posted on Saturday, December 30, 2006 12:54 AM by Jim

Lordy, Lordy, it's a top 40

Clicking around Baseball-Reference.com like I often do when I'm bored, I paused on the White Sox's single-season home run leaderboard.  It struck me strangely to see Jermaine Dye's name up there, second only behind Albert Belle.  He just hit his last homer a couple months ago, so it didn't feel historic.

Nevertheless, that's what it was, and I started to try to place Dye's 2006 campaign in terms of the greatest seasons in Sox history.

Well, dominoes started to fall, and at the end of the day I had a list of about 45 great seasons in Sox history.  After lopping off the least significant, I ended up with 40 outstanding campaigns.  After shuffling and re-shuffling, I put them into a fairly decent order, and now I have a better idea where Dye stacks up.

Where exactly his near-MVP season falls, you can find out my estimate below:

Comments

# re: Lordy, Lordy, it's a top 40

Thursday, December 28, 2006 3:49 PM by Colin
Not to ruin the suspense, but the year the Big Hurt was having before it was shortened by a strike has to be the best. It's among the best ever by any right handed hitter.

# re: Lordy, Lordy, it's a top 40

Thursday, December 28, 2006 10:33 PM by Jim Margalus
SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

(Welcome, BTW)

# re: Lordy, Lordy, it's a top 40

Friday, December 29, 2006 4:34 AM by Jeeves
An absolutely unreal season. I didn't realize just how good that '94 season was until I wrote about it had tabulated what the full season numbers would have been.

# re: Lordy, Lordy, it's a top 40

Saturday, December 30, 2006 1:34 AM by Jeeves
Great work Jim, that was quite the entertaining read.

# re: Lordy, Lordy, it's a top 40

Saturday, December 30, 2006 10:14 AM by James Nordberg
Albert Belle is a blemish on the White Sox much like the Black Sox. I'm just happy he didn't send them to another 80 year curse.

# re: Lordy, Lordy, it's a top 40

Saturday, December 30, 2006 11:35 PM by Jim Margalus
I never had anything against Belle, and I never understood the Sox fans who would heckle him the left field seats when he hadn't done anything wrong yet, or even when he was doing a lot right.

At any rate, that opt-out clause in his contract turned out to be a stroke of brilliance.

# re: Lordy, Lordy, it's a top 40

Sunday, December 31, 2006 3:12 AM by Jeeves
I think a lot of fans still saw him as a Cleveland Indian.