Just caught on ESPN.com that Peter Gammons is reporting the Chicago White Sox have traded starting pitcher Javier Vazquez to the Atlanta Braves in a 5-player deal. No official announcement has been made, but Vazquez has reportedly been told that the deal will happen. Vazquez is flying to Atlanta on Wednesday for a physical.

According to the story, Vazquez is being traded along with goatee-superstar Boone Logan to the Braves for Jo-Jo Reyes, Brett Lillibridge, and “another top prospect.” I hope that ESPN is not considering Lillibridge to be a “top prospect.” He hit .220 with 4 homeruns in AAA ball last year. Jo-Jo Reyes was 3-11 with an ERA over 5.00 last year.

Let’s hope that one or two of these guys is like a Carlos Quentin — a young player who struggles in their first few seasons, but who flips the switch once he gets to the South Side. Ken Williams hit gold last off-season with Quentin and Alexei Ramirez (not to mention John Danks and Gavin Floyd) so I’m willing to be open-minded.

Plus, what are we really losing with Javier Vazquez leaving?

He has been serviceable, and sometimes very good, starting pitcher during his major league career. But he has never quite recaptured the magic that he had when he first came up with the Montreal Expos. And while Javier Vazuez pitched decently in 2007, and very well in spurts early in 2008, his own manager questioned his readiness to pitch in big games. And, unfortunately for the Whie Sox down the stretch in 2008, Ozzie’s fears about Javier’s big game cojones were borne out with a succession of poor starts.

I don’t have time to analyze this too much now. And I don’t really know what I’d say without delving more into the minor league careers and projections of Reyes, Lillibridge, and the mystery “top prospect.”

I know this: after the end of last season, I am not all that worried about losing Javier Vazquez, as we have some good young arms like Lance Broadway and others to fill in the back of the rotation between Beuhrle-Danks-Floyd. And hopefully Jose Contreras comes back towards midseason ready to give us a boost down the stretch. And Boone Logan? I will miss his facial hair, but not the untimely late inning homeruns that he always seemed to give up.

You can count me in the corner of the staunch Ken Williams supporters. Not every deal he makes is good, but he hits more than he misses. In a sport where success is getting a hit 30% of the time, I’ll take my chances trusting in the personnel decisions of Ken Williams.

Thanks for the time on the South Side Javier Vazquez. I am not crying that you are gone, and your big-game struggles were frustrating, but I do appreciate your efforts and the many good starts that you had.

Now let’s see what Reyes, Lillibridge, and the other guy bring to the table.

Hopefully the rest of my prediction comes through, because I thought that the White Sox would lose today and then take the next three to capture the series in four games.

I was only able to escape work for an hour and got to watch innings 5-7. The key sequence in the game was when the White Sox loaded the bases against James Shields but neither Juan Uribe nor Orlando Cabrera was able to even put the ball in play against Grant Balfour. Paul Konerko hit a solo shot in the 9th to give the White Sox momentary life, but Dan Wheeler shut the door from there.

The story of today’s game was Tampa Bay rookie Evan Longoria, who went 3-3 and hit 2 HRs. I’m not sure, and I don’t have time to look it up right now, but something tells me he must have set some kind of rookie record for consecutive home runs for a player in their initial playoffs at bats. Or something like that. Perhaps Longoria got a little upset when people started to mention Alexei Ramirez as a serious contender for Rookie of the Year after his incredible grand slam for the White Sox earlier this week. Either way, Longoria was the MVP of today’s game and gave notice that at least one Tampa Bay youngster would not be undone by the pressure of the playoffs.

Of course, he was facing Javier Vazquez, and we all know how well Javier Vazquez pitches in clutch situations.

I’ll write more later. It’s time to get back to work. All in all, today’s game went about as I expected it would. The Rays beat our fourth best pitcher with their first or second best (depending on how you rate Shields-Kazmir). Nothing for the White Sox to be ashamed of today. Our ace takes the hill tomorrow, and I’m pretty confident that Mark Buehrle will come through just as he has done so many times in the past.

Obviously today’s game does nothing to diminish my confident: White Sox in four. But congratulations on your first ever playoff victory as a franchise, Tampa Bay. I will say this: if the Rays do somehow beat the White Sox in this series, I will be pulling for Tampa Bay to go all the way.

[tags]chicago white sox, tampa bay rays, mlb, mlb playoffs, baseball[/tags]

Defense in the Metro Dome is tough, that is true. The outfield is freaking huge. It’s like trying to cover a football field, on crutches. If Ozzie knows this, and he must, after all these years in the Central, why then do you put old man Griff in center? While I watched Javy “step up” like Ozzie asked him to and get shelled in the 4^th, I cringed watching Griffey dive after Kubel’s triple. Dye basically had to hop him and then go another forty feet, reaching under the plastic tarp that doubles as a wall in center for the Twinkies just to stop the inside the park. I wondered why it is that in the face of shaky pitching and a fast field you would play the slowest center fielder we have?

