Kenny Williams is keeping things level going forward by re-signing the entire White Sox staff through 2011. Which makes perfect sense to me, no matter how much of a bummer 2009 ended up being for the Sox. As Williams said, “at the end of the day, it’s the players that make you look smart or make you look dumb, and right now we’re all not looking too smart.”
But while Williams is unwilling to make scapegoats out of his coaches, he’s got no problem with throwing his players under the bus:
Williams wouldn’t name the alleged quitters’ names, but did say “I am certainly looking at it very hard and see who is willing to make the sacrifice to win.’'
The fact is, the failure of players to “sacrifice” is not the White Sox’ problem. The guys they have are basically performing as you’d expect them to perform. The problem is that they simply don’t have a ton of good players, and no real superstars to speak of.
Usually, the blame for a lack of good players falls on the general manager. Rather than own up to that, Williams is trying to turn the White Sox 2009 story into one in which his team, or at least part of it, quit. Maybe a diehard southsider has a different opinion, but my take of the Sox this year doesn’t bear Williams’ view out at all.
