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Sox Shuffle Continues
Baseball's trading deadline came and went quietly yesterday afternoon, with only Rob Mackowiak needing to pack up his locker in the Sox clubhouse.
After last night's 16-3 debacle in New York, GM Kenny Williams is probably wishing he'd tried a little harder to dump Jose Contreras on somebody. The starter gave up three home runs and sever earned runs in 2.2 innings before hitting the showers. Youngsters Charlie Haeger and Gavin Floyd didn't fare any better, with Haeger allowing two homers and four runs over 1.1 innings before Floyd dished up five more runs on three dingers.
Yup, Sox pitchers allowed eight home runs on Tuesday. That equals an all time Yankees record for homers hit in a game, while setting a new Sox record for homers allowed in a game. Amazingly, however, Alex Rodriguez went hitless and homerless as he remains stuck on 499 for his career.
With last night's loss, Contreras has now lost his last seven starts, posting a 10.38 ERA during that span, Overall he's now 5-14 with an ERA of 6.60. So what do the Sox do with him now?
Contreras is still owed about $23 million on the three year, $29 million extension he signed before last year.
That's definitely starter's money... so can a team justify paying that kind of dough to a guy stuck out in the bullpen? That's probably the only reason he's remained in the rotation as long as he has. But he's clearly no longer the pitcher he was in 2005 and the first half of 2006.
With the Sox hopelessly out of the playoff hunt this year. Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and Williams have a decision to make -- keep him in the rotation to eat up innings over the course of the rest of the season, or exile him to the bullpen and give a few of the young guys a chance to prove themselves. With Contreras' days of meaningfully contributing likely over, we want to find out sooner rather than later just who might help the Sox make the playoffs next year.
Image by REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine
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If anyone in that organization needs to find a new home, it should be Kenny Williams. If I was a ChiSox fan, I'd be calling for his head on a platter! What happened to all of those moves he was talking about?
I was at that game last night, repping Chicago. Tough times for the Sox. Great Yanks game, tho.
Williams should send Jose down to Charlotte.
Building that World Series team buys Kenny at least 3 years before the "head on a platter" talk begins. As much as I'm enjoying the Sox poor play as a Cubs fan, I don't see how you can totally fault Kenny. Early on they suffered from injuries to key players and poor play from other key players. The bullpen failed and the starting pitching was only good half the time. It's virtually the same team that won it all with a few minor subtractions.
Head on a platter??
The Cubs (or Sox, for that matter) would have a new Manager/GM every year with this mentality. One season away from 90 wins and two away from a World Series, I think I give Kenny a little more time to turn things around-he's earned it.
Yeah, Kenny's probably still safe for another couple years. And a lot of the issues since 2005 have been out of his control. Last year it was the starting pitching, and this year it's been injury and relief pitching.
But after winning the World Series, he seems to be overthinking and overtinkering, and ended up outsmarting himself. Kind of like Jerry Krause after the 6 titles -- Elton Brand for Tyson Chandler? Maybe moving Aaron Rowand wasn't the best move. And maybe he should have just locked up Buehrle and Dye before the season rather than having contract talks cause a distraction.
Kenny is probably safe for now, but you have to admit, his retooling of the bullpen has blown up in his face. That's hardly out of his control. The only player left in the 'pen from 2005 is Jenks.
I'll admit, looking at the 2005 roster, that bullpen isn't all that fear-inducing, but it obviously worked.
Overthinking and overtinkering are right. I like Kenny, have met him a few times. But I do blame him for the state of the team this year. I hope he takes a look in the mirror and realizes that not everything he does is the best. I know that part of that thinking came from not moving on Griffey two years ago while he took loads of crap, and getting the team its first WS in over 80 years. As a Sox fan, I want nothing more than for them to win, but I can also do nothing more than thank him and the players of 2005 for what they did for us. Give him some time.
Has anyone noticed that Iguchi has been hitting about .500 since Williams dealt him to Philly?
jose can't go to the bullpen. he literally takes an hour to warm-up.
Maybe they can install one of those warming plugs like 80's era Volvos had into Jose's arm...
It could be a combination of Kenny Williams over-thinking and other general managers unwilling to help the White Sox with another rebuilding plan, seeing how he fleeced many of them two years ago.
You can fault his results, but Williams is a gambler by nature. Everything move he makes - the ones that work and the ones that blow up spectacularly in his face - are intended with one end goal: to help the White Sox win. He's also the first person in the organization to accept responsibility when moves don't work.