White Sox Need To Get Back To 'Grinder Mentality'
CHICAGO (WSCR) Over the offseason, the White Sox made a big push to sign Adam Dunn while also bringing back Paul Konerko and A.J. Pierzynski. When the team was able to do all that and looked like a championship caliber team, GM Kenny Williams got plenty of credit.
Now that the White Sox are struggling, some of Williams' decisions from the past few seasons are being questioned.
"The thing I would like to see from Kenny Williams is kind of get back to where they were, in the mentality, in that 2005 through, I think, 2007 things started getting in a way where he decided to be more copy cat and go after those power arms," Joe Cowley, of the Chicago Sun-Times, said on the Danny Mac Show. "He was enthralled with a bullpen that had power arms...And I think he kind of strayed away from that grinder mentality that they wanted, more of guys that the numbers weren't always sexy, but, in the clubhouse, they were foxhole type guys.
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"I think think they've kind of gotten away from that mentality. It seems every year, Kenny kind of changes the theme of what he's going after. In '08 it was the high on-base percentage guys, when they lost out on Tori Hunter and they went and got [Nick] Swisher and [Orlando] Cabrera. And they didn't have a true leadoff guy, and they tried jamming Swisher into, you know, the square peg into a round hole, and that didn't work out. So, I would just like them to revisit what made them successful in '05 and '06, and you know, that would be nice to see."
Despite Cowley believing that Williams has been inconsistent in his offseason strategies, he still thinks he's the right guy for the position, and doesn't think he's on the hot seat.
"Jerry [Reinsdorf] may have a different opinion," Cowley said. "But knowing his loyalty and knowing that he still values Kenny as a GM, I doubt Kenny would get the axe."
