Today in White Sox History: November 16
Another piece of the 2005 World Champs is dealt away
1962
Six former stockholders of the Chicago White Sox backed Milwaukee GM/president John McHale to purchase the Braves. Almost immediately, this group announced plans to move the Braves south to Atlanta in 1964, but lawsuits and threats within baseball delayed the move until 1966.
Chicago business executive William Bartholomay led the investment group. The messy move from Milwaukee forced MLB to establish local ownership guidelines for teams in the future; just four franchises have relocated to new cities since then, with at least semi-legitimate attendance concerns justifying each.
1976
After a disastrous first season in his second term as White Sox owner, Bill Veeck took a page out of his Cleveland past and hired former hurler Bob Lemon as White Sox manager. Aided by an inspired “Rent-a-Player” free agent strategy, Lemon guided the White Sox to 90 wins in the thrilling summer of 1977 — including a stretch of six weeks in first place in July and August.
2005
Cuban pitcher Sandy Consuegra passed away in Miami. Consuegra achieved his greatest success over his first three years pitching in Chicago with the White Sox, tallying 8.3 WAR and earning an All-Star berth as a swingman — no easy task.
Though not his top White Sox WAR season, Consuegra was impeccable in 1954, leading the AL with a 140 ERA+ and all the major leagues with an .842 (16-3) winning percentage.
2006
Bullpen hero in 2005 and the only non-starter to pitch in the 2005 ALCS, Neal Cotts, was dealt across town for David Aardsma and minor-league arm Carlos Vasquez. Cotts had fallen back to Earth in 2006, losing almost two wins off of his WAR (2.0 to 0.2) and sporting awful peripherals.
Aardsma was much better for the Cubs in 2006 and thus the deal should have worked in favor of the South Siders; as luck would have it, Aardsma was worse in 2007 than Cotts was in 2006, and was dumped on the Red Sox before the 2008 season.
Neither pitcher was destined for the dustbin of history, however. Aardsma made his way to Seattle after Boston and had a stellar, 1.7-WAR season in 2009 for the Mariners before tossing his last MLB pitch in 2015. Cotts had a rougher road, missing two full seasons after TJS in 2009 but rallying back into the majors, where he threw a career-best 2.6 WAR (in just 57 innings!) in 2013 for the Texas Rangers.