FanHouse Don Cooper

As a whole, the baseball season in Chicago has been a disappointment. The Cubs were expected to contend for a World Series title only to be thrown off track by injuries and Milton Bradley, while on the other side of town the White Sox have failed to exceed expectations. As is usually the case when this happens to large-market teams, wholesale changes are made.

The White Sox parted ways with Jim Thome and 2005 World Series hero Jose Contreras, and it's likely other players such as Jermaine Dye, Bobby Jenks and Paul Konerko could be following them out of town this winter. Still, that doesn't mean everybody in the White Sox organization is leaving.

While his recovery from a ruptured achilles tendon last August has been miraculous, Jose Contreras's performance on the pitching mound this season has been disastrous. Contreras wasn't expected to be back until the middle of the season, if at all, but somehow he worked his way into the White Sox starting rotation out of the spring.

Since then he's done nothing but work his way out of it, going 0-4 and posting an 8.31 ERA in five starts. Contreras had a very strong outing against the Blue Jays last week which provided a glimmer of hope that maybe he was getting his control back, but a shellacking in Dallas on Saturday put any of that optimism to rest. Now the Sox are saying they're concerned about Contreras, but they're not going to take him out of the rotation just yet.

There are plenty of things that come out of the mouth of White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen that shouldn't be taken too seriously. More often than not it seems that Guillen only says things for the sake of saying them to take the heat off of his own players. He's even intimated that he might walk away from his managerial duties from time to time, but apparently he was pretty serious about it last summer.

After the Sox lost three of four to the Rays last June, Ozzie got in a bit of trouble with his general manager Kenny Williams after some comments he made. Guillen went on rant complaining about the way his team was playing and said that Williams had to either fire him, hitting coach Don Cooper, or ditch some players and fix things. Williams responded that "It's just not a good idea to throw your boss under the bus, especially when that boss has had your back as much as I have had his."

In a few hours Mark Buehrle will be taking the mound for the White Sox on Opening Day for the seventh time in his career, tying Billy Pierce for the most Opening Day starts in the franchise's history. There have been some whispers in Chicago this spring about possible health problems with Buehrle, and it seems the team has been a bit concerned about it as well.

The team had a meeting with the 30-year-old Buehrle this spring in which they asked him to make some changes to his offseason conditioning program. More specifically, they'd like him to actually have one.

Seriously, of all the ways to pull your hamstring, this has to be the most embarrassing way I've seen it done. Though it's also a supremely entertaining way of doing it, and I only wish I could find video of the incident as it was shown on television in Chicago. The White Sox broadcast replayed it over about five times, and I don't think Hawk Harrelson or Darren Jackson ever actually said a word because they were too busy laughing hysterically.

The White Sox haven't said whether or not Cooper will have to be placed on the disabled list, or which minor league instructor they'll have to call up if he is.

The postponement of Friday night's White Sox/Twins game could end up a blessing for the White Sox. It gives the team an extra day to let Mark Buehrle recover from the line drive he took off of his left arm on Thursday afternoon. As of now the team is confident that he'll be able to make his next start on Wednesday in Oakland.

''He felt better today,'' pitching coach Don Cooper said. ''[White Sox trainer Herm Schneider] worked on him Thursday and again [Friday.] We'll see how he is [today], but I think it's 70-30 he'll be OK to pitch [his next start].''

Though honestly, the way White Sox starters have been pitching, this could be bad news. In three games White Sox starters have combined for 7.1 innings of work, and have allowed 13 earned runs for a lovely ERA of 15.95.

The White Sox were also considering shifting their rotation around so that Jose Contreras could go against Johan Santana on Sunday instead of John Danks, but they eventually decided against it.

''Danks was in the bullpen [Thursday] and threw and was ready to come in,'' Cooper said. ''We don't want him to wait too long [to start], so he's lined up for Sunday.''

Sidney Ponson was scheduled to start on Sunday, but with the day off Friday, the Twins decided to move Santana up a day to face a White Sox team he's dominated in his career. Of course, who doesn't Santana dominate?

Today's game is scheduled for 3:35PM Eastern on FOX, but that's only if they decide to play the game. The cold conditions that caused yesterday's game to be called haven't gone away as it's expected to be about 34 degrees at game time, with a wind chill in the mid-20's. Since this game is a national broadcast, it's most likely they'll play the game and avoid having to reschedule yet another game later this season.


Previously at the Fanhouse:
Mark Buehrle Learns You Can't Catch With Your Elbow
Baseball Is Snowblind

Ah, Karma. That cruel mistress that always seems to bite us in the ass when we least expect it. Stole a lollipop from a pre-schooler in the 4th grade? Six years later you're hanging by your underwear in your high school lockerroom.

Of course, there's good karma too. Say you take some time out of your busy schedule to call a kid with cancer, and shave your head to show the little guy some support, you're bound for some good karma after that. Like maybe taking an errant baseball to the throat while warming up in the bullpen. Hey, wait a second. That's not cool! That's not cool at all!

White Sox minor leaguer, and former Michigan quarterback (I guess we know why it's former), Clayton Richard hit Bobby Jenks in the throat with an errant throw. Jenks, did not appreciate it. In fact he had to be restrained from going after Richard by minor league pitching coach Curt Hasler.

''When you get hit with a ball, your initial reaction is that you get [ticked] off,'' pitching coach Don Cooper said. ''[Jenks] took a couple steps toward [Richard], and Curt Hasler told him, 'Stay here for a second. Are you all right?'''

"You hit Bobby Jenks!! Make Bobby Jenks angry!! Bobby Jenks smash!!!"

Jenks calmed down quickly, and was able to keep himself from eating killing Richard.