As the 500 or so kids gawked in amazement at the two major leaguers distributing hot dogs and snacks Wednesday morning at U.S. Cellular Field, Kenny Williams must’ve been sitting in his office hoping that somehow he’d be the one getting all the goodies. Nary a day had gone by after Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome declared his intentions to play for a Major League Baseball club when he learned his money wasn’t any good.

Now, despite bidding more for Kosuke Fukudome than other any team in the running, the Japanese free agent outfielder chose the four-year deal of the cross-town rival Cubs.

According to a source with the Sox, they were told by Fukudome’s agent, Joe Urbon, that despite the higher bid by the Sox, the reasoning behind the decision was that Fukudome wanted to be an organization’s first Japanese player, as well as his desire to play his natural position of right field.

What gives? Not too long ago, the White Sox had been a frugal team. Their $75 million budget in 2005 was enough for a World Series run, but when they raised the stakes, pushing the $100 million mark the following two seasons, you’d figured they contend. Well 2007 came and went and the Sox struggled to finish second-to-last above the Royals, while the division crown was tossed back and forth among the other three teams.

Sure enough, the writing was on the wall, and Williams promised he wouldn’t let this offseason turn into sand between his hands as he tries to improve his team; it’s sad to say White Sox faithful, but that taste we all have in our mouths after watching the flurries of signings and trades in the wake of the winter meetings is a bit dry and grainy.

For starters, its no secret Williams wanted to add a big fish for the White Sox outfield in 2008 and at one point or another, these names were tossed around as potential candidates: Torii Hunter, Andruw Jones, Aaron Rowand, Kosuke Fukudome, among others.

To wit:

* Torii Hunter, Williams’ #1 target this offseason, signed a whopping 5-year, $90 million deal with the Angels. A team with which he had just been doing business.

* Jones signed a whopping 2-year, $36 million deal with the Dodgers (I doubt, however, that Williams seriously pursued Jones).

* Despite throwing plenty signals Williams’ way to let him know he wanted to return to the South Side, Aaron Rowand, (aka “The Legend” as he’s known in the ChiSox blogosphere) signed a whopping 5-year, $60 million deal with the Giants.

* And of course, Fuku signed a (wait for it…) whopping 4-year, $48 million deal with the cross-town rival Cubs.

The common thread that sews these deals together is money. But what’s interesting is that after being outbid by the Angels in the Hunter deal, Williams was underbid by the Cubbies. And yet, once Fuku was out of reach, Rowand had had enough waiting and signed with the Giants for far more money he would’ve gotten from the Sox (sure, some will say the Giants overpaid, but hey, lets stay in context).

So what gives? For one, I have to say that Williams knack for refusing to include an extra fourth or fifth year in his deals finally exposed him to the ugly nature of the market, something he won’t be able to fight any more. It’s obviously a little too late now, but that may not necessarily a bad thing.

Bugs and Cranks puts it nicely:

The thing is, the Sox could field a pretty decent lineup today with their current roster. Here is just one possibility.

Owens-CF
O.Cabrera-SS
Thome-DH
Konerko-1B
Fields-LF
Dye-RF
Pierzynski-C
Crede-3B
Uribe/Richar-2B

I’m counting four guys (Thome, Konerko, Fields and Dye) who are a virtual lock to hit 30 or more homers with a fifth (Crede) that hit 30 in 2006.

[...]

If Crede is dealt, which is highly probable, I’d just as soon take my chances with a three-way spring training battle between Carlos Quentin, Brian Anderson and Ryan Sweeney for the final outfield spot. I think there’s a good chance one of them will have a breakout season next year.

Exactly! Lets keep things in context, the kids can play!

…it really doesn’t help, though.</pessimism>

Hector Lavoe, the great Puerto Rican salsa crooner once sang “your love is like yesterday’s news,” (Tu amor es como un periódico de ayer) and in this day and age, yesterday’s news (actually, this past monday’s news) should seem like a teenage fling to the middle-aged White Sox GM, Kenny Williams.

You see, right after trading for Orlando Cabrera, Williams was on the verge of landing Torri Hunter. The Sun-Times “broke” a story last Monday that reported:

Sources both in the Sox organization and the camp of free-agent outfielder Torii Hunter have told the Sun-Times that the two sides could be signing a contract within the week.

In other words, while it appeared Williams was playing checkers in the Garland for Cabrera deal, he was actually playing chess, staying moves ahead of the game.

