I said last night that I'd likely end up penning a mea culpa in apology of my earlier write-up of the Griffey trade.  Well, reading it again, I still like what I wrote.  In the comments at the time (though annoyingly not in the post), I said there should be about a two week cushion at which point we could expect Griffey's routine to have more or less become clear.  To quote myself:

If any of the parties in question care about winning more than they care about anything else, Griffey will end up where he should.

What that implies, I hope, is that merely watching him play should make it obvious what he can and cannot do and that through the simple mechanism of trial and error, his proper place on the team would be found.  Having seen what happened last night on a couple critical plays in center that in the very least changed the course of the game, I have to suspect that these are the kinds of plays that everyone on the team noticed, Ozzie, Kenny, and Junior included.  In the original post, it's fairly clear that I expected that it was Junior's ego that was the largest factor in play here.  What I've seen so far puts the matter in the hands of the bosses.  Whether it's Kenny's ego or Ozzie's mad whims that are on the hook, the fact is The Kid can't play center.

On the other hand, Kenny has been criticized by certain factions of the SSS faithful for having failed to find pitching help.  With Jose Contreras done for the year, a fifth starter certainly fits the bill.  But to my knowledge, there were all of two seeming possibilities: Paul Byrd and Jarrod Washburn.  The former was nabbed by the Red Sox and was likely never a possibility to begin with.  It is extremely doubtful the Indians would be willing to help the White Sox get back to the playoffs.  Mr. Washburn pitches for the Seattle Mariners, perhaps the most dysfunctionally managed club in all of Major League Baseball.  Getting him for less than Aaron Poreda and the Additional Pieces also appears doubtful.  Considering the cost and the available "talent," it looks to me like Kenny's shrewd judgment in the trade market is paying off again.

All that's left now is to bicker about a bullpen.  From highest leverage usage to lowest:

1. Bobby Jenks
2. Octavio Dotel
3. Matt Thornton
4. Horacio Ramirez
5. Adam Russell
6. Lance Broadway

The top 3 + LOOGY looks fine to me.  It would obviously be preferable to have Scott Linebrink back, but there's 4 arms available for games where we're ahead or tied and 2 for games that we're trying to finish out with minimal damage to pitchers that matter.  The competence of each group seems certain to me.  We'll be able to rapidly add an arm since it appears that Dwayne Wise is readily disposable at this point.  The only problem is that we can't add anyone better than Scott Linebrink either internally or externally. The same is true with Contreras.  The annoying fact of baseball is dealing with the unexpected.  Shoulder soreness, ruptured achilles, or a bunch of tiny fish with sharp pointy teeth that just will not go the hell away.  But hey, who thought we'd be here in the first place?

Javier Vazquez was infuriatingly inefficient over his first three innings against the Tigers Thursday night. He needed 60 pitches to get out of the third. Thankfully, his only real mistake, beside throwing too many damn pitches, was a low and inside fastball that Miguel Cabrera parked for the Tigers first two runs.

Ozzie Guillen must have given Vazquez a talking to in between innings, because when Vazquez returned he was a strike throwing machine. He needed just 15 pitches to set down his next 4 batters, all of them on strikeouts. The success was short-lived, however, as Detroit countered with back-to-back extra-base hits, the second of which was our third triple hit to Ken Griffey Jr in just his 4th game played in the field.

By my count, that's 5 extra bases that Griffey has allowed in the field (over an average fielder), which nearly matches the total number of bases he's produced offensively; 6: 4 singles, a walk, and a HBP. In just four games, it's become painfully clear that Griffey is exactly what I expected defensively, an amazing liability any time he takes the field. How long will the Sox keep trotting him out there?

Making matters worse, Nick Swisher reached base in 3 of his 4 plate appearances, hitting two doubles, but he never came to the plate with RISP. Alexei Ramirez made sure of that. The only time Swisher came to the plate with a man on, Ramirez, who reached one batter in front of him on a error-ruled-a-hit, failed in an attempted steal of second base to end the inning.

