FanHouse Greg Walker

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 the Twins and Tigers are busy throwing fastballs at each other's heads this week, the White Sox are taking advantage of it by beating up on the lowly Cleveland Indians, and adding some cushion to their division lead in the AL Central. Still, even though the Sox have won six in a row, have the best ERA in baseball, and have crushed an American League-best 113 home runs, the team still has holes.

Considering that they're relying on two young pitchers without proven track records over an entire season in Gavin Floyd and John Danks, there's some speculation that Kenny Williams could be in the market for another starting pitcher. There's also the fact that the offense is too reliant on those home runs they hit, and could use some more speed on the basepaths.

None of this bothers Ozzie Guillen though, as he's perfectly content with taking his chances with his current roster.

"You have to crawl before you start running," Guillen said Tuesday while being careful not to declare the Sox a playoff-bound team. "This ballclub [can] compete and be in the playoffs, be alive in the pennant race. And if we get to the playoffs, I don't mind taking this ballclub to the World Series."

It's not exactly a secret that baseball players, and athletes in general, are a superstitious bunch. A player can eat a bucket of fried chicken before a game and then go 3-for-4 with a home run and 4 runs driven in that night, and you know what he'll be eating the next day. That very same bucket of chicken, from the same restaurant, and he'll probably eat each piece in precisely the same order.

After all, it wasn't those hours in the film room or the batting cage that helped the player break out of his slump, it was that delicious KFC. It's ridiculous when you look at it objectively, but at the same time, it makes a lot of sense. Success in sports for an athlete is largely dependent on that athlete's mental makeup. If they're feeling down on themselves, it's going to show in their performance and vice versa. So if something as stupid and trivial as a bucket of chicken can help boost a player's confidence enough to keep playing well, then by all means, keep doing it.

So now you'll know why you're seeing Nick Swisher wearing Toby Hall's pants tonight.

Swisher was batting .201 after the Sox lost their third straight at Tampa Bay on June 1. After going 11-for-26 on the homestand, Swisher has upped his average to .228.

"I couldn't be happier,'' Swisher said. "You have to take the good times with the bad.''

Swisher also credited Toby Hall for his recent tear. He's been wearing the backup catcher's pants.

"They're coming with me to Detroit,'' Swisher said.

A lot has been made of Ozzie Guillen's latest comments/rant/maniacal diatribe in which he said changes need to be made to the White Sox, and that he fully expected Kenny Williams to make some moves. Even if they involved firing him or his hitting coach, Greg Walker. As of now, nothing has happened.

There have been no trades. Nobody has been fired (sorry, Jay), and nobody has been called up from Triple-A. In fact, the only thing that's scheduled to happen at this point is a meeting between Guillen and Williams before the White Sox take on the Royals tonight at U.S. Cellular Field.

This will be more than the typical state-of-the-team session Williams and Guillen usually conduct in Guillen's office before each homestand. At stake is whether they can come to an agreement on their hitters' capabilities, even with the Sox in first place in the American League Central.

Personally, I don't get what the big deal is about Guillen's latest comments. People say he threw Williams under the bus, but I don't think he did anything close to it. Ozzie never said he thought that Kenny did a bad job of putting his team together, all he said was that the offense just isn't working right now, and that he thinks Williams will probably do something about it. Given Williams history as White Sox general manager, that's not exactly a stretch.

A shocker of a headline, I know, but apparently it's true. A.J. Pierzynski and White Sox hitting coach Greg Walker got into it shouting match in the dugout over the weekend, prompting Pierzynski to offer this extremely heartfelt apology:

"I'll apologize or whatever, but it wasn't a big deal. It wasn't like there were punches thrown or anybody was fighting or anything like that. Like I said, it's not the first time we got into a shouting match and I'm sure it won't be the last."

If saying "I'm sorry or whatever" doesn't show he's the bigger man, I don't know what does. Apparently the tiff started when Pierzynski returned to the dugout after grounding out against Manny Delcarmen. Pierzynski, whose pre-game routinely famously includes always going the extra mile to prepare playing cards instead of working on a game plan, was surprised when Delcarmen threw him a cutter:

"He told Walker, 'I didn't know Delcarmen throws cutters,' " said [Ozzie] Guillen, who said he was sitting a few feet from where the incident happened. "The information, that's the (20th) time we face Delcarmen since I've been managing (Pierzynski is 0-for-3 lifetime vs. Delcarmen).

"If he doesn't know what he has, don't make an excuse. That's a bad excuse. You put the coach on the spot to listen to that. The way we hit, if you come up to the hitting coach and say that, you put someone's job on the edge. ...

So that's that -- Chicago is one big (slightly dysfunctional) family.

(via Can't Stop the Bleeding)

The White Sox have lost their last four games, and their normally powerful offense is puttering along with a .221 batting average. Things just aren't going well at all for the Pale Hose.

In Wednesday's Chicago Sun-Times, White Sox hitting coach Greg Walker accepted all responsibility for the team's struggles, and in Thursday's editionOzzie Guillen let Walker know he's right. It's just he's not alone.

''And my coaching staff, hell, yeah, they have to take the blame, why not?'' Guillen said. '''It's my fault.' Hell, yeah, it's your fault because I will take the blame. All coaches -- Ozzie, video guy, everyone -- we have to take the blame because the guys aren't producing.

"Maybe we do too much, maybe we're not doing enough. Now it's time to coach. Horse[crap] fighters throw in the towel and quit the fight. Good fighters get up when they get knocked down. And we're good fighters.

"We're in trouble right now, and I told my coaches, 'Now we have to coach, now we have to be friends, now we have to deal with them because they're not playing right. It's easy to coach when everyone is playing right, 13-2, winning streak of five. No, managing is when you really struggle, and then you have to feel it.

"It's the same with your kids. Your kid is doing great in school, it's like, 'Everything is fine, I love you.' When the principal wants to talk to you because your kid is getting in trouble in school, now you have to be a dad. Now you make the decision, do you punish him or do you talk to him? That's what I do. Right now, I talk to them because I know they're trying.''

The White Sox' current four-game skid coincides directly with Jim Thome's recent placement on the disabled list. A large part of the problem with the Sox offense is their reliance on the home run. Fifty of the ninety-nine runs that the White Sox have scored have come via the long ball, which is entirely too high a percentage if a team is going to win consistently. You win by the home run, you die by the home run.

And right now the White Sox are dying.


Previously at the Fanhouse:
Jim Thome Is Likely Headed To The DL
Ozzie Wants Chicagoans To Support Sammy
Ozzie Guillen Would Like To Play In Venezuela
Ozzie Guillen Says He Should Be Fired