- Paul Boucher
- Kevin Youkilis wins the game for the White Sox on July 4
When Kevin Youkilis was traded to the White Sox, ten games ago, some suggested he was done. At very best, Baseball Prospectus had projected him as being worth four wins above the average replacement player (WARP) for the 2012 season. Even replacing the epitome of a replacement player in Orlando Hudson at third base for the Sox, at almost the halfway point of the season he was worth about two wins the rest of the way.
Well, Youkilis has provided the game-winning hit the last two games—that’s two wins right there—and he played a key role in the Sox slaughter of the Texas Rangers the game before that, and he helped preserve a win in a pitchers’ duel before that with a nice inning-ending play on a dribbler down the third-base line.
That’s four wins, and not coincidentally the Sox are 7-3—four games above .500—since he joined them.