The Sox had their chances Thursday night, but each time it seemed like Griffey or Ramirez was there to make a key out. Though in Ramirez' defense, he did lay out a rope in the 8th. When Griffey and Ramirez, who left 4 and 5 runners on base, respectively, weren't killing the Sox rallies, they found other ways to shoot themselves in the foot. Moments before Ramirez' rope in the 8th, Paul Konerko doubled down the left field line into the corner. The ball took a funny hop and scooted by Ryan Raburn. It was the type of play that should have allowed even the slowest of baserunners to score from first, but Jim Thome looked like he had MS rounding third and was thrown out by a solid 15 feet. It's hard to fault Jeff Cox for sending Thome after the bobble, but he'll have to be more conservative in the future.

Ozzie stuck with Vazquez for as long as he could, letting him throw a season high 122 pitches. But not even Nessie could bring home the Sox a victory. Ozzie didn't use him properly. You have to leave him in to be eligible for the win, not pull him with men on base. Ehren Wasserman, whom Ozzie called upon to replace Russell, immediately put the game out of reach.

The loss puts the Sox just a half game up on the Twins--as if I had to tell you scoreboard monkeys--who play the Royals this weekend while the Sox host the BoSox for a 4 game set. Let's hope it turns out better than last season's 4-day ass-whooping.

* * * * *

Scott Linebrink, who last we heard was well on his way to recovery, now "isn't close to throwing a bullpen session," which pushes his return to the team back to the end of the month at the earliest. Ugh.

Monday afternoon, I ran across this fine piece of analysis on Yahoo! Sports.

Most important, the Sox should be worrying about themselves. Where is their spark? Where is their sense of urgency? Why is it that Guillen appears to have more fire than most of his players?

We know Guillen is a passionate guy. But his players? As a group, they lack his combativeness. I'm not suggesting they don't care, but even the brawl failed to fire them up sufficiently to mount a comeback against the Royals. It only succeeded in firing up the Royals more.

I was going to make a post about it, which, no doubt, would have featured the world "clearly" prominently. But it's way more fun to post it now, after the Sox came back from a 6-1 deficit after what should have been the mid-point of the game, then overcame another 2-run deficit after 9 solid innings of relief work with a 4-run 14th inning.

* * * * *

Joey Cora made you appreciate the fine job that Ozzie does as a manager, making a number of non-moves that seemed obvious at the time. For example, he went with Bobby Jenks for only 1 inning in a tie game headed to extra innings, which lead directly to Matt Thornton being used for parts of 4 innings. Thornton was awesome, even though he gave up a 2-run HR to Placido Polanco, the last batter he faced. Thornton was replaced by Adam Russell, who does nothing but win ball games, and the rest of history.

Russell's presence on the mound kicked the offense, which had been unable to scratch across a run in the previous 5 innings, into high gear, culminating with Nick Swisher's walk-off, perhaps the signature moment of the (hopefully) still young season.

There's no such thing as a routine victory for the White Sox anymore, or at least it seems that way. For the second straight night, the Sox pulled out a victory over the Royals in a game it looked like they had no business winning.

Javier Vazquez followed up Jose Contreras poor start with a stinker of his own, allowing 11 hits and 6 runs before being pulled with 2 outs in the 6th. He allowed the first 3 batters of the night to reach base safely, and had the Sox in a 1-0 hole before he retired a batter. That hole grew to 5-0 before the Sox got their first hit in the 4th inning.

I'm not sure what's wrong with Vazquez. I assume there is something mechanically wrong (or at least that's my hope), because he's recorded a quality start in just one of his last 7 starts.

Carlos Quentin had the Sox 2nd and 3rd hits of the night with two 2-runs homers to bring put them within a run after the 6th. From there it would turn into a battle of bullpens. And even though the Sox are a man down, that's still advantage Sox.

Things really got interesting in the 8th. With the Sox still trailing by a run, Jermaine Dye at the plate, and Quentin and Orland Cabrera occupying 1st and 2nd, respectively, Cabrera stole 3rd easily. One Star Sudoku easy. Dye, perhaps distracted by Cabrera's ridiculously large jump, swung at what should have been ball one, and glared down to third base. He struck out one pitch later and again stared down Cabrera at 3rd as he walked to the dugout.

