Ozzie Guillen has plenty of at-bats for guys not named Jim Thome: "One thing I'm going to ask my players in my meeting is to be patient," Guillen said. "I know everyone wants to be in the lineup, especially on Opening Day. Be patient. Don't feel left out. I'm the type of guy who likes to play guys a lot, especially the bench. I've done that the past few years. They're going to get their at-bats.
Paul Konerko on distractions in the White Sox clubhouse: "As a rule of thumb, twice a month something is going to come up,'' team captain Paul Konerko said Monday, when asked about possible distractions that have come in the wake of "TwitterGate.'' "Sometimes it's back-to-back in a week, sometimes every other week, but if you're a White Sox player you just kind of prepare that it's not boring around here and things kind of pop up. That's just the way it is. There's always some controversies that pop up here that are a little different than most teams, but that's the way we roll here.''
Ozzie Guillen Does Not Like Football: "And I’m going to make it clear. It’s a bunch of (bleeps) out there watching football games like a piece of (bleep) with no pride, the way they (bleep-bleep) play, and that’s embarrassing. If you don’t have pride to play this game and you don’t care about it, get another job. Because I know I’m going to be all over the stinking place when I talk about this. I’m not in a pennant race, but at least I have some pride and at least I have something to fight for and at least I have something to show up to this ballpark and play for. And when you go out there and you turn your TV on and watch stupid (bleep) football when those (bleep-bleep) football players don’t give a (bleep) about you, that’s embarrassing. We’ve got how many games, seven games, they’ve got to put their (bleep) together. Because I don’t mind losing games. That’s part of the game. But when you lose games and you don’t even care about it, we’re going to have problems. I run this ballclub and I’m going to run this ballclub the way I want to. If they don’t want me here, I'll get another job, or get me other players. But getting your (bleep) kicked like that, then all of a sudden you’re watching football games, that’s a bunch of (bleep)."
Ozzie Guillen on Alex Rios: "What have I seen from Rios? A lot of outs. The only batting ninth guy making $5 million was me. This mother [bleeper] is making $10, $12, $14 million, he ain't going to be batting ninth [in 2010]. I'm going to make sure he earns his money. But right now I have to put him there because he's struggling. Next year, if we have Rios batting ninth we're in deep [crap] once again.''
Ozzie Guillen on moving Scott Linebrink out of the far too rigidly-defined set-up role: "I don’t know," Guillen said. "That’s like a slap in the face. That’s his role, he’s been pitching in that role since we got him. Last week, he just didn’t get it done. We have to continue to see how he throws. We have a few other guys there, I’m going to stick with him as long as I can.’’
"I talked to him in Milwaukee (last weekend), and he said he was fine," Guillen said. "He just needs to throw more strikes. Every time you come out of the bullpen, you have to throw strikes. You have to. If not, you’re going to get hit and everyone knows that.’’
Ozzie Guillen on Jim Thome's ailing heel: "Right now, pretty serious. He's day-by-day, every day he feels better. If Thome is not ready to play Friday, we have to make a decision. We're short a couple of players. I have a lot of respect for him, and I wish he could be honest and say, 'Listen, I can't help you right now or yes I can.'
"I plan to play him Friday, but I'll go by my ear. After the game, we'll talk about it. [General manager] Kenny [Williams] will have to make that decision. Listen, I don't want to put anyone on the DL when it will only be a couple of days, but I don't want him to re-injure it because we need him. But hey, we have what we have, and when he's ready to play he'll help us. Right now, I would like him to be honest with us and say he can or he can't.''
Ozzie Guillen on the White Sox CF situation: "There is not a legit center field out there that we can look for,'' Guillen said. "We're trying to put the best guy there. The one thing about it, I'm begging those guys to start playing the way we think they can play. Not because I don't have patience on how they're playing, it's because I don't have the patience to try to figure out who is going to be the guy. Right now, that's our plans and I don't have anything different. It's funny, if we win the game, we have a good center fielder. If we lose, we need a center fielder, a leadoff guy, we need a reliever. We just lost one game, and all of a sudden everyone is panicking and asking what are we going to do, what we should do.
"We're not going to win every game, but I expect a lot better things from Brian. If Brian doesn't do the job, somebody else will. Who? We got to figure out who it's going to be. I think it's about pitching and defense. We got to figure out the bullpen and get better. The guys we got here, we believe they can do it. But right now, I don't have no Plan B or C if Brian doesn't do the job. I want to see Brian's at-bats and see how that works
AJ Pierzynski on getting more rest with a real backup in Corky Miller: "[Guillen] hasn't told that to me," he said. "I'm going to try to get out there as much as I can. I feel like I'm in the best shape I've been in a long time, and I've got nothing physically wrong with me.
"Ozzie says that every year, but when it comes down to it, I'm out there. We're fortunate we have Corky and he can be productive, as he showed [Saturday with two hits]. If we're in the pennant race, I'll be out there every day."
Ozzie Guillen on the recent trade rumors: "No, we're not going (outside the organization)," Guillen said. "I don't want that to happen. I don't like that to happen. If we have to go outside the organization right now, gosh, I'm not going to say we're in trouble. But as a ballclub, we have enough guys here to resolve that problem."
Ozzie Guillen on Vazquez, pitching staff: "I have a good pitching staff. I don't have the guy who is going to step it up and fight for a Cy Young and win 20. I've got a good enough pitching staff to compete, and that's all I have."
"Javy is a consistent pitcher sometimes, and we haven't scored enough runs for him. [But] sometimes he hasn't pitched well enough. I don't have an ace here.
"What you see is what you get. The guy struck out 200 people every year, but sometimes he makes bad pitches and gets himself in trouble. When Javy attacks the strike zone and is aggressive, you're going to see a good day from him."