I obviously know the answer, Griffey’s bat. But honestly how reliable has Junior been with the wood? Not, is the answer. He’s batting .245 this year and hits .103 career against the Twins. He was consistent in the Yankees series with four hits but I don’t see that much value in him when you know that he moves like Charlie Weis sometimes in center. Not to mention that while I hate to badmouth the Kid, we know he came to the Sox just to see the playoffs before the end of his career. I don’t know how emotionally committed he is to the club. He’s all smiles and a great teammate but he certainly doesn’t have the energy he once had. He hasn’t seen the postseason since ‘97 and hasn’t had that taste in his mouth for so long that you wonder if he knows what it’s like to get up for a game like this. I love to see him on the roster, let him stay here in Chicago till he’s 40. From a baseball standpoint, though, here in September you need someone to give us a spark, like AJ said on Sunday, “‘We’re going to go in there and kick their ass.’ That’s the mind-set it takes, and if we do that and it works out, great; if not, we move on. But we have to go in there looking to play confident.”

Confidence doesn’t run deep in pitchers, infield or anyone when you know Griffey just doesn’t have a chance to get to a ball. He doesn’t have the wheels.

The other choices are not that much better – Nick Swisher and Brian Anderson but there are upsides to the two. Swish can move pretty well and certainly brings some energy to the lineup, more than Griffey. He’s not a threat at the plate batting .221 and he a different haircut every week and watching him talk to Comcast every game is sometimes painful, with his off topic antics but he puts it all out there.

Anderson is not a terrible threat at the dish either – .247 this year – but man he can move out there. He’s a guy playing for his job. He’s not sitting on an 8 million dollar deal, like Griff. He’s young and has something to prove. When better to prove it than now, by stealing a triple from a red hot Jason Kubel, proving to Javy that he could throw a mistake and somebody will back him up?

Effort no replacement for talent but you’ll take the spark from anywhere, before the bottom of the 9^th.

Hindsight is 20/20 and when Baker shreds everyone going 7 innings with the only run in the first, it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side. Javy doesn’t help you either. He blew it. Going 4 innings with 7 hits and giving the Twins an early 4 run cushion. That’s a White Sox recipe for disaster. (Can’t say I didn’t see it coming.)

When all is said and done Griff did put one in the seats for the last two runs in the 9^th. He was O-fer before that. The point is, let’s put a team on the field who can give us a little spark before the ninth, somewhere, somehow. That edge might have to come from the defense, in a huge outfield when Javy starts the game, because the Twins clearly have come to play and clearly want to see October, hopefully not more than Griff, Swish, Brian or Ozzie, though.

”What you see is what you get, Javy is going to be Javy.” That’s what Ozzie told the press on Monday in conjunction with a challenge to the struggling pitcher. According to ESPN.com and the Chicago Sun-Times, Ozzie put Javier Vazquez on the spot saying, “I just want him to be aggressive, throw the ball over the plate and knock somebody on their [butt]. That’s a big three games for us. You have to be mean. Go out there and show them we show up to play, show up to kick your guys’ [butts]. And believe me, that will take care of itself.”

Putting Javy on the spot is the least he could do. Frankly, with the way he has been playing this year, Sox fans want to put him on the bench. He’s been as inconsistent as Broadway Brett. In his last start against the Yanks, he went 3 innings and gave up 6 hits, 7 runs. A week earlier he pitched 7 shutout innings against the Tigers. Clearly, Javy still has something left in the tank it’s just a matter of getting up for a game. With Javy’s comments on Saturday, though, you wonder how much he really cares.

He told the Sun-Times, ‘You know what? It’s not going to [change a lot of opinions] because I’m really the type of guy that when I retire, I’m going to be home in Puerto Rico with my family. I’m not looking to have to change minds if people feel that way,” (I wonder how they really feel, Javy?) Vazquez said.

“I won’t be paying attention to that. If I do well or if I don’t, I’ll still go home at the end of my career and be the same person.”

What kind of attitude is that for a professional to have while his teammates are battling to get into the postseason? I’m sure he felt personally attacked, I’m sure he was frustrated with his play, I know that Sox fans and media don’t cut too many guys slack, but you’re not Donovan McNabb. No one is coming after you every day, you haven’t performed and you haven’t been booed at the Cell, that badly.

What I’m saying is this – when you’re team is battling and you have a starting position in the rotation, handle the pressure. You’ve been in the league for 11 years and played some major games, with more pressure in New York than you feel here. The last thing that your up-and-down team needs to hear you tell a reporter is “I don’t care what people think”. Talk to another vet, talk to Ozzie about it, tell your wife about it. Don’t make it a sound bite, while the fans sit here waiting for you to start off the biggest series of the year.

It may work out brilliantly. Ozzie battles fire with fire. He doesn’t like the way his pitcher talks to the media, so he calls him out, through the media. It might backfire and Javy might curl up and die in the Metrodome, or maybe he’ll put some balls over the plate and give us 7 decent innings. That’s realistically all we need. Keep the middle relievers out of the game, and put a couple souvenirs in the outfield, which is definitely possible facing Twins pitcher Scott Baker. OC has batted .444 career against Scotty, PK, Swish, Thome and AJ have all gone yard on him. He’s a tough pitcher, but it’s not unreasonable to think that if Javy gets worked up that the Sox could squeak out game one and be on their way to clinching the division by Thursday.

Champagne tastes best after it’s been on the floor of the Metrodome.

[tags]mlb, baseball, chicago, white sox, ozzie guillen, javier vazquez, playoffs[/tags]