White Sox Today, May 29, 2006

Having just come off series against Oakland and Toronto, the White Sox visit Cleveland this week before they start a stretch of 22 games in which 19 of their opponents are .500 or better.  The other three games are against the Indians, who are 25-26.  Through 49 games, the White Sox have had the easiest schedule in the major leagues (.162). 

Talk about your high standards . . .  after winning six of seven games, the Sox dropped two at Toronto over the weekend, sparking a string of expletives from Manager Ozzie Guillen.  “’I think it was a horse-#### game,’’ Guillen said. ‘’I think when a team can get 14 hits and score two runs, that means we’re not executing. To win a pennant race and to be where we’re supposed to be, you have to do everything you can possible to help this team. And if they’re not willing to do it, there’s going to be a lot of ######’ changes in the ######’ lineup pretty soon. Everyone thinks it’s a good game. Bull-####.  ‘They know who they are.  I don’t want to name my players. They know who they are and know the way I am. Look in the mirror and say, ‘I screwed up. I didn’t do what I was supposed to do.’ ‘If they don’t like what I say, #### them,’’ he said. ‘’They can pack their #### and do whatever they want to do. But we’re better than this. Way better than this.” Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski “didn’t know what he’s talking about.  Ozzie’s probably trying to get us going, get us fired up, trying to work the magic. Just Ozzie being Ozzie. A manager’s going to criticize you when things aren’t going right. You take it and move on.’’ Since the outburst the Sox are 2-0 and have outscored their opponents 18-5.  You’ve got to hand it to the Ozz:  he’s ######’ crazy like a ######’ fox. 

Trans-actions! 
• The Sox sent Boone Logan (who had never appeared above rookie league before April) to AAA last week, when Jose Contreras was activated from the disabled list (with sciatica in his hip).  In three games with Charlotte since then, Logan has allowed two runs on four hits and a walk in 2 2/3 innings, however, he allowed runs to score in only one of his games. 
• Jeff Nelson’s contract was purchased from Charlotte.  He switched places with Agustin Montero.  Nelson had given up four hits and four walks (with seven strikeouts) in five innings at AAA but he hadn’t allowed a run.  Since coming to Chicago, Nelson has been moderately effective (getting Vernon Wells and Troy Glaus in clutch situations), but has also allowed two walks, a bloop hit and a rocket of a homer by Shea Hillenbrand to lose Saturday’s game. 
• The White Sox signed their hitting coach (Greg Walker), pitching coach (Don Cooper), both base coaches (Harold Baines and Joey Cora) and longtime bullpen coach (Hard Art Kusnyer) to contract extensions.  “I want them to all stay with me as long as I’m here,” said Guillen of his coaching staff.  Kusnyer got a two-year deal while the rest signed three-year pacts.  The most surprising of these signings is Baines’.  After serving as the team’s bench coach for the last two seasons, Baines traded jobs with first base coach Rock Raines before this season.  At the time, there was speculation that the move was a prelude to Baines’ last year on the field.  It’s good to see that Ol’ #3 will be back next season.  Raines’ status remains uncertain. “I’m OK with that.  Even if I wasn’t, what good is it going to do?” Raines said.  “Who would want to leave a situation like this unless you have other aspirations or offers?’’

The next player to catch the US Air shuttle from Chicago O’Hare to Charlotte Douglas may be Brian Anderson.  “I don’t want to take the confidence away from him,” Guillen said or Anderson on Saturday. “I believe he can play in this league. I believe we have a case like the Garlands and Credes. I try to be patient with him. Getting hits is hard, getting good at-bats is easy, and right now he’s not giving me good at-bats.  If we keep [Anderson] here, he’d better start swinging the bat better,” Guillen said.  “After the Cleveland series, we’ll see what we’re going to do.  But to me, I’m leaning toward another pitcher.” “I think I’m making progress,” Anderson said, “but at the same time, Mackowiak has been swinging the bat well, so you have to get him at-bats. Then again, I wouldn’t have been in that situation if I would have started off and done my job. So, right now, I’ll try to keep my head above water. The ball is in my court.”

