The comedy was easy to find: an unremarkable player who was previously tucked away from the spotlight is suddenly thrust into it, and the baseball world reacts with confusion bordering on genuine annoyance.

It was much later, when Gillaspie started clubbing Aroldis Chapman fastballs into the dark and uninhabited regions of AT&T Park and going 8-for-19 in five playoff games with six RBI that the confusion bordering on annoyance suddenly got reflected back on all of us. Why did Conor do this in San Francisco, and not Chicago, after all?

Well, firstly, for all typical definitions, Conor Gillaspie never played a meaningful game in a Sox uniform in three years. He broke out with the worst Sox team in decades, had his best season with a clearly-rebuilding 2014 team, and got axed from a 2015 team that was 18-17 at one point and never above .500 again. He was never put in the position for his ability to hang in there with pretty much any right-hander to show up in a game that anyone besides myself, Jim Margalus, and seven other people were watching. And while I wouldn’t offer myself as sage for predicting the Cubs overwhelming the Giants, somewhere around ‘Gillaspie hitting fifth in an elimination game’ brought back memories of when simply being competent vaulted him way too far up the hierarchy.

The Giants didn’t really get anything special from Gillaspie. He hit .262/.307/.440 in the regular season, and while the power jump is a bit notable, it’s countered by getting a .262 average from someone who has a nice hit tool and no other standout ability. What they did was reduce him to a part-time player (he started just 37 of his 101 games) which de-emphasized the shaky defense that made him a slump away from being a total liability, as he was in Chicago. A reader might remember that he slumped in 2015, and then became a total liability to both the Sox and the Angels.

The reason five-tool guys, and players who man premium positions are more valuable is that slumps happen all the time, and players who can contribute in multiple ways are more able to help their team even when parts of their game are not going well. So while the Sox being so desperate as to make Gillaspie a near full-timer for parts of three seasons (despite him being an obvious platoon candidate) means Sox fans’ memories are filled with stretches of him being useless, but they also got to see his peak.

He hit .282/.336/.416 in 506 plate appearances in 2014, good for a solidly above-average .277 TAv. Moreover, he was, uh, clutch if we want to wade into those waters. He finished in the top-50 in the AL in win probability added, one spot ahead of Kole Calhoun, and had a superb 1.44 clutch rating. He hit a bases-clearing triple off Wade Davis to key a mid-September comeback win over the eventual AL Champion Royals, he hit the go-ahead RBI single in the 10th inning of an August win in Seattle, and a month earlier terrorized the Red Sox by hitting two separate two-out, sixth inning, go-ahead home runs in Boston.

Like any players with any offensive impact at all, Gillaspie had his moments — hell, Leury Garcia had a solo home run in a 2-1 victory in Los Angeles and a walk-off single in 2014 — the strangeness was always him being granted this grand stage, which, as it always does, has obscured any reasonable conversation about the player himself.

Lead Image Credit: John Hefti // USA Today Sports Images

Let’s check on how four of these former White Sox players are doing, and perhaps what’s lead to their string of success.

Conor Gillaspie

After departing from the South side after three very long years, Conor Gillaspie has returned to the franchise that drafted him, the San Francisco Giants. Gillaspie only tallied a line of .260/.314/.397 during his time with the White Sox, and in 2015 was striking out at over an 18 percent clip while only walking 5 percent of the time with poor defense at third. It’s safe to say among other things, Gillaspie quickly became the bane of many a White Sox fan’s existence.

Things aren’t much different for Gillaspie on the West Coast, though. Gillaspie is currently seeing a line of .258/.313/.393 which is less than impressive, but has improved his strikeout rate generously. Gillaspie is only striking out at an 11.5 percent clip in San Francisco, and walking 6.1 percent of the time.

The Difference: Gillaspie has only playing in 49 games so far in 2016. That’s comfortable for a player who’s posting a slash line such as Gillespie’s — that’s the type of role a player such as him should be taking on. When the White Sox organization was trying to run him out for 130 games a season while barely being able to scrape the surface of replacement level, a player like Gillaspie is bound to disappoint.

Gordon Beckham

Part of the infield tandem that led to much of the disdain that is the root cause of jaded fandom, Gordon Beckham hit just .242/.304/.370 during his seven very long years with the White Sox. Finally this past offseason, the White Sox were finally able to cut ties permanently (or so we hope) with Beckham.

But now, fast forward to 2016. Not only did the White Sox lose a series to the Atlanta Braves — a team who had hit 57 home runs entering the break — to end the first half, but Beckham himself took his former team for a ride blasting a home run, and gathering three hits in his return to U.S. Cellular Field.

