Two weeks into spring training and the Chicago White Sox may have learned a truth that many Sox fans have sadly known for a couple of years: Jerry Owens is a fraud.

It doesn't take a trained baseball scout to figure out that Owens is a junior version of Juan Pierre: a fast guy that can't hit. He can't even use his speed to his advantage as his base running is sub par.  And don't get me started on his weak arm.

Owens numbers this spring are far from making someone stand up and shout "there's our guy."  Owens is hitting a robust 192 with five singles, six walks and no stolen bases in three attempts.  Competitor DeWayne Wise is hitting .385, but doesn't have Owens speed.

If I ran the White Sox, I would have given up on him a while back, but Kenny Williams, a man who rarely makes mistakes and hates to admit when he does, has stuck by Owens offering him chance after chance after chance.  It's largely because he is one of the few White Sox options for a lead off man.  But a leadoff man that can't hit and can't steal really isn't a leadoff man. 

The same case could be made for Brian Anderson except that he is the best defensive outfielder the White Sox have.  That alone may keep him on the Sox roster.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen wants to be patient with Owens, but if Owens continues to play the way he has, Guillen will have no choice to look in a different direction for a leadoff man.  It could be Wise or any of the potential second base candidates including Chris Getz, Jayson Nix or Brent Lillibridge or Wise. 

Although he led off in Sunday's game, I doubt the Sox leadoff man will be Gordon Beckham.  Beckham, when he gets to the show, will be similar in numbers to Joe Crede.  He's not the guy you want leading off, he's the guy you want seeing lots of fastballs in the middle to lower third of your order.

Where it leaves the White Sox is where we thought they were before spring training...with a gaping hole in their outfield between Carlos Quentin and Jermaine Dye and a big question mark at the top of the order.  How Kenny and Ozzie will address this remains to be seen, but you wonder if the solution will be more of a problem.  We'll see in a couple of weeks.