An interesting blurb from a fluff piece on the return of the true Ozzie Guillen in today’s Sun-Times:

Considering not one person in the Sox organization has seen or heard anything about the status of third baseman Joe Crede, whose 2007 season ended after 47 games because of back surgery, Guillen named his starter at the hot corner for now.
”My third baseman right now, to be honest with you, is Josh Fields,” Guillen said. ”One reason: I don’t know exactly where Joe Crede is healthwise. I don’t know what Joe can do for me.”

So at least we know where #24’s trade situation lies. You have to wonder though: how is it the Sox don’t have any information on the status of a guy they paid $5,000,000 last year? What could Kenny Williams possibly be saying to other teams that were either interested in Crede – or to teams he’s trying to shop Joe to?

And how did the two ever agree to terms on the final year of his contract if they don’t even know what he’s capable of anymore? We have to assume one of three things is true here:
The first scenario is that Crede is still in pain – and you really can’t blame him – and doesn’t want to hurt his market value as he enters his final year before free agency by announcing to the world that something’s still not right. And while neither he not his agent should have any reason to care about his trade value, any whispers in management circles of Crede being “untradeable” or “damaged goods” would surely kill his chances for a starting job, further lowering his chances on the open market.

The second is that Crede is still in pain but really, really wants out of Chicago. Considering the Josh Fields lovefest going on, and the glut of outfielders Williams picked up to complete Fields’ transition to playing third full-time, this may also make sense; anyone who can lay claim to being the MVP of an entire postseason probably doesn’t want to stick around to groom his replacement.
Joe once said that if his employment of Scott Boras as his agent ever became a barrier to remaining with the White Sox, he’d go find himself another agent. Boras also (allegedly) was the one making the decisions about whether or not Joe would go under the knife, again in an effort to maximize his value on the open market (i.e. keep the “injury prone” tag off of his client), and Crede’s decision to go against his agent’s advice at least hints at a desire to stay on the South Side.

The third, unlikely scenario is that the Sox are simply employing willful ignorance on the situation out of some fear that Crede will never in fact be the same player ever again. Considering the extreme nature of the work #24 had done, this isn’t totally out of the question, but the last two times the Sox went through a medical guessing game with a marquee player, the A’s and Tigers ended up with tickets to the 2006 ALCS.

So really, there go our hopes of the Sox landing top-shelf bullpen help, or a true leadoff hitter, or a solid back-of-the-rotation starter. When the Tigers commence a full-out shelling of Gavin Floyd on national television April 5, we will have no one to blame but the scrappiest clutch hitter this team has seen in a long time.

That said, please get better Joe. Seriously. If the Sox tank again this year, it’s all your fault – that guy blowing the lead out there should be a solid reliever, not just some alleged top-of-the-rotation type of guy.