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Josh Fields on his meeting with Kenny Williams: "We had a very good meeting. It was very blunt and straightforward. It's all you can ask for from a general manager.

"Almost more blunt than I wanted him to be. I appreciate him sitting down and letting me know where I stand."

"I thought some [of Williams' explanation] was fair, and I saw a lot of his points," Fields said. "Some of it, I would like to say I disagree, but obviously, if you have questions, you might not agree with what's going on. Like I said, he's doing what's best for the team to win.

"He respects where I'm coming from, and I respect what he had to say. He was straightforward to the point where it might have hurt a little bit. But that's how it is. That's how the game is."

Kenny Willaims on PEDs: "There are guys in previous generations who are really outspoken on it, and there's a certain hypocrisy in it," Williams told MLB.com while sitting on a golf cart near one of the White Sox practice fields at Camelback Ranch. "Let's say you are talking the '70s and the '80s, then you are talking there was a lot of amphetamines usage as a performance enhancer.

"So, if you are one of those guys -- and I've heard guys that I know did that type of thing -- criticizing the guys doing the state-of-the-art thing in the mid-'80s into the '90s and [next decade], OK, well, it's a little hypocritical.

"You know, I just don't feel like I have the right in my life to be so judgmental about others," Williams said. "Everybody that's walked the face of the Earth has their share of baggage one way or another. We all have to live with our own individual lives."

"McCarthy isn't the first injured pitcher Kenny Williams has traded who was already damaged goods at the time of the trade."

[edited for clarity]

-Keith Law (subtle guy that Keith)

"We're not into a big type of rebuilding project," Williams says, "but more of a transitional endeavor where you blend in some young players with a good veteran corps. I know we've traded away a lot of players, but we're just trying to put the best club on the field while staying flexible."

"I wake up every day feeling that there's one more move to make," Williams says. "We'll keep the lights on and see who calls.

"But, to be honest, I think it will be the quietest winter meetings I ever attended. I just think there will be very little trade action because of the economic landscape. Like it or not, teams have to tighten up. You can not give someone a dollar if you only have 50 cents."