Paul Konerko

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Paul Konerko

2020 Hall of Fame Ballot Series: Paul Konerko

Five facts about Paul Konerko:

Paul Konerko was named to six All-Star teams.

Konerko hit 30 or more home runs seven times in his career. He drove in at least 97 runs eight times. His 267 home runs from 2004 - 2011 were the seventh-most in MLB over these eight seasons. His 786 RBI were ninth in MLB over this time period.

Paul Konerko was the starting first baseman and cleanup hitter for the 2005 Chicago White Sox, who won 99 regular-season games and the World Series. In the regular season, Konerko led the White Sox in on-base percentage (.375), slugging percentage (.534), hits (163), walks (81), total bases (307), home runs (40), RBI (100), and runs scored (98). In the 2005 postseason, Konerko batted .265/.321/.612 with 5 home runs and 15 RBI in 12 games, and was named ALCS MVP.

Konerko was co-winner of MLB's Roberto Clemente Award in 2014, given to the player who "best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to his team".

Konerko was named captain of the Chicago White Sox in 2006 and held that title until his retirement in 2014. His uniform number, 14, was retired by the Chicago White Sox on May 23, 2015.

The first two tables below present Paul Konerko's career as measured by Player won-lost records, in and out of context.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWORL	pWOPA

Basic Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1997	LAN	21	5	0.1	0.2	-0.1	-0.1
+– 1998		22	75	4.9	6.8	-1.8	-2.4
	CIN		26	2.0	2.9	-0.8	-1.1
	LAN		49	2.9	3.9	-1.0	-1.3
1999	CHA	23	142	11.9	11.8	0.6	-0.7
2000	CHA	24	143	14.0	13.0	1.3	-0.1
2001	CHA	25	156	15.4	14.1	1.6	0.1
2002	CHA	26	151	14.9	14.7	0.4	-1.1
2003	CHA	27	137	11.5	13.5	-1.7	-3.0
2004	CHA	28	155	17.4	15.0	3.0	1.3
2005	CHA	29	158	17.9	14.1	4.3	2.8
2006	CHA	30	152	18.5	14.6	4.3	2.7
2007	CHA	31	151	16.0	14.5	1.9	0.4
2008	CHA	32	122	12.2	12.1	0.5	-0.7
2009	CHA	33	152	15.7	14.8	1.2	-0.3
2010	CHA	34	149	18.4	13.9	5.1	3.4
2011	CHA	35	149	16.0	13.9	2.6	1.1
2012	CHA	36	144	14.5	13.4	1.7	0.2
2013	CHA	37	126	10.4	12.3	-1.2	-2.5
2014	CHA	38	81	3.9	5.3	-1.0	-1.5
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,348	233.7	218.1	22.6	-0.4
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			19	2.9	1.9	1.1	0.8
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,367	236.6	220.0	23.7	0.5

Season	Team	Age	Games	eWins	eLosses	eWORL	eWOPA

Expected Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1997	LAN	21	5	0.1	0.2	-0.1	-0.1
+– 1998		22	75	5.3	6.4	-0.9	-1.5
	CIN		26	2.2	2.7	-0.5	-0.7
	LAN		49	3.2	3.7	-0.5	-0.8
1999	CHA	23	142	12.4	11.4	1.5	0.2
2000	CHA	24	143	13.6	13.4	0.5	-0.9
2001	CHA	25	156	15.3	14.2	1.5	-0.1
2002	CHA	26	151	15.5	14.1	1.8	0.3
2003	CHA	27	137	11.9	13.2	-1.0	-2.2
2004	CHA	28	155	17.2	15.3	2.4	0.8
2005	CHA	29	158	17.5	14.5	3.4	1.8
2006	CHA	30	152	17.8	15.3	2.9	1.3
2007	CHA	31	151	16.0	14.5	1.9	0.4
2008	CHA	32	122	12.2	12.1	0.4	-0.8
2009	CHA	33	152	16.2	14.3	2.0	0.5
2010	CHA	34	149	18.8	13.5	5.9	4.3
2011	CHA	35	149	16.3	13.6	3.0	1.4
2012	CHA	36	144	14.8	13.1	2.3	0.8
2013	CHA	37	126	10.4	12.4	-1.4	-2.7
2014	CHA	38	81	4.0	5.2	-0.8	-1.3
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,348	235.3	216.5	25.2	2.2
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			19	2.5	2.2	0.3	0.1
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,367	237.8	218.8	25.5	2.2

This is Paul Konerko's first year on the Hall-of-Fame ballot.

Vote Prediction

Meaning no disrespect, Paul Konerko is not a Hall-of-Famer and I think that virtually everybody understands that Paul Konerko is not a Hall-of-Famer. That said, Paul Konerko was extremely beloved on the South Side of Chicago and Chicago sportswriters have a tendency to be extremely provincial and like to support "their own". For example, Harold Baines received 29 votes his first time on the ballot and got enough votes to hang around for five BBWAA ballots. More recently, Kerry Wood got two votes two years ago.

I would guess that Konerko's vote total will end up closer to Wood's than Baines's. But I could see him maybe getting as many as a dozen votes, which would be 2 - 3 percent given the size of the current electorate. That's probably a bit high, but I'll predict Konerko gets 1.5% of the vote.

Player Won-Lost Records and Paul Konerko

As I said, Paul Konerko was (and is) beloved on the South Side of Chicago. And while he's not really a Hall-of-Famer, the love is justified. Konerko was the White Sox team captain for eight seasons and he was the best hitter on the 2005 Chicago White Sox, who won the first World Series in Chicago in 88 years. Not only was Konerko the best hitter on the 2005 White Sox during the regular season, he was the best player in the 2005 postseason as measured by Player won-lost records.

The next table, then, shows the top 10 players in pWins for the Chicago White Sox for whom I have calculated Player won-lost records (i.e., since 1916). The numbers here include both regular-season and postseason games.

		Top 10 Chicago White Sox, ranked by pWins (Regular-Season plus Postseason, since 1916)

	Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL
1	Luke Appling	323.8	306.5	25.1	57.8
2	Nellie Fox	270.0	253.6	23.9	50.8
3	Ted Lyons	254.9	237.6	30.8	60.8
4	Paul Konerko	231.6	213.0	3.0	25.6
5	Frank E. Thomas	220.5	162.7	46.3	68.2
6	Eddie Collins Sr.	209.0	187.8	22.1	42.5
7	Red Faber	207.1	194.4	21.6	47.6
8	Minnie Minoso	206.4	160.1	34.0	53.0
9	Billy Pierce	195.7	169.3	36.9	59.3
10	Luis Aparicio	192.4	191.2	9.5	28.8

Article last updated: December 9, 2019

2020 Hall of Fame Ballot Series

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