Today on South Side Sox, I address the Oney Guillen-Bobby Jenks flap with great remorse. But hey, at least some of the things that went unsaid at the end of the season have now been said.
Along the same lines, thanks to soxexile for pointing us to a great Tom Boswell column that sheds some light what happened between the White Sox and the Washington Nationals at the trade deadline:
As recently as this July, Rizzo had a deal done to send Adam Dunn to the Chicago White Sox at the trade deadline for pitcher Edwin Jackson, 27, who has only a 48-51 career record but catches Rizzo's scouting eye with his 96 mph heat. Former team president Stan Kasten preferred to keep Dunn and try to sign him - immediately - to the kind of $37.5 million, three-year deal that Paul Konerko just took to stay in Chicago with the White Sox.
Either solution would have constituted sensible baseball judgment. Tell Dunn: Sign by July 31 or we trade you for Jackson. Happens all the time. But the Nats did neither. The board followed Kasten's advice not to trade Dunn but didn't make an ultimatum and settle the issue.
Instead, they dawdled, lost Jackson, lost Dunn at the end of the year and now have two compensatory draft picks in June of '11 that might - with luck - turn into real players in five years.
This fills in all but one gap -- the one where, according to Peter Gammons, Rizzo said their reported interest in Dunn never made sense. That could very well be Rizzo covering his behind or downplaying his interest, though.
*Also at South Side Sox, e-gus posted a guide for people new to the site. The best tip: Even if you don't participate, registering and logging in makes navigating the comments a whole lot easier, simply by pressing "Z."
