Entries associated with the tag "Kenny Williams":

Ozzie Guillen threw not just his players, but his general manager under the bus Sunday after the White Sox were swept by the Rays in Tampa Bay, suggesting he didn't like his roster and that major changes needed to be made. But come on: the White Sox were still in first.

True, for anyone who remembers the 2005 Sox, this year's team did not look like championship contenders; there were holes, quite obvious to the fan, and therefore glaring to the opposition. True too, this year's Sox were not built to play "Ozzieball," not after GM Kenny Williams extended Jermaine Dye's contract last year. Considering the Sox were already committed to Paul Konerko and Jim Thome, it left them with a slow (if sometimes powerful) middle of the lineup prone to double plays. True again the team was not equipped with a true leadoff man: Nick Swisher and Orlando Cabrera have both failed in the uncomfortable position. So what's a manager to do?

Deal with it, dude. The GM traditionally sets the roster, and the manager has to put it to the best possible use. Look at what the Cubs' Lou Piniella did with a bulbous, misshapen, corner-heavy roster last year: he played Jacque Jones in center, shifted Ryan Theriot to short (both of which the experts said couldn't be done), and generally found a way to put the best eight players on the field.

So look, Ozzie, do the same. If you're not scoring runs, stress defense. Put Brian Anderson in center and leave him there. Play the three hot hands (or not-so-cold bats) between Dye, Swisher, Thome, and Konerko between first, right field, and designated hitter. If you want to run more, by all means put in someone like Alexei Ramirez and run and hit-and-run. Yes, it's a bulbous, misshapen roster, but the Sox are in first place -- remember? -- and it's your job to find a way to keep them there as long as possible. Given the roster, stress defense, on-base percentage, and power -- in that order -- and you'll get the most out of the players Wiliams has given you. And if wholesale changes are made and the Sox drop from first place? It's all on you, Ozzie.

All right, having looked at the Cubs through the statistical prism of The Bill James Gold Mine 2008, let's see what it says about the White Sox. First, the bullpen was awful last season. No surprise there. Excluding the closers -- and  Bobby Jenks was exceptional -- Sox relievers posted a 5.98 earned-run average. The only stunning fact is that there was a worse team in the American League: the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, with a 6.33 ERA. Just how badly that horrendous bullpen hurt the Sox is shown in another nifty stat: the Sox were ahead more often than not through each of the first four innings last year. (Specifically, through four innings, they were ahead 71 times, behind 64 times, and tied 27 times.) That's an amazing figure for a team that wound up 72-90. Of course, from the fifth inning on, when the middle relief typically entered the game, things got progressively worse. Here's hoping Scott Linebrink and Octavio Dotel are cures for what ailed the bullpen.

Yet the collapse of the Sox wasn't just the bullpen's fault. James points out that every Sox batter with more than 150 at-bats compiled an OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage, a key run-scoring indicator) below his career average. (The only exception was Rob Mackowiak, and when you figure in what he did after being dealt to the San Diego Padres, he too came in below his career average.) That's a team-wide batting slump. And with the Sox' reliance on the home run -- and lack of team speed -- they had a miserable 13-44 record in games they were held without a homer, a .228 winning percentage.

Unfortunately, general manager Kenny Williams didn't address this problem by bringing in a run-producing leadoff man -- unless you count Orlando Cabrera, who may not even hit leadoff. The good news there is that the Sox are due for a team-wide return to the norm in hitting. Still, the law of averages is not something a general manager should generally hang his hopes on.

There wasn't much doing at baseball's winter meetings in Nashville, Tennessee, this week, especially where the Cubs and White Sox were concerned. Only one major free agent signed: Andruw Jones, who's going to the Los Angeles Dodgers for $36.2 million for two years. (Where did LA general manager Ned Colletti learn to spend that kind of money? Not doing media relations for the Cubs in the early years of the Tribune era, that's for sure.) Only one blockbuster trade came off, but it was a doozy, with the Detroit Tigers obtaining Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera from the Florida Marlins for six highly regarded prospects. A fan might think this would put a little urgency in the step of Sox GM Kenny Williams, but in a record-breaking case of denial he replied, "All this has done is put the Tigers in a better position to compete with us." True, the Sox are only two years removed from their world championship, while the Tigers are one year past their American League pennant, and neither made the playoffs last season, but the Tigers were a lot closer at 88 wins than the Sox at 72 last season.

