From Teddy Greinstein's article in Friday's (07/28) Tribune:

Extremely close?

 

Ozzie Guillen is extremely close to his sons. U.S. Cellular Field is extremely close to the footprint of the old Comiskey Park. Chicago is extremely close to its next heat wave.

 

But unfortunately for ESPN's Tim Kurkjian—and, perhaps, White Sox fans—"extremely close" no longer applies to the team's prospects for snagging Alfonso Soriano in a trade.

 

Kurkjian uttered those words Monday. Now he wishes he hadn't.

 

"I felt comfortable that the White Sox were serious players [for Soriano], even if just for a day," Kurkjian said Thursday. "But if I had to do it again, I would have worded it as serious interest, not extremely close."

 

Kurkjian's a terrific reporter, and he has been covering baseball for 25 years. But even he hates the countdown to the July 31 trading deadline.

 

"I don't sleep well this time of year," he said. "It's very, very uneasy."

 

One of the challenges is figuring out which sources to trust.

 

"There's so much misinformation out there," he said. "You get something from a general manager and then call another GM with that piece of information, and he says: 'Where did you get that? It's not even close.'"

 

When a source told him the Sox were on the verge of landing Soriano from Washington, Kurkjian filed a television report that ESPN.com picked up.

 

"I think what [the report] did was establish that the Sox were indeed seriously interested, which I don't think had been out there," Kurkjian said. "But clearly my source took it too far, and I did too."

 

Kurkjian, who no longer believes the deal will be completed, fears his source might have been using him in an effort to boost Soriano's value.

 

For example, say the Tigers and Sox are interested in Soriano. If the Tigers believe the Sox are close to landing him, they might improve their offer. That would benefit both the Nationals and the Sox.

 

"It's a really, really bad feeling to think that someone you're dealing with is telling you something just to force another team to do something," Kurkjian said. "But it happens every day."

 

Kurkjian quickly rebounded after the Soriano story. He broke the news that the Sox had acquired Kansas City reliever Mike MacDougal.

 

"At least I had that right," he said.

I knew this whole thing was bogus when Kenny made it clear he wasn't giving up Bmac or Fields. It even sounded like Broadway was off limits, too. There's nothing else in our system that would even remotely interest Washington.

Kurkijan and other beat reporters are in no win situations constantly. If they report something and it doesn't happen, they suck in peoples eyes even if the deal was close but something fell through. And if they report something and it happens, nobody says anything about the reporter.

It just sucks that in this situation, these rumors might have disrupted our team for the Twins series.

Didn't KW want to raise the value of Soriano for the Tigers? For all we know, this is exactly what he wanted.

 

BTW, players have to be more professional than to let the trade deadline affect them. They go through this every year, and it didn't seem to hurt any team the Sox were playing.

Didn't KW want to raise the value of Soriano for the Tigers? For all we know, this is exactly what he wanted.

 

BTW, players have to be more professional than to let the trade deadline affect them. They go through this every year, and it didn't seem to hurt any team the Sox were playing.

 

The Sox were the focal point of the biggest rumors this week, and Pods was very much involved in the rumor. I wouldn't blame Pods for being a little disturbed.

Podsednik played relatively well this week, from what I recall offhand. I don't think he was too terribly bothered, or it didn't seem like it to me.

The White Sox were slumping before the Soriano rumors came up, and even if they were sick of answering questions about potential trades, I don't think Konerko (or any other player) is thinking about these things when he's playing.

 

The White Sox are slumping. That's it....On top of that, they are playing good teams who are hot as hell.

 

That's never a good combination.

The only guys i'll believe when they say something are Rosenthal and Gammons. Other than that ill wait till the deal is done.

The only guys i'll believe when they say something are Rosenthal and Gammons. Other than that ill wait till the deal is done.

 

I respect both a great deal....Really, though, even though most of the rumors we hear about never happen, it's fun to hear the possibilites, and this will, for the most part, be over in few days, so strap it down, and enjoy!

I respect Tim. He admitted that he made a mistake which I can't really blame him for making. He usually doesn't report crap. If I had to guess though, this trade rumor came from the White Sox side.

I respect Tim. He admitted that he made a mistake which I can't really blame him for making. He usually doesn't report crap. If I had to guess though, this trade rumor came from the White Sox side.

 

Buster Olney, though only speculating, believes it was leaked by Washington....

If you read Kenny's comments shortly after the rumor was released, he said "he expected" the information to become known.

 

What I am still wondering is how would the Nationals leak the rumor when included the MacDougal info, unless of course the rumors were from two different sources, which I did not get the impression that it was.