Before I try to offer my opinion on the “reporter” with some dry, witty, sarcastic remark, lets remember that the reporter in question is Joe Cowley, who once famously voted Derek Jeter 6th in his MVP ballot, contributing to Morneau getting the trophy, with Jeter not far back in the polls.

Let’s just say I will think twice next time I read something penned by Cowley.

We now know, of course, that the Angels had their finger on the dial right after hanging up the trade-talk phone with the ChiSox. And were that much quicker. And those chess moves that Williams was so erroneously praised for, might actually have him in check.

Without Hunter, Williams’ center field options in the free agent market are reduced to Andruw Jones and former South-sider Aaron Rowand – and Sox fans are torn.

Personally, I can’t ignore Jones’ horrendous season this year and I cannot possibly imagine Rowand commanding less than $75 million over 4 years. However legendary his status among Sox fans is, I doubt Rowand is really worth that much.

Let’s think about this for a minute. It’s rumored that the Angels beat out Williams by $20 mill. Which means he had offered a 4-year/$70 deal. I doubt he offered a 5th year; Williams favorite flavor in contracts is of the 3-year-kind. And now that the Sox shelled $19 mil per 4 years for Scott Linebrink, I can only assume Williams decided to spend some his CF money on relief pitching.

In reality Williams has a few more options. There’s always Kosuke Fukudome, who, according to UmpBump’s very own Paul Moro, will command around $10 mill over 4 years. (Considering Hunter’s inflated price tag, Fuku’s price tag suddenly jumped to about $30mill/4years.

And then there are the prospects. For the past four years, the White Sox have had promising outfield prospects that fizzled once they made it to the majors.

Consider this: Last time the White Sox signed a Japanese player (Iguchi in ‘05), they won the World Series. Last time they failed to move their underachieving outfielders and/or upgrade via free-agency, well, this season happened.

Williams has already released World Series hero Scott Podsednik. Can I pull a Joe Cowley and say he’ll go after Fukudome instead of Jones/Rowand?

Only time can tell.

There are many times during the course of a baseball season when I question (sometimes justifiably, others irrationally) moves made by general managers.  But 99% of the time I trust that their seemingly poor actions were at least completely sincere, that they really did feel that through their work they were helping their team improve either now or in the future.

This is not one of those times.

With the roster expansion in September, the White Sox recalled two pitchers, Lance Broadway and Heath Phillips. But if this article is quoting him properly, GM Kenny Williams is stating that he doesn’t want them in Chicago. From the article:

The only reason left-hander Heath Phillips and Lance Broadway were promoted was because pitching coach Don Cooper sought protection for starting pitchers John Danks, Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland, said Williams, who added that farm director Alan Regier nominated Phillips and Broadway.

“But I had no interest in bringing up anyone,” said Williams.

This seems like a very odd time to be criticizing your entire AAA team. Back in late June, the White Sox were doing nothing to disprove their preseason computer projections (PECOTA) which predicted that this team, as it had been built going into April, would finish at 72-90. Williams stated that changes were coming:

“Something’s got to happen. I’m tired of watching this,” (Williams) said before the Cubs completed a sweep with a 3-0 win on Sunday. “Change needs to happen and change is going to happen.”

We’re now in September. The White Sox are in last place in the AL Central, three games behind the 4th place Kansas City Royals. Aside from shuffling pretty much every reliever not named Jenks back and forth between Chicago and AAA Charlotte, the only ”change” that Williams has made thus far is to acquire two A-ball pitchers - Michael Dubee, a righthanded pitcher with a 3.96 ERA in Low-A ball, and Jon Link who’s now in High-A - in exchange for starting second baseman Tadahito Iguchi and utlity man Rob Mackowiak.

But I can’t seem to find one instance of Williams even taking an ounce of the responsibility. Instead, he appears to be putting more blame on the lack of effort displayed by the players and staff down in AAA Charlotte than he is on his own inability to foresee the major problems with his big league roster.

“I’m not happy with our performance here, not happy with the performances down in Charlotte, the individual performances, nor the team performances,” Williams said Wednesday. “A lot of times in the minors people forget, they think it’s just based on how they do as individuals. Well, we look at things a little differently. We look at the team aspect as well, and I’m a little disappointed in a lot of the individual and team efforts down there.”

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The crazy weather hitting the southeast finally took its toll on me as I came down with some kind of nasty flu on Thursday. At least I can blame the 30 degree swings in temperature when I go in and out of buildings around Atlanta; what do the White Sox have as an excuse for their miserable flu-like 54-68 record, which is, by the way, good for dead last in the AL Central?

