Williams' agenda real balancing act

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Williams' agenda real balancing act

By Mark Gonzales

Tribune staff reporter

Ken Williams says he's too cautious to look ahead to a probable postseason.

 

But the White Sox general manager actually has made preparations for the rest of this season as well as 2006.

 

"We're not good enough to start looking at October or even September," Williams said Thursday. "We're only good enough to look at trying to figure out a way to win today."

 

As well as in the future.

 

Williams revealed one of the reasons the Sox kept Jon Adkins in Triple-A Charlotte as a starter as long as possible was to maintain his endurance.

 

Now that Adkins has been called up as a 12th pitcher, the Sox have the flexibility to use him as a reliever or as a starter on Aug. 30 when they play a doubleheader at Texas.

 

"We'll call up another guy in September," Williams said.

 

The Sox surprised many baseball observers last winter when they signed pitcher Orlando Hernandez to a two-year, $8 million contract. But Hernandez is 8-4 and needs only 111/3 innings to reach the 100-inning mark and receive a $187,500 bonus.

 

Giving Hernandez and closer Dustin Hermanson multi-year contracts was Williams' way of staying ahead of what he projects will be a thin free agent market this winter.

 

"This off-season, at the winter meetings, is going to be the same kind of atmosphere as this trading season," Williams said.

 

The Sox will continue to examine trades through the waiver wire, a complicated process in which the Sox are the last team to have a shot at claiming a player because they possess the best record in baseball.

 

This year's playoff race has a new twist, with the filthy rich Yankees fighting just for a berth. The Yankees, along with the other 28 teams, have a chance to claim a player or block the Sox from acquiring that player (Ken Griffey Jr.?).

 

In 1992, Toronto acquired pitcher David Cone in a late-August deal from New York that strengthened its World Series bid and Atlanta landed pitcher Denny Neagle in a similar deal with Pittsburgh four years later.