Embarassed

Current reports are that the White Sox and Mark Buehrle have reached and impasse. Apparently, Buehrle has offered the Sox a hometown discount of four years at fifty-six million dollars in exchange for a no-trade clause that the Sox do not want to give him. The two sides have now moved passed the unofficial Friday deadline and it looks like Buehrle’s White Sox career is ending.

Unfortunately, the Sox are not operating in good faith with him. The fact that they will not give him a no-trade clause has obvious ramifications, namely that they are considering trading him at some point. When you consider that Buehrle is only two years away from having a no-trade clause anyway due to the five-and-ten rule, they must be considering trading him in the near future. This is appalling. He is trying to get a hometown discount because he wants to stay with the Sox, but the Sox are trying to get him to accept the low-ball contract so that they can trade him to another team. This sends a bad message to players who might consider playing for the White Sox down the road, and it is a horrible way to treat a loyal, long-time employee. If they wanted to trade him, they should have been upfront with him rather than trying to trick him into a deal below market value. Frankly, their actions are disgusting, and they deserve to be called out for them.

Buehrle Situation Update

Who knows what is going on with Mark Buehrle? Buehrle and his agent have denied the extension reports with his agent saying "there are no ongoing discussions." Buehrle said, "It's all rumors to me." Meanwhile, Joe Cowley is reporting that sources tell him that a deal will have to be met by Friday, "which Williams is believed to be calling the final hour." I guess we will just have to wait and see.

In the interim, we only have to wait until tonight to see if the Sox can complete their first sweep of the season. They have already taken three from the Devil Rays, and tonight's game features a stellar pitching match-up between Javier Vazquez and the Devil Rays' ace, Scott Kazmir, who is Buehlre-esque. It should be a good one.

More Fun Buehrle News

From Mark Gonzalez:

The White Sox have dispatched assistant general manager Rick Hahn to St. Petersburg. It's safe to say he's not going to work on his tan, especially with Mark Buehrle's agent, Jeff Berry, here. Hahn is general manager Kenny Williams' right-hand financial man and works on every major league contract for the Sox.

From Phil Rogers:

The rumors of a Jose Contreras-to-the-Mets trade are picking up steam, and it's no wonder why. Contreras would join Orlando Hernandez to give New York's other team the same combination of Cuban royalty that played a huge role in the White Sox's 2005 World Series.

Buehrle Update

WSCR is reporting that the Sox have extended Buehrle at fifty million dollars over four years. There is still no official word, but if true, this would be a steal at a bargain basement price.

Grey Skies Are Going To Clear Up

From the Boston Globe:

The [Red] Sox have no interest in parting with prospects such as outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury and pitcher Clay Buchholz, the types of prospects White Sox GM Kenny Williams almost certainly would seek in return.

From the Sun-Times:

The Sun-Times has learned that a change of heart in both the Buehrle and White Sox camps during the last 48 hours has led to talks about the sides somehow getting together and agreeing on a contract extension by the end of the week.

That sentiment also was expressed by one Sox player, who said the ''climate'' was right for Buehrle to sign an extension in the next few weeks.

From the same article:

The Mets have been rumored to be hot on the trail of landing Sox right-hander Jose Contreras for the last week. Right-hander Javier Vazquez also might be a possibility, with the Mets showing interest in him going back to last season.

''It's just the checking-in stage right now,'' Minaya told the Daily News.

This is exactly what I have been calling for. The Sox need to keep Buehrle. He is arguably the best White Sox pitcher since Billy Pierce. If they think they are out of the race, they should move Contreras or Vazquez instead.

By the way, Kenny recently said that the Sox needed a fifteen game winning streak to get back in the race. They have two down and thirteen to go. After scoring ten runs on twenty-four hits in two ball games with six scoreless innings of relief, anything seems possible.

Role Reversal

What was up with the White Sox tonight? John Danks struggeld against the Devil Rays, but he bullpen and offense excelled. The bullpen logged four scoreless innings while the offense managed to score five runs. Andy Gonzalez became the first White Sox's player to have four hits in a game all season. I can honestly say that I did not see that coming. What a strange way to end the losing streak!

