• Take for example yesterday's trade yesterday's trade involving Tad Iguchi.  Williams trades a decent second baseman for a pitcher in the low minors with a not so stellar record.  He does it to help out an old friend who has fallen on hard times.  He then says that Danny Richar, who was acquired from the Diamondbacks organization earlier this year will provide the White Sox with "some things we haven't gotten out of that position this year."  Stop the tape.  Outside of blazing speed, exactly what haven't the White Sox gotten out of their second baseman this year?  Okay, so he's had an off year.  So has everybody else.  Two of your outfielders have spent as much time rehabbing injuries as they have on the field.  Your shortstop daydreams constantly, neither one of your catchers could throw me out if I attempted to steal second base, your first baseman and DH would finish third and fourth if they raced each other and your young third baseman of the future can't go to his right.  So, Kenny, I ask you, how bad could Tad Iguchi be?
• Just so you know about Danny Richar: .346/4/15 at Charlotte, but if you combine his stats with the D-Backs from Tuscon (although you have to give him the thin air discount) he is .305/13/61 with 20 doubles and eight triples.  He's 8 for 13 in the stolen base department.
• Next in your auction program is item #23, Jermaine Dye.  It looks for the moment that the Red Sox are the leaders in the clubhouse.  In order to maximize a trade for Dye, Williams is going to need to get at least one big league pitcher and perhaps a decent corner outfielder.  But if dumping Dye for anything is his goal, Williams will again sell for under market value. The big question would be who would play right the remainder of the season.
• My thought on right field is Darrin Erstad.  Playing a corner will be far less stress on his brittle bones.  He's got a decent arm, he's got okay speed and he can, when healthy, hit for average.  If Ozzie's dream is to come up with a southern version of the piranhas, this might be a start with a starting outfield of Pods, Owens and Erstad with Mackowiak and maybe Ryan Sweeney as backups.
• None of this fixes the big problem with this team, the bullpen.  I don't know if that can be fixed right now.  I do know that at this point the only pitchers worth keeping are Bobby Jenks, Matt Thornton and Ryan Bukvich and Thornton and Bukvich are on the bubble.  Everyone else can be traded for the Dubee Brothers as far as I am concerned.
• When will we get to see Adam Russell and Gio Gonzalez.  If the Sox plan on using the last two months of the year as extended spring training/audition camp, does that not include pitchers?
• I don't think Kenny is urgently trying to peddle Jose Contreras.  He's not a free agent and he can be had in the off season.  Think of Jose as a car with the oil light on.  If the Sox can just limp him to the next exit and get to the gas station, they can get him looked at.
• The talk about Garland intrigues me.  On one hand, I've always thought the guy was the Tin Man from the "Wizard of Oz" but on the other hand, he represents Don Cooper's best work.  The question is does he have arm issues and will Kenny trade him while he is a hot commodity so that he breaks down somewhere else?

A few other thoughts this morning:

• A big win for the Brewers and a big loss for the Cubs last night.  If only Jacques Jones hadn't tried to do his impression of Pete Rose, the Cubs might be a game closer.  It's a big day for the Brewers today as they have a day/night doubleheader in St. Louis.  In July.  Ouch.
• Baroid goes deep again (754) in a wildly entertaining game broadcast on the four letter network.
• The feds really could care less about the pooches in the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal.  They want to get their hands on the unreported gambling income.  PETA is slapping themselves on the back this morning because they think they got Nike and Rebok to stop selling Michael Vick apparel, but they didn't.  Basic economics tells us that those items would have flown off the shelf to collectors and opportunists and both Nile and Rebok didn't want to be accused of taking advantage of an unfortunate situation.  And if that isn't a plausible explanation, then the NFL told them to halt production.
• Kansas City Royals outfielder Emil Brown accidentally shoots a reporter in the eye with a pellet gun.  Lawyers in Kansas City erect tents on her lawn.
• Finally, if the new Simpson's movie were cast with sports celebrities, who would play who?