offense that scored 724 runs, hit 184 home runs, and as a team batted .258 for the year. Their home run mark was good enough for 4th in the American League. Their starting rotation featured three pitchers with double digit victories, and their staff ERA was 4.16. They were able to strike out 1,119 batter good enough for 7th in the AL. The did have the second lowest number of walks with 507 in the AL.

In all 2,284,164 fans came out to US Cellular Field to see White Sox home games. For their 81 home games they averaged 28,199 fans, and they were able to sell 69.4% of their 2009 ticket inventory.