Sox' MVP clearly the fans
What a weird season it's been for the White Sox.
For a quick review, Mark Buehrle pitched a no-hitter in April, and Jim Thome hit his 500th career home run in September.
In between, there were a lot of bad losses and way too much exposure for overmatched players such as Ryan Bukvich and Andy Gonzalez.
This is the time of the year when MVP talk starts heating up, and the Sox have a clear-cut winner -- the fans.
They are the ones that have sat through brutal delays caused by Year 2 of construction on the Dan Ryan Expressway and watched a team with the fourth-highest payroll in baseball generally play baseball like it was the first week of spring training.
They watched the first wave of the White Sox' bullpen -- David Aardsma, Mike MacDougal, Andy Sisco and Nick Masset -- pitch their way back to Class AAA Charlotte.
The second wave, featuring Bukvich, Boone Logan and Mike Myers, has not provided much relief.
Sox fans have also watched starting pitchers Jose Contreras, Jon Garland and John Danks take turns pulling disappearing acts, and let's not even rehash the injury problems, lack of offense and the frequent defensive lapses.
Instead, let's again commend the paying customers for putting up with a lot of you know what this season while coming out almost 3 million strong, the fourth-highest total in franchise history.
Without a doubt, White Sox fans are still a little giddy over that World Series trophy that arrived on the South Side a little less than two years ago.
But after a year like this -- the worst for the Sox since 1989 -- they are not going to pull the sheep routine again in 2008.
White Sox general manager Kenny Williams is well aware of the situation at hand. And he has vowed, about 100 times, to do everything he can to put the Sox back on top next season.
It's not going to be easy, but it can be done.
The White Sox figure to be very active when the season ends, but they don't have the financial firepower to just go out and sign a Torii Hunter or even an Aaron Rowand.
As the off-season approaches, think back to the 2004 off-season and use it as a guide.
Remember the day Williams traded Carlos Lee and his entire $8 million salary to the Milwaukee Brewers for outfielder Scott Podsednik and relief pitcher Luis Vizcaino?
Based on fan reaction, Williams should have accompanied Lee to Milwaukee.
But the Sox' GM deftly used the money he saved on Lee to go get three key pieces for the eventual World Series champs -- catcher A.J. Pierzynski, pitcher Orlando "El Duque'' Hernandez and second baseman Tadahito Iguchi.
Look for Williams to make a similar move this winter. White Sox fans might not be enamored by the initial return Williams gets from a trade involving a Garland or a Contreras, or even a Jim Thome or Paul Konerko.
But if Williams is again able to use the money he saves in such a likely trade to fill a few other holes, the White Sox could bounce right back and contend in 2008.
The odds of history completely repeating to the extent the Sox win another World Series are incredibly long at this juncture.
But after suffering through a miserable 2007, White Sox fans would likely go nuts over a team that at least puts up a fight.