Everywhere I go, I hear Rick Astley. And not by choice.
Over the past two weeks, I've repeatedly heard the same three songs in grocery stores, gas stations, department stores and late-night Dunkin' Donuts runs -- and it's not even the same Dunkin' Donuts.
(There are five within reasonable distance from my place, including two on the same street. I generally know the strengths and weaknesses of each franchise depending on the time of day. This is the No. 1 reason to live in the Northeast.)
As luck would have it, I collided with his blaring baritone brand of dance-pop while getting some coffee following tonight's defeat. So I figured if I can't get out of my head the rich pipes of an ostensibly white British guy whose voice doesn't match his skin, then why should I spare you the pain?
Never Gonna Give You Up: Fresh out of his meeting with Ozzie Guillen and Paul Konerko, Kenny Williams
continues to drive the sunshine bus across newspapers and into the realm of cable TV. He
appeared on ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" today to spread the word that he's not ready to put his players on the clearance racks.
I believe the Sox are done, and have resigned myself to taking pleasure in the little things, like Josh Fields' three-run homer and Nick Masset's beating my expectations
in tonight's loss, because I don't like getting depressed by baseball. Williams seems transparent himself, but the conclusion to Nate Whalen's blog entry surprised me:
Alright, so are they going to buy or sell?
That’s a hard one to gauge. If I had to place money, though, I’d say
everyone is staying just because there is too much pride in this
organization to sell.
I know there are people who want to get something for Burr and Dye
and Gooch (though I’d bet Gooch is back), but I just don’t see it
happening. I think they really believe they can come back from this
deficit.
That might be their undoing.
I think I have a pretty good grasp of Williams' use of words, and this seems like a somewhat desperate attempt to maintain leverage as the ship sinks, but Whalen's words give me a little bit of pause. I'd prefer to think I'm right.
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Cry for Help: At this point, we're even seeing a different Ozzie Guillen. A few weeks ago, Ozzie was doing his normal "I might not be around" shtick, his standard ploy to distract the media away from his players when they find themselves in a collective rut.
Now, the criticism is regularly finding its way towards the Sox, and
Tadahito Iguchi is the latest guy to be thrown under the bus. Guillen was not happy with Iguchi's two blown bunt attempts that, if successful, would've put runners on second and third with one out in the eighth inning.
If nothing else, it will be interesting to see how Guillen handles his first real season of adversity. He's already a guy who has shown plenty of sides, but true adversity -- actually, hopelessness is more accurate -- is something he's never encountered as a White Sox manager. For a guy who routinely tosses around the idea of quitting or asking to be fired, we should get a very good idea if he's the guy for the long haul. I hope he is.
(On a happier Iguchi note,
this is a nice story.)
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Together Forever: One reason I have hope for Guillen as an enabler of a youth movement is his handling of John Danks. The rookie lefty has tested Ozzie's patience, but Ozzie hasn't caved into frustration. He continues to yank Danks at the right time, offer carefully worded criticism to the press and hope for the best the next time around.
It's clear, however, that Danks needs some retooling at the minor-league level. Counting tonight's four-inning fight, Danks is averaging well under five innings over his last five starts, and has hit a wall command-wise. With
Gavin Floyd putting together three consecutive nice starts in Charlotte, this might be the right time for Williams to make the switch.
In many ways, Floyd could be just as crucial to the team's long-term future as Danks. Floyd has more service time under his belt, but considering he's been hit hard in the majors, the arbitration years shouldn't hit the Sox that hard if he survives long enough to see the day. If he can even serve as a league-average starter, it gives the Sox an option to move Javier Vazquez or Jose Contreras. Jon Garland's an option too, but I'm a Garland-backer, so I hate suggesting the idea.
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Minor league round-up:- Norfolk 10, Charlotte 2
- Vladmir Nunez gave up nine of the 10 runs. Andy Sisco pitched a scoreless inning -- if you don't count allowing three inherited runners to score by allowing a hit and walking two. Ehren Wassermann threw a perfect inning of relief, at least.
- Scott Podsednik went 1-for-3 with a double, a walk, and a run scored. He was picked off.
- Brian Anderson went 0-for-3, and is now 2-for-28 over his last eight games. He did draw a walk.
- Chattanooga 6, Birmingham 0
- Adam Russell had a mediocre start -- 5 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 K.
- Thomas Collaro and Ricardo Nanita both went 2-for-4, and amounted for two-thirds of the Barons' hits as they were shut out for the second straight night.
- California All-Stars 10, Carolina All-Stars 5
- Micah Schnurstein and Cole Armstrong both went 0-for-2.
- Aaron Cunningham rubbed it in by going 3-for-3 with a walk.
- North All-Stars 3, South All-Stars 1
- Chris Carter went 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Faustino De Los Santos pitched a scoreless inning, allowing a hit.