Well this sucks.

’’I’m treated differently because I’m Ozzie,’’ Guillen said. ’’People think I don’t know about political correctness or have to watch what I say. I do understand political correctness, but I don’t get uptight about it. Too many people do. That’s why some people don’t appreciate what I’m trying to say.’‘

White Sox outfielder Carlos Quentin doesn’t want to be labeled. So while his 10 home runs lead the American League, don’t you dare call him a power hitter.

’’Those are things you guys label me with, so I don’t do that,’’ Quentin said. ’’I try to be around the ball, drive the ball, and if the ball goes over the fence, it goes over the fence. I’m not going to label myself that. Why would I want to do that? I just want to continue to get better.’‘

“It’s very disappointing. This is a tough day,” general manager Kenny Williams said Friday in San Francisco, where the White Sox opened a three-game interleague series against the Giants. “It’s not consistent with (owner) Jerry Reinsdorf, myself or what the White Sox organization stands for.”

Findings from baseball’s investigation have been turned over to federal authorities. The White Sox said the three were dismissed “for actions in Latin America that were violations of club policy and standards” but did not elaborate.

Williams said he could not comment further on what wrongdoing led to the firings. Wilder is a longtime baseball man. In 2005, he interviewed for Boston’s general manager job before Theo Epstein returned to the Red Sox.

“This is an investigation we brought to Major League Baseball as part of our reorganization in the Dominican Republic,” Williams said. “We now have a new facility, complete with state-of-the art equipment and facilities. We’re trying to achieve greater results down there. We wanted to be sure our operations were consistent with what we stand for. Obviously, they were not in this investigation and we’ve made some changes accordingly.

“As to the what and the why, I’m not at liberty to expound on that.”

Williams is eager to move forward and continue upgrading his franchise’s operations in the Dominican Republic.

“That’s the bad news. The good news is we’re well on our way to getting a top-notch facility in place down there and a structure that is hopefully going to prove to be much more efficient,” he said. “We are not going to take a step back from what we’re trying to do. Now, we feel we have the best chance of success down there.”

Wilder was well-regarded at least in the media. And with the Sox, the replacement is likely to be an internal organization man from an organization that is horrible at scouting and talent evaluation.

Just as importantly, this has to be a huge blow to the attempts to ramp up a real Latin American scouting operation.

Ugh.

**cries**

this story would be more meaningful/controversial if the sox had a boatload of great latin american prospects whereby it may seem like whatever the sox were doing created a competitive advantage

but with the farm system so dry, im not sure what the effect of this will be, from what little we know