Jim Thome picked up a single through the shift to drive in OC, tie the game, and pick up JD. When OC returned to the dugout, however, he didn't receive a warm welcome from everyone. I made sure to watch as OC entered the dugout because I could already sense something brewing, but I never saw JD, who might have been up the tunnel in the clubhouse at the time. At some point during the next at-bat, Comcast's cameras caught OC yelling from one end of the dugout, and being physically restrained by Dewayne Wise and Jose Contreras. A moment later Jermaine Dye walks into screen, exchanging words and pantomiming a swing or a slide, or something, anyway.

I don't really understand what JD was complaining about. Sure, he may have been distracted by Cabrera's steal. Sure, he was in an 0-2 hole. But the tying run was only 90 feet away, and he had a chance to drive that run in without a hit. In fact, the value of a runner on 3rd base shown through immediately following the confrontation, as Ramon Ramirez balked in the eventual game-winning run with Paul Konerko (0-4, 4K) at the plate.

The Jenks-less Sox bullpen rebounded from an off-night with a stellar 3.1 innings of 2-hit baseball. Adam Russell, who has pitched in a grand total of 3 high-leverage situations this season, picked up his third victory*, while Octavio Dotel got an opportunity to pick up his first save of the year. Dotel needed just 10 pitches to strike out the side, as the Sox escaped with their 7th straight victory over Kansas City.

They're not all pretty, but they all look the same once they end up in the 'W' column.

* Russell needs to pitch more. He's an automatic victory, or the opposite of complete game by a Sox starting pitcher.

The White Sox were one out away from losing yet another well pitched game thanks to the usual script; lack of hitting with RISP and an amzingly effective reliever giving up an inopportune extra-inning homer. And I was one out away from skipping this recap. A guy can't take a 5-day break, during which the Sox run off 5 in a row, including a sweep of the Cubs, and not expect to hear shit when the first thing he writes about is another late-inning loss.

Thankfully, we don't have to suffer that fate. Alexei Ramirez made sure of that.

The Cuban Missle, Slash, Necktie (whichever you prefer) put the Sox on his back, driving in all of their runs in the first 2:40 of the game. He put the Sox up in the second with a well struck sacrifice fly to center field, but his biggest shot was obviously the 2-out 10th inning HR off Indians closer Joe Borowski. Ramirez leaned on a fastball and hit a towering flyball to left field that barely cleared the fence to knot the game at 2 and save the Sox out of what looked like certain defeat.

Dewayne Wise followed with a pinch-hit single, a first-pitch stolen base, and scored the winning run on Orlando Cabrera's single, perhaps solidifying his roster spot as the Sox are reportedly shopping Juan Uribe (for some reason).

The heroics of Ramirez, Wise and Cabrera wouldn't have been necessary if the Sox could have put something together against Cliff Lee in his 8 innings of work, or if Matt Thornton, who has been incredible this year (save two 10th inning homeruns) didn't give up a bomb to Casey Blake. But Lee got a couple of double plays and escaped the Sox greatest threat having yielded just one run.

John Danks Doesn't Know How to Win

John Danks continues to lower his ERA. He now sits at a 3rd best in the AL at 2.50, yet he has only 5 wins to show for it. His 8 innings were a season high, and 8 strikeouts matched a career high. I can't help but think a veteran would have gone 9 and have at least 10 victories by now. Maybe we can trade Danks at the deadline.

Ozzie's Pen Management

Adam Russell got his first major league win by recording the final out of the 10th. There was some teeth nashing in the gamethread about Ozzie's decision to go with Thornton over Jenks to start the 10th, and truth be told, I would have been right at the forefront of that criticism if this was last year. But Thornton is having an amazing season, and I have no problem using him in that situation. It just didn't work out like Ozzie had hoped. Calling on Russell with two runners on in extra-innings of a 1-run game, however, seemed like a crazy decision. But this time Ozzie looked like a genius as Russell struck out the lone batter he faced to give the Sox a chance at a comeback.

Gavin Floyd had one of those outings that just leaves you shaking your head. He struck out 3 of the first 4 batters he saw, and faced the minimum through 2 innings. He had a 1-hitter going through the 5th, but that lone hit was a HR, which would become something of a theme on the night.