Like Anderson, Josh Fields is a former first round pick and again like Anderson, Fields may be looking for a new home, at least on the ball diamond.  Ken Williams speculates that the organization may have to move Fields to the outfield since his path to the big leagues is blocked by Joe Crede. “We might have to consider this for Fields, simply because Joe is at third base, and Joe is the best in the business,” said in a statement that would have seemed ludicrous a year ago.  “He is a good athlete,” Williams said of Fields “We may be forced [to switch his position] because Josh is coming, and he’s coming fast.” After hitting .313/.360/.550 in April, Crede has hit .283/.320/.457 in May.  Fields is hitting .333/.418/.605, but has struck out 51 times in 44 games.  Charlotte is a friendly hitting park, but Fields has hit just as well on the road (.364/.44/.584) as he has at home this season.  I’m not saying that moving Fields to the outfield would be a bad move necessarily, but part of me wonders if the 1970s Phillies ever thought, “Well, Mike Schmidt is a good athlete and we’ve already got this young Don Money kid at third . . . “

Now the Sox have added an extra OOGY (one out guy) to the pen and might yet put another reliever on the staff, expect Ozzie’s penchant for LaRussian reliever changes to rear its ugly head.  For example, Ozzie put a lot of blame on himself after the Sox lost to the Cubs because he left Neal Cotts in the game to face Michael Barrett. Barrett tripled to the gap in right field to tie the game.  “I didn’t pull the plug,” said Guillen. “I thought about leaving Neal in there; all of a sudden, I should bring in Cliff. But I was worried about Jones facing Cliff Politte.  I let my team down. They played good, and I screwed it up for them.’’ That’s nice and all, but the real reason that the Sox lost the game was because of defense.  Obviously, without the Uribe to Konerko blunder the Sox would have gotten out of the inning without the runs scoring.  However, the real culprit on Barrett’s triple was Rob Mackowiak’s dreadful defense in centerfield.  Macko took a horrible route to the ball allowing the hit to get to the fence. 

Never did I believe the old Seinfeld line about how sports fans are really only cheering the players apparel more than when Jeff Nelson faced Frank Thomas this week.  It was just bizarre to see Thomas in the road grays drawing a walk from Nelson, wearing home pinstripes.  My mind couldn’t really process the information that I was seeing.  Thomas drew a six-pitch walk and blooped a check-swing single in his two at bats against Nelson during the series. 

Bumps and Bruises:  Shortstop Juan Uribe missed a couple games this week after being beaned by Danny Haren.  The Haren pitch cracked Uribe’s helmet but left no lingering ill-effects, although Guillen is hoping that it knocks some sense into his shortstop.  “He got hit in the head, hopefully, he’ll wake up,” cracked Guillen. “Hopefully, he’ll start hitting, something back in his brain will shoot to him and say, ‘I remember the way I was hitting.’” Also, Tadahito Iguchi sat out a couple games a week ago with a sore right foot.  Scheduled to play a third consecutive day on Toronto’s artificial turf, Guillen gave Iguchi Sunday off. “He was kind of sore yesterday. I saw him limping a little,” Guillen said.

Major League Baseball’s disciplinarian Bob Watson fined Sox center fielder Brian Anderson suspended for five games as a result of his part in last weekend’s fracas with the Cubs.  During the melee, Anderson got into a fight with John F. Mabry, which resulted in injured ribs and trip to the hospital for Mabry. Joey Cora, the Sox third base coach, was fined and suspended for two games for being a participant in the brawl, while catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who was recently named in Sports Illustrated as the athlete you would most like to see beaned, was fined but not suspended.  Watson’s rationale for the decisions? According to General Manager Ken Williams, MLB didn’t like that Pierzynski “got up [from scoring] and lowered a shoulder into Barrett” and then incited the crowd. As to Cora’s suspension, Watson noted that “’our office holds coaches and managers to a much higher standard than players. When you have a coach who has to be restrained, we take a very dim view of that.”

Despite the fact that the White Sox won the World Championship last year (and took two of three from the hapless Cubs a week ago), Ozzie Guillen believes that Chicago is a Cubs town. “If we played the way the Cubs played, there would be 2,000 people in the ballpark, believe me,’’ he said.  “I know there may be some fans that are going to hate me for that, [but] it’s a Cubs town.” Guillen was somewhat optimistic about the Sox future popularity in the town, however, “But it’s a good time to be a White Sox fan right now, a great time to be a White Sox fan. With the kids right now who are growing up in the city, it might turn around in 10 years,’’ Guillen said. “If you’re going to bring kids to the ballpark, you bring them on the South Side and see more stuff for kids. But if you’re going to watch just baseball, go to Wrigley Field.’’ Local Sox fans take a more philosophical approach to the new dynamics of the rivalry. ‘’Winning the World Series made all the difference. It used to be we were always defending ourselves. North Side vs. South Side,’’ said the cliché-named Brigeport Sox fan Carmie Scumaci said. ‘’There’s no more of that. We just say look at that [World Series] banner, look at the ring. Until [the Cubs] get one, they’re always gonna be second best.’’