The offensive leader of the Chicago’s “Go-Go Sox” teams of the 50s, Nellie Fox first arrived in the Windy City when he was traded after the 1949 season straight up for Joe Tipton.  This transaction would turn out to be one of the most lopsided trades in history, as Tipton would only have 113 Hits for the Athletics, and Fox would begin his march to Cooperstown.

Eddie Collins had already established himself as an elite baseball player, having led the Philadelphia Athletics to a World Series win in 1910, 1911, and 1913.  In 1914, he would win the American League MVP Award.  Despite the success of the Athletics, Connie Mack unloaded some of his best players for cost-cutting purposes, and despite receiving a considerable offer to stay (as opposed to jump to the Federal League), Collins declined.  He would be sold to the Chicago White Sox for $50,000, a colossal amount for that time.

In our opinion, one of the most underrated Pitchers that ever existed has to be Billy Pierce, who was a seven-time All-Star and five-time leader in bWAR with the White Sox.

In a ceremony prior to their home field loss against the Oakland A’s, the Chicago White Sox retired the number 56 of Mark Buehrle.

The lefthander made his debut in 2000 for Chicago where he would send the next twelve seasons of his career.  With the Chi-Sox, Buehrle would go to four All Star Games and would win 161 Games and fan 1,396 batters.  He would help Chicago win the 2005 World Series. 

Buehrle becomes the 11th White Sox player in team history to have his number retired joining Nellie Fox (#2), Harold Baines (#3), Luke Appling (#4), Minnie Minoso (#9), Luis Aparicio (#11), Paul Konerko (#14), Ted Lyons (#16), Billy Pierce (#19), Thomas (#35) and Carlton Fisk (#72).

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Mark Buehrle for achieving this honor. 

For over a decade, Mark Buehrle was either considered an ace or a player close to the top of the rotation.  Five times, Buehrle was named an All-Star and is a member of the 200 Win club, a number that is becoming more elusive all of the time.  A finesse pitcher with a wide arsenal to use, Buehrle’s best season was in 2005 where he finished 5th in Cy Young voting and helped the Chicago White Sox win the World Series.

Paul Konerko is one of the most revered Chicago White Sox players of all-time, and he should be.  Konerko was the heart of a team that won the 2005 World Series winning the ALCS MVP in the process.  Konerko could hit for power (439 Home Runs), had 2,340 Hits, 1,412 RBIs and a .486 Slugging Percentage.  

Regardless of the era, it is an impressive feat to be a key member of Chicago's rotation for a decade.  The Chicago White Sox may not have won a World Series in the ’50s, but they were a good team and much of the success they did have, was through a big part of the pitching of Billy Pierce.

It has been alluded that Mark Buehrle, who was left off the Toronto Blue Jays post season roster, will be retiring at the end of the season.  If that is the case, we here at Notinhalloffame.com ask the question is he a Hall of Fame pitcher?

Should this be the end of the road for Buehrle, his Hall of Fame case is aided by a few realities.  Currently, the hurler is first among active Pitchers in bWAR and is 64th overall in that category, a number that is above many HOFers but lower than the average.  His JAWS places him only at 89th overall (47.1) but his traditional 214 Wins is a very impressive number in this era.  He does have one intangible, while rarely discussed, might make his case for induction a lot stronger, his fielding.

Buehrle, a four time Gold Glove winner, has been regarded as one of the best fielding Pitchers throughout his career, and furthermore, the amount of baserunners who dare to try run off him is minimal.  This is not often discussed with the Hall of Fame candidacy of Pitchers, but here we have a fielder worth discussing!

So what do you think?

If Mark Buehrle does retire at this time, is he a Baseball Hall of Famer?

Let us know!

We can’t lie to you.  The passing of former Major League Baseball Pitcher, Billy Pierce, completely slipped by us and we thank regular contributor, D.K. Orlandini for alerting us to his passing on July 31 at the age of 88.

Pierce would spend the majority of his eighteen year career with the Chicago White Sox, where the southpaw would make all of his seven All Star Teams and was a two time 20 Game winner.  His best season would be in 1955 where he would lead the American League in Earned Run Average, FIP, ERA+, WHIP and SO/BB.  In other years he would lead the AL in Wins (1957) and in Strikeouts (1953).

The Pitcher would complete his career with a record of 211 and 169, 1,999 Strikeouts and a bWAR of 53.1.

The highest that Pierce has ever received in Hall of Fame voting was a miniscule 1.9 percent in 1971, however as recent as 2014, he was on the Hall of Fame Veteran’s ballot, indicating he may yet have a shot one day.  We here at Notinhalloffame.com have him ranked at #64 on our latest baseball list.

We would like to extend our condolences to the friends and family of Billy Pierce at this time.

Did he or didn’t he conspire to fix to the 1919 World Series?  Over eighty years after the fact, there is still a sizable debate as to whether “Shoeless” Joe Jackson was involved in the “Black Sox” scandal that saw the Chicago White Sox throw the World Series for financial gain against the Cincinnati Reds.