Floyd would go on to give up just 4 hits, all of which left the yard. And they weren't the Tip Your Cap, He Hit A Good Pitch homers either. These were ugly, grooved fastballs to guys who entered the night with a combined 6 HR between them while playing half their games at Coors Field. Floyd spent the night alternating between displaying no-hit stuff and filling up the inside part of the plate with batting practice fastballs, often within the same at-bat.

Thankfully, the gopheritis didn't escape Jeff Francis either, at least not early. At one point in the game, with the Sox trailing 4-2, there had been just 7 hits between the two clubs; 6 of them were round-trippers.

But on a night when it seemed like the only hits were 4-baggers, it was a series of walks and a couple singles that provided the winning-rally. Jermaine Dye and Nick Swisher chased Francis from the game with a single and walk, respectively. Joe Crede worked a walk off Matt Herges to load the bases with nobody out, to set up Juan Uribe's 2-run single.

Uribe hadn't played a major league game in nearly a month, and the Sox were at least 0-for-their-last-7 with the bases loaded after Brian Anderson struck out in front of Uribe. So Uribe seemed about as unlikely a hero as Adam Russell, who started at short and batted second*.

With the score now tied, Orlando Cabrera grounded into a force at 3rd, and AJ Pierzysnki grounded to short with what should have been the inning-ending out. But Omar Quintanilla didn't field AJ's ground cleanly. He smothered the ball and immediately decided he was going to go to second from his knees.

Mistake. Cabrera was safe at second, and Uribe, who had advanced to third on a wild pitch, was able to score the game winning run.

Quintanilla had plenty of time to pick up the ball, get to his feet at fire to first base to get the penguin at first. I guess he didn't know who was running and panicked when he couldn't field the ball cleanly.

Uribe recieved a hero's welcome when he returned to the dugout. This is the second time this season that Uribe has received an extraordinary reaction from his teammates after a play on the bases, which is surprising because Uribe has been considered the Sox dumbest baserunner the last few seasons. Maybe that's why they're so happy. Way to go, Juan! You didn't fuck up!

The bullpen closed it out in dominant fashion (5K and 1H in 2.2IP) to give the Sox their first victory since 2004 (9th in the retrosheet era) in a game where their starter gave up 4 HR. Floyd became just the 6th pitcher in the retrosheet era (since '56) to have a start with 4+ hits allowed, all of which were HR. He was the first to get a no-decision.

* May not be accurate.

They say good hitting is contagious. Well, for the White Sox, bad hitting is a plague, an epidemic.

The Sox closed out a road trip that saw them score just 9 runs in 6 games, with Sox hitters going 4-37 with runners in scoring position.

I've been sitting up waiting for more definitive news on the state of the Sox roster, because all I know right now is that changes appear imminent. Adam Russell is gone without appearing in a game, and it looks like Alexei Ramirez is your new starting 2B. Why? I have no idea.

Juan Uribe's presence in the lineup is tough to defend, but he still seems to give the Sox a better chance to win than any of the other options at second base.

Perhaps the turkey leg that fully blocked the fat man's artery came in the third inning when Uribe found himself in an unfamiliar place, third base, with nobody out. Orlando Cabrera grounded to the rag-armed David Eckstein, who was playing what Hawk would call "half way" at short, but Uribe didn't come home. The next batter, Carlos Quentin, lifted a shallow fly ball to right field where the strong arm of Alex Rios made a running a dubious decision. Uribe held again.

Uribe's mistake was amplified by the Sox 14 inning scoring drought and Javier Vazquez' magnificent performance. Vazquez. who was throwing in the mid-90's in his last inning of work, would have finished out the 8th if not for a poor play by Pablo Ozuna. He narrowly missed becoming the third White Sox starter to grab a complete game loss while north of the border.

For his part, Ozuna had an opportunity to take Vazquez off the hook for the loss when he came to the plate in the 9th with the bases loaded and nobody out. -- I don't need to go on about Ozuna. If there's anyone who deserves to be gone (aside from Ramirez) it's Ozuna. -- With the Sox needing just a deep fly ball, and Joe Crede unavailable because of a migraine, Ozuna grounded into the game ending 1-2-3 double play.

I wish I knew the direction the Sox were thinking about taking so that I could make a preemptive post about it tonight while I have the opportunity. All I know for sure is there are no quick fixes available, and all of the conceivable solutions are hardly solutions at all.