this is a terribly pessimistic summation of the white sox possibilities that face us: DFA pods and erstad; shop mack, dye, crede, and another starter; assign some sort of unspecified doom to cintron. on the bright side, he does suggest signing buehrle to a long-term contract to reassure fans that the fire sale doesn’t mean … it’s a fire sale.

i have to admit i’m terribly worried that some of my favorite players might have to be traded away to other clubs just to restock our bench with people who suck and/or are injury-prone less than what we have now. this has been a bad year for the sox DL (although perhaps that’s just because we were spoiled by last year; i think jose went on the 15-day DL like, once, and i don’t recall anything else although surely there was something). and i really like jermaine dye and joe crede; i don’t want to see them go. (although dye does seem to be perhaps slowing down a bit, i’m still fond of him, and not just because he often seems cheerful, which i like. and i like joe a lot because he is so very good, not just because we are the same age — hey, ’78 was obviously a good year to be born: look how awesome we both turned out!) i like jon garland a lot; i wouldn’t mind vasquez getting shopped but only if we got something halfway guaranteed. we have enough crap in our bullpen right now, thank you very much. (do you think we could get a single effective reliever if we tied up Matt Thornton, Mike MacDougal, Boone Logan, and Nick Massett as a package and foisted them off on someone? none of them is truly awful, i suppose, but as a package, jesus, it’s like having a lead sinker tied to your leg, isn’t it?) danks i’m not really impressed with, but he’s young, so i’m not prepared to throw him overboard this early. and aardsma, he’s made me happy a couple of times and it’s not like we really have any other worthwhile closers other than Fat Bob so i’d say hang on to him for the mo’.

i dunno. idle speculation, and prejudicial doom. but, things are not going so well now, and there’s clearly got to be some changes, even if they’re only of the ‘fire don cooper and greg walker’ sort (which: seriously, wtf with the coaching this year? did you guys forget to put on your “be effective!” hats?) like is being advocated in some camps.

i’ll be pissed if they get rid of paulie or a.j., though. and not just because those are the two guys i wear their numbers!