Sporcle Saturday: 1/10-ish of an Ohtani

White Sox fans protest Jerry Reinsdorf at Guaranteed Rate Field
(Photo by Matt Marton/USA TODAY Sports)

Good morning!

With Shohei Ohtani’s 10 year, $700 million contract official, it’s time to once again examine the pacts (not so) near and dear to our hearts: White Sox free agent contracts of past and present!

As the headline alludes to, Ohtani’s signing is worth nearly ten times the maximum amount the White Sox have ever spent on a free agent: last year’s (on today’s date!) 5 year, $75 million contract. Not only has this franchise never forked over a nine-figure contract, they now have a guy whose entire contract would be worth almost one year of Shohei Ohtani’s (unprecedented deferrals aside). As Josh said on a recent podcast, what must it like to be a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers?

Regardless, we soldier forth. There is a new addition to this Sporcle, as the 2-year, $15 million contract handed out a few days ago is good for 20th-richest for the White Sox all-time. There are now 42 names on this list for you to guess (I don’t think I missed any over the last year that were more than my $5 million cut-off; chide me in the comments if I have, and I’ll make the correction): how many can you get? Good luck!

Quiz Parameters

  • I’ve allotted 10 minutes for completion attempts.
  • For hints, I’ve provided the date of the signing and the contract details.
  • As a reminder, this includes only free agent signings: extensions do not count.

Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:

  • 11 of the 42 signings on this list are relief pitchers.
  • Just six have been starting pitchers and just two of those have been for more than one year (if you don’t count things like options).

Direct link here

Data from a combination of Baseball ReferenceMLB Trade Rumors Transaction Tracker, the New York Times archive, and Newspaperarchive.com

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As Cirensica

My score was sad. There are just so many random names here you will never think they would have made the list.

The Sporcle was sad. (not your fault Ted. Your Sporcles are fantastic)
WOW… just how dreadful this organization has been under Reinsdorf.

A washed out

Player
Austin Jackson
made this list.

42 different contracts listed and the total is not even 1,000 million (996.25)

The total span of these contracts is 117 yearsThe AVV of the 42 largest contracts in White Sox history is 8.5 million. Holy shit.

This right here is why the White Sox will never amount to anything while Jerry is alive. The amount of money Jerry has made with this franchise must be staggering. Jerry has to be on the top 5 in the list of worst sport team owner of all time.

Last edited 3 months ago by As Cirensica
patty

These aren’t the largest contracts, just free agent contracts. Doesn’t include Robert, moncada, sale, Anderson, abreu the second deal, etc. Still depressing for sure.

As Cirensica

Thank you. That is true. I got caught off guard by how dreadful this list is.

NateBBY35

A washed out Austin Jackson was Plan A to fix the outfield in 2016 despite many quality outfielders being available, many forget this.

asinwreck

38/42, and the most depressing aspect is all of the names I missed were re-signings, not due to the ability to forget

pound foolish investments
the LaRoches and Navarros and Keppingers
of it all.

Great image choice this week.

stevev

I don’t know why the first one you listed there is one of the first ones I came up with. Maybe the ease with which failures are remembered.

patty

17/42 and I got depressed thinking “what garbage reliever is this anonymous 2/12M deal” and I stopped becuase I like these quizzes a lot but man what a topic.

patty

Ted, what about Robert’s original deal? The 26 MM signing bonus. I think he was a free agent due to shenanigans to get here.

stevev

Thanks for this one – interesting one. I only got 22 but the oddness of the ones I got (I’ll always remember the bricks on the mound for the 2007 4 year contract one, sadly) and some not so bad ones is weird. I wonder how the Sox profound interest in relief pitching compares with other teams, e.g. what % of top 42 contracts are RP?

GrinnellSteve

Peripherally related to today’s Sporcle, I was able to use 2 particular Sox teammates for the first time ever in Immaculate Grid.

Grid
Pitched Min. 1 Game/Gold Glove – Yolmer and Pitched Min. 1 Game/Born Outside US – Leury

Last edited 3 months ago by GrinnellSteve
asinwreck

We could use the first guy now!

Last edited 3 months ago by asinwreck
Right Size Wrong Shape

I used the same pitched one game / gold glover, and I also used

Spoiler
Despagne
for my outside US pitched one game and
Spoiler
Dunn
for 30 home runs / pitched one game.

ChiSoxND12

The game where Dunn pitched! Iirc the Rangers shellacked them. We left early and I gave our ride a hard time for us missing it!

GrinnellSteve

Your 30 HR guy was my big regret. I should have remembered that.

King Joffrey

I can see JR taking this quiz and quoting the great Senor Calvera, ‘Generosity…that was my first mistake.’

Foulkelore

I got 26/42 before running out of time. I should have gotten a few more.

What a pathetically sad list at many inflection points. Of course, the top being $75 million is sad. However, it might be even sadder that the 12th highest free agent contract ever given out by the Sox was a total of $25 million.

Also, length of contract is another way to get on this list, as even a modest salary for multiple years will make this list. Just one contract for 6 years, three for 5 years, and seven for 4 years over a span of 30+ years.

roke1960

41/42. I surprised myself with this one- only missed the 2019 $5M contract. It is just pathetic that the 19th largest FA contract the Sox have ever given out was to Leury Garcia.

Last edited 3 months ago by roke1960
FishSox

I was close. I also hit a whole number between 0-42.

ChiSoxND12

37/42. Then I cheated (screen shot my answers and refreshed the page to double my time allotment). Came up with 3 more. Gave up when I couldn’t draw the names of a few RPs from the late 2000’s

This list is so putrid. Still a very fun quiz to take thanks Ted

FishSox

That was fun….wish I was smarter.

Trooper Galactus

Some of the names at the bottom half of the left side of this list says all you need to know about how the Rick Hahn era went completely off the rails.

upnorthsox

22/42 and should’ve had a few more but was trying to just get all of the left side first(which I didn’t).
38/42 of those KW was directly involved and 2 more he may have been involved.
The are more closers(6) on that list than SP(5) which in retrospect shouldn’t be that shocking but I wasted a lot of time trying to think of SP names.

ForsterFTOG

The 30 year old guy with a career negative bWAR is Jerry’s 20th biggest free agent signing.