Said Williams: “We’ve thrown away a dozen games that way this year. We’ve deserved what we’ve got. I’m not happy. I’m not happy with a lot of what I see, we’re underachievers, period.”

On the season, the White Sox are 61-58. In the AL Central, they trail the Detroit Tigers by two games. Manager Ozzie Guillen agreed with Williams’ assessment.

“Look at those guys we’ve got on the field, look at the guys we have on the bench,” said Guillen. “If we want to win this thing, we better get better than .500. Do we have the talent to do it? I think so. Do we have the right people on the field to do it? There’s no doubt.”

Williams has been willing to add a lot of money to the books to help the team on the field. He went out and traded for star pitcher Jake Peavy and acquired Alex Rios from the waiver wire.

If the White Sox don’t improve and get well over .500, expect Williams to make major changes in the offseason.

Ken Williams is mad at his Chicago White Sox (Image: Zuma Press)

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Jake Peavy Staying in San Diego (Image: Zuma Press)

The White Sox undoubtedly have to be depressed by Peavy’s decision. They desperately need an improvement in their starting pitching and he would have definitely made the team better. It has to hurt even more considering that the Minnesota Twins had just scored 20 runs against the White Sox.

Some league experts think that we haven’t heard the end of this deal. The Padres seem to be pushing for a Peavy trade and will likely continue to shop him up until the trade deadlines. If San Diego doesn’t get an improved offer, they may ask Peavy to once again consider a move to Chicago to play for the White Sox.

Sources close to Peavy seem to think that he’d be fine with a trade, however he’d like to stay in the National League and closer to the West Coast. Currently, Peavy is 3-5 with a 3.82 ERA.

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Jake Peavy Trade Rumors (Image: Zuma Press)

However, other sources indicate that the trade isn’t very close to happening. While a third commonly held opinion is that the Padres and White Sox have agreed on a deal and Peavy now has to decide whether or not accept the trade. Since Peavy has a no trade clause in his contract, he can decide whether to go to Chicago.

The 27-year-old Peavy has been named in many trade rumors over the last years. Previous rumors had him landing everywhere from the Atlanta Braves to the Chicago Cubs. This year in nine starts, Peavy has a 3.82 ERA with a 3-5 record. He has 69 strikeouts in less than 62 innings of work.

Peavy is such a hot commodity because he has had an ERA under 3.00 in four of the last five seasons. His best season came in 2007 when he had a 19-6 record with a 2.54 ERA. That year he took home the Cy Young Award for the National League.

If the trade with the White Sox is going to happen, expect it to be announced in the next 24-to-48 hours. If that traded doesn’t go down, expect to hear Peavy in a number of trade rumors up until the trade deadline.

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Carlos Beltran and Felipe Lopez hit homeruns for Puerto Rico, while Carlos Delgado had two RBIs and Ivan Rodriguez had three hits. Puerto Rico remains undefeated in the 2009 WBC.

American starting pitcher Jake Peavy got rocked in his two innings of work. He allowed six hits, six homeruns and only struck out one batter. At the plate, the United States only got six hits.

Next up on the WBC schedule, the Americans will play the Netherlands. The loser of that game will be eliminated from the World Baseball Classic 2009.

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Where might he end up? Here are some likely Jake Peavy destinations.

Chicago Cubs
The latest Jake Peavy rumor has the Cubs hot on his trail. The Cubs may be willing to trade four players to get their hands on Peavy. If they can get him, he’ll give Chicago one of the best rotations in baseball.

Atlanta Braves
While the talks between the Padres and the Braves appear to be dead, many baseball insiders believe the talks will heat up once again. The Braves need an ace for their pitching staff and they have enough young talent to get this trade to work.

Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers could use some pitching and there aren’t many better arms available than Peavy. Although the Dodgers may be reluctant to give up too much talent, it may end up being the best the Padres can do.

San Diego Padres
While almost everyone thinks Peavy is going to be traded, there are others that believe that Peavy will ultimately end up staying in San Diego. While the Padres are shopping him, they aren’t going to trade him for just anything. If they don’t get a good enough package, they very well could just hold onto him for now.