Beckham is now hitting — wait for it — .290/.387/.458 with the Braves. He’s taking walks at an 11.3 percent rate, something he’s never done in his career and he’s lowered his strikeout rate by over five percent from 2015 to 2016. Who would have thought that could ever be possible for a guy the White Sox tried so hard to groom into a franchise player for almost a decade?

The Difference: The thing with Beckham, is that much like Gillaspie, the sample size is small. Beckham has only participated in 34 games in Atlanta this season. The White Sox tried extensively hard to make Beckham into an everyday infielder, using him in as many as 151 games in 2012. When the sample size expands by that much, but the talent isn’t adequately available over the course of that many games per season, you get White Sox-era Gordon Beckham. When you use a player such a Beckham sparingly the way Atlanta has, you give him the environment he needs to flourish in the role he’s best suited for.

Marcus Semien

This one hurts. Always a big fan of Marcus Semien, when I heard that he was included in the trade that would bring Jeff Samardzija over to the White Sox for what ended up being one very heartbreaking season, in the back of my mind I was not entirely pleased.

And this is why. While Samardzija saw his ERA rise to 4.98 — a level he’d never reached as a starting pitcher — and allowed a career high number of hits and earned runs in 2015, Semien was on the path to Figuring It Out.

Semien played in 151 games in Oakland in 2015, and while he committed a harrowing number of errors and didn’t quite impress in the power department, that began to change.

Samardzija is now pitching in San Francisco and posting an ERA nearly a full run lower than that of the one he posted in Chicago. Meanwhile, Semien has slashed his error total significantly from an almost impressively poor 35 errors in 2015 to just nine so far in 2016, and seems to have found his power stroke, something he desperately was searching for in Chicago.

Semien is hitting .242/.307/.477 with an ISO of .234. While his strikeout rate is still quite high at 23 percent, and his OBP is leaner than one may like, he’s making up for it by hitting the ball with authority — and doing it at the Oakland Coliseum, a stadium that’s second to last in home run totals.

The Difference: Semien was still a work in progress. It wasn’t time to give up on him for a year of a pitcher who was on the verge of free agency and very unlikely to sign despite the rumors of a “hometown discount”. Semien had his flaws, but he wasn’t unsalvageable. They were simply kinks that needed to be ironed out, and 85 games in a White Sox uniform surely wasn’t enough to see if Semien could reach his full potential. The White Sox spent years waiting for the prophecies of Beckham and Gillaspie to be fulfilled, but 85 games of Semien and this organization had decided that they’d seen enough. The White Sox didn’t lose an All-Star talent in Semien, but considering that the trade they sent him away in as now left them empty handed, the loss of Semien stings just a bit more than it should.

Tyler Flowers

Yet another former White Sox player who ended up back with the organization that drafted him. After seven years with the White Sox, the South siders officially cut ties with catcher Tyler Flowers.

Flowers never truly dazzled in Chicago, he posted a meager .223/.289/.376 slash line during his time in with the Sox, and once had a strikeout rate that reached 36 percent.

But now, in the Braves organization, though Flowers isn’t blowing anyone away with his exceptional power numbers and hasn’t lowered that hearty strikeout rate enough to earn the status of The One That Got Away, he’s doing good things for someone who is still Tyler Flowers. Playing in just 53 games, Flowers has posted a slash line of .253/.343/.425 with the Braves and is walking at the highest clip of his career at over eight percent (minimum 50 games).

The Difference: Saying that perhaps the White Sox were trying to stretch too much out of Flowers would feel like an inaccurate statement, seeing as Flowers only played in over 100 games two of his seven seasons on the South side. Perhaps Flowers’ success in Atlanta is just a flukey, small sample size baseball thing, but the Braves seem to understand that Flowers isn’t the type of player you want behind the plate for everyday use — something the White Sox tried to make work for nearly two seasons. Again, understanding players limits seems to be key here.

The kernel to take away is this: It’s seems as though the White Sox have a penchant for looking at a utility player’s success in small sample sizes and try and stretch that success into everyday stardom. Only when these players end up with other organizations that understand their ability to flourish in a bench or backup role and don’t try to push their limits do we see their full potential at the major league level. Not every player is destined to become a starter, sometimes sufficient depth is all you can ask for.

And as we saw with Semien, perhaps prospects that haven’t reached their full potential yet shouldn’t be traded for one year of a highly-touted pitcher, because these things, much like with Semien, will come back to haunt you when you’re left empty handed. There’s nothing worse in baseball than watching prospect that was once in your organization have success with another because of a trade that your team is no longer benefiting from.

These are all simple lessons learned. Learned by fans, by baseball, and hopefully by the White Sox front office. Hey, at least the organization held onto Tim Anderson though, right?

