Baffoe: What Happened To The Plan, Kenny Williams?
By Tim Baffoe--
(CBS) While I'm more of a Mr. T as B.A. Baracus guy myself, I love it when a plan comes together.
As difficult as the 2015 Chicago White Sox season was to swallow, some comfort could be taken in the team establishing a plan. The front office let us know that it was aware the team wasn't in dire straits going forward despite the underachievement this past summer.
"We've been patient for a long time now,'' executive vice president Ken Williams told USA Today in early July as debates raged over the White Sox being buyers, sellers or stand-patters at the time. "But then you look at us, and you say, wait a minute, this team will only be held down for so long.
"We're still in the evaluating phase and it will be a collaborative effort on which direction we want to go … It's important that we not lose sight of what our organization goal was, and that was to give us the best three-year window. And we're not going to abandon that completely with only three months to play."
OK, cool. That was Kenny being Kenny, stern and firm, as per usual. The White Sox aren't rebuilding, just planning ahead. This isn't like after 2011 when Mark Buerhle left and Williams said, "It is the start of a rebuilding," and then nothing got rebuilt.
This is probably more like a November of last year when Williams told the Tribune, "I don't want to hear any more talk about rebuilding and certainly don't want to take it on the chin any longer. We've got to start making progress with more wins, and we're going to have to do what we've got to do to get there."
Expecting a 180 overnight (or over one trade deadline or one offseason) would be naive, and the White Sox publicly establishing a blueprint for the near future helps keep the "WUDDER DEY DOIN?" 670 The Score callers at bay while more coherent Sox discussion can take place. The organization is entering Year 2 of the three-year plan, so permutations and percolations will begin to become more evident.
As recently as June, Williams stood firm in the three-year plan.
"I've addressed that with Jerry (Reinsdorf) directly, and his comment to me was, 'Listen, I thought we were in a pretty darn good position when we left the Winter Meetings,'" Williams told CSNChicago.com. "We felt good where we are, but we felt good about where we are for 2015, '16 and '17. So we're not going to abandon ship right now because of three months in what is a three-year plan."
Even if your White Sox fan gut screams "Trade guys! Sign guys! Trade guys! Sign guys!" just because any movement feels better than stagnation, your brain could always rest on the knowledge that there's a plan that's supposedly close to coming together.
Or not.
"As I sit here today," Williams said at U.S. Cellular Field on Tuesday, according to MLB.com, "we have had a number of conversations, even as late as this morning, and (general manager) Rick (Hahn) hasn't presented to us a definitive direction based on his talks that he wants to travel down."
Um ... but the … the plan, Kenny. There's a plan. We talked about this multiple times.
"Until (Hahn) puts on the table what he wants to do, it's premature for me to comment one way or another on any player or path or anything else because of our process," Williams went on.
But … but you've commented. A lot already. You usurp your GM's vocal authority damn near any chance you get with a mic in front of you.
And when did the plan become a "process" that prevents further discussion of the plan? What happened to the plan, Kenny? WHERE'S THE PLAN, KENNY?
"Rick is having conversations on a daily basis," Williams continued. "I have a number of conversations with him on a daily basis with regard to how things are evolving."
So you're talking to him about his talking. And then you talk to the media about how you can't talk about the process that was a plan and is now perplexing and palpitating and no longer coming together. I HAVE A CIGAR I WANT TO LIGHT HERE, KENNY.
"But if I went to him and said, 'OK, I want your definitive plan heading into the Winter Meetings,' he couldn't give it to me," Williams said, per MLB.com.
[throws cigar in toilet]
So just to recap: The White Sox weren't rebuilding, then they kind of rebuilt quickly on the fly and had a solid product on paper going into 2015, it failed, but there was a plan in place, but now there's no plan and somewhere Rick Hahn is drinking in front of a mirror and mumbling to himself another round of public damage control and what he needs to do to get no-longer-GM Kenny Williams to stop speaking for "White Sox business."
And those of us who put faith in the talk of a three-year plan coming together? I'm close to starting to pity us fools.
Tim Baffoe is a columnist for CBSChicago.com. Follow Tim on Twitter @TimBaffoe. The views expressed on this page are those of the author, not CBS Local Chicago or our affiliated television and radio stations.