5 Reasons to Fire Kenny Williams

The White Sox Stink and it’s Kenny Williams’ Fault

It appears the general is losing the grip on his army. White Sox GM Kenny Williams gets further and further from being the genius that constructed the White Sox 2005 World Series winner.

My take: Williams was never the architect everyone thought he was. He was a guy who made a couple of good moves then caught lightning in a bottle. I won’t say this isn’t the case with many other GM’s but I will say I doubt Kenny knew it was a World Series team when he constructed them.

Still we must pay the man his due. He has a ring when many of his contemporaries do not. But White Sox fan will not live in the past and unfortunately, neither can Kenny Williams. What we’ve seen in the 2010 season is a GM who has become more surly and obnoxious than we’ve ever seen. Williams loves a good fight and never shy’s away from someone who has something to say. But now we see Williams carefully picking who he talks to and giving brief concise answers to media member such as Sun-Times beat reporter Joe Cowley.

It would seem that Williams needs to vacate his position and I’ll give you 5 reasons.

5. He No Longer Has An Appropriate Relationship With The Media – I know this doesn’t seem like it should matter and if he were the GM of Kansas City it wouldn’t. But this is a major market with a major media presence and he can’t seem to be a big boy and handle it. The tough attitude that Williams seems to need from his players, this “Grinder” mentality doesn’t seem to extend into his office as he carefully picks and chooses who he talks to and when. Williams should know that the more you hide from the press the more they come after you. Williams needs to get tough or get out.

4. He Has Never Made Great Trades – Sure getting Podsednik in 2005 turned out to be brilliant but getting an over the hill Robbie Alomar twice and getting a far past his point of usefulness in Ken Griffey Jr. was a stupid move as well. Williams loves to get guys who were once great or that no one else seems to want. Swisher, Cabrera, Ritchie, Teahan, Alomar, Griffey, Wells, and the list goes on. He has made some good moves but too often he has made terrible moves.

3. He Lied About Pitching and Defense – It would certainly seem that way. For a guy who wants pitching and defense to be the focus he hasn’t quite done his job. He brought 10 time gold glover Andruw Jones to be a…DH? Keeping awful Juan Pierre and Carlos Quentin out there to be his everyday outfielders. He brings in Teahan who is average at 3rd base at best and then moves Beckham, who seemed to be getting better, to second. And he’s made Alexei Ramirez his shortstop when his defense is an inconsistent mess.

2. He Seems to Lack an Organizational Philosophy – It’s in Williams court to decide the kind of baseball organization they want to be. But they don’t seem to know. Half the time they seem to want to be a Twins Organization where they build up and other times they want to play with the big boys and be buyers every year. But the White Sox won’t throw big money at anyone. They won’t even consider it. And then they sell off young pieces for talent that is often suspect. And then of course they waste draft picks on Ken Williams Jr. who wasn’t projected to be any good coming out of college but somehow managed a pick in the first 10 rounds. Go figure.

1. It’s either Him or Ozzie and It’s Not Ozzie – Ozzie is the reason people pay attention to your ballclub and he’s not the reason they are failing. Not entirely anyway. His want to play more small ball seems to have backfired a bit but it’s not an offense to be fired over. He speaks to much but people listen too much for him to be canned. The problem with the White Sox this season is there are bad pieces to the puzzle. Williams assembled the pieces, no matter what Ozzie wanted, to a puzzle that isn’t working and hasn’t worked in a few years. It’s time for Williams to pack his bags and head out of the Windy City.

Mike Cahill

The White Sox Stink and it’s Kenny Williams’ Fault June 14, 2010 – Michael Cahill It appears the general is losing the grip on his army. White Sox GM Kenny Williams gets further and further from being the genius that constructed the White Sox 2005 World Series winner. My take: Williams was never the architect [...]