Lead photo courtesy of Kenny Karst-USA TODAY Sports

But that’s all supposed to change in 2016. White Sox fans have whispered of the many additions the organization has made this offseason, with Rick Hahn proudly proclaiming that he feels the team he’s worked to construct is better than the one which garnered all the hype last Winter.

For most, the key additions made were those of “legitimate” second and third basemen, Brett Lawrie and Todd Frazier, during December’s Winter Meetings in Nashville.

Per Baseball Prospectus’ projection system, PECOTA, Lawrie and Frazier are slated to produce a total of 4.3 WARP at their positions. Over the last 10 seasons, these two positions have only seen a collective total WARP higher than 4.1 twice, one year after the World Series was won (2006) and the last year in which the White Sox made the playoffs (2008).

This story is for those moments in 2016 when White Sox fans find themselves irrationally cursing at the sky, should Lawrie find himself in a slump or should Frazier not start off the regular season blasting home runs onto the concourse. This story is of what White Sox fans have endured during the last decade at these two positions. Warning: Proceed with caution, or a stiff drink.

Collecting a list of the players who have manned second and third base for the White Sox from during the last decade, I’ve added together the WARP that the two positions have produced. Since there were so many names, and some of the players appeared at other positions enough to skew the data, I have only added WARP numbers for players who posted at least ~200 plate appearances at the position listed into the final totals. Honorable mentions are not included in the final WARP total.

The End of the Road

Tadahito Iguchi, what was left of Joe Crede, and one good WARP season.

2006 – WARP Total: 4.1

Second Base: Tadahito Iguchi

Third Base: Joe Crede

All was well, and the good times continued to roll for the World Series winning second and third base tandem. Crede posted an impressive 3.5 WARP at third base and Iguchi continued to stay afloat with his solid bat, but his shoddy defense would be the culprit of a 0.6 WARP. Hey, if it works sufficiently enough don’t fix it, right? That is, until it needs fixing…

2007 – WARP Total: 1.8

Second Base: Tadahito Iguchi, Danny Richar

Third Base: Josh Fields

Honorable mentions: Joe Crede, Andy Gonzalez, Alex Cintron, Pablo Ozuna

Trading away Tadahito Iguchi at the deadline, the White Sox sent Danny Richar out to man second base for the remainder of the season. Richar was acquired in a mid-June trade, and amassed 206 plate appearances at second base in 56 games. However, his performance there was poor enough to earn him a -0.4 WAR. Joe Crede’s recurring back ailment began to overtake him, leaving Josh Fields as the starting third basemen for the majority of the season. Fields held his own posting a WARP of 1.4 in 418 plate appearances, but the White Sox would eventually see Crede return in 2008…

2008 – WARP Total: 5.0

Second Base: Alexei Ramirez

Honorable mention: Juan Uribe

Third Base: Joe Crede

Honorable mentions: Juan Uribe, Pablo Ozuna

Alexei Ramirez starting the bulk of 136 games at second base? Yes, if you’re like me, you forgot that happened. The good news in that is that Ramirez produced a 1.8 WARP at the position, while Joe Crede revived himself from his back issues long enough to post 97 games at third base and a 2.0 WARP. The real hero of 2008, though? Juan Uribe, who filled in the majority of the games remaining at both second and third. Despite these positions looking somewhat botched to the naked eye, the production delivered in 2008 — and the gang even made it to October.

The Gordon Beckham Era

The White Sox just didn’t know how to quit him.

2009 – WARP Total: 3.8

Second Base: Chris Getz

Honorable mentions: Jayson Nix, Brent Lillibridge

Third Base: Gordon Beckham

Honorable mention: Josh Fields

Alexei Ramirez officially became the team’s full time shortstop in 2009 after the departure of Juan Uribe, leaving the second base duties to Chris Getz. Getz split time at the position with Jayson Nix and Brent Lillibridge, two more fresh faces attempting to hold together the ever-changing landscape of White Sox middle infielders. With the departure of Crede in the offseason, as his back would no longer allow him to play the game effectively, the White Sox ushered in the era of Gordon Beckham. It looked promising, with Beckham posting a 2.5 WARP at the position in his initial season, but unfortunately, he would never post even one full WARP again.

2010 – WARP Total: 0.5

Second Base: Gordon Beckham

Honorable mention: Brent Lillibridge

Third Base: Omar Vizquel

Honorable mentions: Mark Teahen, Dayan Viciedo, Brent Morel, Jayson Nix

This was quite a low point. Robbing Peter to pay Paul in the form of infielders, Gordon Beckham moved from the hot corner to second base, and the hole that Crede’s departure left at third was becoming harder to ignore. Omar Vizquel and a misfit crew were sent out fill the crater that was forming, and it wasn’t pretty. Vizquel posted a -0.3 WARP at the position, while Beckham wasn’t doing so well himself at second, posting just a 0.8 WARP on the season.

