South Side Sox Player of the Week (March 3-11): Eloy Jiménez
A rundown of our lifetime MVPs, at 86 and counting
Given a second consecutive Player of the Week accolade plus the unlikelihood he’ll win a third straight (Eloy has not played since March 13, gulp), we’ll go a different direction with the essay this week.
Perhaps for the first time, let’s break down the running total of MVPs, which we have been naming now along with Mitch Ransdell’s art — based on South Side Sox reader votes — for four years now, dating back to Andrew Vaughn on March 9, 2021.
Vaughn in fact won the very next week as well, starting his first full MLB season off with a white-hot spring. The first basemen (then-left fielder), of course, became our first consecutive-week winner, and it’s happened just three times since: Yasmani Grandal (June 8 and July 5, 2021), Elvis Andrus (September 14 and 20, 2022) and Eloy, now.
Our all-time POTW leader is the recently-departed Dylan Cease, with 10 awards, followed by Lucas Giolito at eight. That makes Vaughn the active White Sox leader in our POTWs, with seven. (Next up on the list is Jake Burger, six, and while it may be a shock that three of our four best players by POTW measure are now gone, hey, if you haven’t noticed we’re in another rebuild.)
Obviously, this is no true “metric,” right, it’s you delightful clowns voting on categories that are also not exactly scientifically-derived. That would explain how clear team powerhouse Luis Robert Jr. went all of 2022 without a POTW, had just one in 2021, and overall lags two behind Vaughn, with just five awards.
And also, to be transparent, some of the awarding falls in the hands of our artist, Mitch, as at times a desire to mix it up results in the choice of a player with the second-most votes (if a vote for a week is close enough, I’ll give Mitch the top two or three options, with totals, but I think just a few times have we ever gone with a runner-up).
POTW has not always been a player, either. Sanity and logic dictates that in a 100-loss season, there are stretches when no one can win, which explains last year’s awards to The Fans for Enduring This Torture (August 23) and No One (September 10).
The full list of all multiple winners:
We’ll see who might add their name to this list, or move up, next week!
2024 South Side Sox Players of the Week
Eloy Jiménez (February 23-March 2)
Eloy Jiménez (March 3-11)
Top 10 MVP Standings
Eloy Jiménez (23.9)
Garrett Crochet (16.5)
Jonathan Cannon (8.9)
Chris Flexen (8.0)
Deivi García (7.3)
Korey Lee (7.3)
Tim Elko (6.5)
Michael Kopech (6.5)
Gavin Sheets (6.5)
Oscar Colás (6.3)
Top 10 Cold Cat Standings
Touki Toussaint (-15.6)
Bryan Shaw (-13.4)
Mike Moustakas (-12.5)
Dominic Fletcher (-9.8)
Luis Robert Jr. (-9.6)
Jesse Chavez (-9.5)
Andrew Vaughn (-8.8)
Pretty Much the Entire White Sox Team (-7.5)
Chase Solesky (-7.0)
Colson Montgomery (-6.1)
No one’s catching Eloy at the moment, but out of nowhere Garrett Crochet has rocketed to second place in our MVP standings. Easy targets Touki Toussaint and Bryan Shaw might remain atop the Cold Cats until they find themselves released at some point during the season.
Writer Standings
Leigh Allen took advantage of a week off to keep a relatively commanding lead in coverage standings, while Hannah LaMotta joined what is now a trio of writers in the basement, at 0-3 (Chrystal O’Keefe does have a tie to her name).
If you’re interested in seeing more of Mitch’s work, or if you’d like to purchase original drawings or prints, contact him via Twitter (@soxsketcher), Instagram (@southsidesharpie), or by e-mail at southsidesharpie@gmail.com. Thanks for supporting local artists!