Who's Got the Power?

A week ago in Phil Rogers' "Power Poll" feature on ChicagoSports.com's "Hardball" blog, the 14-10, first-place White Sox ranked No. 4. The 16-9, first-place Cubs ranked No. 3.

Both teams had a rough week. The White Sox took the collar, losing the five games between polls, and falling to second place. Dr. Phil rightfully spanks the punchless Sox down to No. 11 in his poll. He also makes the incongruous comment that the White Sox have no run producers in the minors save for Josh Fields.

Dr. Phil, there's a guy on the White Sox named Carlos Quentin. White Sox GM Ken Williams acquired--the overeager might go so far as to say stole--him from the Arizona Diamondbacks for a Single-A first baseman, Chris Carter. Well Phil, on Sunday there were 11 players in the majors with an on-base + slugging percentage of better than 1.000. Astoundingly, only one of those players was in the American League.

His name? Carlos Quentin.

Quentin's the guy who made a preposterous throw from left field, on the fly, to double off a Tiger at first base early this season. He's already been hit by seven pitches this season, but he's such a bad-ass he doesn't wear any of that Barry Bonds armor to the plate. If Quentin was on the north side, fans already would be wearing some form of offensive T-shirt to "celebrate" him. So Phil, look him up; he's in the White Sox media guide, really.

Quentin is brought up not to deflect attention from the hapless White Sox offense. After all, saying this ballclub is the 11th-best in the majors is a fairly big stretch at the moment. But Rogers and his gratuitous shots at the White Sox GM are way out of line. Even in a short skinny as part of a space-filler of a power poll, Rogers can't resist letting loose on Sox brass.

The purpose of competing in the majors is to have the best major league roster you can. A terrific Single-A hitter like Chris Carter is an asset, but he's not a major-leaguer who earns you major league wins. Quentin's OPS+, is 177, essentially meaning he's hitting 77% better than the average American Leaguer. The next-best White Sox hitter is Joe Crede, whose OPS+ is 119. Quentin is by far the White Sox's best hitter through the first month, and he was essentially shoplifted out of the Diamondbacks organization. But your readers would probably rather read your fiction pieces about win-win trades with Arizona you're spinning as lopsided, so keep the cheap shots coming, Phil.

Oh, and the Cubs? They didn't have a very good week, either. They went 2-4 (and then lost Sunday night's game, which was completed after Phil posted his power poll), falling to second place. Funny, while Rogers admits the Cubs are "spinning their wheels" and have no closer, he can't see dropping the Cubs even one spot in his poll. His beloved bumblers choke away two series, one home and one away, to their two closest division rivals, but they're still the third-best team in the majors.

Another crisis averted. This is a the guy who Cubs manager Lou Piniella referred to as irreplaceable in the Tribune lineup?

--Brett Ballantini

Tower Struggles to Cover Lesser Buildings

Cell Trounces Wrigley Again in SI Fan Poll

The White Sox play in the eighth most popular ballpark in America, according to Sports Illustrated's annual fan poll, while Wrigley Field (that "sacred garden" revered by the people who own it and their army of pajama-clad followers) finished 15th. The Cell consistently stomps on Wrigley in that poll, but the Tribune always finds a way to circumvent the comparison, which would, of course, debunk the Wrigley Field myth at a moment when it is poised to earn the Tribune several hundred million dollars. The Tribune's take this year? Neither stadium finished in the top five. Hmm. Now why do you suppose the Tribune only looked at the top five instead of, like Sports Illustrated, honoring the top ten?

-- Thanks to Lone Ranger for this post.

Tribune: Wrigley Building to Remain in Chicago

Both the Tribune and its yuppie-pandering Redeye edition published this marble-mouthed sentence, reassuring us, to our great relief, that the Mars Corporation is not going to hoist the Wrigley Building onto the back of a flat-bed truck and haul it out to Mars' headquarters in Maclean, VA:

Though most of Wrigley's operations will remain in Chicago, including its executive offices and ornate white building on Michigan Avenue, the shift in Wrigley's power base, including the fact that the founding family will no longer be owners, means something, experts said.

The sentence was penned by none other than David W. Greising, by all accounts one of the nicer and more talented scribes in the Terrible Tower, who nonetheless remains most famous among White Sox fans for somehow overlooking 1.75 million of them crowded on the streets of Chicago in October, 2005. Some fair maiden needs to rescue poor David from that Tower and free his prose from the nefarious influence of the Ring of Power.

-- Patrick Sheehan

Fuzzy Math (or News That Makes Us Richer, Part 2)

Paul Sullivan was lucky enough to witness a 19-5 pasting of the Brew Crew last night. But apparently he was too distracted by the presence of Mark Cuban in the park to bother fully researching his own writing. An excerpt from his game story:

[Geovany] Soto has 20 RBIs in April, the most for a Cubs rookie since records began being kept in 1956.

Wait a just a second. "Records began being kept?" Isn't baseball the most over-recorded sport in human history?

Now, it's possible that the deep Tribune coffers and resources are vastly overestimated, but there were several options available to Sully before he opted out so lazily:

• Page through the Cubs media guide.
• Telephone his newsroom for assistance.
• Drop $29 on yearly access to www.baseball-reference.com's advanced stats and devote 10 minutes to surfing.
• Befriend one of the millions of SABRheads in the world, many of whom already are likely corresponding with Sully. Such perfectionists would likely do a whiz-bang, instantaneous run of the numbers for Sully for free, and in time for Wrigley's seventh-inning warble.
  
• Contact Stats, Inc., which not only would quickly track a straightforward record like most Cubs ribbies in April by a rookie, it'd probably tell him how many batting gloves that rookie went through during the month and the kid's favorite type of hoagie sammich.
• Or, if all else fails, don't print the stat.
  

Not to be outdone in the popular Trib category of fuzzy math, Sully's study buddy Dave Van Dyck wildly speculates about the presence of every north sider's favorite Racer X, Cuban, in the crowd:

Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks (who fired coach Avery Johnson on Wednesday), has publicly expressed interest in owning the Cubs, but it is still uncertain if he could raise the expected $700 million it would take or whether he could get approval from other MLB owners. Tribune Co. hopes to sell the team by the end of the year, and several groups have expressed interest, although Cuban is the most visible individual suitor.

This is unethical journalism to the nth degree.

DVD very fairly speculates on Cuban's ownership interest in the Cubbies. Cuban likely would bring increased interest, aggressiveness, and competitiveness to the Cubs, the team that's bordering on 100 years between World Series titles and counting. That's newsworthy. The fawning is a little unbecoming, but after untold years of faceless ownership, Cuban could be a fresh breath for the Wrigley regulars.

However, DVD, a Tribune employee and presumed stockholder, cannot resist speculating on a price tag for the ballclub, which has been a favorite pastime from the moment the Lovable Losers approached the auction block.

A modest, reasonable price tag might even be OK, for speculative purposes. For example, stating that the Cubs were expected to fetch at least the $XXX million a prior team sale earned is fair play--after all, the cost of buying into MLB's gold mines is stretching ever upward.

But to pull $700 million out of his hiney isn't speculation, it's auctioneering, and the act is absolutely out of line. We know the Tribune has been bandying about a false-bottom price of $1 billion as the likely cost of the ballclub and Wrigley Field for months now, so DVD's numbers surely don't reflect the combo price. DVD can't even employ the specious price of $500 million in his wild speculation; no, the dutiful stockholder/employee has upped the ante to $700 million, citing it in no small measure as a starting point ("the expected $700 million").

This speculation has no place on the sports page, or anywhere in the Tribune, for that matter, at least without a disclosure accompanying it, per Tribune policy. It certainly has no place being created by a fiction writer the likes of Dave Van Dyck.

--Brett Ballantini

Tribune: All the News that Makes Us Richer

On page 5 of the Tempo section in today's Tribune we find a charming feature about some people who built a one-third-size replica of Wrigley Field in Freeport, IL. But we don't know anything about those people except for one name — Denny Garkey — and the word "organizers." And the story doesn't tell us anything about the community that hosts the field. Instead of emphasizing the people who built this field or the community in which they built it, the Tribune predictably emphasizes itself. That is to say, it emphasizes its own assets, without disclosing that they are assets, and at a time, we note, when those assets are for sale.

The first paragraph, ostensibly describing the mini-field, mentions the Cubs, Wrigley Field, the "Friendly Confines," the green scoreboard, the red marquee sign, and the WGN press box. Need we remind you that Tribune owns WGN?

The second paragraph mentions a person, Dutchie Caray, whom it describes as "the widow of famed Cubs announcer Harry Caray." If the Tribune didn't constantly promote its selective memory of Harry's biography, he might be more appropriately described as the larger Chicago area actually remembers him: "famed White Sox and Cubs announcer Harry Caray."

The third paragraph mentions those anonymous "organizers" of the new field in the course of getting to another mention of Tribune-owned Wrigley Field. Did we mention it's for sale?

And then, best of all, the final paragraph is devoted to the billy goat curse, the Tribune's favorite strategy, for the last quarter century, to attract fans to a losing team. The lovable losers, cursed by a goat.

The story hardly manages to be about its topic — the miniature field — at all, and never gets around to asking the "organizers" why they built it, how they raised the money, how the community has reacted, etc.

And most importantly, the story never discloses that the Tribune owns the assets it is describing, despite ethical codes and a Tribune policy requiring such a disclosure. Why is it important to include such a disclosure in such a cute little feature story? Because as a Tribune editorial recently admitted, "The future of our parent company—conceivably, the future of our jobs—rests to some unknowable extent on the successful sale of the Cubs and Wrigley Field, and the resulting reduction of corporate debt. "

-- Patrick Sheehan

Bleepin' Lead Story

It's pretty clear how the Tribune behaves when its Cubbies are playing poorly, trumping up every meaningless accomplishment and downplaying the achievements of the crosstown rival. And last fall, we saw the latest example of how the Tribune will try to huff and puff and blow the Cubbies into the World Series.

Considering how much time and effort the Tribune has expended over the years to convince you that their Cubbies product is worth buying, it's rather funny that once the product really is good, the Tribune doesn't know how to sell it. Perhaps it's understandable; the sports desk has so little experience in the rarefied air of first place.

As the morning broke today, the Cubs were the hottest team in baseball, sitting atop the NL Central, tied for the best record in baseball at 15-6. Oh, and in a strange little development that has a lot more to do with the Cubs playing baseball since the Civil War than it does with any sort of organizational commitment to excellence, the team just won its 10,000th game, an extra-inning affair on the road vs. the defending NL champs.

What, then, are the lead stories on ChicagoSports.com? The 25-year anniversary of former manager Lee Elia's profanity-laced tirade against Cubbies fans. Count 'em, five stories celebrating one of the most pathetic and hilarious moments in Chicago sports history.

True, it is likely that the Elia tirade is the first real Cubs highlight, and most lasting, of the Tribune-owned era. And if there's one thing we know, the whozits and wassats traipsing about the Tower will never hesitate to congratulate themselves.

Even when the joke is on them.

--Brett Ballantini

Back to Baseball

The White Sox have flown out of the gate, resting comfortably in first place at 11-7, already 2.5 games in front, and 4.5 and 5 games ahead of supposed world beaters Cleveland and Detroit. This in spite of a .242 team batting average and two starters, Paul Konerko and Juan Uribe, batting well south of the Mendoza Line.

So, naturally, it's time for a White Sox mailbag that accentuates the positive, right? That's not how ChicagoSports.com is posing it:

Mark Gonzales' White Sox mailbag
The Tribune's White Sox beat writer answers reader questions throughout the season. This week, Joe Crede's durability and whether the Sox will re-sign him, the disappearance of Ozzie Ball and a struggling Paul Konerko

--Brett Ballantini

Don't Trod on the Trib

As the prior post confirms and any sports message board of note indicates, yes, apparently there's cause for debate over the racist T-shirt being sold outside and worn inside of Wrigley Field. To some, objecting to a T-shirt depicting Cubs star outfielder Kosuke Fukudome as a slant-eyed mockery out of the Mickey Rooney school of caricature is tantamount to political correctness gone wild. Perhaps it's just the yahoos who take the time to comment on message boards, but a scan of comments on the issue indicate there's a plurality of sports fans who feel that someone who objects to such blatant racism must be some kind of sensitive wuss.

And then there's Sean Deveney, the Chicago-based baseball writer for Sporting News. Sean publishes a weekly "power poll" of MLB teams, which often includes clever or insightful comments about each team in the rankings.

Having pummelled the hapless Pirates six times already in this young season, the Cubbies have surged to No. 5 in his April 21 poll. The accompanying comment is also worthy of a pummelling:

There have been complaints about racist T-shirts celebrating Kosuke Fukudome around Wrigley Field. It is demeaning, uncalled for and pretty bad, but it’s not John-Wayne-in-The-Fighting-Seabees bad.

For those of you unfamiliar with Deveney's oddly apologetic reference to a movie more than six decades old and released when the U.S. was at war with the Japanese being demeaned, John Wayne's character in the movie refers to the Japanese as "bug-eyed monkeys." So, Deveney apparently is saying, this Fukudome shirt may be pretty out of line, but y'know, it's more righteous than a shirt that would have been stitched, say, 64 years ago.

Wow, perspective. Deveney, dude, you really nailed it for all of us.

It's not a matter of course to address the national media in this space, but Deveney's flip comment isn't necessarily just foolishness running rampant. It reflects a pattern of genuflection and fear--subconscious or not--that even an established media member such as Deveney feels when he dares trod upon one of the mighty Trib's holdings.

After all, the "poll" is still running at Tribune.com: Is a shirt with "Horry Kow" on the front and Kosuke Fukudome's name on the back OK?

Yes, for some 12 hours and counting, the Tribune actually has been asking its readers whether a shirt depicting a slant-eyed Asian on the front who cannot speak intelligible English and emblazoned on the back with the name of its prized, $48 million baseball-playing employee, is "OK."

Here's a better poll, and Tribune, you're encouraged to steal it: Isn't it sad that you're asking the question?

--Brett Ballantini

If You Have to Ask, You'll Never Know

Poll, April 21, Tribune.com:

Racist T-shirt at Wrigley?
Is a shirt with "Horry Kow" on the front and Kosuke Fukudome's name on the back OK?
• Strohl: It's 'racist'
• 'Funny? Not at all'
• Who would buy one?
• Vote: Offensive?
• See the shirt

This is really a topic worthy of debate? No, it's a shameless attempt at more page views.

Seems we're one step from seeing "Horry Kow" on sale at the Trib store.

--Brett Ballantini

The Silent Ban

Apparently, though it wasn't made known to the public or reported via the "company newspaper" Tribune, the Cubbies have "banned" the offensive Kosuke Fukudome T-shirts being sold outside The Shrine. Interesting, then, that the shirt was blatantly being sold by multiple vendors outside the park, including one highly-visible seller outside of the Cubby Bear.

Today, Rahula Strohl becomes the first member of the Tribune organization to acknowledge the T-shirts. Not in the newspaper, mind you, nor in any online "news" area, but in the sports blog What's Goin' On. And sad to say, based on the vitriolic responses that made up roughly half of the comments on Strohl's criticism of the shirts, they will be on sale outside the park and worn inside all season long.

Funny that these issues never came up on the South Side, when Shingo Takatsu and Tadahito Iguchi became the first two Japanese players in Chicago.

Never underestimate a Cubs fan's right to be ignorant. Or the company newspaper's right to be negligent.

--Brett Ballantini

Horry Kow, It's Frat Boys on Parade

The Tribune has devoted a lot of space lately about the practice of throwing baseballs onto the field during a game. Ryan Theriot thought seeing a dozen or more baseballs fly back onto the field after an opponent's home run in a Cubbies rout was "awesome." Lou Piniella, who's fallen into the habit of defending just about everyone and everything Cub, doesn't see an issue with balls flying back onto the playing field during a game ("I don't think our fans are obnoxious"). Paul Sullivan suggests this is a "new tradition."

But there's a more disturbing story brewing inside and outside The Shrine: The special way some fans are welcoming their first Japanese player, Kosuke Fukudome, to Chicago.

Funny though, you won't read about "Horry Kow" Fukudome T-shirts in the Tribune. (The link connects to a Sun-Times story from April 18.)

The Tribune apparently has all the space in the world to endlessly debate the practice of tossing baseballs back onto the field after opponents hit home runs, or Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman's reaction to it (the Tribune has run at least two articles solely devoted to Brennaman's comments). Yet nothing has come up about the blatant racism in the Fukudome T-shirt and the fans who "proudly" wear it.

In the Sun-Times story, the team offered no official comment on the racism running rampant inside and outside of its ballpark. Of all the things to offer a quick and definitive comment on, the ballclub's newest and best player being insulted by ugly stereotypes and racism should be first on the list.

So...how long will the Cubs and the Tribune remain silent?

--Brett Ballantini

Head Games

Two papers, two reads on Monday's White Sox loss to the Oakland A's:

Daily Herald
A's Smith Outduels Buehrle

Chicago Tribune
Left Spinning Their Wheels

Same game. Different spins.

--The Lone Ranger

Score Bored

On page 15 in the main section of today's Tribune is a column by syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts, who complains about sports sponsorships in stadiums. Pitts focused on the New York Mets and Shea Stadium, with nary a word about Chicago.

So, what photograph do you think was used to illustrate the column?

Shea Stadium? No.
Yankee Stadium? Nope.
Shots of the new Shea Stadium? Sorry.
Artist renderings of the New Yankee Stadium? Get out of here.
The photo of the guy in the hardhat holding up the Ortiz jersey inside new Yankee Stadium? No.

The U.S. Cellular Field center-field scoreboard? Ding-ding-ding-ding, we have a winner!

Now, why do you think the Tribune wouldn't paste a pic of its own team's park, maybe a sweet shot of the newly-emblazoned Wrigley outfield doors, its sponsored bleachers, or even that yellow Chicago Board Options Exchange sign by the bullpen? Any of that would be free advertising, the Tribune's favorite kind for its Cubbies.

Guess it's the Tribune just tossing the White Sox a bone, huh?

Perhaps it's because of the budding firestorm surrounding naming rights for Wrigley Field. Or the fact that Tribune's own architecture writer, Blair Kamin, suggests that Wrigley should lose its landmark status for allowing a CBOE sticker, approximating paint, on an inner wall of the Shrine (bricks besmirched!).

Seems a whole lotta Tribune editors spent a whole lotta time growing up blaming their mistakes on unsuspecting, innocent siblings.

--The Lone Ranger & Brett Ballantini

Vast Depth of Logic

Last night on ChicagoSports.com, White Sox beat writer Mark Gonzales weighed in on what is clearly the most glaring issue tormenting Chicago's first-place team: its lack of outfield depth.

Actually, the article was a sort of bizarre, a let's just focus on the "young" outfield depth of the White Sox, piece. It's the kind of story that is meant to fill space, random or not; Gonzo could (and should) easily have called this, "Checking in with Ryan Sweeney."

Anyway, Gonzo points out that of a young outfield corps that once numbered Sweeney, Jerry Owens, Brian Anderson, and Chris Young (or, in Phil Rogers parlance, ChrisYoungChrisYoung
ChrisYoungChrisYoungChrisYoungChrisYoungChrisYoung
ChrisYoungChrisYoungChrisYoungChrisYoungChrisYoung ChrisYoungomigodChrisYoungisn'tontheSoxanymore), only Anderson is currently on the White Sox roster.

Baseball fans, sabermetricians, bus drivers, statue sculptors, and even politicians put down their newspapers, shake their tiny fists, and cry out: "So what?"

While there's nothing overt about Gonzo's piece, there's an inherent bias in this filler with a "White Sox outfield not so deep anymore" headline. Because in truth, well, yeah, the White Sox outfield is extraordinarily deep. Its cast includes:

• Jermaine Dye, entering Tuesday's action as the 10th-leading hitter in the AL
• Nick Swisher, an on-base monster, instant clubhouse leader, and fan favorite
• Carlos (don't call me Mini Canseco or Baby Bichette) Quentin, he of the home-run swing and mind-boggling arm
• Alexei Ramirez, whose across the body throw from center to second this afternoon left mouths agape
• Pablo Ozuna, like Ramirez a super utilityman with wheels
• Anderson, one-time wunderkind now squeezed for ABs after a terrific spring
• Owens, who's dropped three or four spots on the depth chart simply because everyone else is playing so well

Countless times the Tribune has taken White Sox GM Ken Williams to task over having dealt Young to Arizona for Javy Vazquez (a pitcher the Tribune's so-called baseball expert, Rogers, predicted would be the best in the AL Central this season). Yet not once, even in this early season, has the paper extended kudos to Ken for having acquired Quentin from the Diamondbacks.

Of course, Gonzo recently made mention of the trade, noting that Quentin cost the White Sox their top hitting prospect--you know, single-A first baseman Chris Carter.

Coming soon: A Trib expose on how the Quentin deal gutted the White Sox's minor-league depth at first base. The horror!

--Brett Ballantini & The Lone Ranger

Quote of the Year

It's early, but we have a contender for quote of the year, courtesy of Cubbies beat writer Paul Sullivan, penning yet another of the already-tired Dusty-Baker-returns-to-Chicago stories.

In a hard-hitting piece that compares Dusty to current Cubbies manager Lou Piniella, Sully leads his story with:

Asked the difference between managers Lou Piniella and Dusty Baker, Kerry Wood said they're actually quite similar, pointing to their main character trait."They both hate to lose," he said.

So simple, it's classic.

--Brett Ballantini

A Tale of Two Stories — Biased Stories

Two stories on the front of the Tribune's sports page today, one about a White Sox victory, one about a Cubs victory. In each, the hometown manager makes self-deprecating comments. Here's Ozzie:

"We got Detroit at the right time. Those guys are going to wake up sooner or later because they have unbelievable talent."

And here's Lou:

Before the game, Piniella said the Cubs were "fortunate" to be in a position to end the trip with a winning record "despite the problems we've had in the rotation and with our offense."

The bias shows in the way each reporter responds to those comments. Even though the Cubs have more reason to thank their lucky stars — they won by one run but had two runs gifted to them, one by an umpire and one by a Phillies error — Cubs house organ Paul Sullivan writes, "But the offense was just good enough Sunday." He writes of Jason Marquis pitching in and out of trouble and writes that "Derrek Lee saved the day with a brilliant stop to present the winning run from scoring with two outs in the ninth." When the Cubs are lucky, they're also brilliant, but when the White Sox are lucky enough to allow only five hits in two games and hit two grand slams on the same day, Dave van Dyck can only be skeptical:

"The question is whether this is real or whether it comes from playing Detroit, considering five the Sox's seven victories have come against, surprisingly, the worst team in baseball."

So, the Sox have a winning record (van Dyck neglects to mention that it's the best record in the American League) only because they beat the Tigers five times. But isn't it also true that the Tigers have the worst record in baseball only because they lost to the White Sox five times? Maybe if they played another team they would have won those games, in which case they would be 7-5, not 2-10.

It makes sense for managers to downplay their teams' accomplishments in April, to stay humble for the long haul. When Lou does it, the Tribune contradicts him. When Ozzie does it, the Tribune piles on.

-- Jeff McMahon

Dr. Phil's Issues With Honesty

You might recall late last season, when Tribune "baseball expert" Phil Rogers apparently fabricated a story about White Sox GM Ken Williams refusing the Diamondbacks' request of CF Brian Anderson in return for Javier Vazquez, instead steering Arizona toward CF Chris Young. As we know, Young has blossomed into a star for the Diamondbacks while Anderson failed as a starter and had forgettable 2006 and 2007 seasons.

What made Rogers' unsupported assertion even more curious was that he cited no sources in his story, and a day or so later Arizona's assistant GM at the time was on record claiming Young was Arizona's primary, if not only, target in the trade. The timing was also suspect: Dr. Phil's "insight" came on the heels of Young spearheading a sweep of the Cubbies in the NLDS. Of course, the Tribune staff to a man predicted the Cubbies would advance to the LCS, and it seems the only way to salve the wounds of being so wrong all the time is to concoct a story that makes the GM on the other side of town look foolish. Apparently, 70 wins for the White Sox wasn't humiliation enough.

Recently, the popular baseball site MLB Trade Rumors opted to include the Rogers link, straight-faced, in a report about Young's contract extension with Arizona. (The sentence including the link reads: "Certainly Kenny Williams wishes he'd sent Brian Anderson to Arizona for Javier Vazquez instead, but the deal has still benefited both clubs." Rogers can't even be that kind.)

There's no obvious fiction involved today, but Dr. Phil sure has it in for Williams. In the category of "beating a dead horse" comes today's item:

"Young Piece to Build Around
Diamondbacks love former Sox farmhand

Javier Vazquez has replaced Mark Buehrle as the best pitcher on the White Sox staff. But the trade for Vazquez hasn't been a good one for the Sox, who lost 24-year-old center fielder Chris Young in the deal.

The Diamondbacks don't believe there was anything fluky about Young's 32-homer, 27-stolen base rookie season. They have signed him to a five-year, $28 million contract extension that makes him one of the faces of their franchise.

[Obligatory quote from Arizona general manager Josh Byrnes about how awesome Young is.]

The Sox were willing to trade Young because they were loaded with outfield prospects at the time. He played alongside Ryan Sweeney and Jerry Owens in Double A and Brian Anderson was one rung ahead of that trio. Young had the highest ceiling of the four, but Williams thought he was expendable.

Ouch."

And, in case you weren't sure how the Tribune was leaning on this one, three photos illustrate this afterthought of a piece. One is of Young, with the caption "Chris Young, whom the Sox traded to the Diamondbacks, has blossomed as Arizona's leadoff man." The other two, of Jerry Owens, and Anderson, have a shared caption: "White Sox GM Ken Williams believed that Jerry Owens and Brian Anderson were more major-league ready than Chris Young."

What's next, a Dr. Phil item mocking former Sox GM Larry Himes for dealing Sammy Sosa for George Bell?

All this would be fair game, even coming some two full seasons after the trade was made, if the Vazquez-Young trade was some sort of what-was-he-thinking? steal. But it's not even close to that.

Heading into today's start, Vazquez has gone 27-21 in his White Sox career. He has three complete games, 431.3 IP, 415 H, 111 BB, 411 K, a 4.30 ERA, and a 1.22 WHIP. In Vazquez's first full season with the White Sox, when he admittedly stumbled start after start, his ERA was still only 0.10 worse than the AL average. Last year, Vazquez's ERA was 1.00 better than average. At 31, he's still enjoying prime years at a fair market price of $12.5 million a year--a contract Williams didn't have the good fortune of inheriting from another GM, but extended himself. Vazquez's statistical twin is Brad Radke, and among the 10 most similar pitchers to Vazquez is Richard Dotson. Short of Young blossoming into Willie Mays, White Sox fans will take it.

Young has played one full season in the majors, and his future is certainly bright. His 32 HR, 68 RBI, and 27 SB from the leadoff spot were good enough to place him fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting, but he also had some numbers that weren't exactly ideal: 43 BB and 141 K (nearly one K per game), a .295 on-base percentage, .237 average, and an OPS+ of 89 (the average NL player rates 100). His B+ Runs (-13) and BtWins (-1.2), measures of an individual's batting value compared with the rest of the league, were also below average.

It may be better to contrast Vazquez with the ace across town, the Cubbies' potassium-deprived, $18 million man, Carlos Zambrano. Z is 35-21 with 1 CG, 450 IP, 368 H, 218 BB, 405 K, a 3.60 ERA, and a 1.30 WHIP. Zambrano's most frequent comp? Ramon Martinez.

So, Zambrano has measurably more wins, a better ERA (even adjusted for being in the NL), and more mound meltdowns and locker-room brawls than Javy. Vazquez lets fewer batters reach base and strikes out more hitters than Z. You'd give Z the edge, although last year Vazquez blew him away. Is it a $5-6 million per year salary edge? Probably not. Call it a wash.

Imagine if the Cubbies traded a bright prospect--it should be too hard, they've done it countless times. In return, they received a starter who didn't miss turns and would become their best pitcher in a year or less. A Zambrano. A Vazquez. Do you figure some bumpkin baseball writer, two years down the line, would still be shedding a tiny tear over how terrible the trade was?

Look at how Rogers' piece opens: The White Sox acquired their ace, but the deal "hasn't been a good one." How is that possible? Rogers chides Williams for picking the wrong player to trade, although the Sox "were loaded with prospects at the time." Isn't this the very reason you trade a prospect, because you have a bunch? Even if you have no proven outfielders--and the White Sox did--prospects are just that, prospects. They are chips you use to acquire real major leaguers, and if too many of the prospects you trade become real major leaguers, you're in the unemployment line.

Rogers, then, could point out that Young is the first prospect Williams has dealt who is coming close to, if you want to be dramatic about a trade where your get an ace in return, "haunting" him. It's also important to keep in mind that we're talking about only one season's worth of spooking. But for Dr. Phil to do that would gut all his future criticisms of the Sox GM, ones that have come as recently as this offseason, when the White Sox "gutted their farm system" to acquire Nick Swisher. The same Nick Swisher who's now heralded for spearheading the resurgence on the South Side for the first-place White Sox.

The value of HRs and Ks and OBP and "attitude" can be debated until Phil Rogers is finally pushed out of the Tower with his golden parachute, but Swisher is a perfect representation of the player Williams needed on the 2008 White Sox (high-OBP slugger, flexible fielder, great attitude and leadership, reasonable pricetag). None of the players Williams supposedly missed on, including Aaron Rowand, Torii Hunter, and yes, Young, are. Yes, anyone could use 30 dingers out of your leadoff hitter and CF--that's why Swish is roaming out there on the South Side these days.

Dishonest, disingenuous, whoops-how'd-that-get-printed-again journalism has become the norm at the Tribune. Someone there ought to try to stem the tide. That would be Pulitzer-worthy.

--Brett Ballantini

Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com for the statistical support.

POSTSCRIPT: Vazquez started the game after this morning's post, going seven shutout innings, with five hits, nine strikeouts, and no walks in an 11-0 win over the Tigers. Thanks for the effort, Javy!

...and the Flintstones

The next phase of the bizarre Fred Mitchell/Ernie Banks tag-team rehabilitation effort on behalf of Sammy Sosa continues Thursday in the Tribune. The dueling apologists' most glaring remarks begin with this gem from Fast Freddie:

"Although Sosa is the only major-league player to hit 60 or more homers in three seasons, his use of a corked bat, his early departure from Wrigley Field during the final game of the Cubs' disappointing 2004 season and other self-centered acts caused the same fans who once cheered his every move to turn on him."

Well, yeah, all those things and the fact that Sosa's head grew to twice its size, literally and figuratively, during those 60-home run seasons.

But it's not as if Fast Freddie doesn't acknowledge Sosa's dirty dance with those Flintstones vitamins:

"There also are unsubstantiated rumors of steroid use that have chipped away at Sosa's status."

Chased by more bizarre apologizing from Mr. Cub:

"It is unfortunate that it turned out that way," Banks said. "Sammy did a lot for the city and he did a lot for the game. There was not a celebration or a big ending to his career. He's just kind of walking away quietly and nobody is recognizing him."

There's something especially sad about the true heroes of baseball sympathizing with the cheaters. What's next, Hank Aaron lobbying for the Braves to sign Barry Bonds?

Finally, Fast Freddie draws an insipid parallel between the redemption of a generally admired figure who was tragically castigated in "Red Sox Nation" for a World Series error and Sosa, a known and proven cheater:

"There is precedent for fence-mending in baseball. Bill Buckner, a figure of scorn in New England since his costly error on Mookie Wilson's roller in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, was invited back to Fenway Park for a ceremonial first pitch before Tuesday's home opener with Detroit, and Red Sox fans greeted him with a prolonged ovation."

Yep, the guy who poked out 2,715 career hits, many on one, non-Flintstones-aided leg, is a direct parallel to the fella whose lasting contribution to the game was the homer hop.

--Brett Ballantini

Take My Manager...Please

In today's edition, Fred Mitchell reports that White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen missed Joe Crede's eventual game-winning grand slam in the 7th inning because he was busy sending a message to major league baseball. Jeez, the guy gets the quick thumb from umpire Phil Cuzzi and he's off in the clubhouse, playing Sims, downloading reggaeton, and exchanging IMs with Bud Selig?

Whoops. Seems Fast Freddie was a little too quick to type the ### on this item. Let's turn to the master of the one-sentence paragraph, the Bright One's answer to Mike Downey, Rick Telander:

So where was Ozzie when Joe Crede launched a dramatic grand slam over the left-field fence in the seventh inning to give the Sox a come-from-behind 7-4 win over the visiting Minnesota Twins?

''On the computer,'' he said afterward. ''That's where I was, sending a text message to Major League Baseball.''

No, no, no.

He was just kidding.

''I was watching the game,'' he corrected. ''We have so many TVs in the clubhouse.''

(Apologies for the excessive one-sentence paragraphs. It's a Rick Telander space-eating thing, see.)

One thing's for sure: Don't joke with Fast Freddie. By the time you clarify, he's already at the postgame spread.

--Keith Makenas

Pitchers Wear Spikes, Right?

It was one thing to see Dave Van Dyck's tiny tear of joy shed in reporting the Cubbies' "fast start" (yeah, the 3-3 one) in Monday's paper. But DVD also throws in to the Kerry Wood support group, wherein all Tribune writers are required to get in line behind the most disappointing phenom in Chicago pitching history as he embarks on his quixotic quest to become, 10 years into his career, a closer.

Wood, you might recall, got off to a rough start this season, coughing up three runs in the 9th on Opening Day at The Shrine. It took a week, but we finally have the explanation for Wood's hacking fit, courtesy of DVD:

"The former starter, voted the NL Rookie of the Year a decade ago, is trying to reinvent himself after years of shoulder problems. His only failed test so far came on Opening Day, when the mound was slippery. But the three runs he allowed came in a tie game and he was spared the loss thanks to a three-run rally by his teammates."

Hey, give Dave credit for at least acknowledging Opening Day, which has otherwise has been erased from Tribune archives. Subtract points for the needless insertion of the ROY (yes Dave, we know that Kerry used to be good) and for wedging some, uh, creative writing into his journalistic output.

An output that tends to resemble, you guessed it, a coughing fit.

--Brett Ballantini

When Does a Start Start?

In today's Tribune, Dave Van Dyck attempts to manipulate time. Unsurprisingly, his sleepy editors allow it.

After Sunday's stirring win vs. Houston, the Cubbies had drawn to 3-3 on the season. Not bad, not good. Hey, that's what .500 represents, right?

Not to DVD, who was beside himself with excitement over the team's three wins in six tries:

"The manager, Lou Piniella, is starting to see his "fast start" hopes come around, with the Cubs ending their first week at home by winning two games in a row and three of the last four."

We've seen this sort of selective memory before by Tribune writers when it comes to their coverage of the Cubbies. Just yesterday, Paul Sullivan extolled team closer Kerry Wood for being two-for-two in saves, conveniently ignoring his Opening Day implosion in order to establish some sort of false "perfection" on behalf of the first-time closer.

Today, DVD is so desperate to establish that the Cubbies have had a "fast start" that he completely doctors the season's first homestand, altering it from the 3-3 mediocrity it was into some sort of 3-1 "fast start." Did the first two games of the season not count on the north side?

Perhaps this explains why the Tribune is so pleased with its Cubbies year after year, even when the losing campaigns vastly outnumber the winning ones: It simply doesn't count some of the losses.

--Brett Ballantini

Perfection by Omission

Paul Sullivan practices a common Tribune tactic in his ebullient take on the finish to his north sider's second win of the season on Sunday. Call it "perfection by omission."

Sully breathlessly reports that closer-until-broken Kerry Wood was able to "pick up his second save in two tries with a perfect ninth inning."

Now, to the letter, Sully isn't fudging here. Wood, despite a 9.00 ERA and 1.33 WHIP, has not yet blown a save in two tries.

But there's an implication in the writing that Wood's been perfect this season, that 1-2-3 9ths are just another day at the office for him, the long-time Cub, first-time closer.

Heh, not exactly. It was a mere six days earlier that Wood debuted disastrously, handing the game to the Brewers in the 9th before receiving a complete, three-run bailout from Kosuke Fukodome in the bottom of the inning.

Sullivan was at that game too, right? Let's check. Yep, here you go: "But the day was a total downer for Carlos Zambrano, who remains winless in four Opening Day starts and left in the seventh inning with forearm cramps. And for Kerry Wood, who allowed three runs in the ninth in his debut as the Cubs' closer."

After Wood's implosion, visitors to ChicagoSports.com voted by a 74% landslide that Wood be replaced by the electric Carlos Marmol as the team's closer. Comcast SportsNet's you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours Chicago Tribune Live, the talking head survey of all Chicago sports that just happens to star a panel of experts almost exclusively culled from the dank Tribune catacombs (the White Sox played on Comcast that day, but the Cubbies still managed to cut in line for coverage), was just as hysterical in its debate.

If the White Sox's Bobby Jenks had just completed his second save in two tries but badly misfired in his first outing of the year, is there any chance whatsoever that Tribune coverage merely would laud Jenks for the two-for-two and conveniently overlook the fact that he needed a barf bag to escape his outing in the opener?

You know the answer to that rhetorical question. Never. Ever.

Apparently Sully feels Kerry Wood's psyche is as fragile as all his reconditioned arm pieces. And that Chicago sports fans aren't smart enough to catch the insipid bias that seeps into every Tribune sports page.

--Brett Ballantini

Today's Lesson: Sincerity

As much as there is to applaud over Rick Morrissey turning his Friday column about Steve Bartman being entitled to "sincere apologies" for all the abuse he has suffered in the past four-plus years into a detailed diatribe against the Sun-Times' little engine that could, Jay Mariotti, one thing seems awfully disingenuous about Moose's attack.

Forget the juxtaposition of mercy for Bartman/gallows for Mariotti. No, it's simply the irony of chiding the Blue Jay for mentioning Bartman in a column every two and a half weeks in a column about...Steve Bartman.

The column, of course, tugged at the heartstrings on the level of Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times, who routinely wins national column-writing awards despite offering all the poetry and insight of an old Comiskey Park brick.

However it serves you on a slow news day, eh, Rick?

--Brett Ballantini

Doc Represents

Last night, Chicago native and White Sox fan Doc Rivers brought his NBA-best Boston Celtics to the United Center. In the middle of his pregame comments he stopped and said, "aren't any of you going to ask about my White Sox? They got hosed in the opener..." going on to animatedly detail the infractions the umpiring crew committed against the Pale Hose on Monday afternoon.

The shock among the mixed group of reporters from Boston (who believe there is only one team named Sox in baseball and there's an entire, laughable "Nation" supporting it) and Chicago (the majority of whom are employed in one way or another by the owner of the other baseball team in Chicago) was palpable, as if Doc was riffing on cake baking or spider monkeys.

"What about the Cubs?" one of the bolder fans of the boys in blue PJs asked.

"The White Sox are my team," said the Chicago native said, with an almost derisive laugh.

One Cubune Watcher among the brood shouted out "right on, Doc," which seemed to inspire another set of shock waves, especially after Doc threw out a "thank you" and knuckle-bump of confirmation.

Way to represent your colors, Doc.

--Brett Ballantini

Lets Record the First Error of the Season

Even the staunchest Tribune critic would applaud the installation of a statue dedicated to all-time great Ernie Banks, if only because of the fact that the Cubbies have finally figured out that if you're going to erect monuments outside of your ballpark, they ought to be of ballplayers, not broadcasters.

However, there's one little problem with the statue. The inscription reads: Lets Play Two.

The Tribune's Mary Schmich writes about the gaffe in Wednesday's Tribune. She's a stickler for proper grammar, causing one to believe she may be another closeted White Sox fan roaming the Tower.

Schmich reports that at least half of the people she witnessed hopping out to snap photos of the new statue didn't detect anything wrong with it. Cubbies fan Brian, who wouldn't offer his last name because he didn't want to insult the team (Brian, it's a statue, man, Ernie Banks didn't forge the thing from his own bone spurs and elbow chips between games of a doubleheader), said the error was "just a nitpicky thing about English."

Cubbies fan Ken Royal was not so generous, noting the error and commenting, "that's the Cubs for you."

Maybe the next White Sox fan hired by the Tribune should be a proofreader.

--Brett Ballantini

Irony Is Not a New Tribune Department

By now, we all know that the man in control of the Tribune conglomerate is billionaire White Sox fan Sam Zell.

When hallowed Wrigley Field, long considered a minor step up from a South Side sandlot in terms of playing surface quality, needed its facelift, the Cubbies called on White Sox head groundskeeper Roger Bossard.

New "chief innovation officer" Lee Abrams, charged with dragging the Tribune into the 21st Century? White Sox fan.

What's next, the Cubbies steal away a popular White Sox broadcaster and eventually erect a statue of him outside the ballpark?

--Brett Ballantini

Picks to Click?

Throughout the 2007 season, you'll recall there was constant talk from Tribune White Sox beat writer Mark Gonzales about the White Sox keeping players through their walk years. This wasn't in order to compete and win in 2007 as much as it was that by losing free agents, the White Sox would receive those apparently coveted sandwich picks in the amateur draft.

It was sort of funny to read, because sandwich picks became Gonzo's pet project in 2007. (Don't re-sign Jermaine Dye--you'll get picks when he leaves! Trade Mark Buehrle? But what about those picks?) You'll recall that after the World Series, every White Sox notes column by Gonzo seemed to be peppered with tidbits about performance incentives, like "Jim Thome's 500th at-bat will reap him $250,000" or "with his 30th home run, Paul Konerko gets a Harley." Sandwich picks were Gonzo's incentive clauses of 2007.

Yet because the White Sox are having trouble dealing Joe Crede, one of those popular free agents in his walk year, the Tribune's angle is curiously altered. In Gonzo's recent "Joe Crede vs. Josh Fields" feature, there was no talk of, "be cool, Sox fans, if Crede plays out the year and Scott Boras sends him to the Blue Jays as an international bonus baby, no biggie...sandwich picks!"

No, according to Gonzo, if Crede plays out his contract with the White Sox, "the Sox face the prospect of receiving no compensation besides draft picks if they cannot trade Crede before he becomes a free agent in the winter." (In other words: Sandwich picks? Yawn. Boy the Sox are lame if that's all they can get.)

The Tribune: All the news that suits it.

--Brett Ballantini

Opening Day!

And everybody in the Trib Tower is drinking that delicious blue Kool-Aid.

Gulping by the gallon is Phil Rogers, baseball expert.

Dr. Phil's Cubbies season prediction? 95-67. Yes, you read that correctly. 95 wins.

The Cubbies have won 95 games or more exactly twice in the past 62 seasons.

Such optimism deserves a deeper analysis.

Phil's Pros
Adding Kosuke Fukodome and Jon Leiber.

Oh, and--careful, bizarre qualifier coming--having "played .578 ball over the last four-plus months [of 2007] without any hitter having a career year." Too bad you can't just take your favorite chunks of each season and place it on the back of your baseball card, Phil.

Phil's Cons
Little things like no "high-profile [read: dependable] No. 2 starter and established closer." Those things probably wouldn't haunt a team in a 162-game season, would they, baseball expert?

In fact, it would probably be easy to win 95 (yes, 95!) games without those two things, right? Because, after all, you know, like, no hitter had a career year in 2007. And they got the guy from Japan, and they installed the most oft-injured and disappointing young pitcher in recent baseball history as their closer.

When Underachievement Means Overachievment
Know what's funny? Even if we assume the real Cubbies showed up sometime in June after Sweet Lou finally pushed the right tantrum button--that managing technique's not gonna grow old this year, is it, Phil?--and the true Cubbies are a .578 monster, .578 projects to only 93 or 94 wins over the course of a season. So in Phil's eyes, not only do the Cubbies get a mulligan for being horrible last April and May, they'll actually be better than their overachievement in the last four months of the season. Which, you'll recall, featured a car-crash sort of pennant race wherein neither the mediocre Cubbies or barely-there Brewers wanted to win the division.

You'll also recall that Dr. Phil and the rest of the Tribune crew decided to take the team's flaccid end to the season into account, instead oddly twisting it into a slingshot that would shoot the Cubbies to a NLDS win against the superior Diamondbacks (in fact, if you smoked enough of the Tower herb, like Paul Sullivan, you predict a sweep!).

Blind Spot: The NL Central
Dr. Phil doesn't even dare denigrate the gilded Cubbies by acknowledging that one reason he feels they could improve, or at least should win the division, is that teams in the NL Central would have trouble competing in the Pacific Coast League. That's a legitimate, simple statement that would largely shut up the critics who might be tempted to, y'know, poke holes in Dr. Phil's "analysis."

But no, as far as we can tell the good doc feels the NL Central is pretty dadgum good. Why else would he predict that five of the six NL Central teams would improve in 2008? And no, not just an improvement of one or two games, but the best turnaround of any division in major league baseball. According to Dr. Phil's breathless caffeination, the six teams of the NL Central--acknowledged even by grandmothers and house pets entirely indifferent to baseball as the worst division in baseball--will finish 488-484 this year!

Yep, this offseason the Cubs treaded water, the Brewers did about the same, the Reds added Dusty and a closer, Houston can't pitch, Pittsburgh is Pittsburgh, and St. Louis lost more major-league talent than anyone this season (at least in Phil's eyes). But somehow, some way, the division will get better by a whopping 29 games.

Phil Rogers: A Real Baseball Writer?
A real baseball writer wouldn't say the Cubbies would win 95 games and the division just because the company memo demanded it.

A real baseball writer would point out that Ryan Theriot had a "career" year, Jacque Jones most definitely hit better than anticipated, and Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee, and Aramis Ramirez may not have had "career" years, but performed about how you'd expect.

A real baseball writer would point out how preposterous it is that one of the Cubbies' best power men (Soriano) batted leadoff last year because, well, he wanted to. Or that this year's leadoff hitter, Theriot, had an on-base percentage of .326 last year.

A real baseball writer would point out that the team's splashy free-agent acquisition, Fukodome, essentially replaces a guy they already had in Matt Murton, whose .281/.352/.438 numbers in 2007 will be grounds for a Trib-sponsored Fukodome Rookie of the Year campaign if the Japanese import manages to match them. (Of course, that doesn't factor in the overseas ad dollars that will work their way onto the hallowed brick walls of The Shrine, but those numbers don't show up on a baseball card.)

A real baseball writer would acknowledge the team's lack of confidence in five-tool prospect Felix Pie could derail the career of the most promising player to come from their system in years.

And Wait a Minute...What About the Pitching?
While the offense (apparently) didn't have any "career" years or overachievers, the Cubbies' pitching staff did, which is something Dr. Phil conveniently ignores.

The team had a 4.04 ERA, second in the NL.

Ted Lillly went 15-8, 3.83, and pitched 207 innings with career bests in wins, Ks, and IP; for his career he averages 12-10, 4.46.

Rich Hill went into 2007 with career numbers of 6-9, 123 IP, and a 5.12 ERA; in 2007 he was 11-8, 3.92 ERA, 195 IP.

Sean Marshall entered 2007 at 6-9 with a 5.59 ERA and had a 7-8 season in 2007, with a 3.92 ERA.

Ryan Dempster managed 28 saves with a 4.73 ERA in 2007, which may have alarmed the bleacher bums, but Dempster's career ERA is actually 4.82. And his ballyhooed return--a retreat, really--to the rotation ignores the fact that as a starter, Dempster has a 5.01 career ERA.

Bob Howry posted a 3.32 ERA in 2007, better than his career 3.49.

Michael Wuertz has a 3.48 ERA in 2007, better than his career 3.59.

Lieber, the (consolation) prize pitching addition of the offseason, is 38, hasn't had an ERA under 4.00 in four years, has combined to go 12-17 with a 4.87 ERA in the past two seasons, and pitched well enough in spring training to...work in long relief to begin the season.

Even Carlos Marmol, the prize of the Cubbies pitching staff, is suspect. He brought a career ERA of 6.08 into 2007 and in his first relief season posted a 5-1 record with a 1.43 ERA.

2004 All Over Again
Four seasons ago, noted baseball expert Ron Santo wet himself over the idea that the Cubbies would win 100 games. Rather than joke about the notion, the Tribune took it seriously, assigning Paul Sullivan to provide a detailed analysis of just how the team would hit the century mark, month-by-month, game-by-game. Apparently it took months for the paper to see what the rest of us saw--a disintegrating club that would wheeze to a 89-73 finish--because it published several "updates" to this fictional 100-win campaign, deep into the summer.

The question is, has Ronnie been whispering sweet nothings to Tribune staffers again this spring?

--Brett Ballantini

Same Old Same Old

Did you notice that when the White Sox beat the Cubs 5-3 on Saturday, the Tribune barely covered the game? Instead, Dave van Dyck covered "a few oddities" he noticed during the game, such as Neal Cotts in a Cubs uniform. Could have sworn we saw that last year, but whatever, the Tribune has always been a little slow on the uptake. Dave seemed mostly concerned with making excuses for what remains, as April looms, the company team: "The visiting Cubs didn't bring their second, third or fourth hitters," he wrote, and suddenly we were transported back to the ballfields of our youth, which were paved with asphalt, and listening to the whiney babies who just lost saying, "Yeah, but we didn't bring our best players." You know if the Cubs had won that game the Tribune would have given them a banner headline: "Cubs Trounce Sox! And They Didn't Even Bring Their Best Players!"

Yes, it's like the ballstreets of our youth all over again, only with the Tribune cheerleading for the other team, it's like hearing it from the other team's parents rather than the kids themselves. Most unseemly.

---
From Cubune Watcher Brett Ballantini:

Reluctantly, Phil Rogers announces today that the Orioles may be looking for veteran infield help (Juan Uribe) in a Brian Roberts trade. I'm not sure how I feel either way about acquiring a guy from the substance abuse hit list, but Rogers' addendum is what caught my eye. Now, Rogers won't acknowledge that if Baltimore wants vet infield help back, the foregone conclusion of Roberts-to-Cubbies is scuttled. That would bust the company line, wherein, the Cubbies are supposed to be able to hold up any team they want to get the players needed to pathetically attempt to snap the streak before it reaches 100. No, Rogers points out that, y'know, Roberts-to-the-Sox sure SEEMS plausible, but the minor league system is so bare, there's no way a deal could be made.

Totally off the top of my head: Brian Anderson, Carlos Quentin, Brad Eldred, Jason Bourgeois, Lance Broadway, Andrew Sisco, Nick Masset, Jack Egbert, Mike McDougal, Joe Crede, Charlie Haeger...

How Did They Choose Those Letters?

Two fan letters are published on ChicagoSports.com. One, from a fan who extols the faith of Cubbies fans who have waited 100 years for a World Series win. The other, from a fan who feels he should be given the Cubbies as his birthday present.

The White Sox fans' letters? The first is from someone who's giving up being a fan because of high player salaries. The other letter is from a fan who can't believe we "gave away" Jon Garland and that Ken Williams "gave" the Angels Torii Hunter, and is published about, oh, two or three months too late.

-- Brett Ballantini

More Pholly from Phil

When Phil Rogers isn't pimping the Cleveland Indians (you love the Wahoos, Phil, we get it, and although I despise that team even I'll stand up to say that Rogers' comparison of the 2007 model to the 2003 Cubbies doesn't even begin to be fair or accurate), he's cutting hard into the White Sox.

In his 2008 preview today, Dr. Phil again criticizes White Sox fans--season ticketholders specifically--for wanting to root for a winning team vs. a rebuilding team. Aside from the fact that if White Sox fans wanted to see the Charlotte or Birmingham teams play, we'd fly there and watch them, what's with condemning a fan base for wanting to see wins?

But here's his most puzzling point:

While the pitching staff as a whole was a big problem in 2006 and the bullpen a disaster in '07, the Sox's slide may have had even more to do with the complete lack of production from three spots in the lineup: center field, left field and shortstop.

Consider the year-by-year on-base-plus-slugging rankings among AL teams at those positions:

•In center, where Aaron Rowand was replaced by a cast including Brian Anderson, Darin Erstad and Jerry Owens: sixth in 2005, 13th in '06 and 14th in '07.

•In left, where Scott Podsednik was counted on as the regular all three seasons: 14th, 12th and ninth.

•At short, where Uribe has been the regular: 10th, eighth and ninth.

While no one's gonna argue with the paltry production put forth from those three positions, do you see anything wrong with the math? Center field has been mostly a disaster since the job was handed to the surf n' turf party boy in 2006, and it's no surprise that the White Sox's OPS rankings have plummeted there. But in exhibits B and C, LF and SS, the team rankings have gone UP since 2005, which runs contrary to whatever point Dr. Phil was trying to make.

He also chooses to spotlight the 917 at-bats given to Jerry Owens, Danny Richar, Andy Gonzalez, and Alex Cintron last season. As compelling an issue as that might be, and White Sox fans may forever wonder how so many at-bats were issued to those so little deserving, the latter two are the only glaring examples, and Rogers knows it. He makes it seem as if Owens and Richar were starters out of spring training, when in truth the two only saw playing time due to injuries (Owens replacing the broken Erstad) and trades (Richar plays after the Iguchi giveaway), in the second half of a lost season.

Rogers chastises Owens for not getting his first RBI until his 99th at-bat (crazy weird, but hardly a fair or sensible criticism who got many of those at-bats during a horrid first stint for the team and who, as the speedy leadoff guy is charged with piling up SBs--32 in 93 games, project