Well, Ozzie thinks they team ought to start preparing…

“They better start preparing because we hit the bottom already,” Guillen added. “It’s easy to prepare yourself when you are winning or the game means something. But you play to win, no matter what place you are.”

So I see. Now that we’re stuck in last place, a step below the Kansas City Royals, we should start playing like we care. Sure, it makes for wonderful drama, the team that’s 14 games out in the middle of August storms back in September to win it all. We’re this close, sez the GM:

”On the heels of a six-game losing streak, it’s awkward for me to answer the question in this fashion, but I believe we’re close,” Williams said Saturday when asked if the Sox could make a quick return to glory. ”Our starting rotation has been consistent, solid for the entire season, with the obvious exception of Jose [Contreras]. But I expect that to improve and get better.”

The good thing is Williams didn specify whether he meant if we were close this year or through 2010. Considering the Sox have done one thing different in 2007 (other than losing) in resigning their veteran leaders (Mark Buehrle, 4 years, Jermaine Dye, 2 years), my instinct is to take the news with a healthy dose of skeptical optimism.

As always, Williams knows how to tickle the fans’ big-name-free-agent bone, and he’s making sure everyone knows he’ll look to add in the offseason.

‘Obviously, sometimes you have to work within your capabilities and resources available to you, but our fans have been through it,” Williams said. ”It’s been a tough year. But our fans have been more than understanding. They’ve been outstanding in their support.

”With that comes a certain responsibility on our part to hold up our end of the bargain. As I’ve always said, I’ll let you know when we’re in a rebuilding mode. We still have far too many pieces that I consider championship pieces for us to go in that direction.”

Williams said with the players already moved this season, as well as tweaking a few spots here and there, at least one and possibly two free agents could be added.

”It’s pretty obvious what our intentions are,” he said. ”Since October of 2000, I made no secret about trying to be as aggressive — and in our quest to win a championship — as we possibly can be.”

So, who’s it going to be?

Dye not only would like to add a second World Series ring, but also bring a friend along for the ride.

Earlier this season, there were strong rumblings out of Texas that the Rangers had offseason plans to sign Dye and a certain wall-climbing Minnesota Twin free agent-to-be in Hunter. Dye expressed his excitement over the idea of playing next to Hunter — in any uniform — and the feeling from Hunter was said to be mutual.

Williams was in no position to show his hand Saturday, but he made it known that locking down Buehrle and Dye was the start of things to come.

Torii Hunter?!?!?! Ugh, that’s no way to appease the fanbase, especially not after landing squarely in last place. We know Williams fantasized publicly about Roger Clemens or Randy Johnson in years past, meanwhile trading Carlos Lee for a disable-list-prone Playboy Model. Not saying the Big Unit or the Rocket would be enticing now (they’re not), or that the young minor leaguers (Fields, Richar, Sweeney, et al.) haven´t played to their potential, but why not a bigger name than Hunter?

Perhaps it’s too early to speculate about 2008. Perhaps it’s not clear yet which free agents would be realistically within Williams’ radar.

<cynicism>Perhaps there’s one last push to make in impact this season. Perhaps. </cynicism>

Pulling off a trade to get Gavin Floyd and a player to be named from the Phillies in exchange for Freddy Garcia left White Sox GM Kenny Williams physically and mentally exhausted.  So exhausted, in fact, that he accidentally divulged the name of the player to be named when announcing the trade:

Williams let slip during the announcement that the other player in the deal is pitcher Gio Gonzalez — traded by the White Sox to Philadelphia a year ago in the Jim Thome deal.

“It’s 11 o’clock at night, what do you want?” Williams said.

But as exhausted as Williams was, his trading partner, Phillies GM Pat Gillick, was in even worse condition, so drained and emotionally battered that he lost command of his voice and had to be replaced at the announcing by Phillies assistant GM Mike Arbuckle.

But the Winter Meetings were the toughest on Cubs GM Jim Hendry, who was under so much stress from his efforts to sign Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, and Mark DeRosa that he suffered a mild heart attack, was rushed to the hospital to have an angeoplasty, and had to complete his four-year, $40 million dollar deal with pitcher Ted Lilly from his hospital bed.

In other news, Mets GM Omar Minaya suffered a ruptured spleen in a very physical late-night bargaining session with superagent Scott Boras, and A’s GM Billy Beane was hospitalized for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after his maniacal, week-long pursuit of free agent DH Mike Piazza.