Do It, Kenny! Do it!

From the Newark Star-Ledger:

According to an official with one of the teams involved, the Mets also have asked the White Sox about former Yankees right-hander Jose Contreras, who is signed through 2009. The official, who asked not to be identified because the deals he was talking about are not done, said the Mets would be more likely to give up top minor-league talent for Contreras than they would for Buehrle.

As I said in my previous post, guys with more years on their contracts have more trade value than half a year rentals. If Kenny can trade Contreras to the Mets for Lastings Milledge or a similar prospect, he can give the Contreras's money to Buehrle. This organization has to get over its fear of giving long term contracts to pitchers. Mark Buehrle is more similar to Tom Glavine than Alex Fernandez, and he is only 28 years old. He is hardly and injury risk.

Does the Fun Ever Start?

Ain't we lucky we've got 'em, Good Times...at least for the Cubs. The Sox were swept this weekend by the north siders. Shocking! This team is an utter embarassment and some people need to reevaluate how they do things, starting with Kenny Williams.

Williams was in the news this weekend because a trade of Mark Buehrle is likely immenent. Jon Garland is still unsigned after 2008, but Javier Vazquez and Jose Contreras were each given long term extensions over the last two year. I guess Williams does not mind giving long term contracts to his guys. It is just Ron Schueler's acquisitions, the two good pitchers, that he will not re-sign. Perhaps somebody else should be resigning instead.

By the way, kudos to the Cubs! I hate their fans, but they do have a good team. I love their nice mixture of power hitters like Lee and Ramirez with speedy players like Pagan and Theriot. They even have some proven arms in their bullpen. In other words, they are everything that the White Sox are not right now. Bring back Larry Himes!

A Bad Team

Let's face it. This is just a bad team. They cannot seem to get things straightened out and with good reason. The bullpen is terrible, and Jose Contreras has been his typically inconsistent self. When you couple that with offensive injuries and a rookie fifth starter, you have a garbage team that would do well to stay ahead of Kansas City.

The biggest goat, however, is general manager Kenny Williams. Fresh off getting lucky with Matt Thornton, he decided that he could cobble a bullpen together with bad pitchers with good arms. Predictably, it blew up in his face. To make matters worse, he resigned his oldest and losingest pitchers in Contreras and Javier Vazquez while he stands to lose Mark Buehrle at the end of this season and Jon Garland at the end of next. Coming into this season, three youngest, most successful pitchers in the Sox rotation were Buehrle, Garland, and Freddy Garcia. Williams traded Garcia before the season.

If Williams is going to rectify things, he needs to find a way to clear out enough payroll to resign Buehrle and Garland. Neither pitcher if heavily reliant on velocity so they should be effective for several more years. A good place to start would be to forget about resigning Jermaine Dye and Tadahito Iguchi at the end of the season. Of course, some additional cash will need to be freed up. This could be accomplished by trading Vazquez. He has pitched well so far this year, and he should have some good trade value because of his contract extension. However, it is doubtful that he will continue his early season success since he has been inconsistent throughout his career. The Sox should trade him while his value is high.

Sox Draft Poreda

With the Sox playing poorly, we turn our attention to the future. With the twenty-fifth pick in the 2007 MLB amateur player draft, the White Sox selected...LHP Aaron Poreda from the University of San Francisco. Poreda did not focus on baseball until his freshmen year at San Francisco, but he excelled once he did. According to various internet scouting reports, Poreda throws 95-96, but he needs some secondary pitches.

This is an interesting pick for the Sox. In the past few years, the Sox have favored mature players with lower upsides, such as Kyle McCulloch last year. However, Poreda is more of a longer term, higher upside type pick. What makes this interesting is that Kenny Williams revamped the White Sox player development and scouting departments this past off-season, and Peroda marks a potential change in organizational philosophy. Perhaps he will be the first of many power arms in a future White Sox rotation.

Owens Called Up?

Jerry Owens was pulled in the seventh inning of his AAA game tonight. He could be coming up to replace Erstad who apparantely had ligament damage in his ankle. It remains to be seen how long Erstad will be out, but Owens would certainly add some much needed speed to the lineup.