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Terrerobytes: Lots of Zack Greinke smoke, but ...

By Jim Margalus
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With 4½ days until the trade deadline, all significant reported White Sox rumormongering still centers on Zack Greinke. Unlike Cole Hamels, who signed an extension with the Philadelphia Phillies after a tour through the rumor mill, Greinke will be traded, and it's just a matter of Milwaukee Brewers GM Doug Melvin finding a match.

How interested are the White Sox?

Well, OK then.

Jayson Stark sees the field narrowing down to the Sox, Braves, Angels and Rangers. Jon Heyman puts the Sox behind the Rangers and Braves, since they actually have prospects (although Heyman still thinks Gavin Floyd is out, so maybe his read isn't up-to-date).

Kenny Williams' reputation precedes him in these assessments, but without sexy prospects, it seems like he's going to have to get really creative in order to really get Melvin's attention.

Either that, or maybe attention is all Williams cares to get out of this particular pursuit. The Sox can openly scout Greinke and make phone calls about the market because he fits a need, the Sox would love to have him, and it's fun to pretend ("What advantages does your pitcher have over, say, a train?"). Then when the deadline comes around, the White Sox instead acquire a pitcher who nobody figured was on the block.

That's probably an oversimplification of how the process actually works, and it's entirely possible I'm entirely wrong. I just have a hard time imagining the Sox outbidding other teams for Greinke's services without sacrificing talent that would nullify the whole point of a half-season rental.

Terrerobytes

Brett provides a lot of great pre-deadline fodder by looking over Williams' history of trades and signings. If you were to sum it all up in one word, you could call Williams' work "inefficient." The picture would look a whole lot worse if Adam Dunn and Alex Rios didn't rebound.

The secondary points are often the most interesting thing about Gonzales' mailbag, and there are a few interesting items to store for later use. -- for instance, Tyler Flowers' struggles with contact aren't for a lack of preparation, there's a reasonable chance Gordon Beckham could be traded.

One reader asked why the Sox haven't worn the black jerseys as often this year. Gonzales suggests the pitchers are making heat-related calls to wear the whites and grays, but we know that Jerry Reinsdorf 1) didn't like that the alternate jersey became the primary one, and 2) has a say in matters.

Speaking of The Chairman, he's had an interesting week in quotes. He inadvertently and indirectly made news for a deleted tweet from the White Sox's official account that seemingly emphasized his baseball interests over his basketball half, and that reminded Bulls fans that he's never paid the luxury tax despite running a very profitable franchise. He was more open about suggesting MLB needs to subtract teams instead of add, which invites further controversy.

If the White Sox are Reinsdorf's favorite child, then his interests align with mine, so, hey. But I will point you to this Baseball Think Factory thread on the contraction article. The 17th comment adds some context behind the basketball/baseball comparison, and this comment caught my eye as well:

jerry always makes money on a transaction. even if the short-term transaction looks bad there is a longer-term reinsdorf goal where the return is much, much bigger

he's in a place now where everything in chicago that has a chance of being real money is run past jerry. if he says its garbage folks scatter. he can kill a deal by mere facial expressions

and by the accounts i have heard he doesn't say something is garbage and then swoop in for himself. he just says crap is crap and lets folks do what they will.

One way or another, young pitchers try to stave off the notion that they're too young to be relied upon. Greinke!

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