Photo credit: Newscom

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• Yankees at Red Sox, 4:05 p.m. PT — You’ll be watching this one whether you want to or not. It’s what pays the bills, eh? Chien-Ming Wang goes against Clay Buccholz.
• Angels at Mariners, 7:10 p.m. PT — Jered Weaver and Felix Hernandez… Vlad and Ichiro!… Monkeys and mooses (meese?)… This one’s got it all. Here’s your game of the day.
• Padres at Dodgers, 7:40 p.m. PT — Jake Peavy and Brad Penny hook up for the second time in a week. The big story — at least among people who don’t know much about baseball — is a mysterious substance that appeared on Peavy’s hand in their previous meeting. You’re better than that, though; you recognize that two of the game’s best pitchers will be battling tonight, and that’s what really matters.

Happy, happy…

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• White Sox at Tigers, 12:55 p.m. PT — At 0-4, Detroit is the only team without a win so far this season. Baseball is a strange game. Dontrelle Willis makes his Tigers debut. For a guy who should be in his physical prime, Willis sure has fallen fast. Where’s Steve Avery when you need him?
• Dodgers at Padres, 12:55 p.m. PT — This is by far the best matchup of the day: Brad Penny goes up against Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy. Penny is 0-2 with a 6.67 ERA over his last five starts against San Diego.
• Diamondbacks at Rockies, 5:05 p.m. PT — Last year’s NL West playoff participants square off this evening. Two good young pitchers — Brandon Webb and Jeff Francis — hook up in this one. It’s also a good excuse to watch Justin Upton play, which is always a treat.

Play ball!

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• The Mets beat the Marlins, 7-2. The planet’s best pitcher against a Triple-A squad — who could’ve have anticipated such a result? Uh, everyone.
• The Pittsburgh/Atlanta game was insane. The Pirates took a 9-4 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but the Braves tied. Then the Bucs jumped ahead in the 12th, 12-9, before allowing two runs in the bottom half and hanging on for a 12-11 victory. Xavier Nady, whom I’ve been following since he took home Cal League MVP honors in 2001 while playing for a great Lake Elsinore Storm club (Peavy and Mets left-hander Oliver Perez also played on that team, which went 91-49), knocked two homers, including the game winner.
• The Giants really stink. Good thing they’re paying Barry Zito all that money.
• The Brewers and Cubs ran a clinic on how not to close a game. Locked in a scoreless tie headed to the ninth, Milwaukee plated three runs in the top half off “closer” Kerry Wood, then watched “closer” Eric Gagne cough up three of his own in the bottom half. The Brewers scored in the top of the 10th and hung on to win, 4-3. Who got credit for the victory? The least deserving guy in the ballpark, of course: Gagne. The next time someone tries to tell you that a pitcher is good because of his won-loss record, remind them that the rules dictating how a win is “earned” don’t necessarily correlate with actually contributing to victory.
• Break up the Nationals. With Monday’s 11-6 drubbing of Philadelphia, they’re assured of finishing no worse than 2-160 this year.
• Livan Hernandez pitched well in his Twins debut. Actually, for all the grief Minnesota took in signing him, he matched Johan Santana’s line — two runs in seven innings — and got the win. Not that he’ll keep pace with Santana beyond, oh, right about now, but still…
• The White Sox seem to be a sexy dark horse candidate this season, but I just don’t see it. By my count, they’ve got about three or four good pitchers, depending on whether you believe Octavio Dotel can stay of the disabled list. One of them (Mark Buehrle) got absolutely pounded at Cleveland. Granted, the Indians will do that to a pitcher, but if the White Sox can’t win behind Buehrle, then what are they going to do when, say, Gavin Floyd toes the slab?

Good times, my friends. Good times…

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At THT, I’ve gone with the popular pick except for AL West (I chose Mariners over Angels), AL Wild Card (Indians over Yankees), and NL Cy Young (Jake Peavy over Johan Santana — there’s my Padres bias kicking in because, hey, someone’s got to have a Padres bias).

I also have the Diamondbacks beating the Tigers in the World Series. We’ll see what happens…

How about you? Any predictions you’d care to share?

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