The Sox made one deal early on, obtaining Carlos Quentin from the Arizona Diamondbacks for single-A player Chris Carter, and I like the trade even though it hurts personally. I can vouch for Quention, as he was on my National League-only rotisserie team, which means I now lose the rights to him. Losing him to the Sox eases the pain, however. Quentin hits for power, and more than that he has a discerning batting eye. Factor in his penchant for being hit by pitches and he's an on-base machine, something the Sox badly needed. He was hurt last year and fell out of favor in Arizona, and Baseball Prospectus weighed in preferring Carter's potential, but Quentin looks to me to be just the sort of player who benefits from a change of scenery. Pencil him in for 20 homers, 80 runs batted in, and a .350 on-base percentage in left field -- and watch him build on those numbers in the years ahead, barring injury.

Otherwise, however, the Sox stood pat, and Williams got cranky about being unable to pull off deals for Cabrera and Torii Hunter. I like that the Sox seem ready to give Brian Anderson another shot at center, but they still need a leadoff man (neither Jerry Owens nor Danny Richar seemed ready to fill that critical position last season), and the bullpen remains in shambles even with the acquisition of Scott Linebrink.

The Cubs were quiet for the most part too, but the Sox could have benefitted from the sort of minor tweaking the Cubs pulled off in obtaining hard-throwing bullpen help in prospects Jose Ascanio from Atlanta in a trade and then Tim Lahey in a deal growing out of the Rule Five draft of unprotected minor leaguers. Both have impressive stats and 90-mile-an-hour fastballs, and they bolster an already overstocked bullpen with the return of Kerry Wood.

The Cubs are reportedly lying in the weeds for Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukodome should he decide to come to America, but otherwise they seem prepared to give Felix Pie another shot in center. He could still be great if he improves his plate discipline and learns to cover that hole in his swing on the inside corner with improved bunting. So they still look like an NL playoff team, and they stake their improvement on adding Geovany Soto at catcher, which seems well placed. But if they sign Fukodome, look for Kenny Williams to insist that only puts the Cubs in better position to compete with the Sox for Chicago's baseball fans.

The Cubs stood pat at the trading deadline and seemed content with what they have. With Kerry Wood and Daryle Ward due back from the disabled list in the coming days, general manager Jim Hendry figured they were better additions than anyone available  -- and at considerably less cost in prospects and salary.

If the presence of Tadahito Iguchi on the visiting Philadelphia Phillies at Wrigley Field this week reminded Chicago fans that not everyone was so content, still the White Sox surprised with how little they actually did to break up and rebuild the 2005 World Championship team. Only weeks ago Mark Buehrle seemingly had his ticket stamped out of town, with Jermaine Dye and Jose Contreras soon to follow. Yet once Buehrle signed an extension, Sox GM "Trader" Kenny Williams suddenly seemed reluctant -- or unable --  to move anyone else. The Sox got little for Gooch in the form of minor-league pitcher Michael Dubee, and even less for Rob Mackowiak at the deadline. Meanwhile, Dye, Contreras, and Jon Garland, also mentioned as possible trade bait, stayed in place.

The Cubs could afford to rest content: with tonight's win over the Phillies they remain just one game back of the Brewers for first, and they'd be tied if Milwaukee hadn't rallied to beat the Mets in 13 innings. The White Sox couldn't. There was probably no market for Contreras after the way he's pitched lately--now at 5-14, he was the loser in tonight's 16-3 drubbing at the hands of the Yankees, just the worst of a string of games in which he's looked washed-up. On the other end of the spectrum, Garland, at 8-7, would have to be considered the team's de facto ace at this point and a potential piece of the long-term puzzle.

Not so Dye, I'm afraid. Game Four World Series hero or not, he's a player whose skills and fielding range are diminishing rapidly at a position relatively easy to fill on the free-agent market. Williams should have moved him, if not for another young outfielder, then to clear the way for the Sox to test out Ryan Sweeney once and for all. Unless he can pull off a waiver-wire miracle, Williams is looking to be disappointed this off-season with how he failed to address the team's problems when he still had the chance. You know it's bad when even Paul Konerko gets himself tossed out of a game.