Chicago's Inside Pitch

After the White Sox blew a 5-0 lead and lost to the first-place Detroit Tigers at the Cell Saturday night, Ozzie Guillen launched into a tirade that you sometimes hear from a manager that knows he's about to get whacked.
Ozzie is not in danger of losing his job.
Rather, he again demonstrated his passion for playing the game right, and he verbalized it like few peers in the history of the game could match.
Here is the transcript, edited for your protection. Let's call it “Football Follies.”
“Embarrassing. Very embarrassing. Not because we’re out of the pennant race. I’ve
been dealing with this for how many months, six months? Dealing with this for
the next two, three days, five day, six days, whatever I have left, I’m not

Couple of thoughts while watching the White Sox take another bite out of the Tigers' playoffs hopes Saturday night at the Cell:
*Freddy Garcia doesn't throw 95-mph fastballs anymore, but the 32-year-old veteran is once again showing he knows how to pitch.
I talked to Freddy the other day about coming back next season _ he's got a $1 million club option with $2 million more in incentives.
Garcia is anxious to return, and the contract looks like a steal for the Sox, even if Freddy makes all the undisclosed bonus money.
He can pitch, there's no doubt about it. And if he picks up where he is leaving off this season, don't be surprised if Garcia pitches higher in the rotation than No. 5.

In his second start for the White Sox, Jake Peavy has been outstanding.
The 28-year-old right-hander has thrown six shutout innings, and he's been efficient with his pitch count (77).
On his first pitch of the game, Tigers leadoff man Curtis Granderson drove the ball to right field, and it looked like a leadoff triple.
Jermaine Dye got a great break and stayed with the ball, ultimately making the catch before slamming into the fence.
For as good as Peavy has been, mound counterpart Eddie Bonine was statistically better for Detroit, at least until the sixth inning.
Bonine, 0-0 with a 5.96 ERA coming in, was pitching a no-hitter until Gordon Beckham hit a 2-run homer with two outs in the sixth.

It's never too early to start talking about trading Milton Bradley. Enter San Diego Padres GM Kevin Towers, a.k.a., "Tampering Towers," for his willingness to push the envelope when it comes to violating MLB's regulations about tampering with other teams' players. It was thanks to Towers that the Jake Peavy trade talks got so much play last fall, leading up to the winter meetings. Now, we apparently have Tampering Towers talking about possibly being interested in Milton:

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/news/story?id=4504355

As the White Sox prepared for their final home series of the season against the Detroit Tigers Friday night, starting pitcher Mark Buehrle was honored again for his July 23 perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays.
With his teammates looking on, Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and GM Kenny Williams presented Buehrle with two diamond rings, one for him and one for his father, John.
The 30-year-old lefty also received a display case with momentos from his perfect game.
“Obviously, it shows the class of the organization, the White Sox,” Buehrle said. “Jerry, going

Word comes out of San Francisco that the Cubs indeed have shut down pitcher Rich Harden for the rest of the season. My colleague Carrie Muskat of cubs.com, who is in San Francisco, blogged the news:

http://muskat.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/09/924_harden_done_for_season.ht...

Harden hasn't pitched since Sept. 16, and he says his troublesome right shoulder is healthy, even though the Cubs shut him down because of fatigue.

"It was a mutual decision," Harden said the in the cubs.com story. "I'm still healthy. I feel good, and I take that as a positive for the season."

Harden made 26 starts, which may have been more than anybody could have hoped for based on his history of shoulder woes.

Lineup
Fukudome, RF
Blanco, SS
Lee, 1B
Hoffpauir, LF
Fontenot, 2B
Baker, 3B
Hill, C

Unofficially, the White Sox have been eliminated since they tanked on a critical road trip to Boston, New York and Minnesota this weekend.
Officially, let's take a closer look.
The Sox are 73-80. If they win out (insert punchline here), they finish 82-80.
The Tigers were 81-70 heading into Tuesday night's game at Cleveland (the game was tied at 2 in the fourth inning). Let's say they lose and fall to 81-71.
Then, Detroit loses its remaining 10 games and finishes the season at 81-81.
The White Sox finish with the better record, but they still have the second-place Twins to deal with.
The Twins are 79-73, and they have four games against the Tigers next week.

MILWAUKEE _ Milton Bradley, through his agents, issued the following statement today:

"I chose Chicago as a free agent because I wanted to be part of finally bringing a championship to Cubs' fans. I expected to have a great season and I am deeply disappointed by my performance and the team's struggles. I played every game with everything I had and wanted desperately to win. My frustration and disappointment boiled over and I said and did certain things that I regret. In hindsight I wish that I handled certain things differently and I apologize for those things that did not work out for the better.

"The air has been cleared and we all want to move on and look forward to better days."

No doubt those better days will be somewhere else.

White Sox GM Kenny Williams met with the media for almost 30 minutes before Wednesday night's game vs. the Minnesota Twins.
Before “breaking down the tape” and analyzing what he said, here are some highlights of the talk:
*While he's disappointed with the 2009 season and still said the Sox are “underachievers,” KW said next year is looking bright for two reasons _ the starting rotation and the expected improvement of the defense.
*KW again refused to blame the White Sox' coaching staff for this season's ragged effort. He expects them all, including hitting coach Greg Walker, to be back next year.
*When asked about Bobby Jenks' future, KW said the closer is “still under contract.” He also said he's happy with Jenks' disappointing season.

Bobby Jenks has been the South Side's beloved closer since he came up from Class AA Birmingham midway through the 2005 season and helped the White Sox win the World Series.
After Tuesday night's loss to the Twins, Jenks spoke with reporters for possibly the final time.
The burly reliever popped his right calf muscle during batting pratice and is done for the season.
Don't be surprised if Jenks is traded during the off-season, even though the Sox don't have another closer ready to step in.
And no, Matt Thornton is not the guy, even though he throws 97 mph with ease.
Jenks has had a bad season, and his 9 home runs allowed are alarming.
His velocity has been slipping for years, and you have to wonder if the wear-and-tear has finally caught up to him.