The Black Sox Faction

Do the Left Thing

The White Sox immeasurably helped their team for the rest of this decade by signing one of the premier available pitchers in the world yesterday. What team would not love an ace lefty who is a proven winner the last eight years? What team would not die for a durable starting pitcher who has been the ace of a very good staff? What team would not love a pitcher who is both the fans and his teamates favourite?

Well, almost the White Sox.

Kudo's to owner Reinsdorf and G.M. Williams for finally responding to the cacaphonious clamour for the resigning of Mark Burhle. In what has been a very down year for the Sox,the fans got some good news in that this team, 21m after being the top team in the world, will not be trashed in a "White flags" type tradeoff just yet.

The seemingly bizzare part of the story is that Burehle kept giving the Sox chancs when most other players would have walked a long time ago. Burhele settled for around $14m/year for four years. There is a conditional no-trade clause that would give Burehle another year and bump up the yearly salary another $1m/y. He could have gotten another two years and maybe 30m more, but will wait till till this contract expires when he is 32:in time for another huge contract.

But a key point in keeping himself here is that he has made a name for himself in chicago. There are what- 27-8 guys in Chicago who are living who can say- I won the world series in a Chicago uniform. Maybe there are a Sox or two alive from 1917, but i doubt it. So, like members of the '85 Bears or the SuperBulls, Burelhe can live forever a hero in Chicago, doing commercials, autograph sessions, tv appearances, etc... leaving chicago would have hurt this a little, but staying in Chicago, he can reap the benefits of '05. Just like Da Bears did this past years and we will begin to see soon as the SuperBulls time fades. both sides played smart.

Now the trick will be to sign John Garland. Although this has been a very tough start for the Sox and threatens to be a totally lost season, the starting staff has been outsdtanding and getting better. With the exception of Jose Contrearas, the staff has been better than advertised. Even rookie Joh Danks looks like a future star 9well, maybe not star, but...). The whole league is looking for a starting staff like the Sox have (well, not ALL teams), so it seems smart to just keep it to-gether and work on the offense.

Sense sometimes prevails.