Perhaps White Sox hitters were more distracted by Manny Ramirez than we are, as they looked pretty flat in a 4-2 loss to Baltimore. Brian Matusz was pretty good, Sox hitters haven't looked that bad in a while, and I'm willing to write it off as an off night.
Fortunately and unfortunately, there's plenty else to write about. Following up on a couple of storylines from this week...
Manny Ramirez: Ramirez has been placed on waivers, the White Sox have claimed him, and Ramirez would approve a trade. So there are the essentials. Toni Ginnetti says the White Sox and Dodgers are doing groundwork for a trade, with the Dodgers are reviewing scouting reports on White Sox minor-leaguers. That doesn't mean that the White Sox have the rights to a trade, as teams have until Friday to put a waiver claim in.
Forming a list of who I wouldn't want to see dealt: Tyler Flowers, Brent Morel, Dayan Viciedo, Trayce Thompson, Miguel Gonzalez, Josh Phegley, Jose Martinez, Andre Rienzo. Beneath them, some of the names would hurt more than others, but it's easy to overrate the relative-second-tier prospects in this bad of a system.
****************************
Oney Guillen: For the most part, I wouldn't want to see Ozzie Guillen fired. I still think he's a talented manager who can handle starters, and handling starters is the most important part of a manager's job. Give him one more year, don't let him handle important personnel decisions, and see how things shake out.
But whenever I see Oney Guillen's name surface beyond my TweetDeck, I start to wonder if Joey Cora is ready to take over a club.
Since Oney tattled on Kenny Williams to sympathetic ear Joe Cowley, another fail whale of a conflict has spawned -- except this one has insinuations of infidelity and deleted tweets! Awesome!
As it's played out in the mainstream media: First, Cowley reported/opined that Williams had let down his team by laughing it up at a Carlos Mencia show instead of giving Ozzie Guillen a replacement pitcher. Williams told David Haugh that he asked Guillen and Don Cooper (a Williams puppet, according to Cowley) if more pitchers were needed, and they said "[coitus] no."
For visual evidence, Williams showed NBC5's Paula Faris phone records and text messages, which convinced Faris:
All the while, Oney took to Twitter to try to convince people that everything not said by Cowley was false, while Some highlights:
- Everyone also thought that Tiger Woods was faitful (sic) to his wife and great human being. Don't be so naive.
- For the record no one has repramanded (sic) me of anything. Or ever will forthat matter. Just hope and pray I that I (sic) don't let the skeletons out ofthe closet.
- when all the stories break later tonight or tomorow (sic) everyone will makeme out to be a liar. When u (sic) and I both know I don't lie about [dookers]
He may not "lie," but he apparently he deletes tweets. A Twitter account created just to capture one -- oney_lies -- took a screenshot (and apparently ESPN1000's "Waddle and Silvy" account saw it, too):
You know, it's funny how the Internet brings the world closer and pushes people further apart, and it makes me wonder if the ambiguities and blurred lines that sa liaccccccca awfea 4at4 wgssssl;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
[aneurysm break]
This whole story is so stupid that I can see where Melissa Isaacson is coming from when she wonders if everybody's in on the joke except us. I'd almost think there was something to this, especially since Cowley is on a warpath, carrying a torch for a guy who's essentially indefensible in a wholly transparent unholy alliance.
But then I think of spring training and a couple grafs of a Mark Gonzalez story:
Then last week, Guillen revealed the Sox forbid him from developinghis own Web page, which would focus on the Sox and Major LeagueBaseball.
According to a source, that action cost the Guillen family several thousand dollars.
And that's what I keep coming back to. I have no idea whether Kato Kaelin was the most adversely affected by that rejection, but it seems like money might be the cause of this kind of rift. And apparently it's not going to end soon; he was born on third and thinks umpire's discretion should've given him the last 90 feet, and he's not being told otherwise:
"(But) Oney's not part of this organization," Guillen said Wednesday. "Oney says whatever he wants. The thing is, coming from him it looks bad."
Some of his Tweets include comments about Sox general manager Ken Williams, but Guillen said his son is just a passionate fan who won't get the manager in trouble.
"He didn't put me in a bad situation; he put (himself) in a bad situation," Guillen said. "What do you want me to say? I can't say anything about it because I don't know what he wrote."
Mmm, that's good enabling. My first thought was, "Aren't children a reflection of their parents?" The lack of self-awareness in that quote answers that question, doesn't it?
Anyway, I'm going to stop writing about this, because I'm guessing we'll have to pick up the conversation again real soon. And now I'm imagining a regime in which we don't have to talk about the manager's son, and wondering if Williams and Jerry Reinsdorf are, too.