2011 - WARP Total: 1.2

Second Base: Gordon Beckham

Third Base: Brent Morel

Honorable mention: Mark Teahen

Gordon Beckham manned second base for 150 games, and still couldn’t manage higher than a 0.8 WARP at the position. Brent Morel took the brunt of the work at third base, with the help of Mark Teahen, but only posted a 0.4 WARP. There was a consistent churn of bodies on the bases, but hardly any who carried out the task at hand in earnest. The bleeding would be stopped at the very end 2011 by a Morel hot streak, but the wounds still needed attention.

2012 – WARP Total: 1.7

Second Base: Gordon Beckham

Third Base: Kevin Youkilis

Honorable mentions: Brent Morel, Orlando Hudson

Kevin Youkilis was brought in an attempt to help rectify the issue at third and chalked up 344 plate appearances at the position during his age 33 and final full season in the majors. He posted an impressive 1.2 WARP during the 80 games he played on the South side, and the White Sox could breathe for yet another moment. Meanwhile, in 151 games, Gordon Beckham’s production slipped even lower to just 0.5 WARP on the season.

2013 - WARP Total: 2.4

Second Base: Gordon Beckham

Honorable mention: Jeff Keppinger, Tyler Greene, Leury Garcia

Third Base: Conor Gillaspie

Honorable mention: Marcus Semien, Jeff Keppinger

Perhaps some of the poorest memories White Sox fans may have in recent years are those of the Gordon Beckham and Conor Gillaspie tandem, and this is where that story begins. Gillaspie posted a 1.6 WARP in his first season at third base, didn’t smile once (I can’t prove that, but I know in my heart it’s true), and hit just .159 against lefties. Meanwhile at second base, Beckham improved from his 2012 production, bringing his WARP total on the season back to 0.8. This would also be the lone year of Jeff Keppinger, who amassed 84 games between second and third base in 2013. He was released by the White Sox in 2014 and has not played major league baseball since.

The Reign of Conor Gillespie

The White Sox tried to harvest their own young talent, but it wasn’t truly the answer. Neither was Gillespie.

2014 – WARP Total: 2.0

Second Base: Gordon Beckham

Honorable mentions: Carlos Sanchez, Marcus Semien, Leury Garcia

Third Base: Conor Gillaspie

Honorable mention: Marcus Semien

The Gillaspie and Beckham brigade proved viable yet unspectacular for another season on the White Sox diamond. However, the band broke up when Gordon Beckham was sent to the Los Angeles Angels in late August, paving the way for Carlos Sanchez, who would finish out the remainder of the season at second base. Conor Gillaspie continued to hit poorly against lefties, never smile, and generally bring an air of third base-related existential dread to White Sox fans and probably himself, too.

2015 - WARP Total 0.9

Second Base: Carlos Sanchez

Honorable mention: Micah Johnson

Third Base: Gordon Beckham, Tyler Saladino

Honorable mention: Conor Gillaspie

Sure enough, the White Sox felt they couldn’t live without Gordon Beckham, and he rejoined the team as a free agent  in the offseason of 2015. The White Sox brought back the middle infielder to play third, for reasons we can assume include “Well, he’s not as bad as Gillaspie”, who was relegated to a bench role. Beckham would split time with newcomer Tyler Saladino, who posted a 0.2 WARP in his 68 games at third base. Second base duties were handed over to Carlos Sanchez after a short stint with youngster Micah Johnson to start off April, and Sanchez managed to post a 0.8 WARP in his first full season in the majors. This was still not a long term, viable solution.

Epilogue

Many of the players that made the list of men who contributed to the White Sox infield are either retired or out of baseball, and often made their way out shortly after their stints with the South siders ended. In 2015, the White Sox front office would pull a “Gordon Beckham” on Conor Gillaspie and have his contract sold to the Los Angeles Angeles in late July. Gillaspie then signed as a free agent in the offseason with the San Francisco Giants, and finally smiled in his team photo. Beckham was granted free agency by the White Sox after the 2015 season ended and signed a one-year deal with the Atlanta Braves. With the White Sox having moved on at both positions — this is likely to be the end of the Beckham/Gillaspie saga for the White Sox.

It’s been a rough journey over the past decade, one with middling talents, and a glut of temporary fixes. But with PECOTA projecting Frazier and Lawrie to post some of the highest combined WARP totals for these positions that the White Sox have seen in years, perhaps this is the tourniquet the White Sox needed to help solidify their legitimacy for a playoff run.

So the next time you look to the White Sox infield and you see these two new established starters with fairly decent track records take their spots on the diamond, remember what the last decade has been like for these two positions. Look back on this article, keep it bookmarked for reference, but remember that the future of these positions looks more promising for 2016 than it has in a very long time.

Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports