Columnist or Windsock?

We'll just let Tribune 'baseball expert' Phil Rogers speak for himself:

June 18: Sox Make Right Call on Garcia, McCarthy

When White Sox general manager Ken Williams traded Freddy Garcia and Brandon McCarthy in deals for younger pitching, he said those trades with Philadelphia and Texas would help the Sox in 2007, as well as the future. While only John Danks is delivering immediate benefits in Chicago, he probably will be right.

May 20: Execs Mainly At Fault for Sox's Slide

I wonder what would be happening now if Williams and the front office had had more faith in some they cast aside. Williams couldn't resist making big moves... stocking up on young arms for 2007. It's almost like Williams caught Jerry Krause Disease, trying to prove it was the organization that won in 2005, not the players. Williams should have been the Executive of the Year in 2005, but he has not had the answers since then. Yes, John Danks is a nice pitcher, and we'll see about Nick Masset, who starts Sunday against the Cubs. Yes, Garcia and McCarthy are a combined 4-7. But the bottom line is, well, the bottom line, and it took only four months for the World Series champs to turn into just another team.

March 26: Oops! Maybe Sox Got It Right

It would be an understatement to say I didn't like the trade when it was made.... As Opening Day approaches, Ken Williams and Jerry Reinsdorf, the decision-makers, probably feel like a doing a little gloating.... Building another rotation such as the one that won the World Series won't be easy... but Danks looks like he'll do as much for that cause as McCarthy would have. That means anything the White Sox get from Masset and Rasner (who will open the season in Class A) is gravy. The more you look at this trade, the more you understand why Williams did it. It was an offer he couldn't refuse.

March 2: ... Arms Deals Don't Make Sox Better in '07

But the thing I'm still trying to figure out is how these moves will make the White Sox better in 2007.... In terms of the upcoming season, it will be a surprise if the White Sox gain more from the Garcia and McCarthy trades than they lose, no matter how loyally Guillen defends his bosses. (And on Feb. 14 Rogers wrote: "Out went Freddy Garcia. Out went Brandon McCarthy In came . . . well, no one who is likely to replace Garcia or McCarthy, at least not this season.")

We were almost impressed on March 26 when Rogers almost admitted he was wrong. Until May 20 when he decided, again, that he had been right, and it was Ken Williams who was wrong. But now he's back to saying Kenny was right. It shouldn't take more than a bad outing by Danks, or a pitch thrown by Garcia or McCarthy, for Rogers to switch again. Can't wait.

One thing we know: General managers don't have the leisure of changing their minds after they trade a player. They can't say, Oops! I was wrong, cancel that trade. So why should they take advice or criticism from guys who change their position on a trade whenever it's convenient? And why should anyone read these guys? Obviously, they don't know any more than anyone else who can read a box score.

If nothing else, Rogers knows how to go with the flow. We just wish he'd follow it the rest of the way down the Sanitary Canal. He makes a career out of criticizing the White Sox, often irrationally, in a newspaper owned by their competitors, and then he authors a book to profit from their World Series victory. And we have to tolerate this guy's voice in our city... why? Because, “Mediocrity is wanted. Mediocrity is solicited. Mediocrity is honored.”