kudos to the sun times for exposing this scandal. i’m not sure if the white sox, or baseball for that matter, will recover from this.

Chumps I say to those who choose not to believe, I mean the dude rides a freakin’ unicorn…from Jayson Stark’s grumblings:

• Right on Q: Another question we could have posed in that opening section was this: Can Carlos Quentin win the home run title?

Scouts we’ve polled are a little dubious of that, and with reason. So far, 19.2 percent of Quentin’s fly balls have left the park—a higher percentage than David Ortiz, Chase Utley or Manny Ramirez. But Quentin is also a guy who had a .527 career slugging percentage in the minor leagues. So even if some of those balls turn into doubles over the last four months, the White Sox would still have themselves a heck of a player.

“I’ve heard a number of guys say, ‘Man, I sure missed on that guy.’ But I don’t know why we all did,” said one front-office man. “He was an uber-prospect at one time. Then he got banged up and kind of fell by the wayside. But I’ve seen him hit good pitching and really turn some stuff around. He’s proved he can handle the ball middle in, and he can handle the ball down and away, and he can sure as hell handle the ball middle-middle. So I don’t know what stops him from being real.”

Official Press Release.

’’Kenny is very aggressive as a general manager,’’ Phillips said. ’’He knows exactly what he wants and what he has to give up to get it. I remember when I was the Mets’ general manager, and Kenny called me and said, ‘I have to have [shortstop] Jose Reyes. Tell me what you need to say yes.’ And then he’d keep calling. You have to give him credit.’‘

WHITE SOX
Cabrera, SS
Pierzynski, C
Quentin, LF
Dye, RF
Thome, DH
Konerko, 1B
Crede, 3B
Swisher, CF
Ramirez, 2B
Danks, P

TAMPA BAY
Iwamura, 2B
Crawford, LF
Upton, CF
Pena, 1B
Longoria, 3B
Navarro, C
Gomes, RF
Aybar, DH
Bartlett, SS
Jackson, P

3.5 – OC

The next highest is:
2.2 – Aybar